HISTORY Of most Manual Arts, Deducing the Original, Progress, and Improvement of them. Furnished with variety of Instances and Examples, showing forth the excellency of Humane Wit.. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Euripid. LONDON, Printed for Henry Herringman, and are to be sold at his Shop, at the Blue-anchor, in the Lower Walk of the New-Exchange. 1661. To the READERS. Gentlemen, THough this Curious Piece you are here presented with, needs neither Preface nor Apology for its publication, yet I perceive you are now grown to that delicacy or rather state in your Diet, you will not eat without a Taster. Give me leave therefore to acquaint you, That those to whose censure I permitted this Book, before I sent it to the Press, (and in whose Judgement I have some reason to confide) have assured me it hath in it those two Graces of Attraction, Novelty and Excellency in its kind; That the Title (which is a fault you may the more easily pardon, because not often committed) does modestly veil many perfections in the Work itself, in which you have several curious remarkes on Music, Limning, and other Noble Arts, as well as those that are properly termed Manual; and those too so handsomely treated of, with that excellency of Wit, that fair abundance and variety of judicious reading, that roundness, strength, and dignity of Style, that you will imagine yourselves even amongst the Mechanic Arts, to be conversant in the Liberal. The meanest things are ennobled here by the Expression; and all our Author touches he turns to Gold: So that for what concerns myself, I may confidently affirm, I have in the publication of this Treatise, performed an acceptable service to all ingenuous persons: And for the Author, I may adventure to say, He hath by this Work particularly honoured that Art of which he gives you so handsome an account; I mean, The Invention of PRINTING. The Principal Authors mentioned in this Work. Abraham Gelnitz. Aristotle. Aldourand. Athanas: Kircherus. Apuleius. Archimedes. Awl: Gellius. Augustin. Aelian. Baker, Sir Richard. Bartas. Bacon Roger. Bacon, Vic. St Alban. Busbequius. THE CONTENTS. Chap. I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: or, The Invention of Dial's, Clocks, Watches, and other time-tellers. page 1 Chap. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Of some curious Spheres and Representations of the World. 14 Chap. III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Of sundry Machines' and Artificial Motions, by Water, and A●r. 24 Chap. IV. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or the Art and Mystery of Writing, with the Instruments thereunto belonging. 46 Chap. V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Of the Mystery of Printing: Also of Printing-Presses. 62 Chap. VI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or the Art of Limning and Painting: Also of the Plumary Art. 70 Chap. VII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or the Art of Spinning and Weaving; with the several materials of Garments amongst sundry Nations. 84 Chap. VIII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or the Original of Music, and Instruments thereunto belonging: Also of the power and efficacy of Music. 102 Chap. IX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or the invention of Glass, and of sundry Glass-works. 133 Chap. X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or the Invention of Shipping and Sailing: Also of the Mariner's Compass. 144 Chap. XI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or the Art of Cicuration, or Taming of Wild Beasts. 164 Chap. XII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Or certain pretty Knacks and extravagancies of Art. 180 An Index. A. AEOlipiles what, and of what use? Arion wafted to shore by a Dolphin. Apelles' Masterpiece. Archimedes a great Mathematician and Engineer. Inventor of a selfmoving Sphere. Amphitheatres made of Glass. Argo, Jason 's Ship. Arts, perfected by degrees. Arras work, where made? B. Baboon taught to play on the Guittar. Beasts of all sorts tamed. delighted with Music. Bear playing on a Tabor, and dancing. Balsas what, and of what use? Boetius a rare Mathematician▪ Boats made to sail under water, made to sail of themselves, made of a Tortoise shell, made of Osier or Wicker, made of Paper or Reeds. Biting of the Tarantula cured by Music. Bellows filled with water to blow fire. C. Cambrics made at Cambray. Coco-trees the great benefit of them. Crow taught to fly at Partridges. Clocks of curious workmanship. Chains very curious made by Vulcan. Corn. van Drebble a great Mechanic or Engineer. Curracles described by Lucan. Cicuration, or taming of Wild Beasts. Crystal Glass impatients of heats. Cloth made of dowl growing upon a shellfish, made of incombustible flax. made of a hairy stone called Trichitis or Salamander's wool, made of the Barks of Trees, made of Camel's hair, called Camelots', made of wool fallen from the sky. Cloth made clean by throwing it into the fire. Coaches going with Sails. Chariots drawn by Lions, by Tigers, by Staggs, by Dogs, by Ostriches, by Elephants, moved by Sails. D. Dial's invented by Anaxamenes, made with Heliotrope flowers. Dolphins made use of to catch fish. Dear used for the Saddle. Dove artificial made to fly. Devil hater of