On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth: a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments
History
On the magnet, magnetick bodies also, and on the great magnet the earth: a new physiology, demonstrated by many arguments & experiments
Magnetism -- Early works to 1800
It is perhaps needless to remark that the twelve copper-plate etchings in
the edition of 1628, and the twelve completely different ones in that of
1633, replace certain of the woodcuts of the folio of 1600. For example,
take the woodcut on p. 203 of the 1600 edition, which represents a simple
dipping-needle made by thrusting a versorium through a bit of cork and
floating it, immersed, in a goblet of water. In the 1633 edition this
appears, slightly reduced, as a small inserted copper-plate, with nothing
added; but in the 1628 edition it is elaborated into a full-page plate (No.
xi.) representing the interior, with shelves of books, of a library on the
floor of which stands the goblet--apparently three feet high--with a globe
and an armillary sphere; while beside the goblet, with his back to the
spectator, is seated an aged man, reading, in a carved armchair. This
figure and the view of the library are unquestionably
copied--reversed--from a well-known plate in the work _Le Diverse &
Artificiose Machine_ of Agostino Ramelli (Paris, 1558).
In the Emblems of Jacob Cats (_Alle de Wercken_, Amsterdam, 1665, p. 65) is
given an engraved plate of a smith's forge, which is also copied--omitting
the smith--from Kiliani's _Viridarium_.
[212] PAGE 140, LINE 2.. Page 140, line 2. _præcedenti._--This is so
spelled in all editions, though the sense requires _præcedente_.
[213] PAGE 141, LINE 21. Page 141, line 24. _quod in epistolâ quâdam
Italicâ scribitur._--The tale told by Filippo Costa of Mantua about the
magnetism acquired by the iron rod on the tower of the church of St.
Augustine in Rimini is historical. The church was dedicated to St. John,
but in the custody of the Augustinian monks. The following is the account
of it given by Aldrovandi, _Musæum Metallicum_ (1648, p. 134), on which
page also two figures of it are given:
"Aliquando etiam ferrum suam mutat substantiam, dum in magnetem
conuertitur, & hoc experientia constat, nam Arimini supra turrim templi S.
Ioannis erat Crux a baculo ferreo ponderis centum librarum sustentata, quod
tractu temporis adeò naturam Magnetis est adeptum, vt, illivs instar,
ferrum traheret: hinc magna admiratione multi tenentur, qua ratione ferrum,
quod est metallum in Magnetem, qui est lapis transmutari possit;
Animaduertendum est id à maxima familiaritate & sympathia ferri, & magnetis
dimanare cum Aristoteles in habentibus symbolum facilem transitum semper
admiserit. Hoc in loco damus imaginem frusti ferri in Magnetem transmutati,
quod clarissimo viro Vlyssi Aldrouando Iulius Caesar Moderatus diligens
rerum naturalium inquisitor communicauit; erat hoc frustum ferri colore
nigro, & ferrugineo, crusta exteriori quodammodo albicante." And further on
p. 557.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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