chapitre iii
.; Lardner, “Lectures,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 104; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. I. p. 182; Poggendorff, XI. p. 1088; Apuleius, Floridor, p. 361; Plato; Timæus, The Locrian; “De Anima Mundi ...,” 12, 15; Pauli (Adrian), Dantzig, 1614; Ulysses Aldrovandus, “Musaeum Metallicum,” pp. 411–412; Aurifabrum (Andreas), “Succini Historia,” ... Königsberg, 1551–1561; and, for the different names given to amber and the magnet by the ancients, consult, more especially, the numerous authorities cited by M. Th. Henri Martin (“Mém. présenté à l’Académie des Inscrip. et Belles Lettres,” première partie, Vol. VI. pp. 297–329, 391–411, Paris, 1860); J. Matthias Gessner, “De Electro Veterum” (Com. Soc. Reg. Sc. Gött., Vol. III for 1753, p. 67); Louis Delaunay, “Minér. des Anciens,” Part 2, p. 125 (Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 540); Philip Jacob Hartmann, in _Phil. Trans._, Vol. XXI. No. 248, pp. 5, 49, also in Baddam’s Abridgments, Vol. III, first edition, 1739, pp. 322–366.
=B.C. 600.=--The Etruscans are known to have devoted themselves at this period to the study of electricity in an especial manner.[4] They are said to have attracted lightning by shooting arrows of metal into clouds which threatened thunder. Pliny even asserts that they had a secret method of not only “drawing it (the lightning) down” from the clouds, but of afterwards “turning it aside” in any desired direction. They recognized different sources of lightning, those coming from the sky (_a sideribus venientia_), which always struck obliquely, and others from the earth (_infera_, _terrena_), which rose perpendicularly. The Romans, on the other hand, recognized only two sorts, those of the day, attributed to Jupiter, and those of the night, attributed to Summanus (see Vassalli-Eandi at A.D. 1790).
This Vassalli-Eandi--like L. Fromondi--made special study of the very extensive scientific knowledge displayed by the ancients and, as shown in his “Conghietture ...” he concluded that they really possessed the secret of attracting and directing lightning. The above-named extracts concerning the Etruscans and Romans are made from the subjoined work of Mme. Blavatsky, wherein the following is likewise given.
Tradition says that Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome, was initiated by the priests of the Etruscan divinities, and instructed by them in the secret of forcing Jupiter, the Thunderer, to descend upon earth. Salverte believes that before Franklin discovered his refined electricity, Numa had experimented with it most successfully, and that Tullus Hostilius, the successor of Numa, was the first victim of the dangerous “heavenly guest” recorded in history. Salverte remarks that Pliny makes use of expressions which seem to indicate two distinct processes; the one obtained thunder (_impetrare_), the other forced it to lightning (_cogere_). Tracing back the knowledge of thunder and lightning possessed by the Etruscan priests, we find that Tarchon, the founder of the theurgism of the former, desiring to preserve his house from lightning, surrounded it by a hedge of the white bryony, a climbing plant which has the property of averting thunderbolts. The Temple of Juno had its roofs covered with numerous pointed blades of swords. Ben David, says the author of “Occult Sciences,” has asserted that Moses (born about 1570 B.C.) possessed some knowledge of the phenomena of electricity. Prof. Hirt, of Berlin, is of this opinion. Michaelis remarks that there is no indication that lightning ever struck the Temple of Jerusalem during a thousand years: that, according to Josephus, a forest of points, of gold and very sharp, covered the roof of the temple, and that this roof communicated with the caverns in the hill by means of pipes in connection with the gilding which covered all the exterior of the building, in consequence of which the points would act as conductors. Salverte further asserts that in the days of Ctesias--Ktesias--India was acquainted with the use of conductors of lightning. This historian plainly states that iron placed at the bottom of a fountain, and made in the form of a sword, with the point upward, possessed, as soon as it was thus fixed in the ground, the property of averting storms and lightning.
“Ancient India, as described by Ktesias, the Knidian,” J. H. McCrindle, London, 1882, alludes, p. 68, to iron swords employed to ward off lightning. Reference is made to the _pantarbe_ at pp. 7–8, 69–70, and to the _elektron_ (amber) at pp. 20, 21, 23, 51, 52, 70, 86. See account of Ktesias in “Nouvelle Biogr. Génér.,” Vol. XII. pp. 568–571, and in “Larousse Dict.,” Vol. V. p. 614.
In his “Observations sur la Physique,” Vols. XXIV. pp. 321–323, XXV. pp. 297–303, XXVI. pp. 101–107, M. l’Abbé Rosier gives the correspondence between M. de Michaelis, Professor at Göttingen, and Mr. Lichtenberg, showing conclusively how the numerous points distributed over the surface of the roof of the Temple of Solomon effectively served as lightning conductors. Mr. Lichtenberg in addition shows that the bell tower located upon a hill at the country seat of Count Orsini de Rosenberg, was, during a period of several years, so repeatedly struck by lightning, with great loss of life, that divine service had to be suspended in the church. The tower was entirely destroyed in 1730 and soon after rebuilt, but it was struck as often as ten times during one prolonged storm, until finally a fifth successive attack, during the year 1778, compelled its demolition. For the third time the tower was reconstructed, and the Count placed a pointed conductor, since which time no damage has been sustained.
REFERENCES.--Mme. Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” 1877, Vol. I. pp. 142, 457, 458, 527, 528, and her references to Ovid, “Fast,” lib. iii. v. 285–346; Titus Livius, lib. i. cap. 31; Pliny, “Hist. Nat.,” lib. ii. cap. 53 and lib. xxviii. cap. 2; Lucius Calp, Piso; Columella, lib. x. v. 346, etc.; La Boissière, “Notice sur les Travaux de l’Académie du Gard,” part I. pp. 304–314; “Bell. Jud. adv. Roman,” lib. v. cap. 14; “Magas. Sc. de Göttingen,” 3^e année 5^e cahier; Ktesias, in “India ap. Photum. Bibl. Cod.,” 72. See also, De La Rive, “Electricity,” London, 1858, Vol. III, chap. ii. p. 90; “Encycl. Brit.,” 8th ed., article “Electricity”; Lardner, “Lectures,” II. p. 99; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 502–504; Boccalini, “Parnassus,” Century I. chap. xlvi. alluded to at p. 24, Vol. I. of Miller’s “Retrospect”; Gouget, “Origin of Laws,” Vol. III. book 3; Themistius, Oratio 27, p. 337; “Agathias Myrenaeus de rebus gestis Justiniani,” lib. v. p. 151; Dutens, “Origine des découvertes ...”; “Gentleman’s Magazine” for July 1785, p. 522; Falconer, “Mem. of Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manchester,” Vol III. p. 278; “Sc. Amer.,” No. 7. p. 99; E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. chaps. viii. and ix.; “Fraser’s Magazine” for 1839; H. Martin, Paris, 1865–6; P. F. von Dietrich, Berlin, 1784.
[Illustration: Caius Plinius Secundus. Page taken from earliest known edition of the Naturalis Historiae Venetiis 1469, of which there are only three known original vellum copies. These are now at Vienna, Ravenna and in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.]
[Illustration: Title page of Aristotle’s “De Naturali Auscultatione,” Paris 1542. The property of Dr. William Gilberd, when at Cambridge, inscribed with his name and that of Archdeacon Thomas Drant. (From the Library of Dr. Silvanus. P. Thompson.)]
=B.C. 588.=--The earliest reliable record of messages transmitted by the _sign of fire_ is to be found in the book of Jeremiah, vi. 1: “O ye children of Benjamin, gather yourselves to flee out of the midst of Jerusalem, and blow the trumpet in Tekoa, and set up a sign of fire in Beth-haccerem; for evil appeareth out of the north and great destruction.”
REFERENCES.--Turnbull, “Electro-magnetic Telegraph,” 1853, p. 17; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. III. p. 2092; Penny and other Encyclopædias.
=B.C. 341.=--Aristotle, Greek philosopher, says (“Hist. of Anim.,” IX. 37) that the electrical _torpedo_ causes or produces a torpor upon those fishes it is about to seize, and, having by that means got them into its mouth, feeds upon them. The _torpedo_ is likewise alluded to, notably by (Claudius) Plutarch, the celebrated Greek moralist, by Dioscorides, Pedacius, Greek botanist, referred to in Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i, ii, and xiv; by Galen, illustrious Roman physician, who is also frequently alluded to in “De Magnete,” and by Claudius Claudian, Latin poet, who flourished at the commencement of the fifth century. Oppian describes (“Oppian’s Halieuticks of the nature of fishes and fishing of the ancients in five books,” lib. ii. v. 56, etc., also lib. iii. v. 149) the organs by which the animal produces the above effect, and Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,”
## Book 32, chap. i) says: “This fish, if touched by a rod or spear, at
a distance paralyzes the strongest muscles, and binds and arrests the feet, however swift.”
“The very crampe-fish _tarped_, knoweth her owne force and power, and being herself not benummed, is able to astonish others” (Holland “Plinie,” Book IX. chap. xlii.).
“We, here, and in no other place, met with that extraordinary fish called the _torpedo_, or numbing fish, which is in shape very like the fiddle fish, and is not to be known from it but by a brown circular spot about the bigness of a crown-piece near the centre of its back” (Ausonius, “Voyages,” Book II. chap. xii.).
REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Metr.,” IV. p. 41; “Encycl. Brit.,” article “Electricity”; Jos. Wm. Moss, “A Manual of Classical Biography,” London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 105–186, for all the Aristotle’s treatises, also Commentaries and Translations; Jourdain (Charles et Amable), “Recherches ... traductions latines d’Aristotle,” Paris, 1843; Fahie, “Hist. of Elec. Teleg.,” p. 170; “Sci. Amer.,” No. 457, pp. 7301, 7302; “Aristotle,” by Geo. Grote, London, 1872; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859–1860, Vols. I and II _passim_, Vol. III. pp. 13–15, 29–30, 124; “Journal des Savants,” for Feb. 1861, March and May 1872, also for Feb., May and Sept. 1893.
Aristotle is alluded to in Gilbert’s “De Magnete,” at Book I. chaps. i. ii. vii. xv. xvi. xvii.; Book II. chaps. i.[5] iii. iv.; Book V. chap. xii.; Book VI, chaps. iii. v. vi.
=B.C. 341.=--Æneas, the tactician, believed to be the same Æneas of Stymphale alluded to by Xenophon, invented a singular method of telegraphing phrases commonly used, especially in war. These were written upon exactly similar oblong boards placed at the dispatching and receiving stations, where they stood upon floats in vessels of water. At a given signal the water was allowed to flow out of the vessel at each station, and, when the desired phrase on the board had reached the level of the vessel, another signal was made so that the outflow could be stopped and the desired signal read at the receiving station.
REFERENCES.--Laurencin, “Le Télégraphe,” Chap. I; “Penny Encycl.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145; “Michaud Bio.,” Paris, 1855, Vol. XII. pp. 459–460.
=B.C. 337–330.=--From the well-known work by Mme. Blavatsky (“Isis Unveiled,” New York, 1877) the following curious extracts are made regarding “The Ether or Astral Light” (Vol. I. chap. v. pp. 125–162):
“There has been an infinite confusion of names to express one and the same thing, amongst others, the Hermes-fire, the lightning of Cybelè, the nerve-aura and the fluid of the magnetists, the od of Reichenbach, the fire-globe, or meteor-_cat_ of Babinet, the physic force of Sergeant Cox and Mr. Crookes, the atmospheric magnetism of some naturalists, galvanism, and finally, electricity, which are but various names for many different manifestations or effects of the same all-pervading causes--the Greek Archeus....” Only in connection with these _discoveries_ (Edison’s Force and Graham Bell’s Telephone, which may unsettle, if not utterly upset all our ideas of the imponderable fluids) we may perhaps well remind our readers of the many hints to be found in the ancient histories as to a certain secret in the possession of the Egyptian priesthood, who could instantly communicate, during the celebration of the Mysteries, from one temple to another, even though the former were at Thebes and the latter at the other end of the country; the legends attributing it, as a matter of course, to the “invisible tribes” of the air which carry messages for mortals. The author of “Pre-Adamite Man” (P. B. Randolph, at p. 48) quotes an instance, which, being merely given on his own authority, and he seeming uncertain whether the story comes from Macrinus or some other writer, may be taken for what it is worth. He found good evidence, he says, during his stay in Egypt, that one of the Cleopatras actually sent news by a wire to all of the cities from Heliopolis (the magnificent chief seat of sun-worship) to the island of Elephantine, on the Upper Nile.
Further on, Mme. Blavatsky thus alludes to the loadstone:
“The stone magnet is believed by many to owe its name to Magnesia....” We consider, however, the opinion of the Hermetists to be the correct one. The word _magh_, _magus_, is derived from the Sanscrit _mahaji_, meaning the great or wise ... so the magnet stone was called in honour of the Magi, who were the first to discover its wonderful properties. Their places of worship were located throughout the country in all directions, and among these were some temples of Hercules, hence the stone--when it became known that the priests used it for their curative and magical purposes--received the name of Magnesian or Herculean stone. Socrates, speaking of it, says: “Euripides calls it the Magnesian stone, but the common people the Herculean” (Plato, “Ion”--Burgess--Vol. IV. p. 294). In the same Vol. I. of “Isis Unveiled” we are likewise informed that Electricity in the Norse legends is personated by Thor, the son of Odin, at Samothrace by the Kabeirian Demeter (Joseph Ennemoser, “History of Magic,” London, 1854, Vol. II.; J. S. C. Schweigger, “Introd. to Mythol. through Nat Hist.,” Halle, 1836), and that it is denoted by the “twin brothers,” the Dioskuri. Also that the _celestial_, pure fire of the Pagan altar was electrically drawn from the astral light, that magnetic currents develop themselves into electricity upon their exit from the body, and that the first inhabitants of the earth brought down the heavenly fire to their altars (J. S. C. Schweigger in Ennemoser’s “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 30; Maurus Honoratus Servius, “Virgil,” Eclog. VI. v. 42).
=B.C. 321.=--Theophrastus, Greek philosopher, first observed the attractive property of the _lyncurium_, supposed by many to be the _tourmaline_, and gave a description of it in his treatise upon stones (“De Lapidibus,” sec. 53; or the translation of Sir John Hill, 1774, chap. xlix.-l., p. 123). This crystal was termed _lapis lyncurius_ by Pliny in his “Nat. Hist.,” and _lapis electricus_ by Linnæus in his “Flora Zeylanica” (U. Aldrovandus, “Mus. Metal.”; Philemon Holland, “The Historie of the World,” commonly called “The Naturall Historie of C. Plinius Secundus,” London, 1601).
Theophrastus and Pliny speak of this native magnet as possessing, like amber, the property of attracting straw, dried leaves, bark and other light bodies. The different sorts of loadstones, of which the best were blue in colour (as stated by Taisnier, Porta, Barthol. de Glanville and others), are thus alluded to by Pliny (“Nat. Hist.,” lib. xxxvi. cap. 16): “Sotacus describes five kinds: the Æthiopian; that of Magnesia, a country which borders on Macedonia; a third from Hyettus, in Boetia; a fourth from Alexandria, in Troas; and a fifth from Magnesia, in Asia” (Porta, “Natural Magick,” Book VII. chap. i.). He further says that iron cannot resist it; “the moment the metal approaches it, it springs toward the magnet, and, as it clasps it, is held fast in the magnet’s embrace.” It is by many called _ferrum vivum_, or quick iron.[6]
Claudian speaks of it as “a stone which is preferred to all that is most precious in the East.... Iron gives it life and nourishes it” (Claudian, Idyl V; Ennemoser, “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 27).
Hippocrates, the father of medical science, calls it “the stone which carries away iron.”
Epicurus, an Athenian of the Ægean tribe, says: “The _loadstone or magnet_ attracts iron, because the particles which are continually flowing from it, as from all bodies, have such a peculiar fitness in form to those which flow from iron that, upon collision, they easily unite.... The mutual attraction of _amber_ and like bodies may be explained in the same manner.”
Hier. Cardan intimates that “it is a certain appetite or desire of nutriment that makes the loadstone snatch the iron....” (“De Subtilitate,” Basileæ, 1611, lib. vii. p. 381).
Diogenes of Apollonia (lib. ii. “Nat. Quæst.,” cap. xxiii.) says that “there is humidity in iron which the dryness of the magnet feeds upon.”
Cornelius Gemma supposed invisible lines to stretch from the magnet to the attracted body, a conception which, says Prof. Tyndall, reminds us of Faraday’s lines of force.
Lucretius accounts for the adhesion of the steel to the loadstone by saying that on the surface of the magnet there are hooks, and, on the surface of the steel, little rings which the hooks catch hold of.
Thales, Aristotle, Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ and the Greek sophist Hippias, ascribe the loadstone’s attractive virtue to the _soul_ with which they say it is endowed. Humboldt (“Cosmos,” article on the Magnetic Needle) says _soul_ signifies here “the inner principle of the moving agent,” and he adds in a footnote: “Aristotle (“De Anima,” I. 2) speaks only of the animation of the magnet as of an opinion that originated with Thales.” Diogenes Laertius interprets this statement as applying also distinctly to amber, for he says: “Aristotle and Hippias maintain as to the doctrine enounced by Thales.”
The native magnet appears to have long been known in nearly every quarter of the globe (Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. V., and Harris, “Rudimentary Magnetism,” Parts I and II).
In the Talmud, it is called _achzhàb’th_, the stone which attracts; in the Aztec, _tlaihiomani tetl_, the stone that draws by its breath; in the Sanscrit, _ayaskânta_, loving toward iron; in the Siamese, _me-lek_, that which attracts iron; in the Chinese, _thsu-chy_, love stone, also _hy-thy-chy_, stone that snatches up iron; in the French, _l’aimant_, and in the Spanish, _iman_, loving stone; in the Hungarian, _magnet kö_, love stone; while in the Greek it is called _siderites_, owing to its resemblance to iron.
For _lyncurium_ of the ancients see _Phil. Trans._, Vol. LI. p. 394, and Hutton’s “Abridgments,” Vol. XI. p. 419.
Euripides (“Fragmenta Euripidis,” Didot edit., 1846, p. 757) called it _lapis herculaneus_, from its power over iron, and it was also known as _lapis heracleus_, doubtless because the best was, at one time, said to be found near Heraclea in Lydia (Plato, “Ion”--Burgess--Vol. IV. p. 294; see, besides, Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. p. 130; Hervart (J. F.), Ingolstadii, 1623).
It has likewise been designated as follows: Chinese, _tchu-chy_, directing stone; Icelandic, _leiderstein_, leading stone; Swedish, _segel-sten_, seeing stone; Tonkinin, _d’ànamtchûm_, stone which shows the south; and, by reason of its great hardness, the Greeks called it _calamita_; the Italians _calamita_; the French _calamite_, also _diamant_; the Hebrews _khalamish_ or _kalmithath_, and the Romans _adamas_, while _adamant_ was the name given to the magnetic needle (compass) by the English of the time of Edward III (T. H. H. Martin, “De l’aimant, de ses noms divers et de ses variétés,” Paris, 1861; Buttmann, “Bemerkungen ... des Magnetes und des Basaltes,” 1808, Band II.; G. A. Palm, “Der Magnet in Alterthum,” 1867).[7]
“This stone adamas is dyuers and other than an Magnas, for yf an adamas be sette by yren it suffryth not the yren come to the magnas, but drawyth it by a manere of vyolence fro the magnas” (Trevisa, “Barth, de Prop, reb.,” XVI. 8).[8]
“The adamant cannot draw yron if the diamond lye by it” (Lyly, “Euphues,” sig. K. p. 10).
“Right as an adamound, iwys, can drawen to hym sotylly the yren” (“Rom. Rose”).
“In Ynde groweth the admont stone ... she by her nature draweth to her yron” (Caxton, “Myrrour,” II. vii. 79).
“The adamant placed neare any iron will suffer it to be drawen away of the lode stone” (Maplet, “Greene Forest,” I.).
“You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant; but yet you draw not iron; for my heart is true as steel” (Shakespeare, “Midsum. Night’s Dream,” Act. ii. sc. 1).
“As sun to day, as turtle to her mate, as iron to adamant” (Shakespeare, “Troilus and Cressida,” Act iii. sc. 2).
“The grace of God’s spirit, like the true load stone or adamant, draws up the yron heart of man to it” (Bishop Hall, “Occas. Medit.,” 52.).
“The adamant ... is such an enemy to the magnet that, if it be bound to it, it will not attract iron” (Leonardus, “Mirr. Stones,” 63).
According to Beckmann (Bohn, 1846, pp. 86–98) the real _tourmaline_ was first brought from Ceylon (where the natives called it _tournamal_), at the end of the seventeenth century or beginning of the eighteenth century (see A.D. 1707).
It is classed by Pliny as a variety of carbuncle (lib. xxxvii. cap. vii.). John de Laet says (“De Gemmis,” 1647, 8vo, p. 155): “The description of the _lyncurium_ does not ill agree with the hyacinth of the moderns.” Watson thinks likewise (“Phil. Trans.,” Vol. LI. p. 394) and so does John Serapion-Serapio Mauritanus--Yuhanna Ibn Serapion Ben Ibrahim (alluded to by Gilbert, “De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) in his “Lib. de simplicibus medicinis,” Argent. 1531, fol. p. 263; and Anselm Boèce de Boot, Flemish naturalist (“Gem. et Lap. Hist.,” Leyden, 1636); while Epiphanius (“De Gemmis,” XII.) states that he could find in the Bible no mention of the _lyncurium_, which latter he also believes to have been the hyacinth. On the other hand, the Duke de Noya Caraffa (“Recueil de Mém. Æpinus,” Petersb. 1762, 8vo, p. 122) considers the _tourmaline_ to be identical with the _theamedes_ of the ancients (Pliny, lib. xx. 50, and xxxvi., 25; Cardan, “De Subtilitate,” lib. vii. p. 386).