Music. Damask- works. Dancing Horses. E. Eagles taught to fly at fowl. Eagle artificial made to fly. Eloquence, the great force and power of it. Erasmus his Spherical Ring. Elephants taught to dance, and how. Very docil, and taught to perform sundry Offices. Ostriches put to draw a Coach. F. Flavio of Amalphi, first inventor of the Mariner's compass. Feather works of rare Art. Fish Nautilus, first Type of a Ship. Flea with a chain about her neck. Fossil and fulfil glasses. Fishes affected with Music. G. Glass where made, and whereof. Glass Galley. Glass chains. Glass Organs. Glasses made to burn Ships. Glass made malleable. Grograms made of Coats hair. Garments made of feathers. H. Hours, so named from Horus Apollo. Horses taught to dance. Hydrautick Organs, Heavens artificial. I. Instrument of perpetual motion invented by Van Drebble. Incombustible Flax. Iron Spider made to move like a natural one. Iron mill that one could carry about him▪ L. Leopards taught to run at Deer like Greyhounds. Linen the general wear of Priests. Limning or Painting how begun. Letters invented by the Phoenicians. Lions tamed for several offices. Loadstone described by Claudian, very useful by Land and by Sea, comparable to all the precious stones in the world. Locks of curious work. Lute, why called Testudo. Looking-glasses, some strange feats to be done by them. Load-stars, which they be. Looms weaving Webs of themselves. M. Music the first Invention of it, the power and efficacy of it, upon men and beasts, upon good and bad Angels, in curing diseases of body and mind, in corrupting manners, or reforming. Memnon's Statue Musical. Mariner's Compass, by whom invented. Mills of Segovia, Tholouse, and Dantzick, admirable. Mill of Iron that one could carry in his sleeve. Monkey very skilful at Chess-play. Moon inhabited. Mosaic work, what it is. Myrons' brazen Cow. N. Navigation a bold Art. Navigation very imperfect before the invention of the Compass. Navigation by land, and under water. O. Organs tuned by the motion of water, by the Sunbeams. Opsidian glass, what kind. Orpheus' his powerful Music. Ovid's Pen preserved. Organ Pipes made of Glass, made of Alabaster. Otters taught to drive fish into the net. P. Parrot taught to sing the Gam-ut. Painting or Limning a useful and delightful Art. Plumary art what it is. Pictures made of feathers. Pictures highly valued. Panthers tamed for hunting. Picture called Deaths-dance. Printing, where invented. Printing-Presses. Paper made of seggs or rushes, made of lint and rags. R. Rare shows on the Roman Amphitheatres. Roger Bacon a great Mathematician. Reversus, a fish used to catch fish withal. S. Sea-dial; See Mariners Compass. Spiders in the Summer Islands making silk. Spider of Iron moving like the natural. Sybarits horses taught to dance. Sailing Coaches. Sailing by stars before the invention of the Compass. Sailing in Taprobana by the direction of birds. Ships with Gardens and Orchards on the tops. Ship first invented by Jason among the Grecians. Silkworm first brought into Europe. Sea-silk. Silk whether any vegetable or growing upon trees. Spider's tissue admirable. Spit to turn by a Sail, by the motion of Air. Spheres representing the heavenly bodies and motions. Specular stone what it was. Statues vocal. Salamander's wool, what it is. T. Thermometers, or Wether glasses. Travelling by the direction of Stars. Tortoise shell used for a house and a boat. Tortoise shell first pattern of a Lute. Triton artificial, sounding a Trumpet. Tredeskins Ark. Tyrians the best Navigators. V. Velvets and Satins made of the bark of the Palm tree. Vulcan's chains very subtle. Venus' rising out of the Sea, was Apelles his masterpiece. W. Wagon and Oxen of glass, that a Fly could cover with her wings. Weaving by whom invented. Water-works of sundry sorts. Watches made in the collet of a Ring, hanging at Lady's ears. Weather-glasses of what use. Wind-motions, sundry instances. Writing an excellent invention. Writing in lead and brass, in rocks and stones, in leaves and barks of trees, in cedar and box, in waxen tables. Writing in short hand, by whom invented. Writing with the feet. Wool, whether growing upon trees. Wool reigned from the sky made into cloth. Wooden Palace of Henry VIII. Z. Ziglography what, and of what use. Zeuxes his picture of an old woman deceived by a painted curtain. CAP. I. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR The Invention of Dial's, Clocks, Watches, and other Time-tellers. TIme is the most precious commodity that man doth enjoy; because time past, cannot be revoked; and time lost, cannot be repaired. Damna fleo rerum, sed plus fleo damna dierum. Rex poterit rebus succurrere, nemo diebus. Lost Treasure I bewail, but lost Days more; Kings can give treasure, none can days restore▪ Therefore men should set a due estimate upon this commodity, and expend it thriftily and wisely: to which purpose the ancient Sages of the world have ingeniously devised a way to divide even the Natural day (which is one of the least measures of time) into hours, and those into quarters and minutes, and into lesser Fractions than they; that by this Horometry, they might meet out and proportion business to the time, and time to the business in hand. The name of Horae, Hours, came from Horus Apollo, an Egyptian Sage, who first divided