Notes

larix

Quinto generi est situs idem, facies eadem; larix vocatur. materies praestantior longe, incorrupta aevis,1 umori contumax, rubens praeterea et odore acrior. plusculum huic erumpit liquoris melleo colore atque lentore, numquam durescentis.… Omnia autem haec genera accensa fuligine inmodica carbonem repente expuunt cum eruptionis crepitu eiaculanturque longe excepta larice quae nec ardet nec carbonem facit nec alio modo ignis vi consumitur quam lapides.

The fifth kind of resinous tree has the same habitat [mountains and cold localities] and the same appearance; it is called the larch. Its timber is far superior, not rotting with age and offering a stubborn resistance to damp; also it has a reddish colour and a rather penetrating scent. Resin flows from this tree in rather large quantities, of the colour and stickiness of honey, and never becoming hard.… All these kinds of trees when set fire to make an enormous quantity of sooty smoke and suddenly with an explosive crackle send out a splutter of charcoal and shoot it to a considerable distance—excepting the larch, which does not burn nor yet make charcoal, nor waste away from the action of fire any more than do stones.

larix

larix. Also laryx, larnix,larinx, -ynx.

larch. Also attributive, as larix tree, wood.

Notes

Larix

Larix (text)

larix

Quinto generi est situs idem, facies eadem; larix vocatur. materies praestantior longe, incorrupta aevis,1 umori contumax, rubens praeterea et odore acrior. plusculum huic erumpit liquoris melleo colore atque lentore, numquam durescentis.… Omnia autem haec genera accensa fuligine inmodica carbonem repente expuunt cum eruptionis crepitu eiaculanturque longe excepta larice quae nec ardet nec carbonem facit nec alio modo ignis vi consumitur quam lapides.

The fifth kind of resinous tree has the same habitat [mountains and cold localities] and the same appearance; it is called the larch. Its timber is far superior, not rotting with age and offering a stubborn resistance to damp; also it has a reddish colour and a rather penetrating scent. Resin flows from this tree in rather large quantities, of the colour and stickiness of honey, and never becoming hard.… All these kinds of trees when set fire to make an enormous quantity of sooty smoke and suddenly with an explosive crackle send out a splutter of charcoal and shoot it to a considerable distance—excepting the larch, which does not burn nor yet make charcoal, nor waste away from the action of fire any more than do stones.

Larege

Larege, the Larch, or Larinx tree.

Larix

The Mosse of the Larix Tree burneth also sweet, and sparkleth in the Burning.

larix

César, Vitruve, Pline, et quantité d’autres, disent en effet que le bois de cet arbre est incombustible; mais les modernes assurent généralement le contraire. Voici ce qui a pu donner cours à cette opinion. Dans le Briançonnois où l’on bâtit avec bois, les maisons qui en sont bâties, de blanches qu’elles étoient, deviennent noires comme du charbon en deux ou trois ans, et toutes les jointures sont fermées par la résine que la chaleur du soleil a fait suer. Cette résine, que se durcit à l’air, forme un vernis luisant et poli, que rend ces maisons impénétrables à l’eau et au vent, mais non pas au feu : elles sont au contraire si combustibles qu’il est ordonné de les isoler les unes des autres. Pline dit que ce bois ne brûle point, mais qu’il se calcine. Cependant il n’y a rien qui fasse si tôt fondre la résine que le charbon de mélèse; c’est même pour cela qu’on réduit cet arbre résineux en charbon, autour de Bresica et de Trente. De rest il est très vrai qu’on tire du mélèse dans le Briançonnois et dans le Valais une résine et de petits grains blancs qu’on appelle la manne de Briançon, et que cet arbre fournit le meilleur agaric qu’on emploie en médicine.

larix

Pliny xvi. 10, § 19.

larrix

Larix europæa, D. C., mélèze. (Conifère, Abiétinée.) Larix, dit Pline, «nec ardet, nec carbonem facit, nec alio modo ignis vi consumitur quam lapides.» (XXVI, 19.) «Flammam ex igne non recipit nec ipse potest per se ardere», dit Vitruve. (II, 9.) C’est là pure légende. Belon (De arb. conif., f° 24, r°) dit que le mélèze est combustible. A la vérité c’est un bois dur, résistant à l’immersion, aux intempéries, mauvais bois de chauffage parce qu’il pétille et lance des éclats, mais on le peut réduire en charbon de bonne qualité. (Paul Delaunay)

larrix

D’après Pline, XXXVI, 19 (EC).

larix

larix. Also laryx, larnix,larinx, -ynx.

larch. Also attributive, as larix tree, wood.

Notes

Larix

Manna

Larix (text)

Melze

Meleses estants si frequentes au territoire d’Embrum & autout de Morienne, ne donneront despense à recouurer. Elles ont leurs semences plus petites que Cyprés, tant en la pommette que au noyau, toutesfois chasque chartée sur le lieu, qui l’entreprendoit, ne cousteroit pas un sou. C’est sur celuy dont la Manne est cueillie, & la grosse Terebenthine & l’Agaric aussi, & dont l’arbre est autant frequent es montaignes des Grisons, nommez en Latin Theti, qu’il fut onc, & es mesmes endroicts dont Tibere Empereur en feit apporter à Rome pour refaire le pont Naumachiarius, qui auoit esté bruslé.

manna

On appelait manne une liqueur blanche et de saveur sucrée qui se déposait sur les feuilles de certains arbustes. On la dénommait mel aerium parce que le goût en rappelait celui du miel et aussi parce qu’elle avait une origine analogue à celle du miel qui dans les idées du temps était récolté, et non fabriqué, par les abeilles. Cf. Gilson, op. cit., p. 87. Il s’agit ici de la manne, dite de Briançon, de qualité médiocre et qui exsude des feuilles du mélèze, Larix europæa. (Delaunay)

manna

Pour la manna (sorte de liqueur végétale, qui n’a rien à faire avec la manne des Isrëlites) cf., à part le livre de S. Champier. Pline, XXXVI, 19.

manne

Il ne s’agit pas de la manne biblique, mais du liquide sucré qui se dépose au printemps sur les feuilles ds certains arbres, et qu’on appelle miélat.

manne

Le terme est à prendre dans son sens botanique, pour désigner le sac qui s’écoule de certains végétaux comme les frênes ou les mélèzes.

manna

manna. Also monna, manne, mana.

[adopted from late Latin manna, adopted from Hellenistic Greek manna (? through Aramaic manna) Hebrew man (whence Greek man, Latin man, occurring more frequently than the longer form in the LXX and Vulgate O. T. G. Ebers (Durch Gosen zum Sinai), gives plausible reasons for believing that the Ancient Egyptian mannu denoted the exudation of Tamarix gallica. As the Arabic mann has the same sense, it seems possible that the Heb. word may represent the name anciently current in the Sinaitic wilderness for this natural product, which in many respects agrees with the description of the miraculous manna, and which is still locally regarded as a dew falling from the sky.