The _betylos_ has doubtless been likewise named in this connection. Strabo, Pliny, Helancius--all speak of the electrical or electro-magnetic power of the betyli. They were worshipped in the remotest antiquity in Egypt and Samothrace as magnetic stones “containing souls which had fallen from heaven,” and the priests of Cybelè wore a small _betylos_ on their bodies (Blavatsky, “Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. p. 332).
REFERENCES.--Enfield, “Dict. Phil.,” I. 152: Marbodeus Gallus, 1530–1531 Friburg, pp. 41 and 1539, Cologne, p. 39; Bostock’s “Pliny,” Book XXXVII. chap. xii.; Azuni, “Boussole,” 1809, p. 37; Venanson, “De l’invention de la Boussole Nautique,” Naples, 1808, pp. 27–29; Thomas, “Sc. An.,” 1837, p. 250. See also De Noya, “Encycl. Brit.,” 1855, VIII. p. 529, and Priestley, “History of Electricity,” 1775, p. 293; A. Cæsalpini, “De Metallicis,” Romæ, 1596; Th. Browne, “Pseudodoxia Epidemica,” 1650, p. 51; St. Isidore, “Originum,” lib. xvi. cap. 4; Corn. Gemma, “De Natura Divinis,” lib. i. cap. 7; Alb. Magnus, “De Mineral.,” lib. ii.; Joseph Ennemoser, “History of Magic,” Vol. II. pp. 27, 29, 51; Julius Solinus, “De Mirabilibus,” cap. 34; Johann S. T. Gehler, “Physik. Wörterbuch,” article “Magnetismus”; Joannes Langius, “Epistolarum Med.,” Epist. lxxv. For extract of Serapio’s work see Fernel’s “Coll. ... Greek Writers,” 1576. Consult likewise “Collection des anciens Alchimistes Grecs,” par M. Marcellin Berthelot, Paris, 1887, p. 252: _siderites_, _aimant_ ou _magnes_, _ferrum vivum_, mâle et femelle--with references to Dioscorides, Pliny and Lexicon Alch. Rulandi.
For Pliny, see also “Manual of Classical Biography,” by Jos. Wm. Moss, London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 473–504.
“For lyke as ye lodestone draweth vnto it yron: so doeth beneficence and well doyng allure all men vnto her.”--Udal. Markè, c. 5.
=B.C. 285–247.=--Ptolemy (Ptolemæus II, surnamed _Philadelphus_, or the brother-loving, son of Ptolemy _Soter_) ordered Timochares, the architect of the palace, to suspend the iron statue of Arsinoë in the temple of Pharos.
Although Pliny says (lib. xxxiv. cap. 14) that the statue was never completed owing to the death of both Ptolemy and his architect, Ausonius (Decimus Magnus), Roman poet (A.D. 309–393), asserts the contrary in his most important work, “Mosella” (vv. 314–320), translation of Mr. de la Ville de Mirmont, the first edition of which was published by Ugollet at Venice in 1499. Therein it is said: “Timochares (and not Dinochares, Dinocrates, Demochrates or Chirocrates) suspended the statue in mid-air (_dans les hauteurs aëriennes du temple_).... Under the ceiling-vault crowned with loadstones, a bluish magnet draws, by means of an iron hair, the young woman it holds in its embrace.”
“Dinocrates began to make the arched roofe of the temple of Arsinoë all of magnet, or this loadstone, to the end, that within that temple the statue of the said princesse made of yron, might seeme to hang in the aire by nothing” (Holland, “Plinie,” Book XXXIV. cap. 14).
King Theodoric alludes (Cassiodor, “Variar,” lib. i. epist. 45) to a statue of Cupid in the temple of Diana at Ephesus (one of the seven Wonders of the World), and St. Augustine (“De Civitate Dei,” XXI. 6) speaks of a bronze figure in the temple of Serapis at Alexandria, both suspended by means of a magnet attached to the ceiling.[9]
REFERENCES.--De Mirmont, “La Moselle,” 1889, “Commentaire,” pp. 93 and 95; St. Isidore, “Originum,” lib. xvi. cap. 4; G. Cedrinus, “Compend. Hist.,” cap. 267; Knight’s “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1370; Knight’s “Cyclopædia,” Vol. I. p. 363; J. Ennemoser, “Hist. of Magic,” Vol. II. p. 35; Ath. Kircher, “Magnes,” 1643, lib. ii. prob. vi.; Dinochares, with translation of poem (Claudian, Idyl V) at pp. 61–62 of “Antique Gems,” by Rev. C. W. King, London, 1866; Vincent de Beauvais, “Spec. Mai,” Douai, 1624, Vol. I., lib. viii. cap. 34; Alb. Magnus, “De Mineralibus,” 1651, lib. ii. cap. 6, p. 243; Ausonio Lucius Ampelius, “Lib. Memorialis,” Paris, 1827, cap. viii.; T. H. Martin, “Observ. et Théories,” 1865, pp. 5–7; Thos. Browne, “Pseud. Epidem.,” 1658, Book II. p. 79; W. Barlowe’s “Magneticall Advertisements,” 1616, p. 45; “Simonis Maioli ... dies Caniculares, seu Colloqui, XXIII,” 1597, P. 782; Ruffinus, “Prosper d’Aquitaine”; Porta, “Magia Naturalis,” lib. vii. cap. 27; “Mosella,” in Wernsdorf’s “Poetæ Latini Minores”; E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” 1847, Vol. II. p. 215.
=B.C. 200.=--Polybius, a Greek statesman and historian, describes (lib. x. cap. 45, “General History”) his optical telegraph--_pyrsia_--because the signals were invariably produced by means of fire-lights--an unquestionable improvement upon the modes of communication which had been previously suggested by Cleoxenes and Democritus. It consisted of a board upon which the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet were arranged in five columns, one space being vacant. The party signalling would hold up with his left hand a number of torches indicating the column from which the desired letter was to be taken, while in the right hand he would hold up to view as many torches as were necessary to designate the particular letter required.
REFERENCES.--Rollin’s “Ancient History, 9th Dundee,” Vol VI. p. 321; “Emporium of Arts and Sciences,” Vol. I. pp. 296–299; “Penny Encycl.,” Vol. XXIV. p. 145. A good cut of the Polybius telegraph will be found at p. 2 of “Wireless Telegraphy,” by Wm. Maver, Jr., New York, 1904, and a very detailed account of all known fire signals is given at pp. 148 and 373, Vol. IV of “The History of Herodotus,” by Geo. Rawlinson, London, 1880.
=B.C. 60–56.=--Lucretius (Titus Lucretius Carus), Roman poet, alludes to the magnet in his poem “De Rerum Natura” (“The Nature of Things”), thus translated by Dr. Thomas Busby, London, 1813, Book VI. vv. 1045–1059:
“Now, chief of all, the Magnet’s powers I sing, And from what laws the attractive functions spring. (The Magnet’s name the observing Grecians drew From the Magnet’s region where it grew.) Its viewless, potent, virtues men surprise; Its strange effects they view with wondering eyes, When without aid of hinges, links or springs, A pendent chain we hold of steely rings, Dropt from the stone; the stone the binding source, Ring cleaves to ring, and owns magnetic force; Those held superior those below maintain; Circle ’neath circle downward draws in vain, While free in air disports the oscillating chain. So strong the Magnet’s virtue as it darts From ring to ring and knits the attracted parts.”
A rendering by Thomas Creech, A.M., London, 1714, Book VI. vv. 894–989, likewise deserves reproduction here:
“Now sing my muse, for ’tis a weighty cause. Explain the Magnet, why it strongly draws, And brings rough Iron to its fond embrace. This, Men admire; for they have often seen Small Rings of Iron, six, or eight, or ten, Compose a subtile chain, no Tye between; But, held by this, they seem to hang in air, One to another sticks and wantons there; So great the Loadstone’s force, so strong to bear!
* * * * *
First, from the MAGNET num’rous Parts arise, And swiftly move; the STONE gives vast supplies; Which, springing still in Constant Streams, displace The neighb’ring air and make an EMPTY SPACE; So when the STEEL comes there, some PARTS begin To leap on through the VOID and enter in.
* * * * *
The STEEL will move to seek the STONE’S embrace, Or up or down, or t’ any other place, Which way soever lies the EMPTY SPACE.”
The transmission of the magnetic attraction through rings or chains is also alluded to in Plato’s “Ion,” p. 533, D. E. Ed. Stephanus; by Pliny, lib. xxxiv. cap. 14; St. Augustine, “De Civitate Dei,” XX. 4; Philo, “De Mundi Opificio,” D. ed., 1691, p. 32; likewise by the learned Bishop Hall, “The English Seneca,” as follows: “That the loadstone should by his secret virtue so drawe yron to it selfe that a whole chaine of needles should hang by insensible points at each other, only by the influence that it sends downe from the first, if it were not ordinary, would seeme incredible” (“Meditations,” 1640, con. 3, par. 18).
REFERENCES.--“Le Journal des Savants” for January 1824, p. 30. also for March 1833, June 1866 and December 1869; Plutarch, “Platon. Quæst.,” Vol. II. p. 1004, ed. par.; St. Isidore, “Etymologiarum, Originum,” lib. xvi., iv.; the Timæus (Bohn, 1849, Vol. II. p. 394); Platonis, “Io,” Lugduni, 1590, pp. 145, 146; “Houzeau et Lancaster, Bibliographie Générale,” Vol. I.
## part i. pp. 440–442; Geo. Burgess, tr. of Plato’s “Ion,” London,
1851, Vol. IV. pp. 294–295 and notes.
=A.D. 50.=--Scribonius Largus, Designationus, Roman physician, relates (Chaps. I. and XLI. of his “De Compositione Med. Medica”) that a freedman of Tiberius called Anthero was cured of the gout by shocks received from the electric _torpedo_, and Dioscorides advises the same treatment for inveterate pains of the head (“Torpedo,” lib. ii.). Other applications are alluded to by Galen (“Simp. Medic.,” lib. xi.; Paulus Ægineta, “De Re Medica,” lib. vii.; “Encycl. Met.,” article “Electricity,” IV. p. 41). See also Bertholon, “Elec. du Corps Humain,” 1786, Vol. I. p. 174.
Fahie states (“History of Electric Telegraphy,” p. 172) that, along the banks of the Old Calabar River, in Africa, the natives employ the electrical properties of the _gymnotus_ for the cure of their sick children. They either place the ailing child close by the vessel of water containing the animal, or the child is made to play with a very small specimen of the fish.
REFERENCES.--“La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XXIX. p. 831; Humboldt, “Voyage Zoologique,” p. 88; “New Gen. Biogr.,” London, 1850, Vol. XI. p. 501; “Larousse Dict.,” Vol. XIV. p. 427; “Hœfer Biogr.,” Vol. XLIII. p. 654.
=A.D. 121.=--The Chinese knew of old the magnet, its attractive force and its polarity, but the most ancient record made of the peculiar property possessed by the loadstone of communicating polarity to iron is explicitly mentioned in the celebrated dictionary “Choue-Wen,” which Hin-tchin completed in A.D. 121, the fifteenth year of the reign of the Emperor Ngan-ti of the Han dynasty.
This dictionary contains a description of the manner in which the property of pointing with one end toward the south may be imparted to an iron rod by a series of methodical blows, and alludes to (“Tseu”) the “stone with which a direction can be given to the needle.”
“In Europe it has been thought that the needle had its chief tendency to the north pole; but in China the south alone is considered as containing the attractive power” (Sir G. Staunton, “Account of an Embassy,” London, 1797, Vol. I. p. 445).
Le Père Gaubil, who was sent to China in 1721 and died in Pekin 1759, says (“Histoire ... de la dynastie de Tang,” in “Mémoires concernant ...” Vol. XV) that he found, in a work written towards the end of the Han dynasty, the use of the compass distinctly marked to distinguish the north and the south. He also states, though doubtless erroneously, that that form was given it under the reign of Hian-Tsoung.
With reference to the magnetic attraction to the pole, it is well to bear in mind that no allusion whatsoever is made thereto by any of the writers of classical antiquity. This much has already been stated under date B.C. 1000–907. It certainly appears to have escaped the attention of the ancient Greeks and Romans, whose admiration, according to the learned French physician Falconet (“Dissert. Hist. et Crit.”), was excited solely by the attractive property of the loadstone.
The Rev. Father Joseph de Acosta (“Natural and Moral History of the Indies,” translation of C. R. Markham, lib. i. cap. 16) thus alludes to the above subject: “I finde not that, in ancient bookes, there is any mention made of the vse of the Iman or Loadstone, nor of the Compasse (_aguja de marear_) to saile by; I beleeve they had no knowledge thereof.... Plinie speakes nothing of that vertue it hath, alwaies to turne yron which it toucheth towards the north.... Aristotle, Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Lucretius, Saint Augustine, nor any other writers or Naturall Philosophers that I have seene, make any mention thereof, although they treat of the loadstone.”
Thomas Creech, in the notes to his translation of Lucretius’ “De Natura” says: “Nor indeed, do any of the ancients treat of this last (the directive) power of the loadstone ... and Guido Pancirollus justly places it among the modern inventions.”
REFERENCES.--Klaproth, “La Boussole,” Paris, 1834, pp. 9, 10, 66; Azuni, “Boussole,” Paris, 1809, p. 30; “English Cycl.”--Arts and Sciences--Vol. V. p. 420; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. II. p. 628; John Francis Davis, “The Chinese,” London, 1836, Vol. II. pp. 221, etc., or the 1844 edition, Vol. III. p. 12; Geo. Adams, “Essay ...” 1785, p. 428.
=A.D. 218.=--Salmasius, in his Commentary upon Solinus, asserts that, at this date, amber was known among the Arabs as _Karabe_, or _Kahrubá_, a word which, Avicenna states, is of Persian origin and signifies the power of attracting straws; the magnet being called _Ahang-rubá_, or attractor of iron.
REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Met.,” Vol. IV. p. 41; Fahie, “Hist. of Elec. Teleg.,” p. 29.
=A.D. 232–290.=--Africanus (Sextus Julius), an eminent Christian historical writer, author of a chronicle extending from the date of the creation to A.D. 221, as well as of an extensive work entitled “Kestoi,” states that the Roman generals perfected a system for readily communicating intelligence by means of fires made of different substances.
REFERENCES.--Shaffner, “Teleg. Man.,” 1859, p. 19; Appleton’s “Cyclopædia,” 1871, Vol. XV. p. 333.
=A.D. 235.=--It is related that one Makium, who was ordered by the Chinese emperor to construct “a car which would show the South” succeeded in doing so, and thus recovered the secret of manufacture which had for some time been lost. The “Amer. Journ. of Science and the Arts” (Vol. XL. p. 249) adds that, from this date, the construction of a magnetic car seems to have been a puzzle ... and the knowledge of the invention appears to have been confined within very narrow limits. Humboldt says that the magnetic wagon was used as late as the fifteenth century of our era; the “American Journal” states that it cannot be traced later than 1609.
=A.D. 265–419.=--What is by many believed to be the earliest reliable, distinct mention or actually printed record of the use of the magnet for navigation, appears in the justly prominent Chinese dictionary or rather encyclopædia, “Poei-wen-yun-fou,” wherein it is mentioned that there were during this period (that of the second Tsin dynasty) ships directed to the South by the _ching_ or needle. It is likewise therein stated that the figure then placed upon the magnetic cars represented “a genius in a feather dress” and that, when the emperor went out upon state occasions this car “always led the way and served to indicate the four points of the compass.”
REFERENCES.--Homer at B.C. 1000–907; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 12; Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp. 66, 67; Johnson, “Univ. Cycl.,” Vol. I. p. 927. ed. 1877; Miller, “Hist. Phil. Illust.,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 180.
In a later work called “Mung-khi-py-than” will be found the following: “The soothsayers rub a needle with the magnet stone, so that it may mark the south; however, it declines constantly a little to the east. It does not indicate the south exactly. When this needle floats on the water it is much agitated. If the fingernails touch the upper edge of the basin in which it floats, they agitate it strongly; only it continues to slide and falls easily. It is preferable, in order to show its virtues in the best way, to suspend it as follows: Take a single filament from a piece of new cotton and attach it exactly to the middle of the needle by a bit of wax as large as a mustard seed. Hang it up in a place where there is no wind. Then the needle always shows the south; but among such needles there are some which, being rubbed, indicate the north. Our soothsayers have some which show the south and some which show the north. Of this property of the magnet to indicate the south, like that of the cypress to show the west, no one can tell the origin.”
=A.D. 295–324.=--Koupho, Chinese physicist as well as writer, and one of the most celebrated men of his age, compares the attractive property of the magnet with that of amber animated by friction and heat. In his “Discourse on the Loadstone” he says: “The magnet attracts iron as amber draws mustard seeds. There is a breath of wind that promptly and mysteriously penetrates both bodies, uniting them imperceptibly with the rapidity of an arrow. It is incomprehensible.”
REFERENCES.--Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 125; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1848, Vol. V. p. 51; Libri, “Hist. des Mathém.,” Vol. I. p. 381, note 2.
=A.D. 304.=--St. Elmo (St. Erasmus) Bishop of Formiæ, in ancient Italy, who suffered martyrdom about this date at Gæta, is the one after whom sailors in the Mediterranean first named the fires or flames which by many are believed to be of an electric nature and which appear during stormy weather, either at the yardarms, mastheads, in the rigging, or about the decks of a vessel. When two flames are seen together, they are called Castor and Pollux, “twin gods of the sea, guiding the mariner to port,” and are considered by seamen an indication of good luck and of fine weather; but when only one flame is visible it is called Helena, and is supposed to be an evil omen, the beacon of an avenging God luring the sailor to death.
St. Elmo’s fire is also known to the Italians as the fire of _St. Peter_ and of _St. Nicholas_, to the Portuguese as _San Telmo_ and as _Corpos Santos_, and to the English sailors as _comazant_ or _corposant_.
The historian of Columbus’ second voyage says that during the month of October 1493 “St. Elmo appeared on the topgallant-masts with seven lighted tapers.” It is also alluded to by Pliny, “Nat. Hist.” lib. ii. cap. 37; by Stobæus, “Eclogarum Phys.,” I. 514; Livy, “Hist.,” cap. 2; Seneca, “Nat. Quæst.,” I. 1; by Cæsar, “de Bello Africano,” cap. 6 edit. Amstel., 1686; and by Camoëns, “Os Lusiades,” canto v. est. 18.
“Last night I saw St. Elmo’s stars, With their glimmering lanterns all at play On the tops of the masts and the tips of the spars, And I knew we should have foul weather to-day.”
Longfellow, “Golden Legend,” Chap. V.
“... Sometimes I’d divide, And burn in many places--on the topmast, The yards and bowsprit, would I flame distinctly, Then meet and join....”
Shakespeare, “The Tempest,” Act i. sc. 2.
REFERENCES.--“Nouvelle Biographie Générale,” Vol. XVI. p. 179; “Grand Dict. Univ. du xix^e siècle” of Pierre Larousse, Vol. VII. p. 786; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 245; Becquerel, “Traité Expér.,” 1834, Vol. I. p. 34, and his “Résumé,” Chap. I; Le Breton, “Histoire,” 1884, p. 43; “La Lumière Electrique,” Juin 1891, p. 546, likewise Procopius, “De Bello, Vandal,” lib. ii. cap. 2; William Falconer’s “Observations,” etc. in Vol. III. p. 278 of “Mem. Lit. and Ph. Soc. Manchester,” 1790 (translated in Italian, 1791), for an account of the flames appearing upon the spear points of the Roman legions.
=A.D. 400.=--Marcellus Empiricus, who was _magister officiorum_ in the reign of Theodosius the Great (379–395) states in his “De Medicamentis Empiricis,” Venetiis, 1547, P. 89, that the magnet called _antiphyson_ attracts and repulses iron. This, adds Becquerel in his “Résumé,” Chap. III, further proves that these properties were known in the fourth century.
REFERENCES.--Klaproth, “Boussole,” 1834, p. 12; Harris, “Magnetism,” I and II; “New Gen. Biogr. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. IX. p. 475.
=A.D. 425.=--Zosimus (Count), Greek historian, who lived under Theodosius II (401–450), “sometime advocate of the Treasury of the Roman Empire,” wrote the history of that empire from the reign of Augustus to the year A.D. 410, wherein he is the first to call attention to the electrolytic separation of metals, _i. e._ that the latter acquire a coating of copper upon being immersed in a cupreous solution.
REFERENCES.--Gore, “Art of Electro-Met.,” 1877, p. 1, or the London 1890 edition, p. B; “A treatise on Electro-Metal.,” by Walter G. McMillan, London, 1890, p. 2; “Journal des Savants” for June 1895, pp. 382–387; Dr. Geo. Langbein’s treatise, translated by W. T. Brannt, Chap. I; “Nouvelle Biogr. Gén.” (Hœfer), Vol. XLVI. p. 1022; Schoell, “Hist. de la Littér. Grecque”; Pauly, “Real Encycl. ... Alterthums”; “Biogr. Univ.” (Michaud), Vol. XLV. p. 606; “Nouveau Larousse,” Vol. VII. p. 1429.