the day into those portions we call hours, as Macrobius Saturnal. l. 1. cap. 21. informs us. In Egypt there was a Beast of a very strange kind, called Cynocephalus, kept in the Temple of Serapis, which in the time of the two Aequinoxes, did make water twelve times in a day, and so often in the night, and that regularly, at even spaces of time; from the observation whereof they divided the natural day into twenty four hours; and that Beast was their Clock and Dyal, both to divide the day, and reckon the hours by. This gave a hint (belike) to the Clepsydrae, or water-glasses (invented by Ctesibius of Alexandria) which distinguished the hours by the fall or dropping of water, as Clepsammidia or Sand-glasses did by the running of sand: Miro modo in terris aqua peragit, quod Solis flammeus vigor desuper moderatus excutrit. Cassiod. de Divin. Lection. c. 30. And to show they owed the invention to this creature, they used to set one carved on the top of these Water glasses, as may be seen in Kirker in Mechanica Aegyptiaca. The Heavens are the grand universal clock of the world, from whose incessant and regular motion, all times here below are distinguished and measured. And because time is in continual flux or motion, and passes away with silent feet, insensibly and invisibly, therefore it was necessary to invent a way how to make the motion of time (according to the several divisions thereof) visible to the eye, or audible to the ear, that it should not steal away without our notice, but that we might tell and count its steps and stealth. Anaximenes' the Philosopher was the first that took an account of time by shadows projected on the ground, and which changed and moved according to the motion of the Sun, from which observation he devised Sun-dyals' called Scioterica. Though Vitruvius ascribes the Invention to Berosus the Chaldean, who framed Vasa Horoscopa, and Epicyclia ex cavavata cum stylo (as he terms them) certain hollow Dial's (like dishes) with Styles or Gnomon erected in the middle. At Rome they counted the day (for a long time) by the shadow of a brazen Obelisk or Pillar: when the shadow of the pillar did fall in such a place, they did account it Noon or Midday, and then a Crier was appointed to cry it about the Town; So likewise at Evening, when the shadow fell in such a place, the Crier proclaimed horam supremam, the last hour of day: other distinctions they had none as yet. The Nasican Scipio was the first that brought the use of Water-glasses amongst them, and distinguished the hours of day and night; until his time, Populo Romano indiscreta lux fuit, saith Pliny, the Roman people had no division of hours; as the Turks (at this day) have no distinction of their ways by miles, nor of their days by hours, as Busbequias' relates Ep. 1. Legat. Turc. In Plautus his time, there was great store of Sun-dyals' in Rome, which he calls Solaria; for in one of his * Called Boeotia, which is lost: but these words are cited by Aul. Gellius c●p. 3. Comedies, he brings in an hungry servant complaining of the number of them, and cursing the Invention in these expressions. Ut illum Dii perdant qui primus horas repperit, Quique primus adeo statuit hic Solarium, Qui mihi comminuit misero articulatim diem. Name me puero venter hic er at Solarium Multum omnium istorum optimum ac veriss imum. Ibi iste monebat * i. Edere esse, nisi cum nihil erat. Nunc etians quod est non estur nisi Soli lubet Itaque jam oppletum est oppidum solariis Major pars populi, aridi reptant fame. Among the Persians every one's belly was his Dyal: so it was in Ammianus Marcellinus his time: But these ways of Horometry were rude and imperfect. By Water-glasses the account was not regular: for from the attenuation and condensation of the water, the hours were shorter or longer, according to the heat or coldness of the weather. Then for the Sun-dyals' they did serve but at some times, only by day time, and then not always neither, but when the Sun shined. To remedy these defects, some wits did cast about how to distinguish the hours of the night as well as of the day; and of cloudy days as well as of serene and clear. Hereupon some Engines and contrivances have been composed by Trochilique art, or the artifice of Wheels; which by the motion of several Wheels, and Springs, and Weights, and counterpoizes should give an account of the time, without Sun or Stars; and these were called Horologes. Severinus Boetius a worthy Patrician of Rome, and a most eminent P●ilosopher and Mathematician, was the first (that I find) that contrived any Engine of this sort: Theodoricus King of the Goths wrote a Letter to the said Boetius to beg one from him for to bestow on his brother in law Gundibald King of Burgundy; in which Letter he calls it, Machinam mundo gravidam, Caelum gestabile, rerum compendium: A portable heaven, and a compendium of the heavenly Spheres, as Cassiodor hath it, who was the penman, in the first book of his variae lectiones. Aaron King of Persia sent such an Instrument for a present to Char●s the great King of France, in the year 804. it was made of Copper, & Arte Mechanica mirifice compositum, saith Hermannus Contractus, who doth describe the same more largely in his history. Of these Horologes, some are mute, and some vocal: Vocal I call those which by the sound of a Bell