The etymological tradition or conjecture preserved in Exodus xvi. 15 represents the word as having originated from the question man hu? `what is it’ (in Aramaic or supposed archaic Heb.), which grammatically admits of being interpreted `It is man’. (Cf. the Vulgate, l. c.: Dixerunt ad invicem: Manhu, quod interpretatur, `quid est hoc?’)

The word has been adopted in most versions of the Bible, and appears in figurative uses in the literature of most of the countries of Christendom.

Whether the Greek manna, Latin manna, meaning a grain of frankincense, is connected with this word is uncertain, though an oriental origin for it is probable.]

Biblical and allusive uses. The substance miraculously supplied as food to the Children of Israel during their progress through the Wilderness. (See Exodus xvi.)

In Pharmacy, etc.: A sweet pale yellow or whitish concrete juice obtained from incisions in the bark of the Manna-ash, Fraxinus Ornus, chiefly in Calabria and Sicily; used in medicine as a gentle laxative. Also, a similar exudation obtained from other plants.

manna

A grain (of frankincense); frankincense in grains. Obsolete [Strictly another word: adopted from Greek manna, Latin manna.]

Notes

pantagruelion carpasien asbestin

Rabelais parle ici de deux sortes de merveilles physiques : l’une de certaine pierre composée de filamens dont on fait des tissus qui ne se brúlent point, l’autre de certaine plante incombustible qu’on a nommée lin asbestin; parceque, quand on en fait des lumignons de lampe, ils ne se consument point, mais demeruent toujours allummés, porvu qu’il y ait de l’huile dans la lampe. De cette pierre parle Plutarque dans la cessation des oracles, pag. m. 1113 du tome de ses Opuscules, et de ce lin parle Pline, liv. XIX, chap. 1, et après lui Rabelais encore, livre V, chapitre XLI. A l’égard de la plante qui produit le lin asbestin, outre les Indes où Pline dit qu’elle croît, il s’en trouve aussi dans les Pyrénées, et plusieurs curieux en conservent de petits tissus. Sur tout cela voyez M. Le Clerc, à l’art. 11 du onzième tome de sa Bibliothèque choisie.(L.)

Salamandre

“Une bieste i r’a Salamandre
Qui en feu vist et si s’en paist,
De cete bieste laine si nast
Dont on fait chaintures et dras
Qu’ai feu durent et n’ardent pas.”
— Gauthier de Metz, L’Image du Monde (1245)
Hence it appears, according to this notice, that asbestos cloth was derived from the salamander.

asbestin

Par ailleurs, le pantagruélion n’est pas seulement le lin-chanvre suggéré par les descriptions botaniques du chapitre XLIV. Ce chapitre porte sue les vertus de pantagruélion asbeste. Dans Gargantua («la pierre dit ἁσβεστοζ»; voir V, p. 19 et n. 22; ici, p. 510 et n. 6), l’asbeston est une pierre, vraisemblablement l’amiante. Les Ancien s’en servaient pour faire des lincuels incombustibles que recueillaient la cendre des morts. Elle est pour les alchimistes le nom qu’ils donnent à leur pierre dans la mesure où elle résiste aux atteintes du feu (voir n. 4, p. 400). L’incombustibilité est ici la particularité essentielle du pantagruélion; dans la liste des elements incombustibles qu’il surpasse dans son excellence — salamandre, alun de plomb, éon, mélèze —, il est dit que ce dernier qu’il pourrait être digne d’être vrai pantagruélion. La blancheur du pantagruélion est aussi soulignée. Or, l’incombustibilité et la blancheur sont les caractéristiques mêmes de la matière des alchimistes après la putrification, la matière ayant alors «acquis un degré de fixie que le feu ne sçauroit detruire» (ibid, p. 58). Derrière le pantagruélion, Rabelais entend donc aussi la pierre philosophale, utilisant comme dans Thélème les ressources de l’art stéganographique (voir la Notice de Gargantua, p. 1042), proposant ainsi comme dans l’énigme en prophétie des objects différents à la sagacité de son lecteur.

Carpasie

Carpathian [Prob. immediately adaptation of G. Karpathen (Karpatisch adj.) Carpathian mountains: Latin Carpatus, Greek Karpathj oroj (Ptolemy), of uncertain ulterior etymology]

Epithet of a range of mountains extending from northern Czechoslovakia to Romania; pertaining to the region of these mountains.

fossil linen

fossil linen: a kind of asbestos. Obsolete

Notes

Asbeston

C’est-à-dire, incombustible. Cette plante, cette espéce de lin dont parle Rabelais, croît non-seulement dans les Indes, comme le dit nôtre Auteur d’après Pline, Pausanias, & d’autres Écrivains, mais on en trouve dans le Pyrenées, & plusieurs Curieux en conservent de petits tissus. On en fait des lumignons de lampe, qui, dit-on, ne se consument jamais. Les Anciens en faisoient des toiles dont ils enveloppoient les corps morts qu’ils brûloient. Ces toiles étoient pareillement incombustibles. Au reste, il ne faut pas confondre ici, comme a fait M. le Duchat, le lin Asbestin, avec la pierre Asbestos, composée de filamens dont on faisoit des tissus semblables, destinés aux mêmes usages. Rabelais qui parle ailleurs de cette pierre, n’en fait ici aucune mention, & M. le Duchat a eu tort d’avancer que nôtre Auteur parloit ici de ces deux sortes de merveilles physiques.

asbeston

Partant il est appelé incombustible. Asbeston ou asbeste vient du grec ἄδεστον, inextinguibilis, de α privatif et σζέννυμι, exstinguo. Cette plante, cette espèce de lin dont parle Rabelais, dit l’abbé de Marsy, croît non seulement dans les Indes, comme le dit notre auteur d’après Pline, Pausanias, et d’autres écrivains, mais on en trouve dans les Pyrénées, et plusieurs curieux en conservent de petits tissus. On en fait des lumignons de lampe, qui, dit-on, ne se consument jamais. Les anciens en faisoient des toiles dont ils enveloppoient les corps morts qu’ils brûloient: ces toiles étoient pareillement incombustibles. Au reste, il ne faut pas confondre ici, comme a fait Le Duchat, le lin asbestin avec la pierre asbestos composée de filaments dont on faisoit des tissus semblables, destinés aux même usages. Rabelais, qui parle ailleurs de cette pierre, n’en fait ici aucune mention, et Le Duchat a eu tort d’avancer que notre auteur parloit ici de ces deux sortes de merveilles physiques.

asbeston

Du grec ἄσδεστον, incombustible. Il n’y a aucune autre analogie que celle des possibilités textiles entre le chanvre et l’asbeste que Rabelais nomme pantagruelion asbestin. Confusion déjà commise par Pline, qui considère l’asbeste comme un var. incombustible du lin: «Inventum jam est etiam [linum] quod ignibus non absumeretur… Nascitur in desertis adustique sole Indiæ ubi non cadunt imbres… vocatur autem a Græcis asbestinum». Pline, XIX, 4. L’asbeste, ou amiante, est un var. filamenteuse (par altération) de l’amphibole trémolite, (silicate de chaux et de magnésie). Les filaments soyeux sont assez longs pour en permettre le tissage; les Anciens en faisaient des mèches perpétuelle pour leurs lampes, et des linceuls incombustibles pour recueillir la cendre des morts.

