The Triumphal Chariot of Antimony, xxi. 



for, on the one hand it is asserted that 

 he was born at Alsace, on the borders 

 of the Rhine, and, on the other, that he 

 was himself a native of Erfurt. By 

 some again he is referred to the twelfth 

 century, and by others to the four- 

 teenth ; the year 1394 has been named 

 as the date of his birth, and in 1415 he 

 is supposed to have commenced his 

 literary labours in Alchemy and 

 Hermetic Medicine. But these dates 

 are unable to support any test of 

 examination. A passage on page 181 

 of the present volume is conclusive as to 

 the earliest period. " You should know 

 that Antimony is used for a good many 

 purposes besides those of the typo- 

 grapher." It is perhaps difficult to 

 assign the exact date when Antimony 

 was first used as an alloy for the 

 founding of metal types, but the close of 

 the fifteenth century is likely to have 

 been the earliest period. There is, how- 

 ever, another and more important point. 

 The reader of the Currus Triumphalis 

 will find numerous references therein to 