striking at just intervals and periods of time, do proclaim the hour of the day or night, yea, even half hours and minutes; by the benefit whereof, even blind men that can see neither Sun nor shadow, and those that lie in their beds, may know how the time goes, and how long they have been there, although they slept all the while; and are properly called Clocks, from the French word Cloche, a Bell. It rota nexa rot is, tinnulaque aere sonant. Mute Horologes are such as perform a silent motion, and do not speak the time of the day, but point at it with an Index, such as are Sun-dyals' and Watches; the last of which go by springs and wheels, as the others by weights and wheels: yet some of these are vocal too, and carry Bells and Alarms, to signify unto us the stealth of time. Many carry Watches about them that do little heed the fabric and contrivance, or the wit and skill of the workmanship; as there be many that dwell in this habitable world, that do little consider or regard the wheelwork of this great Machine, and the fabric of the house they dwell in. A King of China upon his first seeing of a Watch, thought it a living creature, because it moved so regularly of itself, and thought it dead when it was run out, and its pulses did not beat. The wit of man hath been luxuriant and wanton in the Inventions of late years; some have made Watches so small and light, that Ladies hang them at their ears like pendants and jewels; the smallness and variety of the tools that are used about these small Engines, seem to me no less admirable than the Engines themselves; and there is more Art and Dexterity in placing so many Wheels and Axles in so small a compass (for some French Watches do not exceed the compass of a farthing) then in making Clocks and greater Machine's. The Emperor Charles the fifth had a Watch made in the Collet or Jewel of a Ring; Causs. Hier. and King James had the like: and one Georgius Caput Blancus, or George Whitehead was expert at making such knacks at Vicenza in Italy, as Schottus tells us in his Itinerary of that Country. Andrew Alciat the great Civilian of France, had a kind of a Clock in his chamber, that should awake him at any hour of the night that he determined, and when it struck the determined hour, it struck fire likewise out of a slint, which fell among tinder, to light him a candle: it was the invention of one Caravagio of Sienna in Italy. In some Towns of Germany and Italy, there are very rare and elaborate Clocks to be seen in their Town-Halls; wherein a man may read Astronomy, and never look up to the skies. Sydereos' vultus, Cantataque vatibus Astra, Non opus est Coelo quaerere, quaere domi. So Grotius of these Globes. In the Town-Hall of Prague, there is a Clock that shows the annual and periodical motions of the Sun and Moon, the names and numbers of the months, days and Festivals of the whole year, the times of the Sunrising and setting, throughout the year, the Aequinoxes, the length of the days and nights, the rising and setting of the 12 Signs of the Zodiac: The age of the Moon with its several Aspects and Configurations; as George Bruy describes it in Theatro Urbium. But the Town of Sraesburgh carries the bell of all other steeples (of Germany) in this point. A Scheme of the Strasburg clock you may find in Coriats' Travels, with a full description thereof: it was made by one Conradus Dasypodius a German, Mich. Neander Greg. and Professor of the Mathematics in that City. One Linnus a Jesuit of Liege, l. de Magnete. and an Englishman by birth (as Kircher tells me) had a Phial or Glass of water, wherein a little Globe did float, with the four and twenty Letters of the Alphabet described upon it, and on the inside of the Globe was an Index or Style, to which the Globe did turn and move itself, at the period of every hour, with that letter which denoted the hour of the day successively, as though this little Globe kept pace and time with the heavenly motions, Gassend. de vita Peyresci. Kircher above mentioned had a Vessel of water, in which, just even with the he ●ghe and surface of the water, the twenty four hours were described; upon the water he set a piece of a Cork, and therein some seeds of a certain Heliotrope flower, which (like the flower itself) would turn the cork about, according to the course of the Sun, and with its motion point the hour of the day, ibid. I● that famous Stable of the Duke of Saxony at Dresden, there is a Room furnished with all manner of Saddles; among the rest, there is one that in the Pommel hath a guilded head, with eyes continually moving; and in the hinder part there of hath a Clock, as M. Morison (an eye witness) relates in his Travels. Of a portable Clock or Watch, take this ensuing Epigram of our Countryman Thomas Campian, de Horologio Portabili. Tempor is interpres parvum congestus in orbem. Qui memores repet is nocte dieque sonos. Ut semel instructus jucundè sex quater hor as Mobilibus retulis irrequietus agis. Nec mecum (quocunque feror) comesire gravar is Annumerans vitae damna, levansque meae: Times-Teller wrought into a little round, Translated H. V. Which countest the days and nights with watchful sound; How (when once fixed) with busy Wheels dost thou The twice twelve useful hours drive on and show. And where I go, go'st with me without strife, The Monitor and Ease