=A.D. 426.=--Augustine (Aurelius, Saint), the most prominent of the Latin Fathers of the Church, finishes his “De Civitate Dei,” which he began in 413, and which is considered the greatest monument to his genius. He was probably the most voluminous writer of the earlier Christian centuries. He was the author of no less than 232 books, in addition to many tractates or homilies and innumerable epistles (“Books and their Makers, during the Middle Ages,” Geo. Haven Putnam, New York, 1896, Vol. I. p. 3). In the “De Civitate Dei” he tells us (Basileæ, 1522, pp. 718–719) of the experiment alluded to herein at A.D. 1558. This had better be given in his own words (“De Civitate Dei,” lib. ii. cap. 4, Dod’s translation, Edinburgh, 1871):
“When I first saw it (the attraction of the magnet), I was thunderstruck (_vehementer inhorrui_), for I saw an iron ring attracted and suspended by the stone; and then, as if it had communicated its own property to the iron it attracted and had made it a substance like itself, this ring was put near another and lifted it up, and, as the first ring clung to the magnet, so did the second ring to the first. A third and fourth were similarly added, so that there hung from the stone a kind of chain of rings with their hoops connected, not interlinking but attached together by their outer surface. Who would not be amazed by this virtue of the stone, subsisting as it does, not only in itself, but transmitted through so many suspended rings and binding them together by invisible links? Yet far more astonishing is what I heard about the stone from my brother in the episcopate, Severus, Bishop of Milevis. He told me that Bathanarius, once Count of Africa, when the Bishop was dining with him, produced a magnet and held it under a silver plate on which he placed a bit of iron; then as he moved his hand with the magnet underneath the plate, the iron upon the plate moved about accordingly. The intervening silver was not affected at all, but precisely as the magnet was moved backward and forward below it, no matter how quickly, so was the iron attracted above. I have related what I have myself witnessed: I have related what I was told by one whom I trust as I trust my own eyes.”
REFERENCES.--“Vie de St. Augustin,” by Poujoulat, second edition, Paris, 1852, and by G. Moringo, 1533; Possidius, also Rivius, “Vitæ de St. Augus.”; L. Tillemont, “Mémoires Eccles.,” 1702 (the 13th Vol. of which is devoted to an elaborate account of his life and controversies); Bindemann, “Der heilige Augustinus,” 1844; Butler, “Lives of the Saints”; Lardner, “Credibility of the Gospel History,” Vol. VI. part i. pp. 58–59, and Vol. X. pp. 198–303; Neander, “Geschichte der Christlichen Religion und Kirche”; Pellechet, “Catalogue Général des Incunables,” 1897, pp. 339–370; Alfred Weber, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Frank Thilly, New York, 1896, pp. 188–198; “St. Augustine’s City of God,” tr. by Rev. Marcus Dods, Edinburgh, 1871, Vol. II. book xxi. pp. 420, 457; “Journal des Scavans,” Vol. XIV. for 1686, pp. 22–23, mentions the above-named experiment and the effect of diamond on the loadstone; “Journal des Savants” for Sept. 1898; Ueberweg, “Hist. of Philosophy” (Morris’ tr., 1885), Vol. I. pp. 333–346.
=A.D. 450.=--Aëtius (Amidenus), Greek physician, informs us (Aëtii, op. lib. xi. cap. 25) that “those who are troubled with the gout in their hands or in their feet, or with convulsions, find relief when they hold a magnet in their hand. Paracelsus recommended the use of the magnet in a number of diseases, as fluxes, hæmorrhages, etc., while Marcellus (“Steph. Artis. Med. Princip.,” II. p. 253) and Camillus Leonardus (“Speculum Lapidum,” lib. ii.) assert that it will cure the toothache.”
During the year 1596, Jean Jacques Vuccher published “De Secretis” (“The secrets and marvels of Nature”), wherein, at p. 166, he thus advises the application of a loadstone for curing the headache: “_La pierre d’aymant appliquée et mise contre la teste, oste toutes les douleurs et maux d’icelle-ce que nostre Hollerius escrit comme l’ayant prins_ [sic] _des commentaires des anciens_.” And, in 1754, Lenoble constructed magnets that were readily used in the treatment of various diseases (“Practical Mechanic,” Vol. II. p. 171).
The application of the magnet for the relief of various complaints is treated of at pp. 334–335, Vol. II. of J. Ennemoser’s “History of Magic,” where will be found a list of works containing accounts of the oldest and most extraordinary known cures on record. Additional references to cures by the magnet, as well as with iron or amber--besides those named more particularly at A.D. 1770 (Maxim. Hell) and at A.D. 1775 (J. F. Bolten)--are to be found in the following works:
Avicenna, “Canona Medicinæ,” Venice, 1608, lib. ii. cap. 470; Pliny, “Natural Historie,” Holland tr., 1601, Chap. IV. p. 609; Hali Abas, “Liber totius medicinæ,” 1523, lib. i.; Serapio Mauritanus, “De simplicibus medicinis,” Argent., 1531, pp. 260, 264; Antonius Musa Brasavolus, “Examen omnium simplicium medicamentorum,” Rome 1536; Santes de Ardoynis Pisaurensis, “Liber de Venenis” (Venetiis, 1492), Basilæ, 1562; Oribasius, “De facultate metallicorum,” lib. xiii.; Joannes Baptista Montanus, “Metaphrasis Summaria ...” 1551; G. Pictorio, in his poem published at Basel in 1567, or in the 1530–1531 editions of “Marbodei Galli Poetæ vetustissimi de lapidibus pretiosis Enchiridion” (J. A. Vander Linden, “De Scriptis Medicis,” 1651, pp. 210–211); Rhazès, “De simplicibus, ad Almansorem,” Venetiis, 1542, lib. ult. cap. 295; Joannes Lonicerus (author of “De Meteoris,” Frankfort, 1550), “In Dioscoridæ Anazarbei de re medica ...” 1543, p. 77; Matthæus Silvaticus, “Opus Pandectarum Medicinæ,” 1498, 1511, 1526 (1541), cap. 446; Petrus de Abano, “Tractatus de Venenis,” 1490, also “Conciliator Differentiarum Philosophorum” (1496), 1520, 1526; Nicolaus Myrepsus, “Liber de compositione medicamentorum,” 1541, 1549, 1567, 1626; Joannes Manardus, “Epistolarum medicinalium” (Basilæ, 1549); Dioscorides Pedacius, “De materia medica,” Spengel ed., 1829, Chap. CXLVII. or in the 1557 ed. p. 507, or in the translation made by Joannes Ruellius in 1543; Nicholas Monardus, “Joyfull newes out of the new-found worlde,” Frampton tr., London, 1596; Arnaldus de Villa Nova, “Tractatus de virtutibus herbarum” (1499); Amatus Lusitanus, “Enarrationes Eruditissimæ,” 1597, pp. 482, 507; Gabriellus Fallopius, “De Simplicibus Medicamentis purgentibus tractatus,” and “Tractatus de compositione Medicamentorum,” Venetiis, 1566, 1570; Joannes Langius, “Epistolarum Medicinalium ...,” Paris, 1589; Petri Andriæ Mathiolus, “Commentarii ... Dioscoridis ... de materia medica,” 1598, p. 998; W. Barlowe, “Magneticall Advertisements,” 1616, p. 7, or the 1843 reprint; Albertus Magnus, “De Mineralibus” (1542), lib. ii.; Oswaldus Crollius, “Basilica Chimica,” 1612, p. 267; Nicolaus Curtius, “Libellus de medicamentis ...” Giessæ Cattorum, 1614; Rudolphi Goclenii--Goclenius--“Tractatus de magnetica curatione,” 1609, 1613, also “Synarthosis Magnetica,” Marpurgi, 1617 (Eloy “Dict. Hist. de la Méd.,” Vol. II. pp. 359–360); Luis de Oviedo, “Methodo de la Coleccion y Reposicion de las medicinas simples,” 1622, p. 502; W. Charleton, “A Ternary of Paradoxes of the Magnetic cure of Wounds,” 1650; the “Pharmacopœia Augustana,” Augsburg, 1621, p. 182; Patrick Brydone in “Phil. Trans.,” Vol. L. pp. 392, 695, and Vol. LXIII. p. 163. Consult also the abridgments by Hutton, Vol. XI. p. 262, Vol. XIII. p. 415; Waring’s “Bibliotheca Therapeutica,” London, 1878.
“The magnet ... gives comfort and grace, and is a cure for many complaints; it is of great value in disputes. When pulverised, it cures many burns. It is a remedy for dropsy” (I Sermone ... di F. Sacchetti ... § 18).
According to Dias, “the magnet reconciles husbands to their wives,” and Platea remarks that “it is principally of use to the wounded,” while Avicenna says “it is a remedy against spleen, the dropsy and alopecian.”
For additional information, consult J. Beckmann’s “History of Inventions,” Bohn, 1846, Vol. I. p. 43, and the article “Somnambulism” in the “Encyclopædia Britannica.”
=A.D. 543.=--The Japanese say that at about this date the Mikado received from the Court of Petsi in Corea “the wheel which indicates the south.”
REFERENCE.--Knight, “Mechanical Dictionary,” Vol. II. p. 1397.
=A.D. 658.=--As shown by Kaï-bara-Tok-sin, in the “Wa-zi-si,” the first magnetic cars were constructed during this year in Japan; the loadstone was not, however, discovered in that country until A.D. 713, when it was brought from the province of Oomi (Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 94). The “Journal of the Franklin Institute” (Vol. XVIII. for 1836, p. 69), gives a description and illustration of one of these magnetic chariots, taken from the thirty-third volume of the Japanese Encyclopædia.
=A.D. 806–820.=--Between these dates, under the Thâng dynasty, were first made the cars called _Kin-Koung-yuan_, which were magnetic chariots similar to those previously known, but bearing in addition a drum and a bell. Both the latter were struck at regular intervals by an erect male figure placed at the head of the car (“American Journal of Science and the Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 249).
A critic named Tchen-yn admits, as already indicated herein under the A.D. 235 date, that the knowledge of the mode of construction of the magnetic cars was by no means general. “I know well,” adds he, “that, at the time of the Thâng, under Hien-toung (who ascended the throne 806 A.D., and reigned seventeen years) a chariot was made which always showed the four parts of the earth, in imitation, it was said, of those constructed at the time of Hoang-ti.... Upon it stood the figure of a spirit, whose hand always pointed to the south.”
REFERENCES.--“Mémoires concernant l’histoire ...” by Saillant et Nyon, Paris, 1776–1788, Vol. XIII. p. 234; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 72.
=A.D. 968.=--Kung-foo-Whing is said to have invented a method of transmitting sound through wires by means of an apparatus called _thumthsein_, although no trace whatever of the latter is to be found in any of the numerous authorities herein quoted.
=A.D. 1067–1148.=--Frode (Ari Hinn--Ara Hin--or the Wise), Arius Polyhistor (Ari Prestrinha Frodi Thorgillsun), Icelandic historian, “than whom there is no higher authority,” was the first compiler of the celebrated “Landnama-Bok,” which contains a full account of all the early settlers in Iceland, and is doubtless the most complete record of the kind ever made by any nation.
In it, he says that, at the time Floke Vilgerderson left Rogoland, in Norway, about A.D. 868, for another visit to Gardansholm (Iceland), of which he was the original discoverer, “the seamen had no loadstone (_leiderstein_) in the northern countries,” thus showing, according to Prof. Hansteen, that the directive power of the needle and its use in navigation were known in Europe in the eleventh century. In this manner is given the first intimation of the knowledge of the mariner’s compass outside of China. The passage quoted above is by many supposed to be an interpolation, for it is not found in several manuscripts, and it has even been asserted (“Br. Ann.,” p. 296), that its origin does not antedate the fourteenth century, thus strengthening the claims of the French in behalf of Guyot De Provins.
REFERENCES.--“Landnama-Bok,” Kiœbenhaven, 1774, T. I. chap. ii. par. 7; John Angell, “Magnet. and Elect.,” 1874, p. 10; Lloyd, “Magnetism,” p. 101; “Pre-Col. Disc. of Am.,” De Costa, pp. xxiii and 11; “Bull. de Géogr.,” 1858, p. 177; “Good Words,” 1874, p. 70; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 40; Hansteen, “Inquiries Concerning the Magnetism of the Earth,” and “Magazin für Naturvidenskaberne Christiana,” I. 2, “Encycl. Metrop.,” Vol. III. p. 736; the 1190–1210 entry herein.
=A.D. 1111–1117.=--Keou-tsoungchy, Chinese philosopher and writer, gives, in the medical natural history called “Pen-thsao-yan-i,” written by him under the Soung dynasty, the earliest description of a water compass found in any Chinese work, viz.: “The magnet is covered over with little bristles slightly red, and its superficies is rough. It attracts iron and unites itself with it; and, for this reason, it is commonly called the stone which licks up iron. When an iron point is rubbed upon the magnet, it acquires the property of pointing to the south, yet it declines always to the east, and is not perfectly true to the south.... If the needle be passed through a wick or a small tube of thin reed, and placed upon water, it will indicate the south, but with a continual inclination towards the point _ping_, that is to say, East five-sixths South.”
In the “Mung-khi-py-than,” also composed under the Soung dynasty, it is stated that fortune-tellers rub the needle with the loadstone in order to make it indicate the south.
REFERENCES.--_Comptes Rendus_, Vol. XIX. p. 365; “Am. Journal Sc. and Arts,” 1841, XL. p. 248; Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844, Vol. III. p. 13; Becquerel, “Elec. et Mag.,” p. 58; Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp. 67–69, 95; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 656, and Vol. V. p. 52; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1397; Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Paris, 1836, Vol. III. p 34.
=A.D. 1160.=--Eustathius, Archbishop of Thessalonica, relates in his commentary on the Iliad of Homer, that Walimer, father of Theodoric and King of the Goths, used to emit sparks from his body; also that a certain philosopher observed sparks occasionally issuing from his chest accompanied with a crackling noise.
Leithead tells us that streams of fire came from the hair of Servius Tullius, a Roman King, during sleep, when he was about seven years of age (Dionysius, “Antiq. Rom.” lib. iv.; Pliny, “Hist. Nat.” lib. ii. cap. 37); that Cardan alludes to the hair of a certain Carmelite monk emitting sparks whenever it was rubbed backward (“De Rerum Varietate,” lib. viii. cap. 43); that Father Faber, in his “Palladium Chemicum,” speaks of a young woman whose hair emitted sparks while being combed, and also refers to allusions made in the same line by Thomas Bartholinus, “De Luce Animalium,” Lugd. 1647, p. 121; Ezekiel di Castro, “De Igne Lambente”; Johann Jacob Hemmer, “Trans. Elec. Soc. Mannheim,” Vol. VI; and _Phil. Trans._, Vol. V. pp. 1, 40.
REFERENCES.--Eustath in Iliad, E. p. 515, ed. Rom.; “Encycl. Brit.,” 1855, VIII. p. 571; Priestley, “History of Electricity,” London, 1775, pp. 128, 129; _Phil. Trans._, abridged, Vol. X. pp. 278, 343, 344, 357.
=A.D. 1190–1210.=--Guyot de Provins, minstrel at the Court of the Emperor Frederick I (Barbarossa), gives the first French mention of the water compass in a manuscript “politico-satirical” poem entitled “La Bible,” to be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale. It is therein said that sailors were at that time in the habit of rubbing needles upon the ugly brown stone called _marinière_, “to which iron adheres of its own accord,” and that, as soon as placed afloat upon a small piece of straw in the water, the needles would point to the North. The passage alluding to the compass has been copied by D. A. Azuni, member of the Turin Academy of Sciences, from the original manuscript, and is given entire, with the French translation, at p. 137 of his “Dissertation ...” second edition, Paris, 1809:
“De notre père l’apostoile (le pape)
* * * * *
Ils l’appellent la tresmontaigne
* * * * *
Par la vertu de la marinière, Une pierre laide et brumière, Ou li fers volontiers se joint....”
The passage is also given by Klaproth, at pp. 41–43, and by Venanson, at p. 72, of their respective works already cited; likewise by Bertelli, p. 59 of his Memoir published in 1868.
Sonnini (C. S.), in Buffon “Minéraux,” Vol. XV, p. 100, says that Azuni has successfully established the claims of France to the first use of the mariner’s compass. Other writers herein, who follow in their order, will doubtless show to the satisfaction of the reader that, as the Arabs possessed it at the same time, they must have received it from the Chinese, and therefore transmitted it to the Franks during the first Crusades, as stated by Klaproth in his “Lettre à M. de Humboldt,” Paris, 1834, pp. 64–66.
REFERENCES.--Becquerel, “Traité d’Elect. et de Magn.,” Vol. I. p. 70; Bertelli, “Mem. sopra P. Peregrino,” 1868, p. 59; R. M. Ferguson, “Electricity,” 1867, p. 43; J. F. Wolfart, “Des Guiot von Provins,” Halle, 1861; “Bulletin de Géographie,” 1858, p. 177; Barbazan, “Fabliaux,” Vol. II. p. 328: Becquerel, “Résumé,” Chap. III; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 628–630; “Amer. Journ. Sc. and Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 243; “Guiot von Provins,” in Meyers Konvers. Lex., Vol. VIII. p. 81; “Encycl. Met.,” Vol. III. p. 736, gives a verbatim copy of part of Guyot’s poem, with its literal translation; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. p. 63; “Encycl. Met.,” Vol. XII. p. 104; J. Lorimer, “Essay on Magnetism,” London, 1795; Sir John Francis Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. xii, or “China,” London, 1857, pp. 184–187; Whewell, “Hist. of Ind. Sc.,” Vol. II. p. 46.
[Illustration: Guiot de Provins. “La Bible.” In the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.]
=A.D. 1204–1220.=--Jacobus de Vitry, Cardinal Bishop of Ptolemais, in Syria, one of the Crusaders, thus speaks of the compass in his “Historiæ Hierosolimitanæ,”[10] cap. 89 and 91: “The Magnet [_diamant_, as shown under the B.C. 321 date] is found in the Indies.... It attracts iron through a secret virtue; after a needle has touched the loadstone, it always turns toward the North Star, which latter is as the world’s axis and is immobile, while the other stars turn around it; that is why the compass is so useful to navigators, _valde necessarius navigantibus_.”
REFERENCES.--Azuni, “Boussole,” p. 140; Venanson, “Boussole,” p. 77; Klaproth, pp. 14, 43–44; Poggendorff, Vol. II. p. 1184; Becquerel, “Elec. et Magn.,” Vol. I. p. 70; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1397.
=A.D. 1207.=--Neckam (Alexander of), 1157–1217, Abbot of St. Mary’s, alludes in his “De Utensilibus” to a needle carried on board ship, which, being placed upon a pivot and allowed to take its own position of repose, “showed mariners their course when the Polar Star is hidden.” In another work, “De Naturis Rerum” (lib. ii. cap. 89), he writes: “Mariners at sea, when, through cloudy weather in the day, which hides the sun, or through the darkness of the night, they lose the knowledge of the quarter of the world to which they are sailing, touch a needle with a magnet which will turn around until, on its own motion ceasing, its point will be directed toward the North (Chappell, “Nature,” No. 346, June 15, 1876; Thomas Wright, “Chronicles and Memoirs ... Middle Ages,” 1863).
REFERENCES.--“La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XXIV. p. 898; Hœfer, “Nouv. Biogr. Générale,” Vol. XXXVII. p. 570.
=A.D. 1235–1315.=--Lully (Raymond) of Majorca (often confounded with Ramond Lull, who is the author of several alchemical books and of whose biography very little is known), was, by turns, a soldier, a poet, a monk, a knight, a missionary and a martyr, and is referred to by Humboldt as “the singularly ingenious and eccentric man, whose doctrines excited the enthusiasm of Giordano Bruno when a boy, and who was at once a philosophical systematizer and an analytical chemist, a skilful mariner and a successful propagator of Christianity.”
During the year 1272 Lully published his “De Contemplatione,” which was followed by “Fenix de las maravillas del orbe” in 1286, and by his “Arte de Naveguar” in 1295. In these he states that the seamen of his time employed instruments of measurement, sea charts and the magnetic needle (_tenian_, _los mareantes_, _instrumento_, _carta_, _compas y aguja_), and he describes the improvements made in the astrolabes (designed for the determination of time and of geographical latitudes by meridian altitudes and capable of being employed at sea) from the period that the astrolabium of the Majorcan pilots was in use.
The application of the astrolabe to navigation, Mr. Irving says (“Hist. of the Life ... of Columbus,” London, 1828, Vol. I. pp. 76–78), was “one of those timely events which seem to have some thing providential in them. It was immediately after this that Columbus proposed his voyage of discovery to the crown of Portugal.”
Lully also confirms the fact that the Barcelonians employed atlases, astrolabes[11] and compasses long before Don Jaime Ferrer penetrated to the mouth of the Rio de Ouro, on the western coast of Africa, which was about fifty years after the date of the last-named work.
Incidentally it may be added that Lully, posing as an alchemist, is said to have in the presence of the English King, Edward I, converted iron into gold, which latter was coined into rose-nobles (Bergman, “Hist. of Chem.”; Louis Figuier, “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,” Paris, 1860, p. 148).
