[700] Lib. xxxiii. § 20, p. 616.
[701] Plin. lib. xxxv. § 17, p. 685.
[702] Lib. xxxiii. § 32, p. 622. “Cum æra inaurantur, sublitum bracteis pertinacissime retinet. Verum pallore detegit simplices aut prætenues bracteas. Quapropter id furtum quærentes ovi liquore candido usum eum adulteravere.” See also sect. 42, p. 626. I acknowledge that this passage I do not fully comprehend. It seems to say that the quicksilver, when the gold was laid on too thin, appeared through it, but that this might be prevented by mixing with the quicksilver the white of an egg. The quicksilver then remained under the gold; but this is impossible. When the smallest drop of quicksilver falls upon gilding, it corrodes the noble metal, and produces an empty spot. It is therefore incomprehensible to me how this could be prevented by the white of an egg. Did Pliny himself completely understand gilding? Perhaps Pliny only meant to say, that many artists gave out the cold-gilding, where the gold-leaf was laid on with the white of an egg, as gilding by means of heat. I shall here remark, that the reader may spare himself the trouble of turning over Durand’s Histoire Naturelle de l’Or et d’Argent, Londres 1729, fol. This Frenchman did not understand what he translated.
[703] Principes de l’Architecture. Paris, 1676, 4to, p. 280.
[704] Lessing zur Geschichte und Litteratur, vi. p. 311.
[705] Piazza Universale. Venet. 1610, 4to, p. 281.
[706] De Rerum Var. xiii. cap. 56.
[707] De Atramentis.
[708] Mémoires concernant les Chinois, xi. p. 351.
[709] De Rerum Inventoribus, Hamb. 1613, 8vo, pp. 41, 37.