of fleeting life. But the exactest Clocks and Watches that are, are defective, and want corection; for in Watches, the first half hour goes faster than the last half, and the second hour is slower than the first, and the third than the second; the reason whereof is, because Springs when they are wound up, and then begin their motion, move faster in the beginning then in the ending; as it is with all violent motion'st. But in Clocks it happens contrary; the last half hour is faster than the first, because the weights by which they move, move slowly at first, as all ponderous things do, but accelerate their motion when they draw nearer to the earth. Besides, the lines or cords by which the weights do hand (being drawn out into some length) add some weight to the plummets, and consequently some speed to the motion. Both which inconveniences William Landgrave of Hessen, and Tycho Brahe took into consideration how to rectify, as Tycho relates; but how they sped in the enterprise, he doth not tell us. CAP. II. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, Some curious Spheres and Representations of the World. ARCHIMEDES of Syracuse was the greatest Mathematician and the rarest Engineer that was in his time, or hath been ever since (as 'tis believed) both for the Rational and Chirurgical part, the Theory and the Practic of the Mathematics. Cicero calls him Divinum ingenium, 2ᵒ de nature a Deorum. He was not only, Caeli Syderùmque Spectator assiduus (as Livy speaks of him) a diligent Spectator of the heavenly Orbs and their Motions; but also Cyclorum & Staticorum indagator acerrimus, as the same Livy, a great Experimentator and devisor of Machanical Motions and Inventions. He was the first, qui stellarum errantium motus in Sphaeram illigavit, saith Cicero, 1ᵒ Tusc. that made a Sphere and an artificial heaven, wherein he did represent the rotations and revolutions of the Planets, and that with as true time and measure as they perform the same above. Of this Sphere Claudian hath an Epigram that acquaints us with some thing of the Fabric of it. Jupiter in parvo cum cerneret aether● vitro; Risit, & ad superos talia dicta refert. Huccine mortalis progress a potentia curae: Jam meus in Fragili luditur orbe labour. Jura Poli, Rerùmque fidem, Legésque Deorum, Ecce Syracusius Transtulit arte Senex * sc. Archi modes. Inclusus variis famulatur Spiritus astris, Et vivum certis motibus urget opus. Percurrit proprium mentitus signifer annum, Et simulata nove Cynthia mense redit. Translated thus by Mr Nathaniel Carpenter in his Geography. In a small Glass when Jove beheld the skies, He smiled, and thus unto the God's replies; Could man extend so far his studious care, To mock my labours in a brittle sphere? Heaven's Laws, Man's Ways, and Nature's Sovereign Right This Sage of Syracuse translates to sight. A soul within on various Stars attends, And moves the quick Work into certain ends; A feigned Zodiac runs its proper year, And a false Cynthia makes new months appear. And now bold Art takes on her to command, And rule the heavenly Stars with humane hand. Who can admire Salmoneus harmless Thunder, When a slight hand stirs Nature up to wonder? This is mentioned also by Ou. 6. Fast. Arte Syracosia suspensus in aere clauso Stat Globus, immensi parva figura poli. From that description of Claudian, we observe first, That this Machine did move of itself, it was an Automaton, a selfmoving device; and which moved regularly by certain laws, Et Vivum cert is, motibus urget opus. As the Poet saith. 2. We learn from him, that these motions were driven and acted by certain Spirits penned within, Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus astris. About which spirits Kircher hath often beaten his brains, what to make of them, that he might know what was the inward principle of motion in that machine: But after all his study and scruting, he could never find it out, but he contends that the Circles of that Sphere were of brass, and the outside (only) was of glass or specular stone, (which the Poet might call vitrum, glass, for the perspicuity of it. Yet Authors do make mention of a Sphere of glass which Sapor King of Persia had, which was so large, that he could enter within it, and sit in the midst of it, and see the Spheres and Planets whirling round about him; which did swell him with such a conceit, that in his Letters he did use this stile, Rex regum Sapor, Particeps Syderum, Frater Solis & Lunae. We read of a silver Heaven sent by the Emperor Ferdinand for a Present to Soliman the grand Signior, Paul●● Jovius sabellicus. which was carried by twelve men with a book along with it that showed the use of it, and how to order and keep it in perpetual motion. Du Bartas makes mention of both, and concludes his description of them with this Rapture touching humane wit. O complete Creature! who the starry Spheres Canst make to move, who 'bove the heavenly Bears Extend'st thy power, who guidest with thy hand The days bright Chariot, and the heavenly brand. Kercher doth highly extol and admire the Artificers of this latter age for making Spheres and Globes, and such representations; who can make them (saith he) with such exactness and perfection in all points, that Jupiter might have juster cause to complain of them, than he did of Archimedes (in Claudian) for