Asbeston

Inventum iam est etiam quod ignibus non absumeretur. vivum id vocant, ardentesque in focis conviviorum ex eo vidimus mappas sordibus exustis splendescentes igni magis quam possent aquis. regum inde funebres tunicae corporis favillam ab reliquo separant cinere. nascitur in desertis adustisque Indiae locis, ubi non cadunt imbres, inter diras serpentes, adsuescitque vivere ardendo, rarum inventu, difficile textu propter brevitatem; rufus de cetero colos splendescit igni. cum inventum est, aequat pretia excellentium margaritarum. vocatur autem a Graecis ἀσβέστινον ex argumento naturae suae. Anaxilaus auctor est linteo eo circumdatam arborem surdis ictibus et qui non exaudiantur caedi. ergo huic lino principatus in toto orbe.

Also a linen has now been invented that is incombustible.It is called ‘live’ linen, and I have seen napkins made of it glowing on the hearth at banquets and burnt more brilliantly clean by the fire than they could be by being washed in water. This linen is used for making shrouds for royalty which keep the ashes of the corpse separate from the rest of the pyre. The plant [It is really the mineral asbestos] grows in the deserts and sun-scorched regions of India where no rain falls, the haunts of deadly snakes, and it is habituated to living in burning heat; it is rarely found, and is difficult to weave into cloth because of its shortness; its colour is normally red but turns white by the action of fire. When any of it is found, it rivals the prices of exceptionally fine pearls. The Greek name for it is asbestinon [‘Inextinguishable’], derived from its peculiar property. Anaxilaus states that if this linen is wrapped round a tree it can be felled without the blows being heard, as it deadens their sound. Consequently this kind of linen holds the highest rank in the whole of the world.

abeston

Rabelais suit toujours Pline, qui fait de l’asbeste une variété du lin. L’utilité du lin asbestin dans les crémations est mentionée par Pline (XIX, 4: « Inventus jam est etia [Linum] quod ignibus non absumeretur; regum inde funebres tunicae corporis favellam ab reliquo separant cineri. Nascitur in desertis adutisque Indiae locis. […] Vocatur autem a Graecis [greek], ex argumento naturae suae ». Le passage de Pline était bien connu; cf. P Vergile, De Inventoribus rerum, II, x. L’adjectif carpasien est le carbaseus (ou, carbasinus) des Latins ( = « ce qui est fait de lin ou de chanvre ».)

Asbeston

Voir Gargantua, V, p. 19 et n. 22, où l’asbeston est un pierre; ici, Rabelais suit Pline XIX, iv: l’asbeste ou amiante est une variété incombustibvle du lin et l’on en fait des linceuls royaux séparant des autres les cendres du corps (voir Tiers livre, éd. Lefranc, n. 15, p. 372).

asbeston

Page 509, n. 4. Par ailleurs, le pantagruélion n’est pas seulement le lin-chanvre suggéré par les descriptions botaniques du chapitre XLIV. Ce chapitre porte sue les vertus de pantagruélion asbeste. Dans Gargantua («la pierre dit ἁσβεστοζ»; voir V, p. 19 et n. 22; ici, p. 510 et n. 6), l’asbeston est une pierre, vraisemblablement l’amiante. Les Ancien s’en servaient pour faire des lincuels incombustibles que recueillaient la cendre des morts. Elle est pour les alchimistes le nom qu’ils donnent à leur pierre dans la mesure où elle résiste aux atteintes du feu (voir n. 4, p. 400). L’incombustibilité est ici la particularité essentielle du pantagruélion; dans la liste des elements incombustibles qu’il surpasse dans son excellence — salamandre, alun de plomb, éon, mélèze —, il est dit que ce dernier qu’il pourrait être digne d’être vrai pantagruélion. La blancheur du pantagruélion est aussi soulignée. Or, l’incombustibilité et la blancheur sont les caractéristiques mêmes de la matière des alchimistes après la putrification, la matière ayant alors «acquis un degré de fixie que le feu ne sçauroit detruire» (ibid, p. 58). Derrière le pantagruélion, Rabelais entend donc aussi la pierre philosophale, utilisant comme dans Thélème les ressources de l’art stéganographique (voir la Notice de Gargantua, p. 1042), proposant ainsi comme dans l’énigme en prophétie des objects différents à la sagacité de son lecteur.

asbeston

Inspiré de Pline, XIX, 1 : «Finalement on a trouvé une sorte de lin qui ne se consume point au feu. Nos gens l’appellent lin de vif. Et de fait, j’en ay veu des nappes de festins, qu’on jettoit au feu au sortir de table, où elles se nettoyoient mieux cent fois qu’elles n’eussent fait en l’eau, et ne se gastoient point. Mesmes és obseques et funerailles des Rois, on revest leur corps de ces toiles, afin de pouvoir separer les cendres de leurs corps d’avec celles de parfums et des bois odorants où on les brusloit. […] Les Grecs suyvans la proprieté de sa nature l’appellent Asbestinos [=incombustible]» (trad. Du Pinet).

asbestos

Asbestos use dates back at least 4,500 years, when the inhabitants of the Lake Juojärvi region in East Finland strengthened earthenware pots and cooking utensils with the asbestos mineral anthophyllite (see Asbestos-ceramic).[16] The word asbestos comes from the ancient Greek ἄσβεστος, meaning “unquenchable” or “inextinguishable”.[1][17] One of the first descriptions of a material that may have been asbestos is in Theophrastus, On Stones, from around 300 BC, although this identification has been questioned.[18] In both modern and ancient Greek, the usual name for the material known in English as “asbestos” is amiantos (“undefiled”, “pure”) whence the term for it in, e.g., French amiante and Portuguese amianto. In modern Greek, the word ἀσβεστος or ασβέστης stands consistently and solely for lime.
The term asbestos is traceable to Roman naturalist Pliny the Elder’s manuscript Natural History, and his use of the term asbestinon, meaning “unquenchable”.[1][16][17] While Pliny is popularly credited with recognising the detrimental effects of asbestos on human beings,[19] it has been said that examination of the primary sources reveals no support for that claim.[20]
Wealthy Persians amazed guests by cleaning a cloth by exposing it to fire. For example, according to Tabari, one of the curious items belonging to Khosrow II Parviz, the great Sassanian king (r. 531–579), was a napkin (Persian: ‫منديل‬‎‎) that he cleaned simply by throwing it into fire. Such cloth is believed to have been made of asbestos imported over the Hindu Kush.[21] According to Biruni in his book, Gems, any cloths made of asbestos (Persian: ‫آذرشست‬‎‎, āzarshost) were called shostakeh (Persian: ‫شستكه‬‎‎).[22] Some Persians believed the fiber was the fur of an animal, called the samandar (Persian: ‫سمندر‬‎‎), which lived in fire and died when exposed to water,[23][24] whence the former belief that the salamander could tolerate fire.[25]
Charlemagne, the first Holy Roman Emperor (800–814), is said to have had a tablecloth made of asbestos.[26]
Marco Polo recounts having been shown, in a place he calls Ghinghin talas, “a good vein from which the cloth which we call of salamander, which cannot be burnt if it is thrown into the fire, is made …”[27]
Some archeologists believe that ancients made shrouds of asbestos, wherein they burned the bodies of their kings, in order to preserve only their ashes, and prevent them being mixed with those of wood or other combustible materials commonly used in funeral pyres.[28][page needed][unreliable source?][29] Others assert that the ancients used asbestos to make perpetual wicks for sepulchral or other lamps.[23] In more recent centuries, asbestos was indeed used for this purpose. Although asbestos causes skin to itch upon contact, ancient literature indicates that it was prescribed for diseases of the skin, and particularly for the itch. It is possible that they used the term asbestos for soapstone, because the two terms have often been confused throughout history.[28]