REFERENCES.--For Lul. Raimon, or Raymundus, or Lullius (1235–1315), “Dict. of Philos. and Psych.,” by J. M. Baldwin, New York, 1902, Vol. II. p. 32; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 629–631, 670, and 1859, Vol. V. p. 55; Miller, “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 217; Whewell, “Hist. Ind. Sc.,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 169; also his “Phil. of the Ind. Sc.,” London, 1840, Vol. II. pp. 320–323; “Journal des Savants,” 1896, pp. 342, 345–355; “Biogr. Génér.,” article “Lulle”; Helfferich, “Raym. L.,” Berlin, 1858; Nicolai Eymerici, “Direct Inq.,” Rome, 1578; Bolton, “Ch. Hist. of Chem.,” pp. 1000–1001; Ueberweg, “Hist. of Philos.” (Morris’ translation, 1885), Vol. I. pp. 457, 459; “Lives of Alchemystical Philosophers,” by Arthur Edward Waite, London, 1888, pp. 68–88, in which is given, at pp. 276–306, an alphabetical catalogue of all works on Hermetic Philosophy and Alchemy; Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Paris, 1836, Vol. I. pp. 7, 283.
For the Dominican Giordano (Jordano) Bruno, see “The Course of the History of Modern Philosophy,” by Victor Cousin, New York, 1872, Vol. II. pp. 56–58; “English Cycl.” (Biography), Vol. I. p. 979; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. I. p. 141; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. VIII. pp. 258–259, reviewed in the “London Athenæum,” Nov. 28, 1903, p. 711.
[Illustration: Vincent de Beauvais. “Speculum Naturale.”
Page taken from the 1473 copy, now in the Bibliothèque, Ste. Geneviève, Paris.]
=A.D. 1250.=--Vincent de Beauvais, another Crusader, writes his “Mirror of Nature” (“Bibliotheca Mundi, Speculum Majus, Speculum Triplex”) for St. Louis and his consort, Marguerite de Provence, and speaks therein of the polarity of the needle (“Speculi Naturalis,” Vol. II. lib. ix. cap. 19). He cites Aristotle as having written a book, “De Lapide,” containing a notice of the magnet’s use in navigation, but none of Aristotle’s known works appear to have the passage given. Cabæus and others rather judge that book to be the work of some Arabic writer (Thomas Creech, “Lucretius”). Libri, however, says that a translation or _abrégé_ of the MS. of “De Lapide” is at the Paris Library--MSS. Arabes, No. 402 (“Hist. des sc. Mathém.,” Vol. I. p. 101).
Le Sieur Petrus Peregrinus de Maricourt (see A.D. 1269) alludes clearly to the polarity of the needle in an epistle, “Ad Sigerum de Foucaucourt--Fontancourt--militem de Magnete,” written toward the end of the thirteenth century, and the magnet is, at about the same period, referred to in the following lines of the minstrel Gauthier d’Espinois, contemporary of the Count of Champagne, Thibaud VI, who lived before the middle of the thirteenth century (“Hist. Lit. de la France,” 1856, Vol. XXIII--chansonniers--pp. 576, 831):
“Tout autresi (ainsi) comme l’aimant déçoit (détourne) L’aiguilette par force de vertu A ma dame tot le mont (monde) retennue Qui sa beauté connoit et aperçoit.”
Vincent de Beauvais applies the terms _zohron_ and _aphron_ (not _afon_) to the south and north ends of the needle, and Mr. J. Klaproth (“Lettre à M. de Humboldt sur l’invention de la Boussole,” Paris, 1834, pp. 49–51), says these words are Arabian, notwithstanding assertions made to the contrary by Martinus Lipenius in his “Navigatio Salomonis Ophiritica Illustrata,” 1660, cap. v. sec. 3, as well as by many others who have written upon the compass.
REFERENCES.--Sonnini, in Buffon, “Minéraux,” VIII. p. 76; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859–1860, Vol. II. pp. 253–254, and Vol. V. p. 54; Azuni, “Boussole,” pp. 41, 42, and 44; Klaproth, p. 13; Miller, “History Philosophically Illustrated,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 179, note. “Simonis Maioli ... Dies Caniculares, seu Colloqui,” XXIII. 1597, p. 783; Dr. F. Ueberweg, “Hist. of Phil.” (Morris’ translation, 1885), Vol. I. pp. 433, 435; “Journal des Savants” for Feb.-Mar. 1892; “Vincenti Bellov. Speculi Naturalis,” Vol. II. lib. ix. cap. 19.
It may be added that the “Mirror of Nature”[12] is one of the four pretentious works which, however popular they may at any time have been and however powerfully they may have influenced the age in which they were written, do not, says Humboldt, fulfil by their contents the promise of their titles. The other three are the “Opus Majus” of Roger Bacon, the “Liber Cosmographicus” (Physical Geography) of Albertus Magnus, and the “Imago Mundi” (Picture of the World) of Cardinal Petrus de Alliaco--Pedro de Helico--Pierre d’Ailly. (For the celebrated French theologian Pierre d’Ailly (1350–1420), Chancellor of the Paris University, see “Histoire de l’Astronomie,” J. F. C. Hœfer, Paris 1873, p. 290; “Paris et ses historiens,” Le Roux de Lincy et L. M. Tisserand, Paris, 1867, p. 402 (etched portrait); “New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902, Vol. I. p. 231; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. I. pp. 952–954; also works relating to him by Aubrelicque, Compiègne, 1869, by Arthur Dinaux, Cambrai, 1824, and by Geo. Pameyer, Strasbourg, 1840.) The last-named work by Pierre d’Ailly was the chief authority at the time and exercised a greater influence on the discovery of America than did the correspondence with the learned Florentine Toscanelli (Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 621; “La lettre et la carte de Toscanelli,” par Henri Vignaud, Paris, 1901, or “Toscanelli et Christophe Colomb” in the “Annales de Géographie,” No. 56, 11^e année, Mars 15, 1902, pp. 97–110; “Toscanelli in der älteren und neuren Columbus literatur,” E. Geleich Mitteil. Wien, Vol. XXXVI. 10, 1893).
Two of the above-named works partake of the encyclopædic, and in this class likewise properly enter the twenty books “De Rerum Natura” of Thomas Cantapratensis of Louvain (1230), the “Book of Nature,” by Conrad Van Meygenberg of Ratisbon (1349), and the great “Margarita Philosophica,” or “Circle of the Sciences,” of Father Gregorius Reisch (1486). (See the different entries concerning the last-named work at pp. 663–664 of Libri’s Catalogue, Vol. II, for 1861.) One more work bears title “Picture of the World”--“l’Image du Monde”--written by Gautier de Metz, a French poet of the thirteenth century, on the lines of still another encyclopædic “Imago Mundi,” by Honorius d’Autun (Neubauer, “Traductions historiques de l’Image du Monde,” 1876, p. 129; Haase, likewise Fritsche, “Untersuch ... der Image du Monde,” 1879 and 1880; Fant, “l’Image du Monde, étudié dans ses diverses rédactions françaises,” Upsal, 1886. Chas. Bossut, in his “Hist. Générale des Mathém.,” Paris, 1810, Vol. I. p. 229, also mentions an encyclopædic “Mirroir du Monde,” in Turkish _Gian Numah_; “The Final Philosophy,” Chas. W. Shields, New York, 1877, p. 133).
=A.D. 1254.=--Albertus Magnus, of the family of the Counts of Bollstädt, one of the most prominent philosophers and theologians of the Middle Ages, likewise alludes to the book “De Lapide” already referred to at A.D. 1250, and to the Arabic terms _zohron_ and _aphron_, giving to these words, however, a wrong interpretation.[13]
Albertus Magnus (1193–1280) was justly styled _Doctor Universalis_, for, from the time he entered the Order of the Dominican Friars in 1221, as well as throughout his teachings, mainly at Bologna, Strasburg, Freiburg and Cologne, he displayed an intimate acquaintance with almost all branches of the natural sciences. He was especially well versed in philosophy, astronomy and mathematics--_in rebus magicis expertus fuit_--and was justly considered by many as the most erudite philosopher of his generation; an encomium of the very rarest kind, when such rivals as Alexander of Hales and Thomas Aquinas could dispute the palm with him. Natural science, says Humboldt (“Cosmos,” 1860, Vol. II. pp. 243–245), was intimately associated with medicine and philosophy among the learned Arabs, and, in the Christian Middle Ages, with theological polemics. The latter, from their tendency to assert an exclusive influence, repressed empirical inquiry into the departments of physics, organic morphology, and also astronomy, the last being, for the most part, closely allied to astrology. The study of the comprehensive works of Aristotle, introduced by Arabs and by Jewish Rabbis, had tended to lead to a philosophical fusion of all branches of study (Jourdain, “Sur les traductions d’Aristotle,” p. 256; Michael Sachs, “Die Religiöse Poesie der Juden in Spanien,” 1845, s. 180–200), and hence Ibn-Sina (Avicenna), Ibn-Roschd (Averroës), Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon passed for the representatives of all the knowledge of their time. The fame which in the Middle Ages surrounded the names of these four great men was proportionate to the general diffusion of this opinion of their endowments.
Albertus was the first scholastic who systematically reproduced the philosophy of Aristotle with reference to the Arabian commentators and who remodelled it to meet the requirements of ecclesiastical dogma. The cause of the new development of scholasticism in the thirteenth century was the translation, for the first time, into Latin of the complete works of Aristotle, which latter only came to the knowledge of the scholastics (1210–1225) through the agency of Arabian philosophy. The leading Arabian philosophers were Avicenna, Averroës and Avempace, whilst, in the new movement, Albertus Magnus, St. Thomas Aquinas and Joannes Duns Scotus represented the culmination of scholastic thought and its consolidation into a system.[14]
Albertus, according to Humboldt, must be mentioned as an independent investigator in the domain of analytic chemistry, improving as he did the practical manipulation of ores, and having actually enlarged the insight of men into the general mode of action of the chemical forces of nature. His “Liber Cosmographicus” is a singularly able presentment of physical geography. He also wrote very extensively upon plant-life, and is the author of commentaries upon practically all the physical works of the Stagirite, although in the commentary on Aristotle’s “Historia Animalium” he is said to have closely followed the Latin translation of Michael Scotus from the Arabic. Albertus doubtless owes the praise conferred upon him by Dante less to himself than to his beloved pupil Aquinas, who accompanied him from Cologne to Paris in 1245, and returned with him to Germany in 1248.
“Questi, che m’ è a destra più vicino, Frate e maestro fummi; ed’ esse Alberto E’ di Cologna, ed io Thomas d’Aquino.”
“Il Paradiso,” X. 97–99.
Gilbert refers to Albertus in “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps, i. and vi., also in Book II. chap. xxxviii.
REFERENCES.--“Albert the Great,” by Dr. Joachim Sighart, translated by Rev. Fr. J. A. Dixon, London, 1876; “Journal des Savants” for May 1848 (“D’un ouvrage inédit de Roger Bacon”: Albertus is called _Magnus in magia naturali, major in philosophia, maximus in theologia_; Tritheim, “Annales Hirsaug.,” Vol. I. p. 592); for May 1851, pp. 284–298 _passim_; for Nov. and Dec. 1884; for June 1891 (“Traditions ... du Moyen Age”), for Feb. 1892 (“Traductions des ouvrages alchimiques ... arabes; l’alchimie dans Albert le Grand,” pp. 126–128), as well as for March 1892; “Histoire des Sciences,” par. F. M. L. Maupied, Paris, 1847 (Albert le Grand), Vol. II. pp. 1–95; Barthol. Glanvilla, “Liber, de Proprietatibus Rerum,” Book VII; Pellechet, “Cat. Gen. des Incunables,” 1897, pp. 57–81; Bolton, “Chronol. Hist. of Chemistry,” 1897, p. 947; “The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages,” by W. J. Townsend, London, 1881, Chap. X. pp. 165–173; “Siger de Brabant et l’Averroïsme Latin au xiii^e siècle,” par. Pierre Maudonnet, Fribourg, 1899, pp. li-lii notes _passim_; Walton and Cotton, “Complete Angler,” New York and London, 1847, Pt. I. p. 62; “New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902, Vol. I. p. 279; “Aristotle and the Arabs,” by Wm. M. Sloane, pp. 257–268 of “Classical Studies in Honour of Henry Drissler,” New York, 1894; Sonnini, Buffon, “Minéraux,” VIII. p. 76; Enfield, “History of Philosophy,” Book VII. chap iii.; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 617–619; Quétif and Echard, “Scriptor. Ord. Predicat,” Vol. I. p. 171; Brande, “Manual,” 1848, Vol. I. p. 8; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 436–440; J. B. Hauréau, “La Philos. Scholas.,” Paris, 1850, Vol. II. pp. 1–103; Dr. W. Windelband, “History of Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts, New York, 1853, pp. 311, 313; “Dict. Hist. de la Médecine,” N. F. J. Eloy, Mons, 1778, Vol. I. pp. 63–65; “Christian Schools and Scholars,” Augusta Th. Drane, London, 1867, pp. 69, etc.
Of authors prominently cited by Albertus Magnus, or alluded to in the foregoing, the following accounts are given:
Alfarabius--Alpharabius--Abn Nasr Muhammed ... al Farabi--(A.D. 870–950), celebrated Arabian philosopher, native of Turkestan, one of whose most important works, “Liber de scientiis ...” is an encyclopædia, giving in five chapters a classification of all known sciences. It is said he could speak in as many as seventy languages (J. C. L. S. de Sismondi, “Historical View of the Literature of the South of Europe,” London, 1846, Vol. I. p. 65). He was a most zealous student of Aristotle, and is one of the authors (Aristotle, Avicenna and Al-gazel being the others) from whom David the Jew compiled his work “De Causis.” Of the latter, Albertus gives a long description, and it is likewise cited both by Thomas Aquinas and Bacon, “Opus Majus,” J. H. Bridges, Oxford, 1897, Vol. I. pp. 100–101, who quotes: Jourdain, pp. 112, 138–145, 184–185, and Wüstenfeld, “Geschichte,” Göttingen, 1840.
REFERENCES.--Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. I. p. 195; “Biog. Gen.,” Vol. I. pp. 951–952 and the references therein given; “New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902, Vol. I. pp. 329–330; M. Stenischneider, “Al-Farabi,” St. Petersb., 1869; Friedrich Dieterici, “Al-Farabi’s Philosophische Abhandlungen,” Leyden, 1890, and his “Die Philosophie der Araber,” Leyden, 1892, 1895; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 407, 411–412.
Al-gazel--Al-Ghazzali--(1058–1111), another prominent Arabian philosopher, who was for a long time professor of theology in the Bagdad University, and became the ruler of the Sufis or Mystics, in whose behalf he travelled extensively.[15]
The biography in “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XVIII. pp. 899–900, gives a full account of his most important works and several valuable references, his principal book being “The Destruction of the Philosophers,” which called forth a reply in one of the two most important works of Averroës, entitled “The Destruction of Destruction.”
Tholuck says: “If ever a man hath deserved the name, Ghazzali was truly a divine, and he may justly be placed on a level with Origen [Fr. Dietericii, “Die Philosophie der Araber,” Leipzig, 1876, pp. 28–31], so remarkable was he for learning and ingenuity, and gifted with such a rare faculty for the skilful and worthy exposition of doctrine.”
REFERENCES.--“Encycl. Britann.,” ninth ed., Vol. I. p. 510; “New Int. Encycl.,” Vol. I. p. 337; “The Alchemy of Happiness,” by Mohammed Al-Ghazzali, tr. of Henry Guy Homes, Albany, 1873, pp. 6–7, also Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy, tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 407 and 413–414.
Alexander of Hales, so called because he made his studies at the Monastery of Hales in Gloucestershire (_d._ 1245), called “Doctor Doctorum” or “Doctor Irrefragabilis,” also “Theologorum Monarcha,” was a celebrated English theologian. He became a noted professor of philosophy and then a lecturer among the Franciscans, being succeeded in turn by his pupils, John of Rochelle (who died in 1271) and John Fidanza, better known as Bonaventura (1221–1274). He was the first scholastic acquainted with the whole of the Aristotelian works and with the Arabian commentaries upon them. The only authentic work of his is the ponderous “Summa Universæ Theologiæ” (best edition, Venice, 1576), much of the substance and even the text of which is said to be found in the “Summa” of Aquinas and in the “Speculum Morale” of Vincent de Beauvais.
REFERENCES.--“Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” London, 1885, Vol. I. p. 271; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. II. p. 121; Fleury, “Hist. Eccles.,” Vol. XX; Du Boulay, “Hist. de l’univ. de Paris,” Vol. I.; Stoeckl, “Geschichte d. Phil. d. Mittelalters,” 1865, Vol. II. pp. 317–326; “Chambers’s Encycl.,” 1888, Vol. I. p. 148; Ninth “Encycl. Britann.,” Vol. XXI. p. 427; “Dict. of Philos. and Psychol.,” by J. M. Baldwin, New York, 1901; Vol. I. pp. 30, 124; Wadding, “Annales Ord. Min.”; “New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902, Vol. I. pp. 321–322; Fabricius, “Bibl. Lat. mediæ et inf. ætat.,” Vol. I. p. 1; “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. I. pp. 923–927; J. B. Hauréau, “Hist. de la Philos. Scholastique,” 1880, Vol. I. part ii. pp. 131–141, or the 1850 Paris ed., Vol. I. p. 418; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 433–434; Thos. Fuller, “Church History of Britain,” London, 1837, Vol. I. pp. 398–402.
Avempace--Abn Bekr Muhammed Ibn Yahga, Arabic philosopher, physician and poet (_d._ 1138), introduced the peripatetic philosophy into Andalusia, and wrote commentaries on Aristotle, in addition to a book, “Conduct of the Individual,” alluded to by Averroës, likewise several works upon medicine and music.
REFERENCES.--“The History of Philosophy” of Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. p. 414 (Munk, “Mélanges de Philosophie,” pp. 383–410); “New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902, Vol. II. p. 281; Brockelmann, “Geschichte der Arabischen Litteratur”; James Gow, “A Short History of Greek Mathematics,” Oxford, 1884, pp. 203–205 for Arabic learning in Spain.
Averroës--Muhammed Ibn Ahmed Ibn-Roschd, “the commentator,” “the last great thinker of the Moslem world in the West” (1120–1198), was an illustrious Moorish philosopher and physician best known by his commentaries and paraphrases upon Aristotle. It is said Averroës was recommended to the Calif as the fittest person to expound the works of Aristotle and make them accessible to all (“History of Classical Scholarship,” J. E. Sandys, Cambridge, 1903, p. 541).
REFERENCES.--Renan, “Averroës et l’Averroïsme,” Paris, 1852; “Dict. of Philos. and Psychology,” by J. M. Baldwin, New York, 1901, p. 96; “Journal des Savants” for Feb. 1892, pp. 118–126 _passim_; Antonii, “Bibl. Hisp. Vetus,” Vol. II. pp. 240–248; Wüstenfeld, “Geschichte d’ Arab. A. V. N.,” 1840; “Engl. Cycl.,” Vol. I. pp. 448–449; Eloy, “Dict. Hist. de la Médecine,” Vol. I. pp. 220–221; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 407–408, 415–417; Dr. W. Windelband, “History of Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts, New York, 1893, pp. 317, 338; “Dictionnaire des Sciences Philosophiques,” par une société de savants, Paris, 1852, Vol. III. pp. 157–172.
“Euclide geometra e Tolommeo, Ippocrate, Avicenna, e Galieno Averrois che ’l gran comento feo.”
(Dante, “Divina Commedia,” Inferno, Canto IV.)
Augusta Th. Drane places Averroës at the head of all Arabic interpreters of Aristotle, and incidentally says it would be hard to determine his religion, for he scoffed alike at Christianity, Judaism and Mahometanism.
Avicenna--Abohalis, Ibn Sina, Al Rayis or “the chief”--(980–1037), “the greatest thinker of the Moslem world in the East,” a native of Aschena, near Bokhara, was the most celebrated physician of his day. In the “Journal des Savants” for March 1892, “l’Alchimie d’Avicenne” is very extensively treated of at pp. 179–189, and Avicenna is said (“Journal des Savants” for February 1892, pp. 118–128) to be the alchemist most frequently alluded to in the “Speculum Naturale” of Vincent de Beauvais. His writings were so highly esteemed that the Sultan of Egypt ordered them to be translated by the celebrated Jewish Rabbi, Maimonides--Moses Ben Maimon--(born at Cordova, in Spain, about A.D. 1132).
REFERENCES.--Casiri, “Bibl. Arab. Hispan.,” Vol. I. p. 268; Hottinger, “Bibl. Quadrip.,” 1664, pp. 256, 261; “Dict. des Sciences Philosophiques,” Paris, 1852, Vol. III. pp. 172–178; S. Klein, “Dissertatio,” 1846; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gen.,” Vol. I. pt. i. pp. 469–470; “The Edinburgh Encycl.,” 1830, Vol. III. p. 107; “Engl. Cycl.,” Vol. I. pp. 449–450; Gilbert, “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i., viii., xv. and Book II. chap. ii.; Eloy, “Dict. Hist. de la Médecine,” Vol. I. pp. 223–227; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 407, 412–413; Dr. W. Windelband, “History of Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts, New York, 1893, p. 317; “New Gen. Biog. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. XII. p. 43; “Dict. of Philosophy and Psychology,” by J. M. Baldwin, New York, 1901, Vol. I. p. 97; “Lectures on Metaphysics and Logic,” by Sir Wm. Hamilton, London, 1860, Vol. II. pp. 167, 171; “Historical View of the Literature of the South of Europe,” by J. C. L. S. de Sismondi, London, 1846, Vol. I.