their presumptuous emulation of his handiworks. Among the Moderns, one Cornelius van Drebble a Dutchman of Alcmar, may deserve just admiration: This man lived here in England, and was Regi Jacobo à Mechanicis (as one saithe King James his Engineer, he presented the King with a rare Instrument of perpetual motion, without the means of Steel, Springs, or Weights; it was made in the form of a Globe, in the hollow whereof were Wheels of Brass moving about, with two pointers on each side thereof, to proportion and show forth the times of days, months, and years, like a perpetual Almanac; it did represent the motions of the heavens, the hours of Rising and Setting of the Sun, with the Sign that the Moon was in every 24 hours, and what degree the Sun was distant from it; how many degrees the Sun and Moon are distant from us day and night, what Sign of the Zodiac the Sun was in every month; it had a circumference or ring which being hollow had water in it, representing the Sea, which did rise and fall, as doth the flood, twice in 24 hours, according to the course of the sides. This Bezaleel was sent for to the Emperor of Germany, who sent him a chain of gold: A rude Scheme of this Instrument may be seen upon paper in Mr Tho. Tim's Philosophical Dialogue, Dignus rex Archimede isto altero; Dignus Archimedes Batavus mag no illo rege, as Marcellus Vrankheim (another Dutchman) speaks of King James and his Engineer, in his Epistle to Ernestus Burgravius. Of this Microcosm or Representation of the World which we now mentioned, the excellent Grotius hath framed this Epigram following. In organum motus perpetui quod est penes Maximum Britanniaeum Regem Jacobum. Perpetui motus indelass ata potestas Abique quiet quies, absque labour labour, Contigerant coelo, tunc cum Natura caducis, Et solidis unum noluit esse locum. Et geminas partes Lunae dispescuit orbe, In varias damnans inferiora vices. Sed quod nunc Natura suis è legibus exit Dans terris semper quod moveatur opus? Mira quidem res est sed non nova (maxim Regum) Hoc fieri docuit mens tua posse prius. Mens tua quae semper tranquilla & torpida nunquam, Tramite constanti per sua regna meat. Ut tua mens ergò motûs caelestis Imago: Machina sic haec est mentis Imagot●ae. Translated thus. The untired strength of never-ceasing motion, A restless rest a toyl-less operation, Heaven then had given it, H. V. when wise Nature did To frail & solid things one place forbid; And parting both, made the Moon's Orb their bound. Damning to various change this lower ground. But now what Nature hath those Laws transgressed, Giving to earth a work that ne'er will rest? Though 'tis most strange, yet (great King 'tis not new; This Work was seen and found before in You. In You, whose mind (though still calm) never sleeps, But through your Realms one constant motion keeps: As your mind (then) was Heavens type first, so this But the taught Anti-type of your mind is. One Janellus Turrianus a Citizen of Cremona, made brazen heavens in imitation of those of Archimedes, and far surpassing them for Art, saith Gaffarellus in his book of Curiosities; and Ambrose Morinus in his description of Spain. Erasmus had a golden Ring given him by one of the Prince's of Germany, which being explicated, was a perfect celestial sphere, just of that form we call the Armillary sphere, as we read in his life. Janellus before mentioned did recreate the Emperor Charles the fifth (when he had resigned up his Empire, and retired to a Monastique life in Spain) with ingenious and rare devices: Oftentimes when the cloth was taken away after dinner, he brought upon the board little armed Figures of Horse and Foot, some beating Drums, other sounding Trumpets, and others of them charging one another with their Pikes. Sometimes he sent wooden Sparrows into the Emperor's Dining room, that would fly round about, and back again; so that the Superior of the Monastery coming in by accident, suspected him for a Conjurer. He framed a Mill of Iron that turned itself, of such subtle work and smallness, that a Monk could easily hide it in his sleeve; yet would it daily grind so much wheat as would abundantly serve eight persons for their days allowance. This was he who made the Water work, which by a new Miracle of Art, drew up the River Tagus to the top of the Mountain of Toledo. All this we have from Famianus Stradas excellent History of the Low Country Wars. CAP. III. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, Of sundry Machines', and Artificial Motions. GOd framed the world by Geometry (as we may say) that is, Wisd. 7, 10 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch Sympos. l. 8. q. 2. with wonderful Art; he did all things in Number, Weight, and Measure. Aristotle calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, The great Engineer of the world, that tacked this rare Systeme of heaven and earth together, tacked the Centre to the Spheres, and made the whole Frame to move in a wonderful order from its first creation to this day. The earth is a rare piece of his statics, being hanged upon nothing, as Job saith, Job 26. 7. it hangs in the very Centre and middle of the world, like a Ball in the Air, but fixed and immovable, being evenly balanced and counterpoized with its own weight: Ou. Met. l. 1. Ponderibus librata suis. So those pendulous Mountains (the Clouds) whose ballancings that great Philosopher Job admired, Job 37. 