1 Alleman, James E.; Mossman, Brooke T (July 1997). “Asbestos Revisited” (PDF). Scientific American. 277: 54–57. Bibcode:1997SciAm.277a..70A. doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0797-70. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 June 2010. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
2 Gee, David; Greenberg, Morris (9 January 2002). “Asbestos: from ‘magic’ to malevolent mineral” (PDF). Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896–2000. Copenhagen: EEA (22): 52–63. ISBN 92-9167-323-4. Retrieved 20 April 2010.
3 Position Statement on Asbestos from the Joint Policy Committee of the Societies of Epidemiology (JPC-SE), approved June 4, 2012
4 BrancheArbejdsmiljøRådet for Bygge & Anlæg (February 2009). Når du støder på asbest. Branchevejledning (in Danish). Copenhagen. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-87-7952-118-6.
5 Best, Richard. “Liability for Asbestos Related Disease in England and Germany” (PDF). germanlawjournal.com. Retrieved July 29, 2015.
6 Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (5th ed.). Oxford University Press. 2002.
7 “Asbestos, CAS No. 1332-21-4” (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 April 2011.
8 Berman, D Wayne; Crump, Kenny S (2003). Final draft:technical support document for a protocol to assess asbestos-related risk. Washington DC: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. p. 474.
9 “What is asbestos?”. American Cancer Society. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
10 “Asbestos – History and Uses”. Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. 31 August 2007. Archived from the original on 28 December 2007.
11 Occupational Exposure to Asbestos, Tremolite, Anthophyllite and Actinolite. U.S. Department of Labor. 1992
12 Asbestos mining stops for first time in 130 years. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. 24 November 2011
13 Dougherty, Kevin (20 November 2012) Quebec Budget: Finance Minister Nicolas Marceau tightens spending, levies new taxes. Ottawa Citizen
14 “Asbestos” (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program. January 2010. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
15 “Asbestos” (PDF). U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program. January 2016. Retrieved 25 August 2016.
16 Ross, Malcolm & Nolan, Robert P (2003). “History of asbestos discovery and use and asbestos-related disease in context with the occurrence of asbestos within the ophiolite complexes”. In Dilek, Yildirim & Newcomb, Sally. Ophiolite Concept and the Evolution of Geological Thought. Special Paper 373. Boulder, Colorado: Geological Society of America. ISBN 0-8137-2373-6.
17 Bostock, John (1856). “Asbestinon”. The Natural History of Pliny. Vol. IV. Translated by Riley, H. T. London: Henry G. Bohn. p. 137. Retrieved 26 November 2010.
18 Caley, Earl R.; Richards, John F. C. (1956). “Commentary”. Theophrastus on Stones: Introduction, Greek Text, English Translation, and Commentary. Graduate School Monographs: Contributions in Physical Science, No. 1. Columbus, OH: The Ohio State University. pp. 87–88. Retrieved 31 January 2013. “Moore thought that Theophrastus was really referring to asbestos. The color of the stone makes this unlikely, though its structure makes it less improbable, since some forms of decayed wood do have a fibrous structure like asbestos … It is, however, unlikely that Theophrastus is alluding to asbestos, since the mineral does not occur in the locality mentioned … It is much more probable that Theophrastus is referring to the well-known brown fibrous lignite.”
19 Barbalace, Roberta C. (22 October 1995). “History of Asbestos”. Environmentalchemistry.com. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
20 Maines, Rachel (2005). “Erroneous assertions debunked via reading of primary sources”. Asbestos and Fire: Technological Trade-offs and the Body at Risk (All assertions about Pliny noticing health effects cite sources other than Pliny himself, despite his works being translated, available to read, and in the electronic age, text searchable). Rutgers University Press. p. 26. ISBN 0-8135-3575-1.
21 New Encyclopædia Britannica (2003), vol. 6, p. 843
22 Dehkhoda Persian Dictionary
23 “University of Calgary”. Iras.ucalgary.ca. 30 September 2001. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
24 A Brief History of Asbestos Use and Associated Health Risks EnvironmentalChemistry.com website
25 Fantastically Wrong: The Legend of the Homicidal Fire-Proof Salamander”. WIRED. Retrieved 2016-05-03.
26 “Science: Asbestos”. Time. 29 November 1926. Archived from the original on 31 January 2011. Retrieved 11 January 2011.
27 Polo, Marco; A C. Moule; Paul Pelliot (1938). Marco Polo: the Description of the World: A.C. Moule & Paul Pelliot. G. Routledge & Sons. pp. 156–57. Retrieved 31 January 2013.
28 History of science This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain.
29 Pliny the Elder. Ch. 4.—LINEN MADE OF ASBESTOS. In The Natural History

asbestos

asbestos. Forms: asbeston, abeston, abiston, albeston(e; absistos, asphestus, asbestos, asbestus; abestos, -istos; abbest, asbest. [The modern form is adopted from Latin asbestos (modern Latin asbestus), adopted from Greek asbestoj, `inextinguishable, unquenchable,’ formed on a not + sbestoj, formed on sbennunai to quench. Old French had also adopted from Latin, asbestos, later abestos, whence an English form abestos; but the common Old French form was adopted from Latin asbeston, phonetically changed to abeston, and (by confusion with albus white) albeston; hence the earlier English forms asbeston, abeston, abiston, albeston, and (by assimilation to stone) albestone. Modern French is asbeste, formerly also abeste.]

As a substantive asbestos was applied by Dioscorides to quicklime (`unslaked’). Erroneously applied by Pliny to an incombustible fibre, which he believed to be vegetable, but which was really the amiantos of the Greeks. Since the identification of this, asbestos has been a more popular synonym for amiantus or amiant.

`The unquenchable stone’; a fabulous stone, the heat of which, when once kindled, was alleged to be unquenchable. (A distorted reference to the phenomena observed in pouring cold water on quick lime.) Obsolete

An alleged kind of incombustible flax. Obsolete (An erroneous notion of the mineral substance.)