Duns Scotus, John, “Doctor Subtilis” (born about 1270, died in 1308), a very prominent schoolman, who was educated at Oxford, entered the Order of St. Francis, and became one of the great founders of scholastic thought. But little is known as to his origin, except that a monument, erected to his memory at Cologne during the year 1533, bears the following: “_Scotia me genuit, Anglia me suscepit, Gallia me docuit, Colonia (Germania) me tenet_.”
As shown by Luc. Wadding in his “J. Duns-Scoti Opera,” twelve volumes, published at Lyons in 1639, his works are quite numerous, the most important consisting of questions and commentaries on the writings of Aristotle and on the “Sentences” of Peter Lombard.
Joannes Duns Scotus is very frequently referred to by Dr. W. Windelband (“History of Philosophy,” auth. tr. by Jas. H. Tufts, New York, 1893, pp. 311, 314–315, 321–326, 344), and is mentioned as “the acutest and deepest thinker of the Christian Middle Ages, who brought the germs of the philosophy of the will, contained in Augustine’s system, to their first important development, and so from the metaphysical side gave the impulse for a complete change in the direction of philosophical thought.”
REFERENCES.--“Dict. of Nat. Biog.,” London, 1888, Vol. XVI. pp. 216–220; Ritter’s “Geschichte der Philosophie”; Dr. Friedrich Ueberweg, “History of Philosophy,” tr. by Geo. S. Morris, New York, 1885, Vol. I. pp. 452–457; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. VI. p. 1398, containing an extensive list of references; Alfred Weber, “History of Philosophy,” New York, 1896, pp. 246–252 (tr. of Frank Thilly); “Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XV. pp. 256–257; “La Grande Encycl.,” Vol. XV. pp. 71–72; Pluanski, “Thèse sur Duns Scot,” Paris, 1887; “The Great Schoolmen of the Middle Ages,” W. J. Townsend, London, 1881, “Duns Scotus,” Chap. XV.; J. B. Hauréau, “La Philosophie Scholastique,” Paris, 1850, Vol. II. pp. 307–417. Consult also the biographies written by Ferchius, Berti, Caveili and Veglensis, and, for a complete exposition of his system, C. Werner, “Die Scholastik des Späteren Mittelalters,” Vienna, 1881, Vol. I; “Illustrations of the History of Medieval Thought,” by R. L. Poole, London, 1884.
=A.D. 1254.=--Bacon (Roger), “the most remarkable man in the most remarkable century of the Middle Ages” (E. H. Plumptre, 1866), sometimes called Friar Bacon (1214–1294), a Franciscan monk of Ilchester, who devoted himself to the study of science at Oxford and Paris and “whose deep penetration into the mysteries of nature justly entitled him to the appellation of “The Wonderful Doctor,” treats of the magnet and of its properties at pp. 383–384 of his “Opus Minus” (J. S. Brewer, “Fr. R. Bacon,” London, 1859), and dwells upon the loadstone as a _miraculum in parte notum_.
Bacon is also the author of many other works, the most important of which are his “Opus Majus” and “Opus Tertium” (first published in English respectively in 1733 and 1859), the last named having been originally written out for Pope Clement IV and intended to serve as a preamble to the “Opus Minus” and “Opus Majus,” although it was later than either in the date of its composition (Brewer, _op. cit._ p. xliv). Leland has said that it is easier to collect the leaves of the Sybil than the titles of all of Bacon’s works. At pp. 218–222, Vol. III. of the ninth edition “Encyclopædia Britannica” will be found a synopsis of the six parts into which Jebb divided the “Opus Majus” (pronounced by Whewell “at once the Encyclopædia and the Organum of the thirteenth century”), and likewise an account of his other works, besides numerous references to leading authorities.
In the “Opus Tertium,” the last of the series of three which, it is said, were all completed in about eighteen months, he speaks more than once of A.D. 1267 as being the then current year. This happens to be but two years prior to the date of the epistle of Pierre Pélerin de Maricourt, the great experimentalist (Petrus Peregrinus), whom he commends (p. lxxv) in the following words: “For there are only two perfect mathematicians, Master John of London[16] and Master Peter of Maricourt, the Picard ... who is worth more than any of them ... of whom I have fully written in my ‘Opus Minus’ and of whom I shall write more in its proper place.” Of this Master Peter, whom he calls one of his most illustrious pupils, he further says that, being “struck with the genius that dawned in his countenance,” he took him under his protection from his fifteenth year and instructed him so carefully that he outstripped all of his contemporaries both at Oxford and at Paris. “There is no one,” adds he, “who knows so much of the root of Philosophy ...” and one who, “through experiment, gains such knowledge of things natural, medical, chemical; indeed, of everything in the heavens or earth.”
Gilbert states (“De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) that many believe the work of Peter Peregrinus on the magnet owes its origin to the opinions of Roger Bacon. And in the Appendix I to Brewer’s work--p. 537, chap. vi. “De Experimentis Mirabilibus”--will be found Bacon’s views fully exposed on the operations of the magnet.
REFERENCES.--“Fratris Rogeri Bacon, O. M. Opus Majus,” S. Jebb, Londini, 1733; “L’Alchimie et les Alchimistes,” Paris, 1860, by Louis Figuier, who, at p. 97, calls Roger Bacon _La plus vaste intelligence que l’Angleterre ait possédée_; “Essai Théorique ... des connaissances humaines,” par G. Tiberghien, Bruxelles, 1844, Vol. I. pp. 388–389; Dr. Geo. Miller, “History Philosophically Illustrated,” London, 1849, Vol. II. p. 112; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” New York, 1860, Vol. II. pp. 43, 229, 241, 245, 318; “Journal des Savants” for March, April, May and August 1848, also for December 1859 and February 1891; “Origin, Progress and Destiny of the English Language and Literature,” by John A. Weisse, New York, 1879, pp. 28, 233–234, 236, 424; “History of Latin Christianity,” by Henry Hart Milman, London, 1857, Vol. VI. pp. 279–303; “Opus Majus,” by John Henry Bridges, Oxford, 1897, Vol. I. pp. xxv-xxvi, and Vol. II. pp. 203–206, containing a valuable tabulated list of facts relating to Bacon’s life; “Roger Bacon,” par Emile Charles, Paris, 1861, pp. 15–19, 339–391; “De Bibliorum Textibus,” by Dr. Hody; Wm. Whewell, “History of the Inductive Sciences,” 1858, Vol. I. pp. 512–522, or 1859, Vol. I. pp. 209–210, 245–246, 512–522, Vol. II. p. 55; also “Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences,” London, 1840, Vol. II. pp. 323–337; “The Philosophical Magazine,” Vol. XII. pp. 327–337; Enfield, Book VII. chap. iii.; “Catalogue Général des livres imprimés de la Bibliothèque Nationale,” Paris, 1901, Vol. VI. pp. 256–259; “Encyclopædia Britannica,” Edinburgh, 1842, seventh edition. Vol. I. as per Index at p. 17; “Les Editions de Roger Bacon” in the “Journal des Savants” for July 1905.
[Illustration: Brunetto Latini. “Li livres dou Trésor.”
Page taken from the 15th century Ms. in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.]
=A.D. 1260.=--Brunetto Latini, _b._ 1230, _d._ 1294, “maestro del divino poeta Dante,” celebrated Florentine encyclopædist, composes his “Tesoro,” rewritten in French (“Livres dou Trésor”), wherein he speaks clearly of the compass as at some time likely to be useful at sea. But he adds: “No master mariner dares to use it, lest he should fall under the supposition of being a magician; nor would even the sailors venture themselves out to sea under his command if he took with him an instrument which carries so great an appearance of being constructed under the influence of some infernal spirit.”
The “Tesoro” is said to be a kind of abridgment of the Bible, of Pliny, of Solinus, of the Ethics of Aristotle, of the rhetorical writings of Cicero and of the political works of Aristotle, Plato and Xenophon (“New Biog. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. IX. p. 205). It would be well to consult “La Table Générale des bulletins ... Sociétés Savantes,” par M. Octave Teissier, Paris, 1873, p. 44, regarding the collection of different manuscripts of Brunetto’s extensive work.
REFERENCES.--Davis, “The Chinese,” 1844, Vol. III. p. xi; Venanson, “Boussole,” pp. 75, 148–154; Azuni, “Boussole,” p. 139; Klaproth, “Boussole,” pp. 45–46; “Journal des Savants” for January 1865, also for January and February 1880; “The Monthly Magazine” for June 1802; Libri, “Hist. des Sciences Mathématiques,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 64, 152–156.
=A.D. 1265–1321.=--Dante--Durante--(Alighieri), illustrious Italian poet, regarded as the greatest poetical genius that flourished between the Augustan and Elizabethan ages, composed, during his exile, the “Divina Commedia,” which was the first poem written in the Italian language. In Canto XII. vv. 28–30 of his “Paradiso,” translated by Dr. Plumptre, he thus alludes to the mariner’s compass:
“Then from the heart of one of those new lights, There came a voice which made me turn to see, E’en as the star the needle’s course incites.”
Guido Guinicelli (1240–1276), priest and scholar, and whom Dante considered not only the greatest of living Bolognese poets, but his master in poetry (Note: “Purg.,” XXVI. Vol. I. p. 327, v. 92) refers to the nautical compass in nearly the same terms as Dante (“Rime. Ant.,” p. 295). He adds: “The mountains of loadstone give the virtue to the air of attracting iron, but, because it (the loadstone) is far off, (it) wishes to have the help of a similar stone to make it (the virtue) work, and to direct the needle toward the star” (P. L. Ginguené, “Hist. Lit. d’Italie,” Vol. I. p. 413; Guido delle Colonne--Io Colonna da Messina--Mandella Lett. p. 81, Florence, 1856).
At pp. 35 and 130 of Bertelli’s “Pietro Peregrino di Maricourt,” Roma, 1868, Memoria prima, appear verses said to be by Guinicelli and by Guido delle Colonne, judge of Messina, who flourished about 1250, and which are translated literally into English as follows:
“In those parts under foreign skies Are the mountains of loadstone, _Which give power to the air_ To attract iron, but, because distant, It requires to have assistance from similar stones, To bring it into use, And direct the needle towards the star.
The learned relate that the loadstone Could not attract Iron by its power, _Were it not that the air between them aids_; Although the calamite is a stone, The other existing stones Are not so powerful To attract, because they have not the influence.”
The “Paradiso,” translated by A. J. Butler, London, 1885, Canto XII. v. 29, reads: “_Si mosse voce, che l’ago (needle) alla stella_,” and Fazio degli Uberti in the “Dittamondo” (about 1360) has “_Quel gran disio, che mi, traeva addietro come ago a calamita_” (III. 2).
REFERENCES.--Hœfer, “Nouv. Biog. Gén.,” Vol. XIII. pp. 21–50, the last-named page containing an unusual number of citations; “Biblogr. Dantesca,” by Colomb de Batines, Prato, 1845–1846; “La Grande Encyclopédie,” Vol. XIII. pp. 887–901, embracing many additional references; the note at p. 154 of Plumptre’s “Dante,” also Humboldt’s “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 629; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Math.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 164, etc.; Frederic C. Harrison, “The New Calendar of Great Men,” London, 1892, pp. 310–315.
[Illustration:
Dante Alighieri. “La Divina Commedia,” Mantuae 1472, the first page of what is by many regarded as the oldest edition of the earliest known poem written in the Italian language.
Now in the Bibliothèque Sainte Geneviève, Paris.]
=A.D. 1266.=--It is shown by Th. Torffæus (Latin for Thormodr Torfason), an Icelandic scholar (_b._ 1636, _d._ 1719), who published “Historia Rerum Norvegicarum” (Hafniæ, 1711, IV. c. 4, p. 345), that at this date the northern nations were acquainted with the mariner’s compass. In the “History of Norway” here alluded to, he mentions the fact that the poem of the Icelandic historian, Jarl Sturla (Snorri Sturlason) written in 1213, on the death of the Swedish Count Byerges, was rewarded with a box containing a mariner’s compass.
REFERENCES.--Suhm, “In effigien Torfæi, una cum Torfænis”; “Nouv. Biogr. Générale de Hœfer,” Vol. XLV. p. 495; “New Gen. Biog. Dict.,” London, 1850, Vol. XII. p. 263; Jessen, “Norge,” pp. 83–99; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. XV. p. 312; Michaud, “Biog. Univ.,” Vol. XLI. p. 683.
=A.D. 1269.=--Peregrinus (Petrus), Pierre Pélerin de Maricourt, Méhéricourt--Magister Petrus de Maharnecuria, Picardus--doubtless a Crusader, was, as Roger Bacon tells us (“Opus Tertium,” cap. xi) the only one, besides Master John of London, who, at this period, could be deemed a thoroughly accomplished, perfect mathematician, and was one who understood the business of experimenting in natural philosophy, alchemy and medicine better than any one else in Western Europe.
Peregrinus is the author of a letter or epistle, “Written in camp at the Siege of Lucera (delle Puglie--Nucerræ) in the year of our Lord 1269, on the 8th day of August,” addressed to his _Amicorum intime_, a soldier, by the name of Sygerus de Fontancourt--Foucaucourt--Foucancort.
Of this epistle, which is the earliest known work of experimental science, there are but few reliable complete manuscript copies. Most of these have been very ably analyzed by P. D. Timoteo Bertelli Barnabita in the exhaustive Memoirs published by him in Rome during 1868, and still better detailed by Dr. Silvanus P. Thompson in his several valuable printed researches and lectures on the subject, but there has been of it only one printed issue in book form, that of the Lindau physician, A. P. Gasser, which appeared at Augsburg during 1558.
Several attempts at translation have been made, notably by Guillaume Libri (“Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques ...” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. p. 487) who admitted that, with the aid of several paleographers, he could not decipher many of the abbreviated faint characters existing in the Bibliothèque Nationale manuscript (No. 7378A in quarto, at folio 67), and by Tiberius Cavallo, who does scarcely better with the Leyden copy (Fol. Cod. No. 227) which was discovered by him, and but a portion of which he transcribes in the supplement to his “Treatise on Magnetism,” London, 1800, pp. 299–320. A translation was also made by Brother Arnold, of the La Salle Institute in Troy, N.Y., and published during 1904, but the most meritorious version now existing is the one entitled “Done into English by Silvanus P. Thompson from the printed Latin versions of Gasser 1558, Bertelli 1868, and Hellmann 1898, and amended by reference to the manuscript copy in his possession, formerly amongst the Phillipps’ manuscripts, dated 1391.” This translation, “printed in the year 1902, in the Caxton type, to the number of 250 copies,” reflects very great credit upon Prof. Thompson, who has given us such a faithful interpretation of the original work as would naturally be expected at his hands, and who has, besides, rubricated this right royal little volume and caused it to be issued in one of the most attractive typographical fashions of the Chiswick Press.
The Hellmann 1898 Berlin version just alluded to, which appeared in “Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten ...” No. 10 (_Rara Magnetica_), contains a photographic reproduction of the Augsburg 1558 title-page, and, it may be added, the volume of Phillipps’ manuscripts, of which Prof. Thompson became the fortunate possessor, includes one of Chaucer’s treatises on the Astrolabe, besides the Peregrinus’ manuscript in question.
During the year 1562 much of the original epistle was pilfered by Joannes Taisnier Hannonius, who badly condensed and deformed it and incorporated it as new matter, conjointly with some papers of his own, in a book entitled “Oposculum ... de Natura Magnetis et ejus effectibus ...” Coloniæ, 1562; and that much was translated “into Englishe” by Richarde Eden, London, about 1579, under title of “A very necessarie and profitable booke concerning navigation.”
Much has been said at different times regarding the contents of the above-named epistle, the full title of the Paris MS. No. 7378 of which reads
“_Epistola Petri Peregrini de Maricourt ad Sygerum de Foucaucourt militem de magnete_,”
but no _résumé_ of it could better be given than by quoting here its first page, which has been translated as follows:
This treatise on the magnet contains two parts, of which Part I is complete in ten chapters, and Part II in three.
Of Part I: Chap. I states the object of the work;
Chap. II, of what the investigator in this line of work should be;
Chap. III, of a knowledge of the loadstone;
Chap. IV, of the science of the discovery of the parts of the loadstone;
Chap. V, of the source of the discovery of poles in the loadstone--which of them is the north and which the south;
Chap. VI, in what manner a magnet attracts a magnet;
Chap. VII, how iron touched with the magnet turns towards the poles of the globe;
Chap. VIII, in what manner a magnet attracts iron;
Chap. IX, why the northern part attracts the southern part, and the converse;
Chap. X, of the inquiry whence the magnet derives the natural power it possesses.
[Illustration: Petrus Peregrinus. “Epistola ... de Magnete.”
The earliest known treatise of experimental science, now in the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.]
Of Part II: Chap. I, on the construction of an instrument (floating compass) by which the azimuth of the sun and moon, and of any star above the horizon, can be ascertained;
Chap. II, on the construction of a better instrument (pivoted compass) for like purpose;
Chap. III, on the construction of a wheel for perpetual motion.
An analyzation of each chapter in turn will show how satisfactorily Peregrinus has developed, in connected series, all of the early experiments upon which are based his theories of the loadstone.
## PART I
Chap. I states that the intention or object of the work is to make known the hitherto hidden nature, occult properties, of the loadstone, the art of treating the latter, the making of scientific instruments, and matters of interest to students of nature, astrologers and sailors.
Chap. II. The investigator in this line should know the natures of things and understand the motions of the heavenly bodies, but, above all, he should be assiduous in handiwork for experimental research.
Chap. III indicates four different requisite qualities of the loadstone, and tells where they are to be found and how to select and test them--the best of them being free from flaws, of great density and of a bluish or celestial colour.
Chap. IV shows how to find in the loadstone the two poles, one north and the other south, using preferably a globular magnet,[17] placing thereon a needle or an oblong piece of iron, and, either drawing lines in the direction taken by the needle, so that they “may meet at two points, just as all the meridian circles of the world meet at the two opposite poles of the world,” or, by merely marking the magnet so that “the opposite points will be correctly placed just as are the poles in a sphere.”
Chap. V. In order to find the poles in a stone--which of them is the North and which the South--take a round wooden vessel shaped like a skiff (_paropsidis_, _parascidis_), and place the stone therein, then put the vessel containing the stone into another large vessel filled with water, so that the first-named vessel may float into the larger one: “The stone in the first vessel will be like a sailor in a ship, and the first vessel may float roomily into the second as does a ship in a river, and the stone so placed will turn its small vessel acting as the Northern pole in the direction of the Northern heaven.... If this pole were then turned away a thousand times, a thousand times would it return to its place by the will of God.”
Chap. VI. Having found which pole is the Northern, mark it so that it may be known when necessary. Place the stone into a small vessel, as shown in Chap. V, then hold another stone in the hand and approach its Northern part to the Southern part of the stone floating in the vessel, and the floating stone will follow the other “as if it wished to adhere thereto.... Know that, as a rule, the Northern part of one stone attracts the Southern part of another stone and the Southern the Northern.”
Chap. VII. When the needle or oblong piece of iron (alluded to in Chap. IV) has touched the magnet and been attached to a light piece of wood or stalk and then placed in a vessel of water, one part will be turned towards the mariner’s star because it is near the pole, “the fact being that it does not turn towards the aforesaid star but towards the pole.” That end of the iron which has touched the Southern end of the stone turns towards the Northern quarter of the sky, and _vice versa_.
Chap. VIII. If you wish to attract iron floating on water, hold the Southern part of a loadstone to the Northern part of the iron and the iron will follow. But, if you bring the North end of the stone near the North end of the iron, the latter will avoid the stone. “If, however, violence is used towards the ends, so that, for instance, the Southern end of the iron which was touched with the Northern end of the magnet is now touched with the Southern end of the magnet ... the power in the iron will easily be changed, and that will become Southern which was previously Northern, and the converse.”
Chap. IX. “The Northern part of the magnet attracts the Southern and the reverse, as has been shown; in which attraction the magnet is an ‘agent’ of greater power while the ‘patient’ (_i. e._ the other which is acted upon) is, of weaker.” This is proved by taking a loadstone--marking it, for instance, AD--dividing, separating it into two parts, and placing one part (the Northern, marked A, called the “agent”) into water so that it will float. It will turn “to the North, as before, for the division does not deprive the parts of the stone of their properties, if it be homogeneous.” The other part (the Southern, marked D, called the “patient”) is next to be floated in a similar manner. When this is done, the other ends of the two stones should be marked respectively B and C. It will then be observed that “if the same parts are again brought near each other, one will attract the other, so that they will be joined together again at B and C where the division took place. Whence it is that they become one body with the same natural propensity as at first. The proof of this is that if they are joined together they will possess the same oppositions (opposite poles) they first contained. The ‘agent,’ therefore, as you will see by experiment, intends to unite its ‘patient’ to itself, and this takes place on account of the similitude between them.... And, in the same way, it will happen that if A is joined with D, the two lines will become one, by virtue of that very attraction, in this order CD--AB ... there will then remain the identity of the extreme parts as at first, before they were reunited, for C will be the North point and B the South point, as B and C were before.... It is therefore evident, from these observations, why the Southern parts do attract the Northern, and the reverse, and why the attraction of the South by the South, and the North by the North, is not according to Nature.”