16. and those fiery Mountains (the Comets) are God's Isorropica, and some admirable parcels and pieces of his Mathematics. But the whole Machine of the world being taken in the entire frame and fabric of it, is a greater wonder than all other wonders in the world, De Civit. l. 11. as St Augustine gives his judgement. This is a kind of an Automaton or Engine that moves of itself, much like a great Clock with wheels and poises, and counterpoyzes, that is always in motion, though no body moves it. For I cannot believe that the Angels (those glorious creatures) are tied to the heavenly bodies (like dogs in a wheel) to give them motion, but that that great Engineer which made them, gave them a seeing or motion at first, that continues to this day, and will continue so long as the Sun and Moon endureth. As the great world is an Automaton, so is the little world (man) a sort of a selfmoving Engine, that performs its several motions by certain Springs, and Wheels, and Chords that are acted by one secret principle of all motions, to wit, the heart and spirits therein contained, and which are from thence dispersed through the whole frame of the work. Mens agitat molem, & parvo se corpore miscet. Now it is observed, that the wit of man by a diligent and attentive perusal of the world and himself, hath framed sundry useful Machines' and artificial motions, after those patterns, after the frame and model of those two primary Automata that God himself made. A Mill was first made after the pattern of a man's mouth, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. as Seneca tells us in his ninth Epistle; An Organ pipe had its pattern from man's weasand, which is inspired with the Lungs, and many other Inventions have been hinted unto us from the Organs of man's body, and the actions performed by them. For Engineers, such as were expert in the practical part of the Mathematics, these were the most renowned in ancient times. Archimedes of Syracuse, Architas of Tarentum, Severinus Boetius of Rome, Proclus, Heron, and Ctesibius, both of Alexandria, of later times, Regiomontanus of Norimberg, Simon Stevinus of lower Germany, Cornelius van Drebble his Countryman, whom we mentioned before, Athanasius Kircher by birth a Germane, but living (of late) in Rome, and Marinus Marsennus, a Friar of Paris. These were Magis and Thaumaturgi Mathematici wonder-workers, or such as performed marvellous feats by their great skill in Mathematical Sciences. Cassiodorus a grave learned man, and Secretary to Theodorick King of the Goths, giveth this character of the abovenamed Boetius in a certain Letter written unto him: You know (saith he) the secrets of Nature, and can work wonders by your Art, Metals do bellow and make a noise: Diomedes cast in brass, sounds his Trumpet louder; Here the brazen serpent hisses, and there artificial Birds (that had no voice) sing melodiously; yet these are but trivial things to relate of him, who can imitate the motions of the heavens here on earth. All artificial motions (generally) are performed by Air, or by Water, and so all Engines, at least such as move of themselves, are (or may be) divided in spiritalia & Aquatica. Heron of Alexandria writ books de spiritalibus Machinis, or wind motions or machines moved with the air or wind: and Paptista Porta hath some thing de pneumaticis experimentis, or wind-motions, in his fifth book of Natural Magic, and Marinus Mersennus hath written Phaenomena pneumatica. I will here produce some instances or examples of both kinds, and first of pneumatic or wind motions. De Spiritalibus Machinis, Or WIND-MOTIONS. OF this kind (I conceive) was that Wooden Dove of Architas, which he made to fly in the Air, which was by the means of Air penned or enclosed within, which in the motion being something rarified, kept it up aloft, and with some wheels contrived in the concavity thereof, did set it forward; so Aulus Gellius gives us some hint of the contrivance of it; No●t. Att▪ l. 10. c. 1●. Ita erat librament is suspensum, & ●urâ spiritûs inclusa, & occulta consitum, etc. Julius Scaliger understood the feat full well (it seems) for he professeth the skill to make the like with a wet finger, as we say. By the same art did Regiomontanus make a wooden Eagle to fly from Norimberg to meet the Emperor on his way thither; Exercit. contra Cardan. 326. and when it met him, it hovered over his head with a Tonick motion, and then returned along with him the same way that it came. The Iron Fly was the like device, made by the same Regiomontanus, which springing from under his hand, would fly round about the room with a humming noise, and then return back under his hand again. Simon Stevinius a Dutchman, made a chariot to go with sails, which was as swift almost as the wind that drove it; for it would carry eight or nine persons from Scheveling in Holland to Putten in two hours, which was the space of forty miles and upwards. Monsieur Peyresc a learned Antiquary of France, made a journey to see it, and was in it, and did use ever after to mention it with wonder, as Glassendus tells us in his life: It was made in fashion of a boat with four wheels, two sails, and a stern. Grotius hath excellent Poems in commendation of that Invention, two of the