A mineral of fibrous texture, capable of being woven into an incombustible fabric; amiant or amiantus. In mineralogy applied more widely than Amiantus, to all fibrous varieties of Hornblende or Amphibole, and of Pyroxene; Amiantus being specifically the finest Hornblende Asbestos, distinguished by its long silky fibres, usually pearly white.

fossil linen

fossil linen: a kind of asbestos. Obsolete

manes

manes [Latin manes. By some scholars supposed to be the plural of Old Latin manis good.]

The deified souls of departed ancestors (as beneficent spirits; opposed to larvæ and lemures, the malevolent shades of the Lower World). Also, the spirit, ‘shade’ of a departed person, considered as an object of homage or reverence, or as demanding to be propitiated by vengeance.

lemur

lemur. [adopted from Latin *lemur]

In Roman mythology: The spirits of the departed.

Notes

Gossipium arboreum

Vines of Malta

Vines of Malta must be cotton-trees. Vestes Melitenses are mentioned by Cicero, Verr. II. ii. 72, § 176; iv. 46 § 193; and Diodorus v. 12. These were manufactured from cotton, which is still the staple production of the island. Maltese cotton is mentioned Pantagruel, Chapter 7, note 6.

Vines of Malta

Dico te maximum pondus auri, argenti, eboris, purpurae, plurimam vestem Melitensem, plurimam stragulam, multam Deliacam supellectilem, plurima vasa Corinthia, magnum numerum frumenti, vim mellis maximam Syracusis exportasse…

I assert that you exported from Syracuse a great weight of gold, silver, ivory, and purple fabrics, a great deal of Maltese cloth and tapestries, a quantity of Delian wares, a large number of Corinthian vessels, a large quantity of corn and an immense amount of honey…

Vines of Malta

Insula est Melita, iudices, satis lato a Sicilia mari periculosoque diiuncta; in qua est eodem nomine oppidum, quo iste numquam accessit, quod tamen isti textrinum per triennium ad muliebrem vestem conficiendam fuit.

The island of Melita, gentlemen, is separated from Sicily by a rather wide and dangerous stretch of sea. In it there is a town, also called Melita, which Verres never visited, but which none the less he turned for three years into a factory for the weaving of women’s dresses.

vines of Malta

For off the south of Sicily three islands lie out in the sea, and each of them possesses a city and harbours which can offer safety to ships which are in stress of weather. The first one is that called Melitê [Malta], which lies about eight hundred stades from Syracuse, and it possesses many harbours which offer exceptional advantages, and its inhabitants are blest in their possessions; for it has artisans skilled in every manner of craft, the most important being those who weave linen, which is remarkably sheer and soft…

cotton de Malthe

Pantagruel, Chapter 7

De faict vint au lieu où elle estoit et la leva de terre avecques le petit doigt aussi facillement que feriez une sonnette d’esparvier. Et, devant que la porter au clochier, Pantagruel en voulut donner une aubade par la ville et la faire sonner par toutes les rues en la portant en sa main, dont tout le monde se resjouyst fort; mais il en advint un inconvenient bien grand, car, la portant ainsi et la faisant sonner par les rues, tout le bon vin d’Orléans poulsa et se gasta. De quoy le monde ne se advisa que la nuyct ensuyvant, car un chascun se sentit tant alteré de avoir beu de ces vins poulsez qu’ilz ne faisoient que cracher aussi blanc comme cotton de Malthe, disans: « Nous avons du Pantagruel et avons les gorges sallées »

Note 16 re blanc comme cotton de Malthe

L’expression est antérieure à R. Cf. Villon, Test., V. 729 :

Je congnois approcher ma seui
Je crache, blanc comme coton,
Jacoppins gros comme ung esteuf.

La réputation de l’île de Malte pour la culture du cotonnier s’est conservée jusqu’au XVIII^e s. Mais en 1739, le Dictionnaire du commerce de Savary n’enregistre qu’une production de 15 balles, contre 2000 balles de Smyrne et 1100 de Chypre. Sans doute on désignait au XVI^e s. sous le nom de coton de Malte, les cotons de diverses provenances entreposées par les vaisseaux des chevaliers de Rhodes (Henri Clouzot) — Le coton de Malte (bambagio di Malta) figure dans la Prattica delta mercatura de Pegolotti (Lisbona e Lucca, 1766, p. 295). D’après Heyd (Histoire du commerce du Levant an moyen âge, t. II, p. 612, Leipzig, 1886), il était coté un peu moins bas que celui de la Sicile (Paul Dorveaux).

Maltese Cotton

Pantagruel, Chapter 7: …But before carrying it [an enormous big Bell at St. Aignan in the said Town of Orleans] to the Bell-tower, Pantagruel wished to give them a Serenade with it through the City, and to ring it through all the Streets as he carried it in his Hand, at which every one greatly rejoiced; but there came from it one very great Inconvenience, namely, that as he thus carried and rang it through the Streets, all the good Wine of Orleans turned and was spoiled.

The people did not perceive this till the Night following, for every man found himself so thirsty from having drunk of these turned Wines, as they did nothing but spit as white as Maltese Cotton, saying: “We have got the Pantagruel, and have our throats Salted.”

Smith’s note re. spit as white as Cotton.

Je congnoys approcher ma soef :
Je crache blanc comme cotton.
— Villon, Grand Testament [1461], 62.

Falstaff says (2 Henry IV. i. 2, 237) : “If it be a hot day, and I brandish anything but a bottle, I would I might never spit white again.”

les vignes de Malthe

Quelque cotonnier? Cicéron (in Verrem, II, 72, IV, 46) mentionne des étoffes ou tapis de Malte, Melitenses vestes. Cf. l. II, ch. VII, n. 16: «blanc comme coton de Malte». (Paul Delaunay)

Toutes les arbres lanificques des Seres,

XXI. Tyros (Tylos) insula in eodem sinu est, repleta silvis qua spectat orientem quaque et ipsa aestu maris perfunditur. magnitudo singulis arboribus fici, flos suavitate inenarrabili, pomum lupino simile, propter asperitatem intactum omnibus animalibus. eiusdem insulae excelsiore suggestu lanigerae arbores alio modo quam Serum; his folia infecunda quae, ni minora essent, vitium poterant videri. ferunt mali cotonei amplitudine cucurbitas quae maturitate ruptae ostendunt lanuginis pilas ex quibus vestes pretioso linteo faciunt.
XXII. arborem vocant gossypinum, fertiliore etiam Tyro minore, quae distat x͞ p. Iuba circa fruticem lanugines esse tradit, linteaque ea Indicis praestantiora, Arabiae autem arborem ex qua vestes faciant cynas vocari, folio palmae simili. sic Indos suae arbores vestiunt. in Tyris autem et alia arbor floret albae violae specie, sed magnitudine quadruplici, sine odore, quod miremur in eo tractu.

