BOOKS OF SECRETS. 29 



does not include all the editions which exist, but which have not yet come 

 to hght. Some of the ink and colour receipts taken from these books long 

 survived the originals, for they are to be found repeated verbatim late in 

 the eighteenth century. 



Another subject which was the origin of some literature at a later time 

 was miniature painting, specimens of which are now collected with much 

 zeal. One of the most popular was the work ascribed to C. Ballard, 

 " Traite de Mignature," which consists of receipts about colours and their 

 use. It had a wide circulation and was translated into English and 

 Italian. 



Another Italian book is the " Pirotechnia " or "Art of Fire," by 

 Vannuccio Biringuccio, a contemporary of Rosetti, for his book was also 

 pubUshed at Venice in 1540, and several times thereafter, one edition 

 appearing in 1678, another instance of a life of over 130 years. It was 

 translated into French and a small part relating to gold and silver was 

 included in Eden's version of Peter Martyr's "Decades of the New World," 

 1555. This is a comprehensive treatise upon all the arts in which fire, 

 or, as we should say now, high temperatures are necessary. It therefore 

 includes metallurgy, the distillation of sulphur, the making of salts of 

 various kinds, the construction of furnaces, the manufacture of glass, 

 crucibles, and other vessels and apparatus, assaying, casting of cannon, 

 preparation of gunpowder, alloys, metal working, wire-drawing and similar 

 arts. Illustrations of apparatus and processes are included, and altogether 

 it is a book of importance for the history of metallurgy and chemistry. 



Along with this may be taken another, even more specialised. In 161 2 

 Antonio Neri published his book " L'Arte Vitraria." He was in the works 

 at Murano and his book embodied his experience. It was translated into 

 Latin, into French by De Blancourt, into English by Christopher Merrett, 

 who added notes, and into German by Kunckel, who included Merrett's 

 notes as well. Illustrations were added, and it became a sort of text-book. 

 An encyclopaedic edition in French, under the editorship of Baron 