Chap. X. “Some weak inquirers have imagined that the power which the magnet exercises over iron lies in those mineral places in which the magnet is found ... but it is found in different parts of the world.... Besides, when iron or the magnet turns towards the Southern as well as to the Northern quarter, as is evident from what has already been said, we are compelled to decide that the attraction is exercised on the poles of the magnet not only from the locality of its quarry, from which ensues the evident result that, wheresoever a man may be, the direction of this stone appears to his eye, according to the position of his meridian circle. All the meridian circles, however, meet together at the poles of the globe, wherefore it is that the poles of the magnet receive their power from the poles of the world. From this, it manifestly appears that the direction of the magnet is not towards the mariner’s star, as the meridian circles do not meet there, but all the poles, for the mariner’s star is always found beyond the meridian circle of any region unless it be twice in a complete revolution of the firmament. Likewise from this, it is manifest that the parts of the magnet receive their power from the world’s poles ... the whole magnet from the whole heavens.”[18] Then follows a suggestive experiment looking towards perpetual motion, by which one may secure “a wonderful secret” and even “be saved the trouble of having any clock.” Here, it is given that a _terrella_, poised on its poles in the meridian, moves circularly with a complete revolution in twenty-four hours. This is explained by N. Cabæus in his “Phil. Magn.,” lib. iii. cap. 4.
## PART II
Chap. I. He takes a round, or an ovoid magnet, and, after noting its poles, files it between the two poles on both sides so that it may be like a compressed sphere and thus occupy less space. He then encloses this magnet between two light wooden capsules, or boxes (_cassulas_) after the manner of a mirror ... so fastened (with glue) that they cannot be opened and water cannot enter. Then, says he, “place the capsules thus adjusted in a large vessel full of water in which the two quarters of the globe, viz. the South and the North, are found and marked, and let them be indicated by a thread extending from the Northern to the Southern part of the vessel; allow the capsules, or boxes, to float and let there be above them a slender piece of wood in the form (position) of a diameter. Then move this piece of wood above the boxes until it is equidistant from the meridianal line previously found and indicated by the thread, or is the same (line) itself. This being done, according to the piece of wood so situated, draw a line on the capsules, or boxes, and it will be the perpetual meridianal line in all countries. That line, therefore, when cut at right angles by another will be divided in the centre and will be the line of the East and West. You will thus have four quadrants actually marked on the capsules, or boxes, representing the four quarters of the globe, of which each will be divided into ninety, so that there may be in the universe CCCLX parts (degrees) in the entire circumference of the capsules, or boxes. Inscribe divisions on it as they were formerly inscribed on the back of the astrolabe. There should be, besides, a slender and light ruler above the capsules so inscribed after the manner of the ruler on the back of the astrolabe. Instead, however, of the sights (_pinnularum_), should be erected at right angles two pins over the ends of the ruler.”
This floating compass and the pivoted compass described in the following chapter are to be found illustrated, pp. 67–77, figs. 10 and 12, at end of Part II of Bertelli Barnabita’s Memoirs above referred to.
Chap. II. For the construction of a “better instrument and of more certain effects” (the pivoted compass) he says: “Let there be made a vessel of wood, brass or any other solid material that you desire, and let it be turned in the shape of a jar (_pixidis tornatum_) somewhat deep and tolerably large and let a cover of transparent material, such as glass or crystal, be fitted to it. If the whole vessel were of transparent substance so much the better. Let there be placed in the centre of the same vessel a slender axis of brass or silver, applying its extremities to the two parts of the jar, that is to say (to the) higher and lower. Let two holes be then made in the centre of the axis facing each other at right angles. Then let a piece of iron wire, like a needle, be passed through one of these holes and another wire of silver or brass be passed through the other, intersecting the iron at right angles. Let the cover at first be divided into quadrants and each of the quadrants into ninety parts, as was taught regarding the other instrument. Let North and South and East and West be marked on it and let a rule of transparent material be added to it with wires set upright at the ends. You will approach what part of the magnet you please, whether North or South, to the crystal until the needle moves towards it and receives virtue from it. When this is done, turn the vessel until one end (of the needle) stands directly over the North in the instrument coinciding with the Northern quarter of the sky. This being done, turn the rule to the sun, by day, and to the stars, by night, in manner above indicated. By means of this instrument, you will be enabled to direct your footsteps to states and islands and to any places on the globe, and wheresoever you may be, whether on land or on sea, so long as their latitudes and longitudes are known to you.”
Chap. III. He constructs “a wheel which shall be constantly in motion,” by making a very thin concave, silver case, after the manner of a mirror, suitably perforated, around the rim of which he inserts small iron nails, or teeth, bent closely toward each other and which he then places upon an immovable axis so that it may revolve easily.” He continues: “Let a silver wire be added to this axis, fixed to it and placed between two bowls on the end of which let a magnet be set, prepared in this manner. Let it be rounded and its poles ascertained, as before indicated; afterwards, let it be fashioned in the shape of an egg with the poles intact, and let it be somewhat filed down in two intermediate and opposite parts with the object of its being compressed and occupying less space so that it may not touch the inner walls ... let the magnet be placed on the wire ... and let the North pole be somewhat inclined towards the small teeth of the wheel so that it may exercise its power ... so that each tooth shall arrive at the North pole and, owing to the impetus of the wheel, shall pass it by and approach the Southern quarter. Thus every small tooth will be in a perpetual state of attraction and avoidance. And, in order that the wheel may perform its duty with greater rapidity, insert, between the cases, a small round brass or silver pebble of such size that it may be caught between any two of the small teeth, so that, as one part of the wheel comes uppermost, the pebble may fall to the opposite part. Wherefore, whilst the motion of the wheel is perpetual on one side, the same will be in the case of the pebble on the other side, or the fall of the pebble caught between any two of the teeth will be perpetual to the opposite side because as it is drawn towards the centre of the earth by its weight, it assists the motion by not suffering the small teeth to remain at rest in front of the stone. Let there be spaces, however, between the small teeth conveniently curved, so as to catch the pebble as it falls in the way the present description indicates.”
[Illustration: Petrus Peregrinus. Facsimile of a Ms. at the Bodleian Library, of the “Epistola de Magnete,” wherein is described the earliest known pivoted compass.]
Gilbert alludes to this perpetual-motion engine as having been devised or delineated by Peregrinus after he had got the idea from others (“De Magnete,” Book II. chap. xxxv.), and says that Jerome Cardan writes (“Opera,” Batav., 1663; “De Rerum Varietate,” Book, IX. chap. xlviii.) he could construct one out of iron and loadstone--not that he ever saw such a machine; that he merely offers the idea as an opinion and quotes from a report of the physician Antonio de Fantis of Treviso published in “Tabula generalis ac mare magnum scotice subtilitatis....”
In the “Magisterium Naturæ et Artis,” P. Francisci Tertii de Lanis, Brixiæ, 1684, Tractatus Tertius, Caput Secundum, p. 489, under Problema, I, _Motus perpetuus magnetis_, will be found allusion to the machines of (1) P. Peregrinus, as described in his epistle; (2) Taisnier; (3) Ant. de Fantis (cited by Cardan, as stated above); also mention of those of P. Schottus, Athan. Kircherus, Hieronimus Finugius and others; the most important of these being again alluded to throughout the third chapter of the same tract.
Gilbert makes further allusion to P. Peregrinus in his Book I. chap. i.; Book II. chap. xxxv.; Book III. chap. i.; Book IV. chap. i.; Book VI. chap. iv.
The Peregrinus’ Leyden manuscript (Fol. Cod. No. 227) already alluded to, Libri says (“Histoire des Sciences Mathém....” 1838, Vol. I. p. 383, note), is but a poor copy of the manuscript in the Paris Library (No. 7378A), from which latter the words _Petri ad Sygerum_ have been unfortunately transformed into _Petri Adsigerii_. He adds (Vol. II. pp. 70–71) that Humboldt cites (“Examen Critique,” p. 243) several authors who have alluded to the pretended Adsigerius. Mention is also made of the fact that W. Wenkebach, professor at the Hague Military School, examined the manuscripts in the Bodleian Library, Nos. 1629, 1794 and 2458, containing the treatise of Peregrinus, and that not one of them has the passage alluding to the declination. The Leyden manuscript, by the way, is said to be the only one, besides the Vatican copy, No. 5733, bearing the full date, which latter was first made known by Thévenot in his “Recueil de Voyages.” And it was a passage found in the Leyden manuscript (Q 27) which led to the belief that Peregrinus had first observed the variation or declination of the magnetic needle. The passage is as follows: “Take note that the magnet, as well as the needle that has been touched by it, does not point exactly to the poles, but that the part of it which is supposed to point to the South sometimes declines a little to the West, and that the part which looks towards the North sometimes inclines to the East. The exact quantity of this declination I have ascertained, after numerous experiments, to be five degrees. However, this declination is no obstacle to our guidance, because we make the needle itself decline from the true South by nearly one point and a half towards the West. A point contains five degrees.” This passage is unquestionably a late addition, being written in a different hand in a circle which itself is an incompleted outline of one of the figures of Peregrinus’ primitive compass.
REFERENCES.--“Encyclopædia Metropolitana,” Vol. III. p. 737 (“Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum,” fol. 11, p. 1400; “Catalogue of the MSS. in the library of Geneva,” by Senebier, p. 207); “Bulletino di bibliographia e di storia delle scienze ...” B. Boncompagni, Vol. I. pp. 1–32, 65–99, 101–139, 319–420; Vol. IV. pp. 257–288, 303–331; “Cat. bibl. publicæ univers. Lug. Bat.,” p. 365; W. Wenkebach, “Sur Petrus Adsigerius ...” Rome, 1865 (taken from Vol. VII. No. 3 of the “Annali Pura ed Applicata”); Brunet, “Manuel du Libraire,” 1863, Vol. IV. p. 493; “Br. Museum Library,” 538, G 17; “Journal des Savants,” for April-May 1848, and September 1870; Walker, “Magnetism,” 1866, p. 6; “English Cyclopædia,” Vol. VIII. p. 160, also Dr. Hutton’s “Phil. and Math. Dictionary”; Thos. Young, “A Course of Lectures on Nat. Phil. and the Mechanical Arts,” London, 1807, Vol. I. pp. 746, 756; “Electro-magnetic Phenomena,” by T. A. Lyons, New York, 1901, Vol. I. pp. 105–106; Vol. II. p. 565 (with translation of a portion of the original manuscript); “Examen Critique,” A. de Humboldt, Paris, 1836, Vol. III. p. 31; “Science and Literature of the Middle Ages,” Paul Lacroix, London, pp. 88–89, 280–282; Silvanus P. Thompson, “Proceedings of the British Academy,” 1905–6, p. 377. It may be added that Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Générale,” Vol. I. part i. p. 640, allude, at No. 3197, to a manuscript of P. Peregrinus, “Nova compositio astrolabii
## particularis,” as being in the Library of Geneva and as citing
the year 1261 in connection with the astronomical tables of John Campan (Campanus, Italian mathematician, who died about 1300): “Biog. Générale,” Vol. VIII. p. 373.
=A.D. 1270.=--Riccioli (Giovanni Battista), an Italian astronomer, member of the Society of Jesuits, _b._ 1598, _d._ 1671, asserts that at this period under the reign of St. Louis (1226–1270), French navigators were already using the magnetic needle, which they kept floating in a small vase of water, and which was supported by two tubes to prevent its falling to the bottom.
For a detailed account of the work of this well-known scientist consult: “Biographie Générale” Vol. XLII. pp. 147–149; Fabroni, “Vitæ Italorum,” Vol. II; Jean Baptiste Delambre, “Hist. de l’Astron. Mod.,” 1821; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 11; Venanson, “Boussole,” pp. 70–71; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 54; Becquerel, “Résumé,” p. 59; Alex. Chalmers, “Gen. Biog. Dict.,” 1811, Vol. XXVI. pp. 182–183; Fischer, “Geschichte der Physik,” Vol. I; Tiraboschi, “Storia della letter. Ital.,” Vol. VIII; “English Cyclopædia,” Vol. V. pp. 76–77. Riccioli’s “Almagestum Novum,” Bologna, 1651, in two volumes, gives in book nine of the second volume the sentence of Galileo. This is the work which an old savant called “the pandects of astronomical knowledge” (Morhof Polyhistor, Vol. II. p. 347).
=A.D. 1271–1295.=--Polo (Marco), Paulum Venetum, is reported by many to have brought the compass from China to Italy. This is, however, supported by no evidence, nor is any allusion whatever made to the fact in the account he rendered of his voyage. Before Marco Polo set out on his travels, as Humboldt states, the Catalans had already made voyages “along the northern islands of Scotland as well as along the western shores of tropical Africa, while the Basques had ventured forth in search of the whale, and the Northmen had made their way to the Azores (the Bracir islands of Picignano).”
Polo relates that he set out from Acre in 1271, and returned to Venice “in the year 1295 of Christ’s Incarnation.” His “Travels” (“Il Milione di Messer Marco Polo”) according to the review of Col. Henry Yule, consists of a prologue and four books. It was dictated by him to a fellow prisoner, Rusticiano or Rusticello, of Pisa, and “it would appear now to be definitely settled that the original was ... of just such French as we might expect in the thirteenth century from a Tuscan amanuensis following the oral dictation of an Orientalized Venetian.”
Polo’s journeyings extended “so far to the north that he leaves the North Star behind him, and thence so far to the south that the North Star is never seen.”
REFERENCES.--Becquerel, “Elec. et Magn.,” Vol. I. p. 70; Sonnini, in Buffon, “Minéraux,” Vol. VI. p. 84; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. pp. 625, 656, or 1860, pp. 250–251; “The Book of Ser Marco Polo,” by Sir Henry Yule, New York, 1903, which contains a very extensive bibliography at end of the second volume; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. II. pp. 26, 140, etc.; D. A. Azuni, “Dissertation sur la Boussole,” p. 69; Miller, “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” 1849, Vol. I. pp. 179–180; “Encycl. Brit.,” ninth ed., Vol. XIX. p. 407; “Journal des Savants” for September 1818, also May 1823, and the five articles published January to May 1867; see also “Centennaire de Marco Polo,” par. H. Cordier, Paris, 1896, containing “bibliographie très complète de toutes les éditions de Marco Polo et des ouvrages qui lui sont consacrés.”
=A.D. 1282.=--Baïlak, native of Kibdjak, wrote this year, in Arabic, his book on “Stones,” wherein he says that he saw during his voyage from Tripoli to Alexandria, in 1242, the captains of the Syrian sea construct a compass in the following manner: “When the night is so dark as to conceal from view the stars which might direct their course according to the position of the four cardinal points, they take a basin full of water, which they shelter from wind by placing it in the interior of the vessel; they then drive a needle into a wooden peg or a corn-stalk, so as to form the shape of a cross, and throw it into the basin of water prepared for the purpose, on the surface of which it floats. They afterwards take a loadstone of sufficient size to fill the palm of the hand, or even smaller; bring it to the surface of the water, give to their hands a rotatory motion towards the right so that the needle turns on the water’s surface; they then suddenly and quickly withdraw their hands, when the two points of the needle face north and south. I have seen them, with my own eyes, do that during my voyage at sea from Tripolis to Alexandria.”
REFERENCES.--E. Salverte, “Phil. of Magic,” New York, 1847, Vol. II. pp. 221–222, note; “American Journal of Science and Arts,” Vol. XL. p. 247; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. xii; Klaproth, “Lettre à M. de Humboldt,” pp. 59, 60, 67; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. pp. 1371 and 1397; “Electro-Magn. Phenom.,” by T. A. Lyons, New York, 1901, Vol. II. p. 564.
=A.D. 1302.=--Gioia--Goia (Flavio or Joannes), an Italian pilot reported born at Positano, near Amalfi, is said by Flamnius Venanson (“De l’invention de la boussole nautique,” Naples, 1808, pp. 138 and 168) to be the real inventor of the mariner’s compass. This view is supported by Briet (Philippe), “Annales Mundi,” Vol. VI: Géog. et Hydrog., lib. x. cap. 8; by Voltaire (“Essai sur les Mœurs,” 1819, Vol. III. chap. cxli.), and by many others, but Klaproth (“Lettre ...” 1834, pp. 132–136) quotes Anthony of Bologna, called the Panormitan, as saying that Gioia lived in the fourteenth century and wrote both “_Prima dedit nautis usum magnetis Amalphis_” and “_Inventrix præclara fuit magnetis Amalphis_.” He adds that a statement to the same effect was made by Arrigi Brechmann in his “Historia Pandectarum Amalphitorum,” Dissertatio I, No. 22, Neapoli, 1735, p. 925, but that both are equally incorrect, for Gioja could not have invented an instrument which had already been in use more than a hundred years before his time.[19]
In his “Essay on Several Important Subjects,” London, 1676, Joseph Glanvill remarks (p. 33): “I think there is more acknowledgment due to the name of this obscure fellow, that hath scarce any left, than to a thousand Alexanders and Cæsars or to ten times the number of Aristotles and Aquinas’. And he really did more for the increase of knowledge and advantage of the world, by this one experiment, than the numerous _subtile disputers_ that have lived ever since the creation of the School of Wrangling.”
In the “Navigator’s Supply,” published 1597, William Barlowe speaks of “the lame tale of one Flavius at Amelphus in the Kingdome of Naples; for to have devised it (the compass) is of very slender probabilitie.”
M. D. A. Azuni says (“Boussole,” 1809, p. 144) that Gioja may have possibly invented the method of suspending the magnetic needle upon a perpendicular pivot so that it would remain horizontal whatever the movements of the vessel. This is very likely; at any rate, it must be admitted that this particular mode of support permits a freer movement to the needle in any direction and admits of more exact observations than when the needle is floating upon the water.
At pp. 487–505, Vol. II of his “Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques,” Guillaume Libri transcribes all he is able to from the almost illegible Peter Peregrinus’ manuscript, No. 7378A, in the Paris Bibliothèque, and refers to the imperfect mode of suspending the magnetic needle therein shown. It is, says he, similar to that spoken of by Francesco da Buti (Libri, Vol. II. pp. 67–68; Bertelli, “Pietro Peregrino,” pp. 63–66), who makes first mention of the compass in the Dante commentary (“Comment, sopra la Divina Commedia”) to be found in the collection of manuscripts No. 29, held by the Magliabechiana Library of Florence. He adds that the suspension of the needle is likewise alluded to by Guerino detto il Meschino, in a work first composed prior to the “Divina Commedia” (an Italian romance, attributed to one Andrew the Florentine) as _imbellico_, or _in bellico_, _in bilico_, meaning in suspense, throughout the editions of Padua, 1473, Bologna, 1475, Milan, 1482 and Venice, 1480, 1498. Mention is also made by Libri of the writings of Adélard de Bath on the compass, at p. 62 of his second volume.
REFERENCES.--Camillus Leonardus, “Speculum Lapidum”; the notes at p. 180, Vol. I. of Dr. Geo. Miller’s “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 179, note; Venanson, “Boussole,” pp. 158, 160; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1398; Collenutius--Collenuccio--“Compendio ... regno di Napoli,” Venice, 1591; “Discussione della leggenda di Flavio Gioia, inventore della bussola” (T. Bertelli, in “Rivista di Fisica Mat. e Sc. Nat.,” Pavia, 1901, II. pp. 529–541); Matteo Camara, “Memorie ... di Amalfi,” Salerno, 1876; “Literary Digest,” July 6, 1901, translated from “Le Cosmos,” Paris, June 8, 1901; Giraldi, “Libellus de Re Nautica,” Bâle, 1540; Admiral Luigi Fincati, “Il Magnete, la calamita e la bussola,” Rome, 1878; “Annales de Géographie,” Vol. XI. No. 59, pp. 7–8 for September 15, 1902, and G. Grimaldi in the “Mem. d. Accad. Etrus. di Cortona”; Paulus Jovius, “Historiarum,” Florence, 1552; Pietro Napoli Signorelli, “Sull’invenzione della bussola nautica ...”; M. A. Blondus, “De Ventis,” Venice, 1546; Cælius Calcagninus, “Thesaurus Græcarum Antiquitatum,” 1697, Vol. XI. p. 761; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 149; “Riv. G. Ital.,” X. 1903, pp. 1, 11, 105–122, 314–334.
For Briet (Philippe), _b._ 1601, _d._ 1668, see Michaud, “Biog. Univ.,” Paris, 1843, Vol. V. p. 527. The best, most complete edition of Briet’s “Annales Mundi” is the Venice, 1693.
=A.D. 1327–1377.=--It has been claimed by F. M. Arouet de Voltaire, who asserts it at Vol. III. pp. 251–252 of his “Essai sur les Mœurs et l’Esprit des Nations,” Paris, 1809, “that the first well-authenticated use of the compass” was made by the English during this period, which is that of the reign of King Edward III.
By Voltaire, the extraordinary (_prodigieuse_) antiquity of the Chinese is not questioned. They knew of the compass, but he says “it was not employed by them for its proper use, that of guiding vessels at sea. They travelled only along the shores. Possessed, as they were, of a country that furnished everything, they did not feel the need of going, as we do, to the other end of the world” (Vol. I. pp. 239, 247). Speaking of the Portuguese (Vol. III. p. 257) he says: “It was not before known if the magnetic needle would point to the south on approaching the South Pole; it was found to point constantly to the north during the year 1486.”
From the time of Edward III, the compass was known in England by the names of _adamant_, _sailing needle_ and _sail-stone dial_, as has been shown in the writings of Chaucer and others, the most important of which will be duly quoted in their order. The compass was alluded to, more particularly, by John Gower, “Confessio Amantis,”[20] Books I and VI; by Richard Hakluyt, “Voyages,” Vol. I. pp. 213, 215; and by Edward Fairfax, “Godefroy de Boulogne,” Book XV. s. 18.