XXI. In the same gulf is the island of Tyros [now Bahrein, cf. VI. 148.], which is covered with forests in the part facing east, where it also is flooded by the sea at high tide. Each of the trees is the size of a fig-tree; they have a flower with an indescribably sweet scent and the fruit resembles a lupine, and is so prickly that no animal can touch it. On a more elevated plateau in the same island there are trees [Cotton-trees] that bear wool, but in a different manner to those [Serica, silk] of the Chinese, as the leaves of these trees have no growth on them, and might be thought to be vine-leaves were it not that they are smaller; but they bear gourds of the size of a quince, which when they ripen burst open and disclose balls of down from which an expensive linen for clothing is made.
XXII. Their name for this tree is the gossypinus; it also grows in greater abundance on the smaller island of Tyros, which is ten miles distant from the other. Juba says that this shrub has a woolly down growing round it, the fabric made from which is superior to the linen of India. He also says that there is an Arabian tree called the cynasc from which cloth is made, which has foliage resembling a palm-leaf. Similarly the natives of India are provided with clothes by their own trees. But in the Tyros islands there is also another tree [Tamarind] with a blossom like a white violet but four times as large; it has no scent, which may well surprise us in that region of the world.

arbres lanificques, gossampines, cynes, les vignes de Malthe

Il s’agit de la soie et du coton (Pline, XII, 21 et 22). Les gossampines (gossypion) sont assimilées au lin par Pline, XIX, 2. Le coton de Malthe était très réputé dans l’Antiquité, d’où la « Linigera Melite » de Scyllius, cité par Textor, Officina, lxxvi v. Cf Polydore Vergile, De Inventoribus rerum, III,vi ; Servius, Comment. in Georg., II, 121 (voir plus bas, LII, 146, note).

les vignes de Malthe

Malte était célèbre pour ses cotons; voir Pantagruel, VII, p. 236 et n. 1.

cracher aussi blanc comme cotton de Malthe

L’îsle était pour la culture du cottonier.

les vignes de Malta

Rabelais glane dans Pline, XII, 3, 11 et 12 [not found]. La «vigne de Malthe» doit désigner un cotonnier; voir Pantagruel, VII, p. 145 (ed. Livre de Poche)

vines de Maltha

Ed. livre de poche. Les habitants d’Orléans altérés «ne faisoient que cracher aussi blanc comme cotton de Malthe…»

The Cotton Textile Industry in Malta

Bosio has left us the following description of the welcome given by the Maltese to Grand Master L’Isle Adam:

“One could see the majority of the Maltese, even the upper classes, all bearded. Their beards, according to the custom of the time and place, were long and thick. All wore a kind of suit reaching down to their knees (“il-geżwira”). They were apparelled wholly in local cotton, which thrives greatly in the Island.”[1]

Indeed, during the Middle Ages our ancestors depended on locally spun cotton material to clothe themselves from head to foot. We cannot determine when it was that our farmers decided to do away with linen for the planting of cotton. A Mayr,[2] without adducing any evidence, says that cotton was introduced into Malta in the IX century by the Arabs. It appears, at any rate, that after the XIV century, Maltese cotton found good foreign markets for on the 19th July, 1414, King Ferdinand ordered that two or three officials be nominated to examine carefully the cotton earmarked for export by the Maltese. These officials were instructed to have the cotton bales clearly marked to indicate the pure quality of their contents.[3]

The export of cotton from the Maltese Islands flourished increasingly. This can be gathered from the fact that in 1472 a tax of two per cent was raised on the exported product, the money to go towards the upkeep of the walls of Mdina.[4]

Maltese cotton

Malta

Malta. The name of an island in the Mediterranean, formerly a dependency of Great Britain and now an independent republic.

Maltese

Maltese. Of or pertaining to Malta and its inhabitants. Pertaining to the Knights of Malta.

Notes

Astragulos

Astragulos

Partial text entry

Lenticula

axe-weed

But no kind can change altogether into another, except one-seeded wheat and rice-wheat, as we said in our previous discussions, and darnel which comes from degenerate wheat and barley: at least, if this is not the true account, darnel loves chiefly to appear among wheat, as does the Pontic melampyros and the seed of purse-tassels, even as other seeds appear in other crops; thus aigilops seems to grow for choice among barley, and among lentils the rough hard kind of arakos, while among tares occurs the axe-weed,¹ which resembles an axe-head in appearance.

Note 1. Plin. 18. 155; 27. 121; Diosc. 3. 130; Hesych. s.v. βέλλεκυς.

Securidaca to lentils

Est herba quae cicer enecat et ervum circum-ligando se, vocatur orobanche; tritico simili modo aera, hordeo festuca quae vocatur aegilops, lenti herba securiclata quam Graeci a similitudine pelecinum vocant; et hae conplexu necant.

There is a weed that kills off chick-pea and bitter vetch by binding itself round them, called orobanche; and in a similar way wheat is attacked by darnel, barley by a long-stalked plant called aegilops and lentils by an axe-leaved plant [‘Aegilops’ is Aegilops ovata; axle-grass is axe-weed (Securigera coronilla), or perhaps climbing persicaria or a bindweed; but axe-leaved is vague] which the Greeks call axe-grass from its resemblance; these also kill the plants by twining round them.

Securidaque

Securidaque: The pulse Axseed, Axwort, Axfitch, Hatchet-fitch.

securidaca

La fève-de-loup, qui étouffe les lentilles.

Securidaca (pelecinon) to Lentils

Pliny xviii. 17, § 44 (155)

securidaca

«Lentem [enecat] herba securidaca quam Græci a similitudine pelecinon vocant», dit Pline, XVIII, 44. Théophraste dit au contraire qu’elle nuit à l’aphaca: «In aphacis autem securina securi similis». (H.P., VIII, 8.) Securidaca, de Securis, hache, allusion à l’aspect de la gousse recourbée en forme de hache à deux tranchants. On y a voulu reconnaître Astragalus hamosus, L. (Securidaca minor de Rauwolf), et Securigera coronilla, D.C. Fée penche pour Biserrula pelecinus, L. (Paul Delaunay)

orobanche, aegilops, securidaca, antranium, l’yvraye

Les cinq exemples suivants sont tous empruntés au même chapitre de Pline (XVIII, 44) (LD).

lentil

lentil. [adopted from French lentille: -popular Latin *lenticula (= classical Latin lenticula), diminutive of lent-: see lens. The other Romantic forms represent the classical Latin word with unchanged quantity: Spanish lenteja, Portugese lentilha, Italian lenticchia.]

The seed of a leguminous plant (Ervum lens, Lens esculenta); also the plant itself, cultivated for food in European countries.

