[354] Creta fossica, qua stercorantur agri.--Varro, i. 7. 8. It appears also that the πηλὸς of the Greeks signified a kind of potters’ earth. Those who do not choose to rely upon our dictionaries, need only to read the ancient Greek writers on husbandry, who speak of ἀῤῥαγεῖ πηλῷ ἀργιλλώδει. See Geopon. x. c. 75. 12, and ix. c. 10. 4. [355] I piombi antichi. Roma 1740, 4to, p. 16. [356] Heineccius and others think that the _amphoræ vitreæ diligenter gypsatæ_, in Petronius, were sealed; but it is much more probable that they were only daubed over or closed with gypsum, for the same reason that we pitch our casks. [357] [Blue wax may now be seen in every wax-chandler’s shop; it is coloured blue by means of indigo.] [358] Heineccii Syntagma de Vet. Sigillis, 1719, p. 55. [359] Plin. lib. xxii. c. 25. [360] Trotz, Not. in Prim. Scribendi Origine, p. 73, 74. [361] P. Festi de Verb. Sig. lib. xx. Hesychius calls this cement μεμαλάγμενον κηρόν.--Plin. lib. xxxvi. c. 24. [362] Lib. viii. c. 4. [363] Nouveau Traité de Diplomatique. Paris, 1759, 4to, iv. p. 33. [364] Mémoires conc. l’Histoire d’Auxerre. Par. 1743, ii. p. 517. [365] Bibliothèque des Auteurs de Bourgogne, 2 vols. fol. ii. p. 217. [366] Histoire Générale des Drogues. Paris, 1735. [367] This Rousseau appears also in the History of Cochineal, as he sent to Pomet a paper on that subject, which was contradicted by the well-known Plumier in the Journal des Sçavans for 1694. He is mentioned also by Labat, who says he saw him at Rochelle; but at that time he must have been nearly a hundred years of age. [368] Von Murr, in his learned Beschreibung der Merkwürdigkeiten in Nürnberg, Nurnb. 1778, 8vo, p. 702, says that Spanish wax was not invented, or at least not known, before the year 1559. This appears also from a manuscript of the same year, which contains various receipts in the arts and medicine. There are some in it for making the common white sealing-wax green or red. [369] See Chronicon Godvicense, p. 102. [370] Wecker gives directions also to make an impression with calcined gypsum, and a solution of gum or isinglass. Porta knew that this could be done to greater perfection with amalgam of quicksilver; an art employed even at present. [371] Tavernier, in his Travels, says that in Surat lac is melted and formed into sticks like sealing-wax. Compare with this Dapper’s Asia, Nuremberg, 1681, fol. p. 237. [372] Bruchstücke betreffend die Pflichten eines Staatsdieners; aus den Handlungen des Raths Dreitz, nebst Bemerkungen vom ältesten Gebrauche des Spanischen Siegelwachses, Frankf. 1785, 4to, p. 86; where the use of these antiquarian researches is illustrated by examples worthy of notice. [373] Historische Untersuchungen gesammelt von J. G. Meusel, i. 3, p. 240. [374] Original Letters of the Paston Family, temp. Henry VI. i. p. 21, and p. 87 and 92. [375] Meusel’s Geschichtforscher. Halle, 8vo, vi. p. 270. [376] Ibid. iv. p. 251.