It may be well to record here that Voltaire was “confessedly the foremost name, the acknowledged head of European literature of his time.” Goethe calls him “the greatest literary man of all time, the most astonishing creation of the Author of Nature” (“Nouvelle Biographie,” Vol. XLV. i. p. 445). Though not the first French author who wrote on the wonderful discoveries of Newton, he was the first to make them extensively known on the Continent.
REFERENCES.--Sir Harris Nicolas, “Hist. Roy. Navy,” 1847, Vol. II. p. 180; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 57, note; Whewell, “Hist. of the Ind. Sc.,” 1859, Vol. I. p. 431; “Crit. and Misc. Essays,” by Thomas Carlyle, Boston, 1860, pp. 5–78. “La France Littéraire,” par Joseph M. Quérard, Vol. X. Paris, 1839, pp. 276–457, devotes as many as 182 pages to bibliographical notices of Voltaire and names 1131 publications written by or relating to him, whilst in Quérard’s “Bibliographie Voltairienne” will be found a still more extended account at pp. i-xxxvi and at pp. 1–84.
THE MARINER’S COMPASS
Regarding the mariner’s compass, it can scarcely be doubted, from what precedes, that it came to the knowledge of Europeans in the manner indicated under the A.D. 1190 date.
Baïlik of Kibdjak--Baüak Kibdjaki--spoke of its use as generally well known by the Syrian navigators, who constructed it in exactly the same way as did the Chinese (A.D. 1111–1117 and A.D. 1282), and which resembled the compass seen by Brunetto Latini in the possession of Friar Bacon while in England prior to the year 1260 (Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1397).
Edrisi (Idrisi or Aldrisi), the most eminent of the Arabian geographers, is said by Boucher to have given a confirmed account of the polarity of the magnet, the early knowledge of which by the Arabs has been shown conclusively by Jacob de Vitry, Vincent de Beauvais and Albertus Magnus.
Signor P. T. Bertelli, who has been mentioned under the A.D. 1190 date, could not find any reference, however remote, to the directive property of the loadstone throughout a careful examination of Latin and Greek works dating from the sixth century B.C. to the tenth century A.D. He admits that the directive property was known to the Chinese, who had made rude floating needle compasses before the beginning of the Christian era, although these compasses are likely to have been brought home by the Amalfian sailors, who are, by some writers, represented as having substituted the pivoted needle as well as added the Rose of the Winds.[21] He will not, however, recognize the claims made in favour of Flavio Gioja. On the other hand, A. Botto has shown that the Amalfitans introduced the compass between the tenth and the eleventh centuries (“Contributo agli studi storici sull’origine della bussola nautica,” 1899). Consult likewise Vol. IX of “Annales de Géogr. et de Bibliogr.,” 1899, p. 8.
At p. 195 of the December 1904 issue of “Terrestrial Magnetism” is a short article relative to the claim made that the compass was invented by a Veronese named Salomone Ireneo Pacifico (A.D. 776–846) during the first half of the ninth century. It states that Bertelli considers this due to a misinterpretation of an inscription on Pacifico’s tomb, and it alludes to Bertelli’s previous paper on the subject in “Terrestr. Magn.,” Vol. VIII. No. 4, p. 179 (see also the number of “Terrestr. Magn.” for June 1905, p. 108, and the “Geographical Journal” for March 1905, pp. 334–335).
The earliest recorded use of the compass in a Spanish vessel, according to Capmany (“Memorias Historicas,” 1792), is to be found in the Chronicle of Don Pedro Niño, Conde de Buelna, as follows: “It is reported that Conde’s galleys left the island of La Alharina along the coast of Bombay ... and the pilots compared their needles which had been rubbed with the magnet stone....”
In Dr. Plumptre’s notes on Dante, reference is made to the fact that the European knowledge of the magnetic needle came from Arabia, and, like Humboldt, he quotes in support thereof an allusion from the Spanish “Leyes de las Partidas” belonging to the first half of the thirteenth century. The passage in the last named is spoken of by M. Fern de Navarrete in his “Discurso historico,” etc., 1802 (II. tit. ix. ley 28) and reads thus: “The needle which guides the seaman in the dark night and shows him, both in good and in bad weather, how to direct his course is the mediatrix (_medianera_) between the loadstone (_la piedra_) and the north star....” Humboldt adds: “See the passage in ‘Las siete Partidas del sabio Rey Don Alonso el IX’ [according to the usually adopted chronological order, Alfonso the tenth], Madrid, 1829, Vol. I. p. 473.”[22]
On the other hand, the knowledge of the compass by the Arabs in the thirteenth century has been most decidedly contested by E. Renaudot (“Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine,” Paris, 1717, p. 3); by D. A. Azuni (“Dissertation sur l’origine de la Boussole,” Paris, 1809, pp. 102, 127); by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (“Coll. Voy.,” 1554, Vol. I. p. 379); by A. Collina (“Considerazioni,” etc., Faenza, 1748, p. 121, etc.). Buffon says (“Théorie de la Terre,” Paris, An. VIII. tome i. p. 300): “I know that some pretend the Arabs have invented the compass and have used it long before the French (see ‘Abrégé de l’histoire des Sarrazins,’ de Bergeron, p. 119) ... but that opinion always appeared to me devoid of reason; for there is no word in the Arabian, Turkish or Persian tongue which can be made to signify the compass.... They employ the Italian word _bossola_....”
The same view is entertained by Dr. William Robertson, principal of the University of Edinburgh, who, after announcing in his “History of the Reign of Charles V,” London, 1769, Vol. I. p. 78, that the mariner’s compass was invented soon after the close of the Holy War, gives at pp. 333–335 of his “Historical Disquisition,” London, 1812, a translation of the above passage taken from an early edition of that illustrious French naturalist George Louis Le Clerc, Comte de Buffon. Robertson adds: “This shows that the knowledge of this useful instrument was communicated to them (the Arabs) by the Europeans. There is not one single observation of ancient date made by the Arabians on the variation of the needle, or any instruction deduced from it for the assistance of navigators.... When Mr. Niehbuhr was at Cairo, he found a magnetic needle in the possession of a Mohammedan which served to point out the _Kaaba_, and gave it the name of _el magnetis_, a clear proof of its European origin.”
The claims of France to the discovery of the compass have been laid by some to the fact that the north point of the early instruments was generally drawn in the form of a _fleur de lys_, but Voltaire says (“Essai,” etc., Vol. III. p. 251), that the Italians drew this in honour of the sovereigns of Naples, a branch of the French royal family. The able writer in the English Cyclopædia (“Arts and Sciences,” Vol. III. p. 102) considers the design to be only “an _ornamented cross_ which originated in devotion to the mere symbol; though, as the compass undoubtedly came, he says, into Europe from the Arabs, the _fleur de lys_ might possibly be a modification of the _mouasala_, or dart, the name by which the Arabs called the needle” (“Phil. Mag.,” Vol. XVIII. p. 88).
REFERENCES.--Hallam, “Middle Ages,” Vol. III. chap. ix. part ii.; Klaproth, “La Boussole,” pp. 53, 54 and 64–66; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 12; “Silliman’s Journal,” XL. 242–250; “Nautical Magazine,” April 1903; “Ciel et Terre,” Juin 1, 1904, pp. 156–158; “Histoire de la Boussole,” par P. D. M. Boddært; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. I. pp. 136–137, 382, etc.; Article “Bussola” in “Nuova Encycl. Italiana,” by Bocardo, Vol. IV. Torino, 1877, p. 377, poesia di Ugo di Sercy (Bercy) e di Giovanni di Mehun; “Harper’s Magazine,” New York, for February, 1904; V. Molinier, “Notice ... boussole au xiii^e siècle,” Toulouse, 1850; G. Grimaldi, “Dissert. ... della bussola,” Roma, 1741; McCulloch, “Traités ... boussole,” Paris, 1853; Magliozzi, “Notizie ... bussola,” Napoli, 1849; Dr. Geo. Miller, “Hist. Phil. Illust.,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 180, note. For Edrisi, see “Journ. des Savants,” issued in April and August 1843, and in December 1846.
=A.D. 1391.=--Chaucer (Geoffrey), the father of English poetry, thus expresses himself in “The Conclusions of the Astrolabie” (“English Poets,” London, 1810, Vol. I): “I haue giuen thee a sufficient astrolabye for oure orizont compowned after the latitude of Oxenforde.... Now hast thou here, the fower quarters of thin astrolabie, deuided after the fower principall plages or quarters of the firmament.... Now is thin Orisonte departed in XXIIII partiez by thi azymutz, in significacion of XXIIII partiez of the world; al be it, so that ship men rikne thilke partiez in XXXII.”
“Now maugre Juno, Aneas For all her sleight and her compas Atcheiued all his auenture.”
“House of Fame,” B. I.
“The stone was hard of adamaunt, Whereof they made the foundemaunt, The tour was round made in compas, In all this world no richer was.”
“Rom. of the Rose.”
“Right as betwene adamants two Of euen weight, a pece of yron set, Ne hath no might to moue to ne fro For what that one may hale, that other let.”
“Assem. of Foules.”
REFERENCES.--“English Poets,” London, 1810, Vol. I. p. 453; Ch. Wells Moulton, “Library of Literary Criticism,” Vol. I. pp. 77–81.
=A.D. 1436.=--Bianco--Biancho--(Andrea), was an Italian cartographer living at Venice early in the fifteenth century, who published, in 1436, an atlas exhibiting charts of the magnetic variation. The knowledge of the latter, which is so indispensable to the correction of a ship’s reckoning, was then ascertained less by the sun’s rising and setting than by the polar star.
One of Bianco’s charts, now in the Biblioteca Marciana, Venice, shows two islands at the West of the Azores, leading many to believe that he possessed some knowledge of the existence of North and South America.
In Justin Winsor’s description of Dr. John G. Kohl’s collection of early maps (“Harvard Univ. Bulletin,” Vol. III. pp. 175–176), it is said that the original of Andrea Bianco’s Map of the World A.D. 1436, now at Venice, was reproduced by Joachim Lelewell (“Géographie du Moyen Age,” Pl. XXXII), and also in M. F. de Barros de Santarem’s “Essai sur l’histoire de la cosmographie et de la cartographie” (Pls. XXIII, XLIII).[23] Reference is also made thereto in Winsor’s “Bibliography of Ptolemy’s Geography,” sub anno 1478. Mr. Winsor adds: “Bianco’s views are of interest in early American cartography from the deductions which some have drawn from the configuration of the islands ‘Antillia’ and ‘De la man Satanaxio’--(two islands on its western verge)--that they represent Pre-Columbian discovery of South and North America.” Humboldt (“Crit. Untersuchungen,” I. 413, 416) has discussed the question, and pointed out that one island, “Antillia,” had earlier appeared on a map of 1425, and D’Avezac finds even earlier references to the same island.
To Andrea Bianco may be ascribed the best of all known forms of wind-roses. Admiral L. Fincati illustrates, in his well-known pamphlet “Il Magnete, la Calamita e la Bussola,” Rome, 1878, all the best-known examples from 1426 to 1612, those of Bianco having upon them either the _fleur de lys_ (referred to at A.D. 1327–1377) or the letter =T=[symbol], or designs of a triangle or trident, to indicate the north, whilst the east is designated by a cross, in same manner as shown in the 1426 Giraldi and the Oliva 1612–1613.[24]
For other forms and accounts of these rose-of-the-winds or compass cards, it would be well to consult more particularly Nordenskiöld, Nils Adolf Erik (1832–1901), “Periplus” (1897), as well as his “Facsimile Atlas” published eight years previously; Pedro de Medina, “Arte de Navegar”; Francesco Da Buti, “Comment, sopra la Div. Com.”; Simon Stevin’s “Haven-finding Art”; Athan. Kircher, “Magnes, sive de Arte Magnetica”; and Guillaume de Nautonniez, “Mécométrie de l’Eymant ... déclinaison guideymant pour tous les lieux ...” published 1602–1604.[25]
REFERENCES.--“Biog. Gen.,” Vol. V. pp. 922–923, Mazzuchelli, “Scrittori d’ Italia”; “New Int. Encycl.,” New York, 1902–1903, Vol. II. p. 796; Larousse, “Dict. Univ.,” Vol. II. p. 672; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1859, Vol. V. p. 55; Johnson’s “New Univ. Cycl.,” 1878, Vol. III. p. 230; “Der Atlas des Andrea Bianco vom Jahre 1436 of Oscar Peschel,” Venedig, 1869; Justin Winsor, “Narrative and Critical Hist. of America,” Boston, 1889, Vol. I. pp. 50–56, 114, 117; “Formaleoni, saggio sulla nautica antica de Veneziani,” Venez., 1783, pp. 51–59 (Libri, “Hist. des. Math.,” Vol. III).
=A.D. 1490–1541.=--Paracelsus (Aureolus Theophrastus)--the assumed name of Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombast von Hohenheim--a native of Switzerland, admitted by unprejudiced writers to have been one of the greatest chemists of his time (Hemmann, “Medico--Sur. Essays,” Berlin, 1778). The author of “Isis Unveiled” states that he made use of electro-magnetism three centuries before Prof. Oersted’s discovery, and that he rediscovered the occult properties of the magnet, “the bone of Horus,” which, twelve centuries before his time, had played such an important part in the theurgic mysteries, thus very naturally becoming the founder of the school of magnetism and of mediæval magico-theury. But Mesmer, who lived nearly three hundred years after him, and as a disciple of his school brought the magnetic wonders before the public, reaped the glory that was due to the fire-philosopher, while the great master died in want (“Isis Unveiled,” Vol. I. pp. 71, 72, 164).
Madame Blavatsky further adds (Vol. I. p. 167) that the full views of Paracelsus on the occult properties of the magnet are explained
## partially in his famous book “Archidoxorum,” wherein he describes the
wonderful tincture, a medicine extracted from the magnet, and called “Magisterium Magnetis,” and partially in the “De Ente Dei” and “De Ente Astrorum,” lib. i.
[Illustration: Christopher Columbus. Photographic reproduction of his letter, March 21st, 1502, to Nicolo Oderigo, Ambassador to France and to Spain, which was acquired by the King of Sardinia and presented by him to the City of Genoa.
It is now preserved in the Palace of the Genoese Municipality.]
[Illustration:
_Señor,--La soledad en que nos habeys desado non se puede dezir. El libro de mys escrituras, di amiçer Françisco de Ribarol, para que os le enbie, con otro traslado de cartas mesajeras. Del recabdo y el lugar que porneys en ello, os pido por merçed que lo escrivays aDon Diego. Otro tal se acabara, y se os enbiara por la mesma guisa, y el mesmo miçer Françisco: en ello fallereys escritura nueba. Sus Altezas me prometieron de me dar todo lo que me pertençe y de poner [en] posesion de todo aDon Diego como veyreys. Al Señor mi[çe]r Juan Luys y ala Señora madona Catalina escrivo. La carta va con esta. Yo estoy de partida en nonbre de la Santa Trinidad con el primer buen tienpo, con mucho atabio. Si Geronimo de Santi Esteban viene debeme esperar y no se enb[ali]jar con nada por que tomar[a]n del lo que pudieren y despues le desaran en blanco. Venga aca y el Rey y la Reyna le recibiran fasta que yo venga. Nuestro Señor os aya en su santa guardia. Fecha a xxi de março en Sebilla 1502._
_Alo que mandardes,_
·_S_·
·_S· A ·S_·
_X M Y_
_X[-p]o FERENS._
Sir,--The loneliness in which you have left us cannot be told. I have given the book of my writings to Messer Francesco di Rivarola, in order that he may send it to you, with another transcript of letters missive. Respecting the receipt thereof, and the place in which you will put it, I beg you to be so good as to write to Don Diego. Another similar one shall be finished and sent to you in the same manner, and by the same Messer Francesco; you will find a new writing in it. Their Highnesses made me a promise to give me all that belongs to me, and to put Don Diego into possession of everything, as you will see. I am writing to Messer Gian Luigi and to the Signora my Lady Caterina; the letter is going with this one. I am on the point of setting out, in the name of the Holy Trinity, with the first fine weather, with a great equipment. If Girolamo da Santo-Stefano comes, he must wait for me, and not burden himself with anything, because they will take from him whatever they can, and will then leave him bare. Let him come hither, and the King and Queen will receive him until I arrive. May Our Lord have you in his holy keeping. Done on the 21st of March, in Seville, 1502.
At your command
·S·
·S· A ·S·
X M Y
Xp̄o FERENS.]
Christopher Columbus. Translation of the letter written by him to Nicolo Oderigo, shown opposite; made into English by Mr. G. A. Barwick, B.A., of the British Museum. Permission to reproduce both original letter and its translation was given by Messrs. B. F. Stevens & Brown, London.]
In the words of Paracelsus, we give the following extracts concerning the loadstone, taken from “The Hermetic and Alchemical Writings ...” by A. E. Waite, London, 1894:
_Vol. I. p. 17._--“The adamant. A black crystal called ... Evax ... is dissolved in the blood of a goat.”
“The magnet. Is an iron stone, and so attracts iron to itself. Fortified by experience.... I affirm that the magnet ... not only attracts steel and iron, but also has the same power over the matter of all diseases in the whole body of man.”
_Vol. I. pp. 132_ and _145_.--“A magnet touched by mercury or anointed with mercurial oil, never afterwards attracts iron ... same if steeped in garlic....”
_Vol. I. p. 136._--“The life of the magnet is the spirit of iron which can be taken away by rectified _vinum ardens_ itself or by spirit of wine.”
_Vol. II. p. 59._--“Wherever the magnet has grown--there, a certain attractive power exists, just as colocynth is purgative and the poppy is anodyne....”
Mr. A. E. Waite says (Vol. II. p. 3) that the ten books of Paracelsus’ _Archidoxies_ stand in the same relation to Hermetic Medicine as the nine books _Concerning the Nature of Things_ stand to Hermetic Chemistry and to the science of metallic transmutation.
REFERENCES.--Biography of Paracelsus, in Larousse, “Dict Univ.,” Vol. XII. pp. 171–172, in F. Hartmann, 1887, and in the ninth ed. of the “Encycl. Brit.,” Vol. XVIII. pp. 234–236; Van Swinden, “Recueil,” etc., La Haye, 1784, Vol. I. pp. 356–358; Gilbert, “De Magnete,” Book I. chaps. i. and xiv., also Book II. chap. xxv.; “Journal des Savants” for November 1849; Walton and Cotton, “Complete Angler,” New York and London, 1847, pp. 212–213, for notes regarding Paracelsus, Robert Fludd, Jacob Behmen and the Rosicrucians; “Dictionnaire Historique de la Médecine,” N. F. Eloy, Mons, 1778, Vol. III. pp. 461–471; “History and Heroes of the Art of Medicine,” J. Rutherfurd Russell, London, 1861, pp. 157–175; “Histoire Philosophique de la Médecine,” Etienne Tourtelle, Paris, An. XII. (1804) Vol. II. pp. 326–346; “History of Magic,” Joseph Ennemoser, London, 1854, Vol. II. pp. 229–241.
At p. 55 of the first supplement to “Select. Bibliog. of Chemistry,” by H. C. Bolton, Washington, 1899, mention is made of the Paracelsus Library belonging to the late E. Schuberth of Frankfort-on-the-Main ... as containing 194 titles of works on Paracelsus and 548 titles of works relating to Paracelsus and his doctrines; the section on Alchemy embracing as many as 351 titles.
=A.D. 1492.=--Columbus, Colombo, Colon (Christopher), the discoverer of America., is the first to determine astronomically the position of a _line of no magnetic variation_ (on which the needle points to the true north) the merit of which discovery has, by Livio Sanuto, been erroneously attributed to Sebastian Cabot. (Livio Sanuto, “Geographia distincta in XII libri ...” wherein the whole of Book I is given to reported observations of the compass and to accounts of different navigators.)
Columbus did not, as many imagine, make the first observations of the existence of magnetic variation, for this is set down upon the charts of Andrea Bianco, but he was the first who remarked, on the 13th of September, 1492, that “2½ degrees east of the island of Corvo, in the Azores, the magnetic variation changed and passed from N.E. to N.W.” Washington Irving thus describes the discovery (“History ... Ch. Columbus,” Paris, 1829, Vol. I. p. 198): “On the 13th of September, in the evening, being about two hundred leagues from the island of Ferro (the smallest of the Canaries), Columbus, for the first time, noticed the variation of the needle, a phenomenon which had never before been remarked. He perceived, about nightfall, that the needle, instead of pointing to the North Star, varied about half a point, or between five and six degrees to the north-west, and still more on the following morning. Struck with this circumstance, he observed it attentively for three days and found that the variation increased as he advanced. He at first made no mention of this phenomenon, knowing how ready his people were to take alarm; but it soon attracted the attention of the pilots, and filled them with consternation. It seemed as if the laws of nature were changing as they advanced, and that they were entering into another world, subject to unknown influences (Las Casas, ‘Hist. Ind.,’ l. i. c. 6). They apprehended that the compass was about to lose its mysterious virtues; and, without that guide, what was to become of them in a vast and trackless ocean? Columbus tasked his science and ingenuity for reasons with which to allay their terrors. He told them that the direction of the needle was not to the polar star but to some fixed and invisible point. The variation, therefore, was not caused by any fallacy in the compass, but by the movement of the North Star itself, which, like the other heavenly bodies, had its changes and revolutions, and every day described a circle around the pole. The high opinion that the pilots entertained of Columbus as a profound astronomer gave weight to his theory, and their alarm subsided.”
Humboldt says: “We can, with much certainty, fix upon three places in the _Atlantic line of no declination_ for the 13th of September, 1492, the 21st of May, 1496 and the 16th of August, 1498.”