Notes

Linum

Linum usitatissimum

Linum usitatissimum L.
English: flax

Linum usitatissimum

Linum usitatissimum L.
English: flax

Linum usitatissimum

Linum usitatissimum L.
Flax, Linen

Flax

I. An account of the constellations, seasons and weather has now been given that is easy even for non-experts to understand does not leave any room for doubt; and for those who really understand the matter the countryside contributes to our knowledge of the heavens no less than astronomy contributes to agriculture. Many writers have made horticulturea the next subject; we however do not think the time has come to pass straight to those topics, and we are surprised that some persons seeking from these subjects the satisfaction of knowledge, or a reputation for learning, have passed over so many matters without making any mention of all the plants that grow of their own accord or from cultivation, especially in view of the fact that even greater importance attaches to very many of these, in point of price and of practical utility, than to the cereals. And to begin with admitted utilities and with commodities distributed not only throughout all lands but also over the seas: flax is a plant that is grown from seed and that cannot be included either among cereals or among garden plants; but in what department of life shall we not meet with it, or what is more marvellous than the fact that there is a plant which brings Egypt so close to Italy that of two governors of Egypt Galerius reached Alexandria from the Straits of Messina in seven days and Balbillus in six, and that in the summer 15 years later the praetorian senator Valerius Marianus made Alexandria from Pozzuoli in nine days with a very gentle breeze? or that there is a plant that brings Cadiz within seven days’ sail from the Straits of Gibraltar to Ostia, and Hither Spain within four days, and the Province of Narbonne within three, and Africa within two? The last record was made by Gaius Flavius, deputy of the proconsul Vibius Crispus, even with a very gentle wind blowing. How audacious is life and how full of wickedness, for a plant to be grown for the purpose of catching the winds and the storms, and for us not to be satisfied with being borne on by the waves alone, nay that by this time we are not even satisfied with sails that are larger than ships, but, although single trees are scarcely enough for the size of the yard-arms that carry the sails, nevertheless other sails are added above the yards and others besides are spread at the bows and others at the sterns, and so many methods are employed of challenging death, and finally that out of so small a seed springs a means of carrying the whole world to and fro, a plant with so slender a stalk and rising to such a small height from the ground, and that this, not after being woven into a tissue by means of its natural strength but when broken and crushed and reduced by force to the softness of wool, afterwards by this ill-treatment attains to the highest pitch of daring! No execration is adequate for an inventor in navigation (whom we mentioned above in the proper place [Daedalus. See VII. 206]), who was not content that mankind should die upon land unless he also perished where no burial awaits him. Why, in the preceding Book we were giving a warning to beware of storms of rain and wind for the sake of the crops and of our food: and behold man’s hand is engaged in growing and likewise his wits in weaving an object which when at sea is only eager for the winds to blow! And besides, to let us know how the Spirits of Retribution have favoured us, there is no plant that is grown more easily; and to show us that it is sown against the will of Nature, it scorches the land and causes the soil actually to deteriorate in quality.

II. Flax is chiefly grown in sandy soils, and with a single ploughing. No other plant grows more quickly: it is sown in spring and plucked in summer, and owing to this also it does damage to the land. Nevertheless, one might forgive Egypt for growing it to enable her to import the merchandise of Arabia and India. Really? And are the Gallic provinces also assessed on such revenue as this? And is it not enough that they have the mountains separating them from the sea, and that on the side of the ocean they are bounded by an actual vacuum [I.e. the Atlantic ocean is mere emptiness, τὸ κενόν of the philosophers] as the term is? The Cadurci, Caleti, Ruteni, Bituriges, and the Morini who are believed to be the remotest of mankind, in fact the whole of the Gallic provinces, weave sailcloth, and indeed by this time so do even our enemies across the Rhine, and linen is the showiest dress-material known to their womankind. This reminds us of the fact recorded by Varro that it is a clan-custom in the family of the Serrani for the women not to wear linen dresses. In Germany the women carry on this manufacture in caves dug underground [The humidity was supposed to be favourable to the manufacture of the tissue]; and similarly also in the Alia district of Italy between the Po and the Ticino, where the linen wins the prize as the third best in Europe, that of Saetabis being first, as the second prize is won by the linens of Retovium near the Alia district and Faenza on the Aemilian Road. The Faenza linens are preferred for whiteness to those of Alia, which are always unbleached, but those of Retovium are supremely fine in texture and substance and are as white as the Faventia, but have no nap, which quality counts in their favour with some people but puts off others. This flax makes a tough thread having a quality almost more uniform than that of a spider’s web, and giving a twang when you choose to test it with your teeth; consequently it is twice the price of the other kinds.

And after these it is Hither Spain that has a linen of special lustre, due to the outstanding quality of a stream that washes the city of Tarragon, in the waters of which it is dressed; also its fineness is marvellous, Tarragon being the place where cambrics were first invented. From the same province of Spain Zoëla flax has recently been imported into Italy, a flax specially useful for hunting-nets; Zoëla is a city of Gallaecia near the Atlantic coast. The flax of Cumae in Campania also has a reputation of its own for nets for fishing and fowling, and it is also used as a material for making hunting-nets: in fact we use flax to lay no less insidious snares for the whole of the animal kingdom than for ourselves! But the Cumae nets will cut the bristles of a boar and even turn the edge of a steel knife; and we have seen before now netting of such fine texture that it could be passed through a man’s ring, with running tackle and all, a single person carrying an amount of net sufficient to encircle a wood! Nor is this the most remarkable thing about it, but the fact that each string of these nettings consists of 150 threads, as recently made for Fulvius Lupus who died in the office of governor of Egypt. This may surprise people who do not know that in a breastplate that belonged to a former king of Egypt named Amasis, preserved in the temple of Minerva at Lindus on the island of Rhodes, each thread consisted of 365 separate threads, a fact which Mucianus, who held the consulship three times quite lately, stated that he had proved to be true by investigation, adding that only small remnants of the breastplate now survive owing to the damage done by persons examining this quality. Italy also values the Pelignian flax as well, but only in its employment by fullers—no flax is more brilliantly white or more closely resembles wool; and similarly the flax grown at Cahors has a special reputation for mattresses: this use of it is an invention of the provinces of Gaul, as likewise is flock. As for Italy, the custom even now survives in the word used for bedding. Egyptian flax is not at all strong, but it sells at a very good price. There are four kinds in that country, Tanitic, Pelusiac, Butic and Tentyritic, named from the districts where they grow. The upper part of Egypt, lying in the direction of Arabia, grows a bush which some people call cotton, but more often it is called by a Greek work meaning ‘wood’: hence the name xylina given to linens made of it. It is a small shrub, and from it hangs a fruit resembling a bearded nut, with an inner silky fibre from the down of which thread is spun. No kinds of thread are more brilliantly white or make a smoother fabric than this. Garments made of it are very popular with the priests of Egypt. A fourth kind is called othoninum; it is made from a sort of reed growing in marshes, but only from its tuft. Asia makes a thread out of broom, of which specially durable fishing-nets are made, the plant being soaked in water for ten days; the Ethiopians and Indians make thread from apples, and the Arabians from gourds that grow on trees, as we said.

