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Leyden papyrus
Preparation of purple: Break in small pieces
Phrygian Stone; bring to a boil and having immersed the wool, leave it till
becomes cool, then throwing into the vessel one mina of algae, boil and throw in
the wool and letting cool, wash it in sea-water to purple coloration. The
Phyrygian stone is roasted before breaking.
Stockholm
papyrus
Purple - Roast and boil Phrygian stone. Let the wool stay in till
cold. Then take it out; put into another vessel orseille (sea-wood or algae) and
amranth, one mina of each, boil and let the wool cool in it.
***It is a pretty evidence (as Berthelot said) that the two recipes are practically the same, the one helps us to understand the other.
Phrygian Stone
-It is considered by Berthelot probably to have been
an alunite, or basic sulphate of aluminium and potassium.
-While Pliny
describes it as a porous stone resembling pumice which is saturated with wine
and then calcined at red heat and quenched in sweet wine-the operation is three
times repeated.
-Its only use is in dyeing cloths.
-The algae used are
manifestly the source of the dyestuff were probably lichens such as were
formerly much used and which yield the dyestuff called archil or orseille.
The notes on dyeing form an important part of the Stockholm papyrus, and
furnish more specific information as to methods and materials employed than any
other source of information as to the dyeing processes in use in Egypt in
ancient times.
The recipes are almost exclusively devoted to the dyeing of
wool. The colours range from purple and reds to rose, yellow, green and blue,
though the greater number of recipes have to do with purple. That term with the
ancients, included deep red and even red brown as well as purples proper.
Hints for testing the quality of dyestuffs
-Woad should be heavy
and dark blue if good, if light and whitish, it is not good.
-Syrian
Kermes—crush those which are best colored and lightest, those which are black or
spotted with white are bad. Rub up with soda and dissolve the fine
colored.
-Rub up the best colored madder and so make the test.Purple colored
and fast orseille is purple snail-colored, but the white spotted and the black
is not good.
-When you rub up very fine colored orseille, take and hold it in
your hand. (A rough color test on the palm of the hand?)
-Alum must be moist
and very white, but that which contains saltness is not fit.
-Of "flowers of
copper" that fit for use should be either dark blue, a very green leek-color or
in general possess a very fine color (Flowers of copper, the flos aeris of
Pliny, seems generally to be used for the copper oxide)
Methods For Whitening Pearls
Method 1:
If the pearls have a brownish tint as if smoked, it is directed
to make a solution of honey in water, to add fig roots pounded fine, and to boil
down the mixture. Spread it on the pearls as and let it harden, then remove it
and wipe off with a linen cloth. If the pearls are not yet white, repeat the
process.
Method 2:
Mordant or roughen the pearls by letting them stand in the
"urine of a young boy" then covering them with "alum" and let what remains of
the mordant dry. They are then put into an earthen vessel with "quicksilver" and
"fresh bitch's milk". Everything was then heated together, the process being
regulated. It was cautioned to apply the fuel externally and to maintain a
gentle fire.
Notice: Lippmann suggested that "quicksilver" above mentioned
cannot be mercury, but was probably some finely divided substance of pearly or
silvery character, calculated to give the pearly luster.
** A curious method
given for whitening a pearl is that of causing it to be swallowed by a cock,
afterwards killing the cock and recovering the pearl, "when it will be found to
be white."
Method of making Artificial Pearls:
One recipe of the Swedish
papyrus that gives us the earliest account of methods of making artificial
pearls is as follows: Mordant or roughen crystal in the urine of a young boy and
powdered alum, then dip it in "quicksilver" and woman's milk.
The word
"crystal" often meant with the ancients quartz crystal, but it is very evident
that with the authors of these notes the term was used in a more comprehensive
sense to include other transparent or translucent stones. This use is very
evident in the many recipes for imitation of precious stones, where the
processes involve a degree of porosity or absorbent power towards colored
solutions not possessed either by quartz crystal or by glass, while certain
agates, micas, alabasters or other stones possess this property. In case of the
above recipe, it is doubtful whether any such mordanting would in a reasonable
time roughen the surface of real quartz crystal adequately. The "quicksilver"
here mentioned is evidently the same substance of pearly luster previously
referred to.
A more elaborate process for making artificial pearls is the
following, suggesting the modern "Roman pearls.": "Take a stone easily
pulverized, as glimmer, and pulverize it. Take gum tragacanth and soften it for
ten days in cow's milk. When it is softened, dissolve it till it becomes thick
like glue. Melt Tyrrhenian wax. Take also the white of an egg and "quicksilver."
There must be two parts of "quicksilver" and three parts of stone, but of
all other materials one part each. Mix (the stone and wax), and knead the
mixture with the "quicksilver. " Soften the paste in the solution of gum and the
contents of the egg.
Mix in this way the whole liquid with the paste. Then
make the pearls which you wish according to pattern. The paste will soon be like
stone. Make deep round impressions and bore them while moist. Let the pearls
solidify and polish them well. Treated as they should be, they will excel the
natural. "
Trade Names of Materials used in the Recipes
The use of the trade
names for the purpose of concealing the character of the substance used where
secrecy seemed desirable was not unknown at that period.
There is a passage
in Leyden papyrus concerning this and says that: "Interpretation drawn from the
sacred names, which the sacred writers employ for the purpose of putting at
fault the curiosity of the vulgar. The plants and other things which they make
use of for the images of the gods have been designated by them in such a way
that for lack of understanding they perform a vain labor in following a false
path. But we have drawn the interpretation of much of the description and hidden
meanings."
The secret names in this manuscript which are placed with the real
names are thirty-seven in number. They are such names as the later alchemists
used extensively: "blood of the serpent," "blood of Hephaistos," "blood of
Vesta,""seed of the lion," "seed of Hercules," "bone of the phyasimian,"
etc.
It is very probable that the term "quicksilver" in the preceding recipe
takes its name from a similarity in appearance rather than from the deliberate
attempt to mystify, for these recipes are for the artisan himself, not for the
public, but it is also possible that some special constituents of these recipes
were intentionally so named as to avoid advertising unnecessarily the more
valuable secrets of their business.
The "blood of the dragon" for the red
resin of the pterocarpusdraco is doubtless a surviving remnant of the fanciful
names used for mystification. The Swedish papyrus has a few other names of the
same character, though in general its vocabulary is plain and direct. Thus the
Greek word for garlic is used to designate human feces, sometimes used in
mordanting wool. The manuscript itself gives this translation.
The term
"blood of the dove" used in the papyrus, Von Lippmann has identified from other
sources as meaning red lead or sometimes cinnabar.