REFERENCES.--“Columbus and his Discoveries,” in the “Narrative and Critical History of America,” by Justin Winsor, Boston, 1889, Vol. II. pp. 1–92; “Christopher Columbus, His life, work ...” by John Boyd Thacher, 1903; Giov. Bat. Ramusio, “Terzo volume delle Navigationi e Viaggi ...” 1556; Dr. Geo. Miller, “History Phil. Illust.,” London, 1849, Vol. II. pp. 216–219; David Hume, “History of England,” London, 1822, Vol. III. pp. 387–398; Guillaume Libri, “Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques en Italie,” Halle, 1865, Vol. III. pp. 68–85; “Columbus, a Critical Study,” by Henry Vignaud, London, 1903; Weld, “Hist. Royal Society,” Vol. II. p. 429; Thos. Browne, “Pseudodox. Epid.,” 1658, Book II. pp. 68–69; Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. I. p. 174; Vol. II. pp. 636, 654–657, 671–672, and Vol. V. (1859) pp. 55–56, 116; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II., pp. 1374, 1397; Poggendorff, “Geschichte der Physik,” Leipzig, 1879, p. 270; “Raccolta di documenti e studi publicati della R. Com. Columb. pel 40 Centenario alla scoperta dell’America,” Roma, 1892; Humboldt, “Examen Critique ... progrès de l’astronomie nautique,” Paris, 1836, Vol. I. pp. 262–272, etc.
It may be worth noting here that the ashes of Columbus, removed from the Cathedral of Havana, were placed in a mausoleum at Seville, November 17, 1902 (“Science,” Dec. 12, 1902, p. 958).
Amongst the numerous claimants to the discovery of America, some have placed the great navigator Martin Behaim--Behem--(1430–1506), who received his instruction from the learned John Müller (Regiomontanus) and became one of the most learned geographers as well as the very best chart maker of his age. Cellarius, Riccioli and other writers assert that Behaim had, before Columbus, visited the American Continent, while Stuvenius shows, in his treatise “De vero novi orbis inventore,” that the islands of America and the strait of Magalhæns were accurately traced upon the very celebrated globe called the “World Apple” completed by Behaim in the year 1492, and which is still to be seen in Behaim’s native city of Nürnberg.[26] (See Mr. Otto’s letter to Dr. Franklin, in the second volume of the “Transactions of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge,” likewise Humboldt, “Examen critique de l’histoire de la Géographie,” Vol. II. pp. 357–369; “The Reliquary,” London, Vol. VI. N.S. Jan.-Oct. 1892, pp. 215–229; Justin Winsor, “Narrative and Critical History of America,” Boston 1889, Vol. II. pp. 104–105; “Geogr. Jour.,” Vol. V. March 1895, p. 228.)
It was this same Martin Behaim (Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1860, Vol. II. p. 255) who received a charge from King John II of Portugal to compute tables for the sun’s declination and to teach pilots how to “navigate by the altitudes of the sun and stars.” It cannot now be decided whether at the close of the fifteenth century the use of the log was known as a means of estimating the distance traversed while the direction is indicated by the compass; but it is certain that the distinguished voyager Francisco Antonio Pigafetta (1491–1534) the friend and companion of Magellan--Magalhæns--speaks of the log (_la catena a poppa_) as of a well-known means of measuring the course passed over. Nothing is to be found regarding way-measurers in the literature of the Middle Ages until we come to the period of several “books of nautical instruction,” written or printed by this same Pigafetta (“Trattato di Navigazione,” probably before 1530); by Francisco Falero, a brother of Ruy Falero, the astronomer (“Regimiento para observar la longitud en la mar,” 1535); by Pedro da Medina, of Seville (“Arte de Navegar,” 1545); by Martin Cortez, of Bujalaroz (“Breve Compendio de la esfera, y de la arte de navegar,” 1551), and by Andres Garcia de Cespedes (“Regimiento de Navigacion y Hidrografia,” 1606). From almost all these works--some of which, if not all, have naturally become very scarce--as well as from the “Summa de Geografia” which Martin Fernandez de Enciso had published in 1519, we learn most distinctly that the “distance sailed over” was then ascertained in Spanish and Portuguese ships not by any distinct measurement, but only through estimation of the eye, according to certain established principles. Medina says (lib. iii. caps. 11–12): “In order to know the course of the ship, as to the length of distance passed over, the pilot must set down in his register how much distance the vessel hath made according to hours (_i. e._ guided by the hour-glass, _ampoleta_); and, for this, he must know that the most a ship advances in an hour is four miles, and, with feebler breezes, three or only two.” Cespedes, in his “Regimiento” (pp. 99 and 156) calls this mode of proceeding _echar punto por fantasia_, and he justly remarks that if great errors are to be avoided, this _fantasia_ must depend on the pilot’s knowledge of the qualities of his ship. Columbus, Juan de la Cosa, Sebastian Cabot and Vasco da Gama, were not acquainted with the log and its mode of application, and they all estimated the ship’s speed merely by the eye, while they ascertained the distance they had made merely through the running down of the sand in the glasses known as _ampoletas_.
REFERENCES.--For F. A. Pigafetta, for Petro de Medina and for Martin Cortez, Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Génér.,” Vol. I. pt. ii. pp. 1221–1223; “New Gen. Biog. Dict.,” Jas. Rose, London, 1850, Vol. XI. p. 113; “Biog. Univ.” (Michaud), Vol. XXXIII. p. 297; “Grand Dict. Univ.” (Larousse), Vol. XII. p. 999; “Nouv Biog. Gen.” (Hœfer), Vol. XL. p. 207. Also Dr. G. Hellmann’s “Neudrucke,” 1898, No. 10, for reproduction of Francisco Falero’s “Tratato del Esphera y del arte del marear” (Del Nordestear de las Agujas), 1535, as well as for reproduction of Martin Cortez’ “Breve Compendio” (De la piedra Yman), 1551.
=A.D. 1497.=--Gama (Vasco or Vasquez da), celebrated Portuguese navigator, is known positively to have made use of the compass during the voyage he undertook this year to the Indies. He says that he found the pilots of the Indian Ocean making ready use of the magnet. The first book of the history of Portugal by Jerome Osorius--wherein he gives (pp. 23–24, Book I. paragraph 15, 1581 ed.) a very extended “description de l’aiguille marine, invention des plus belles et utiles du monde”--states that, instead of a needle, they used a small magnetized iron plate, which was suspended like the needle of the Europeans, but which showed imperfectly the north.
Gilbert says (“De Magnete,” Book IV. chap. xiii.) that, as the Portuguese did not rightly understand the construction and use of the compass, some of their observations are untrustworthy and that in consequence various opinions exist relative to magnetic variation. For example, the Portuguese navigator Roderigues de Lazos--Lagos--takes it to be one-half point off the Island of St. Helena; the Dutch, in their nautical journal, make it one point there; Kendall, an expert English navigator, makes it only one-sixth of a point, using a true meridional compass. Diego Alfonso finds no variation at a point a little south-east of Cape das Agulhas,[27] and, by the astrolabe, shows that the compass points due north and south at Cape das Agulhas if it be of the Portuguese style, in which the variation is one-half point to the south-east.
REFERENCES.--Azuni, “Boussole,” p. 121; Klaproth, “Boussole,” p. 64; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1398; Larousse, “Dict.,” Vol. VIII. p. 977; “Voyageurs anciens et modernes” (Charton), 1855; “Le Comte Amiral D. Vasco da Gama,” par D. Maria T. da Gama, Paris, 1902.
=A.D. 1497.=--Cabot (Sebastian), a prominent English navigator, lands, June 24, 1497, on the coast of Labrador, between 56 degrees and 58 degrees north latitude.
At p. 150 of the 1869 London edition of Mr. J. F. Nicholl’s “Life of Seb. Cabot” it is said the latter represented to the King of England that the variation of the compass was different in many places, and was not absolutely regulated by distance from any particular meridian; that he could point to a spot of no variation, and that those whom he had trained as seamen, as Richard Chancellor and Stephen Burrough, were
## particularly attentive to this problem, noting it at one time thrice
within a short space.
REFERENCES.--Richard Hakluyt, “The Principal navigations, voyages, traffiques and discoveries of the English nation,” 1599: at pp. 237–243, for the voyage of Richard Chancelor, pilote maior, and, at p. 274, for “the voyage of Steuen Burrough, master of the pinnesse called the Serchtrift”; Livio Sanuto, “Geografia,” Venice, 1588, lib. i.; Fournier, “Hydrographie,” lib. xi.; “Library of Am. Biog.,” by Jared Sparks, Boston, 1839, Vols. II and VII as per Index at pp. 318–319; “Jean et Seb. Cabot,” par Hy. Harisse, Paris, 1882; Geo. P. Winship, “The Cabot Bibliography,” London and New York, 1900; Humboldt, “Examen Critique,” Vol. IV. p. 231, and “Cosmos,” Vol. II. (1860) pp. 640, 657–658; Biddle, “Memoir of Seb. Cabot,” 1831, pp. 52–61.
=A.D. 1502.=--Varthema-Vertomannus (Ludovico di) leaves Europe for the Indies, as mentioned at p. 25 of his “Travels,” translated by J. Winter Jones, London, 1863, from the original “Itenerario ... ne la India ...” Milano, 1523. He states that the Arabs who navigated the Red Sea were known to have long since made use of the mariner’s chart and compass, and he tells us, in the introduction and at p. 249, that “the captains carried the compass with the needle after our manner,” and that their chart was “marked with lines perpendicular and across.” When the polar star became invisible, they all asked the captain by what he could then steer them, and “he showed us four or five stars, among which there was one (_B. Hydrus_) which he said was opposite to (_contrario della_) our North Star, and that he sailed by the north because the magnet was adjusted and subjected to our north, _i. e._ because this compass was no doubt of European origin--its index pointing to the north, and being unlike that of the Chinese pointing to the south.”
REFERENCES.--Cavallo, “Magnetism,” London, 1787, Chap. IV; also, “Hakluyt’s Collection of the early voyages, travels and discoveries,” London, 1811, Vol. IV. p. 547, for “The navigation and voyages of Lewes Vertomannus.”
=A.D. 1530–1542.=--Guillen (Felipe), an ingenious apothecary of Seville, and Alonzo de Santa Cruz (who was one of the instructors of mathematics to young Charles V, King of Spain and Emperor of Germany, and the _Cosmografo Mayor_ of the Royal Department of Charts at Seville), construct variation charts and variation compasses by which solar altitudes can be taken.
REFERENCES.--Humboldt, “Cosmos,” 1849, Vol. II. p. 658, and 1859, Vol. V. p. 56; L. A. Bauer, “U. S. Magn. Tables,” 1902, p. 26.
Although based upon very imperfect observations, the magnetic charts thus devised by Alonzo de Santa Cruz antedate by more than one hundred and fifty years the work of Dr. Halley (at A.D. 1683).
=A.D. 1544.=--Hartmann (Georg) a vicar of the church of Saint Sebaldus, at Nuremberg, writes March 4, to the Duke Albrecht of Prussia, a letter which was brought to light by Moser and which reads as follows: “Besides, I find also this in the magnet, that it not only turns from the north and deflects to the east about nine degrees, more or less, as I have reported, but it points downward. This may be proved as follows: I make a needle a finger long, which stands horizontally on a pointed pivot, so that it nowhere inclines toward the earth, but stands horizontal on both sides; but, as soon as I stroke one of the ends (with the loadstone) it matters not which end it be, then the needle no longer stands horizontal, but points downward (_fällt unter sich_) some nine degrees, more or less. The reason why this happens I was not able to indicate to his Royal Majesty.” The above seems to establish the fact that Hartmann first observed the dip of the magnetic needle independently of Robert Norman.
Gilbert refers (“De Magnete,” Book I. chap. i.) to Fortunius Affaitatus--Affaydatus--an Italian physicist who, says he, has some rather silly philosophizing about the attraction of iron and of its turning to the poles, thus alluding to the latter’s small work called “Physicæ (et) ac astronomiæ (astronomicæ) considerationes,” which appeared at Venice in 1549. Nevertheless, it is a question whether Affaitatus was not actually the first to publish the declination of the magnetic needle. (“Biogr. Gén.,” Vol. I. p. 346; Mazzuchelli, “Scrittori d’Italia”; Bertelli, “Mem. sopra P. Peregrino,” p. 115; Adelung, Supplément à Jocher, “Allgem. Gelehrten-Lexicon”; Johann Lamont, “Handbuch des Magnetismus,” Leipzig, 1867, p. 425; J. C. Poggendorff, “Biogr.-Lit. Handwörterbuch,” Leipzig, 1863, Vol. I. p. 15; Michaud, “Biogr. Univ. Anc. et Mod.,” Vol. I. p. 208, Paris, 1843; Brunet, “Manuel,” Paris, 1860; “Biog. Cremonese de Lancetti”; M. le Dr. Hœfer, “Biog. Gen.,” Paris, 1852, Vol. I. p. 346.)
REFERENCES.--Dove, “Repertorium der Physik,” Vol. II, 1838, pp. 129–130; Poggendorff, “Geschichte der Physik,” 1879, p. 273; L. Hulsius, “Descriptio et usus,” Nürnberg, 1597; “Ency. Brit.,” 1883, Vol. XV. p. 221; P. Volpicelli, “Intorno alle prime ... magnete” (Atti dell Acad. Pont. de Nuov. Lincei, XIX. pp. 205, 210).
=A.D. 1555.=--Olaus Magnus, a native of Sweden and Archbishop of Upsala (where he died during 1568) issued in Rome his great work “Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus,” which, for a long time, remained the chief authority on Swedish matters. In this book, Gilbert says (“De Magnete,” lib. i. cap. 1) allusion is made to a certain magnetic island and to mountains in the north possessing such power of attraction that ships have to be constructed with wooden pegs so that as they sail by the magnetic cliffs there be no iron nails to draw out.
To this, reference is made by Thos. Browne (“Pseud. Epidem.,” 1658,
## Book II. p. 78) as follows: “Of rocks magnetical, there are likewise
two relations; for some are delivered to be in the Indies and some in the extremity of the North and about the very pole. The Northern account is commonly ascribed unto Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, who, out of his predecessors--Joannes, Saxo and others--compiled a history of some Northern Nations; but this assertion we have not discovered in that work of his which commonly passeth among us; and should believe his geography herein no more than that in the first line of his book, where he affirmeth that Biarmia (which is not 70 degrees in latitude) hath the pole for its zenith, and equinoctial for the horizon.”
In a Spanish book entitled “The Naval Theatre,” by Don Francisco de Seylas and Louera, we find two causes assigned for the variation of the declination; one is “the several mines of loadstones found in the several parts of the earth ...” the other being that “there is no doubt but large rocks of loadstones may affect the needles when near them ...” (“Philos. History ... Roy. Acad. Sc. at Paris,” London, 1742, Vol. II. pp. 279–280).
REFERENCES.--Claudus Ptolemæus, “Geographia,” lib. vii. cap. 2 (and others named by Bertelli Barnabita at foot of p. 21 of his “Pietro Peregrino de Maricourt,” Roma, 1868, viz. Klaproth, “Lettre sur la Boussole,” Paris, 1834, p. 116; Thos. H. Martin, “Observ. et Théor. des anciens,” Rome, 1865, p. 304; Steinschneider, “Intorno. alla calamita,” Roma, 1868); also Albertus Magnus, Lugduni, 1651; Mr. (Thomas) Blundeville, “His Exercises”; Fracastorio, in the seventh chapter of his “De Sympathia et Antipathia”; F. Maurolycus, “Opuscula,” 1575, p. 122a; Lipenius, “Navigatio Salomonis Ophiritica”; Paulus Merula, “Cosmographia Generalis,” Leyden, 1605; Toussaincte de Bessard, “Dialogue de la Longitude,” Rouen, 1574; U. Aldrovandi, “Musæum Metallicum,” 1648, pp. 554, 563, wherein he alludes to the magnetic mountains spoken of by Sir John Mandeville; Ninth “Encycl. Brit.,” Vol. XVII. p. 752; also the entry at A.D. 1265–1321.
=A.D. 1558.=--Porta (Giambattista della), Italian natural philosopher (1540–1615), carries on a series of experiments with the magnet for the purpose of communicating intelligence at a distance. Of these experiments, he gives a full account in his “Magiæ Naturalis,” the first edition of which is said to have been published at Naples when Porta was but fifteen years of age (“Encycl. Brit.,” article “Optics”). Prof. Stanley Jones says this is the earliest work in which he has found allusions to a magnetic telegraph.
Porta’s observations are so extraordinary--and they attracted so much attention as to justify eighteen separate editions of his work in different languages prior to the year 1600--that extracts must needs here prove interesting. They are taken out of “Natural Magick in XX Bookes by John Baptist Porta, a Neapolitaine ... London 1658,” the seventh book of which treats “Of the wonders of the loadstone.”
_Proem_: “And to a friend that is at a far distance from us and fast shut up in prison, we may relate our minds; which I doubt not may be done by two mariner’s compasses, having the alphabet writ about them ...”
Chap. I (alluding to the loadstone):
“The Greeks do call it _Magnes_ from the place, For that the Magnet’s hand it doth embrace.”
Nicander thinks the stone was so called--and so doth Pliny--from one _Magnes_, a shepherd.
In Chap. XVIII he states that “the situation makes the Vertues of the Stone contrary ... for the stone put above the table will do one thing, and another thing if it be put under the table ... that part that drew above will drive off beneath; and that will draw beneath that drove off above: that is, if you place the stone above and beneath in a perpendicular.”
In Chap. XXV, in allusion to “a long concatenation of iron rings,” he thus quotes Lucretius:
“A stone there is that men admire much That makes rings hang in chains by touch. Sometimes five or six links will be Fast joyn’d together and agree. All this vertue from the Stone ariseth, Such force it hath ...”
Chap. XXVII alludes to the Statue hung by Dinocrates: “... but that is false, that Mahomet’s chest hangs by the roof of the Temple. Petrus Pellegrinus saith, he shewed in another work how that might be done: but that work is not to be found.... But I say it may be done--because I have now done it--to hold it fast by an invisible band, to hang in the air: onely so, that it be bound with a small thread beneath, that it may not rise higher: and then striving to catch hold of the stone above, it will hang in the air, and tremble and wag itself.”
In Chap. XXVIII he says that “Whilst the loadstone is moved under a table of wood, stone or any metal, except iron, the needle in the mariner’s compass will move above, as if there is no body between them. St. Augustine (‘Liber de Civitate Dei’) knew this experiment (likewise alluded to by Camillus Leonardus in his ‘Speculum Lapidum,’ published 1502). But that is much more wonderful that I have heerd: that if one hold a loadstone under a piece of silver, and put a piece of iron above the silver, as he moves his hand underneath that holds the stone, so will the iron move above; and the silver being in the middle, and suffering nothing, running so swiftly up and down, that the stone was pulled from the hand of the man, and took hold of the iron.”
Chap. XXX is headed: “A loadstone on a plate of iron, will not stir iron,” and he again quotes Lucretius:
“Pieces of iron I have seen When onely brass was put between Them and the Loadstone, to recoil: Brass in the middle made this broil.”
In Chap. XXXII he tells us that an Italian “whose name was Amalphus ... knew not the Mariner’s Card, but stuck the needle in a reed, or a piece of wood, cross over: and he put the needles into a vessel full of water that they might flote freely: then carrying about the loadstone, the needles would follow it: which being taken away, as by a certain natural motion, the points of the needles would turn to the north pole: and, having found that, stand still.... Now the Mariner’s Compass is made, and a needle touched with the Loadstone, is so fitted to it, that, by discovering the pole by it, all other parts of the heavens are known. There is made a rundle with a Latin-navel upon a point of the same metal, that it may run roundly freely. Whereupon, by the touching onely of one end, the needle not alone partakes of the vertues of it, but of the other end also, whether it will or not....”
Chap. XLVIII is headed “Whether Garlick can hinder the vertues of the loadstone.” By Porta we are informed that “Plutarch saith Garlick is at great enmity with the loadstone; and such antipathy and hatred there is between these invisible creatures, that if a loadstone be smeered with Garlick, it will drive away iron from it,” which is confirmed by Ptolemy, who states “that the loadstone will not draw iron, if it be anoynted with Garlick; as Amber will no more draw straws, and other light things to it, if they be first steeped in oyl.” He found that when the loadstone “was all anoynted over the juice of Garlick, it did perform its office as well as if it had never been touched with it.”
In Chap. LIII Porta denies “that the diamond doth hinder the loadstone’s vertue.” “Some pretend,” says he, “there is so much discord between the qualities of the loadstone and the diamond, and they are so hateful, one against the other, and secret enemies, that if the diamond be put to the loadstone, it presently faints and loses all its forces. (Pliny.) The loadstone so disagreeth with the diamond, that if iron be laid by it, it will not let the loadstone draw it; and if the loadstone do attract it, it will snatch it away again from it. (St. Augustine.) I will say that I have read of the loadstone: how that, if the diamond be by it, it will not draw iron; and, if it do when it comes neer the diamond, it will let it fall” (Marbodeus, of the Loadstone ... Marbodei Galli ... de lapidibus pretiosis Enchiridion ... Freiburg, 1530, 1531):
“All loadstones by their vertue iron draw; But of the diamond it stands in awe: Taking the iron from’t by Nature’s Law.”
“I tried this often, and found it false; and that there is no truth in it.”
With reference to the above, see Plat (at A.D. 1653), who also alludes to the fact of the softening of the diamond with Goat’s blood. This is alluded to by Porta in the next chapter.
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