130
J. M. Beyer’s Schauplatz der Mühlen-Bau-kunst. Leipzig, 1735, fol. Reprinted at Dresden, 1767.
131
All those authors who have written expressly on the fate of the Huguenots, the History of Richelieu, Louis XIII., and the siege of Rochelle, make mention of Targone.
132
Histoire de la Milice Françoise, par Daniel. Amst. 1724, i. p. 332.
133
L’Hoggidi, overo gl’Ingegni non inferiori a’ passati. Ven. 1636, 8vo.
134
Kriegsbuch, Frankf. 1596, fol. p. 9.
135
The works in which this subject has been already treated are the following: – Eberhartus de Weihe, de Speculi origine, usu et abusu. A compilation formed without taste, of which I gave some account in the Article on Chimneys. – Spanhemii Obs. in Callimachi hymn. lavacr. Palladis, p. 615. – Académie des Inscriptions, t. xxiii. p. 140. – Recherches sur les Miroirs des Anciens, par Menard. A short paper, barren of information. – Saggi di Dissertazioni Accad. dell’ Accad. Etrusca dell’ città di Cortona, vii. p. 19: Sopra gli Specchi degli Antichi, del Sig. Cari. A translation from the French, with the figures of some ancient mirrors. It contains an explanation of some passages in Pliny, where he seems to speak of a mirror formed of a ruby, and some conjectures respecting the mirror of Nero. An anonymous member of the Academy, in an appendix, confirms the former, and considers the latter, very properly, as improbable. – Caylus, Recueil d’Antiquités, iii. p. 331, and v. p. 173. A description and figures of ancient mirrors, with some chemical experiments on their composition. – Amusemens Philosophiques. Par le père Bonaventure Abat. Amst. 1763, 8vo, p. 433: Sur l’Antiquité des Mirroirs de Verre. A dissertation worthy of being read on account of the author’s acquaintance with the ancient writers, and his knowledge of technology; but he roves beyond all proof, and employs too much verbosity to decorate his conjectures.
136
Passages of the poets, where female deities and shepherdesses are represented as contemplating themselves in water instead of a mirror, may be found in the notes to Phædri Fab. i. 4, in the edition of Burmann.
137
Chap. xxxvii. ver. 18.
138
Exodus, chap. xxxviii. ver. 8.
139
Historia Vitri apud Judæos, in Comment. Societat. Scient. Gotting. iv. p. 330. Having requested Professor Tychsen’s opinion on this subject, I received the following answer: – “You have conjectured very properly that the mirrors of the Israelitish women, mentioned Exod. xxxviii. 8, were not employed for ornamenting or covering the washing-basins, in order that the priests might behold themselves in them; but that they were melted and basins cast of them. The former was a conceit first advanced, if I am not mistaken, by Nicol. de Lyra, in the fourteenth century, and which Michaelis himself adopted in the year 1754; but he afterwards retracted his opinion when he made his translation of the Old Testament at a riper age. In the Hebrew expression there is no ground for it; and mirrors could hardly be placed very conveniently in a basin employed for washing the feet. I must at the same time confess that the word (מראת) which is here supposed to signify a mirror, occurs nowhere else in that sense. Another explanation therefore has been given, by which both the women and mirrors disappear from the passage. It is by a learned Fleming, Hermann Gid. Clement, and may be found in his Dissertatio de Labro Æneo, Groning. 1732, and also in Ugolini Thesaurus, tom. xix. p. 1505. He translates the passage thus: Fecit labrum æneum et operculum ejus æneum cum
140
Oneirocrit. lib. iii. cap. 30. p. 176.
141
Joh. Sarisberiensis, i. cap. 12.
142
Plin. lib. xxxiii. cap. 9. Seneca, Quæst. Nat. i. cap. 5.
143
Vita Probi, cap. iv. p. 926: “Patinam argenteam librarum decem specillatam.” Salmasius chooses rather to read
144
Iliad. lib. xiv. ver. 166.
145
Hymnus in Lavacrum Palladis, v. 15, 21. It was however customary to ascribe a mirror to Juno, as Spanheim on this passage proves; and Athanasius, in Orat. contra Gentes, cap. xviii. p. 18, says that she was considered as the inventress of dress and all ornaments. Should not therefore the mirror, the principal instrument of dress, belong to her? May it not have been denied to her by Callimachus, because he did not find it mentioned in the description which Homer has given of her dressing-room?
146
De Natur. Deorum, iii. 22.
147
Licetus de Lucernis Antiq. lib. vi. cap. 92.
148
Lib. xxxiv. cap. 17, p. 669.
149
Quæst. Nat. at the end of the first book.
150
Mostell. act i. sc. 3. v. 101.
151
Arrianus in Epictet. i. cap. 20, p. 79.
152
Among the remaining passages of the ancients with which I am acquainted, in which mention is made of silver mirrors, the following deserves notice. Chrysostom, Serm. xvii. p. 224, who, in drawing a picture of the extravagance of the women, says, “The maid-servants must be continually importuning the silversmith to know whether their lady’s mirror be yet ready.” The best mirrors therefore were made by the silversmiths. It appears that the mirror-makers at Rome formed a particular company; at least Muratori, in Thesaur. Inscript. Clas. vii. p. 529, has made known an inscription in which
153
Lib. xxxiii. c. 9. p. 627, and lib. xxxiv. c. 17, p. 669.
154
Philosophical Transactions, vol. lxvii. p. 296.
155
Quomodo