III. With us the ripeness of flax is ascertained by two indications, the swelling of the seed or its assuming a yellowish colour. It is then plucked up and tied together in little bundles each about the size of a handful, hung up in the sun to dry for one day with the roots turned upward, and then for five more days with the heads of the bundles turned inward towards each other so that the seed may fall into the middle. Linseed makes a potent medicine; it is also popular in a rustic porridge with an extremely sweet taste, made in Italy north of the Po, but now for a long time only used for sacrifices. When the wheat-harvest is over the actual stalks of the flax are plunged in water that has been left to get warm in the sun, and a weight is put on them to press them down, as flax floats very readily. The outer coat becoming looser is a sign that they are completely soaked, and they are again dried in the sun, turned head downwards as before, and afterwards when thoroughly dry they are pounded on a stone with a tow-hammer. The part that was nearest the skin is called oakum—it is flax of an inferior quality, and mostly more fit for lampwicks; nevertheless this too is combed with iron spikes until all the outer skin is scraped off. The pith has several grades of whiteness and softness, and the discarded skin is useful for heating ovens and furnaces. There is an art of combing out and separating flax: it is a fair amount for fifteen . . [The text seems defective, a plural noun having been lost] to be carded out from fifty pounds’ weight of bundles; and spinning flax is a respectable occupation even for men. Then it is polished in the thread a second time, after being soaked in water and repeatedly beaten out against a stone, and it is woven into a fabric and then again beaten with clubs, as it is always better for rough treatment.

IV. Also a linen has now been invented that is incombustible. It is called ‘live’ linen, and I have seen napkins made of it glowing on the hearth at banquets and burnt more brilliantly clean by the fire than they could be by being washed in water. This linen is used for making shrouds for royalty which keep the ashes of the corpse separate from the rest of the pyre. The plant [It is really the mineral asbestos] grows in the deserts and sun-scorched regions of India where no rain falls, the haunts of deadly snakes, and it is habituated to living in burning heat; it is rarely found, and is difficult to weave into cloth because of its shortness; its colour is normally red but turns white by the action of fire. When any of it is found, it rivals the prices of exceptionally fine pearls. The Greek name for it is asbestinon [‘Inextinguishable’], derived from its peculiar property. Anaxilaus states that if this linen is wrapped round a tree it can be felled without the blows being heard, as it deadens their sound. Consequently this kind of linen holds the highest rank in the whole of the world. The next place belongs to a fabric made of fine flax grown in the neighbourhood of Elis in Achaia, and chiefly used for women’s finery; I find that it formerly changed hands at the price of gold, four denarii for one twenty-fourth of an ounce. The nap of linen cloths, principally that obtained from the sails of sea-going ships, is much used as a medicine, and its ash has the efficacy of metal dross. Among the poppies also there is a kind from which an outstanding material for bleaching linen is extracted.

V. An attempt has been made to dye even linen so as to adapt it for our mad extravagance in clothes. This was first done in the fleets of Alexander the Great when he was voyaging on the river Indus, his generals and captains having held a sort of competition even in the various colours of the ensigns of their ships; and the river banks gazed in astonishment as the breeze filled out the bunting with its shifting hues. Cleopatra had a purple sail when she came with Mark Antony to Actium, and with the same sail she fled. A purple sail was subsequently the distinguishing mark of the emperor’s ship.

VI. Linen cloths were used in the theatres as awnings, a plan first invented by Quintus Catulus when dedicating the Capitol. Next Lentulus Spinther is recorded to have been the first to stretch awnings of cambric in the theatre, at the games of Apollo. Soon afterwards Caesar when dictator stretched awnings [49–44 b.c.] over the whole of the Roman Forum, as well as the Sacred Way from his mansion, and the slope right up to the Capitol, a display recorded to have been thought more wonderful even than the show of gladiators which he gave. Next even when there was no display of games Marcellus the son of Augustus’s sister Octavia, during his period of office as aedile, in the eleventh consulship of his uncle, from the first of [23 b.c.] August onward fixed awnings of sailcloth over the forum, so that those engaged in lawsuits might resort there under healthier conditions: what a change this was from the stern manners of Cato the ex-censor, who had expressed the view that even the forum ought to be paved with sharp pointed stones [In order to discourage loitering there]! Recently awnings actually of sky blue and spangled with stars have been stretched with ropes even in the emperor Nero’s amphitheatres. Red awnings are used in the inner courts of houses and keep the sun off the moss growing there; but for other purposes white has remained persistently in favour. Moreover as early as the Trojan war linen already held a place of honour—for why should it not be present even in battles as it is in shipwrecks? Homer [Il. II. 529, 830] testifies that warriors, though only a few, fought in linen corslets. This material was also used for rigging ships, according to the same author as interpreted by the more learned scholars, who say that the word sparta used by Homer means ‘sown’.

linen

linen [Old English línen, linnen formed on *lIînom flax.]

Made of flax. †linen wings = sails.

Cloth woven from flax. The explanation `cloth woven from flax or hemp’, given by Johnson and copied in most subsequent Dicts., appears to be a mere blunder, founded on occasional loose uses.

fossil linen

fossil linen: a kind of asbestos. Obsolete

flax

flax. sb. Forms: flæx, fleax, flex, vlexe, flexe, flaxe, flacks, flax.

[Latin plectere, Greek plekein. Some think however that the root is flah- (:-Old Aryan *plak-) as in flay v., the etymological notion being connected with the process of `stripping’, by which the fibre is prepared.]

The plant Linum usitatissimum bearing blue flowers which are succeeded by pods containing the seeds commonly known as linseed. It is cultivated for its textile fibre and for its seeds.

Notes

Levisticum

Ligusticum

Levisticum silvestre

Ligustrum [?]

Ligustrum vulgare L.
English: common privet

ligusticum

Ligusticum silvestre est in Liguriae suae montibus, seritur ubique; suavius sativum sed sine viribus. panacem aliqui vocant; Crateuas apud Graecos cunilam bubulam eo nomine appellat, ceteri vero conyzam, id est cunilaginem, thymbram vero quae sit cunila.

Lovage grows wild in the mountains of its native Liguria, but is cultivated everywhere; the cultivated kind is sweeter but lacks strength. Some people call it panax, but the Greek writer Crateuas gives that name to cow-cunila, though all others call that conyza [Elecampane, or fleabane], which is really cunilago, while real cunila they call thymbra.

lovage

In the original Liueſche which Cotgrave interprets Lovage of Lombardy. Cambridge Dictionary says the same of Ligusticum, and reason good.

ligusticum, c’est livesche

Plante médicinale.

Ligusticum

Plante médicinale. Livesche vient de ligusticum, par le changement du g en v, et par contraction, et ligusticum de Liguria.

Ligusticum

Pliny xix. 5, § 50.

ligusticum

Ligusticum, Livèche, de Liguria, parc qu’elle se trouve communément sur la côte génoise. « Ligisticum silvestre est in Liguriae suæ montivus », dit Pline, XIX, 50. Genre d’Ombelliféres comprenant div. est. de Corse, des Alpes, des Pyrénées. S’agit-il ici de Ligusticum levisticum, L. ? (Paul Delaunay)

Ligusticum

Pline, XIX, i.

ligustrum

ligustrum. [Latin ligustrum privet, adopted by Linnæus (Hortus Cliffortianus (1737)) and earlier botanists as the name of a genus.]

privet.