concisest I thought good to insert here, In currus veliferos. Ventivolam Typhis deduxit in aequora navem? Jupiter in terras, aethereámque domum In terrestre solum virtus Stevinia, nam nec Typhy tuum fuerit, nec Jovis istud opus. Aliud in eosdem. Hactenus immensum Batavi percurrimus aequor, Oceani nobis invia nulla via est. Nerea C●ttorum soboles consumpsimus omnes ●. Mare. Jam nihil est ultrà, velificatur humus. Translated Typhis to Sea the first Ship brought, and Jove To heaven, where Argo now a star doth move: But first by Land in Ships Stevinius went: For that, nor Jove, nor Typhis did invent. Another. The va●● Sea hitherto the Dutch have sa●●led Searched every Coast, found each point, and prevailed; The Ocean's all made pervious by their hand, Now nothing more is left, they sail by land. We read that in China and the Island of the Philippines, there are the like devices, as Boterus relates in Politia Illustrium; and Hondius in his Map of China hath a type thereof; so that now we sail on the land, and on the water, and under the water too; and an ingenious Gentleman of this Nation talks of sailing in the Air too (in a flying Coach) which he conceives to be feasible, and promises some attempt that way. Cael●us Rhodiginus relates, that the Egyptians had made some Statues of their Gods, both to walk of themselves, and also to utter some words articulately: For their motion, it must be ascribed to some wheels and springs within, like the contrivances of Daedalus his Statues, and Vulcan's Tripodes: But for their voice or speech, it must be ascribed unto some Air forced up through some pipes placed in the heads and mouth of 〈◊〉 Statues. So we must conceive of the artificial Lions that roared like the natural ones; and the artificial Birds that imitated the voices and tunes of real Birds, which Luitprandus saw at Constantinople in the Emperor's palace, when he was sent thither upon an Embassy from Berengarius King of the Lombard's, Anno Dom. 950. as the said Luitprandus relates in the sixth book of his History. Such was that Statue of Albertus magnus which spoke to Tho. Aquinas, and that brazen head of Roger Bacon a Carmelite Friar of Oxford, and perhaps that Image that Sir Richard Baker saith was made by Necromancy in the time of Richard the second, and not long before the Parliament that wrought Wonders, as Histories speak; which Image uttered at an hour appointed these words, The head shall be cut off, the head shall be lift aloft. the feet shall be lift up above the head: Sir Richard Baker in the life of Rich. 2. Gornelius van Drebble that rare Artist we spoke of) made a kind of an Organ that would make excellent Symphony of its self, being placed in the open Air and clear Sun, without any fingering of an Organist; which was (as we conceive) by the means of Air enclosed, and the strictures of the beams rarifying the same; for in a shady place it would yield no Music but where the Sunbeams could play upon it, as we read of Memnon's Statue that would make some kind of Harmony when the Sun did beat upon it; whereof we speak more hereafter. At Dantzick a City of Prussia, Mr Morison, an ingenious traveller of this Nation, saw a Mill which (without help of hands) did Sawe boards, having an iron wheel, which did not only drive the saw, but also did hook in, and turn the boards unto the Saw. Dr John Dee makes mention of the like which he had ●een at Prague in his preface to Euclid; but whether the Mill moved by wind or water, they do not mention: We heard of the like device set up in Kent here in England, and some other places. Archimedes his Sphere was some pneumatical Engine, that moved of itself by means of some enclosed Spirits, as appears by that Verse of Claudian in the description of it. Inclusus variis famulatur spiritus Astris. There are certain Aeoliis Sclopis, or wind-muskets that some have devised to shoot bullets withal, without powder, or any thing else, but wind compressed into the bore thereof, or injected with a spring (as boys use to shoot pellets with Elder-guns, by breathing air into them) which will shoot with as great force as powder. Aeoliae pilae (which by contraction they call Aeolipiles) are also of this kind, which are little things made of brass or copper in the form of a ball, or pear, or bellows (but concave) with a little small hole; these being filled with water (which they do by heating them in the fire, Baptista Porta l. 8. Mag. Nat. then throwing them into water) and then being set near the fire, the water rarefies into air, the air being scanted of room bursts out with great violence, and for a long season. They are used by Chemists to blow their coals with, as I have heard, and by some others to excite heat for melting of glass and metals, and are called by some the Philosophical bellows. A spit may be turned as Cardan shows, without the help of weights or hands, by the motion of air rarified by the fire, and ascending up the chimney, only a pair of ●ails must be placed in that part of the chimney where it begins to be narrow, and a wheel below, to the Axis whereof the spit-line must be tied; the air so ascending will turn the wheel, and the wheel the spit, as long as there is any fire in the chimney. De AQVATICIS MACHINIS, Of WATER MOTIONS. OUr ordinary Water mills that move by the force of water, are an excellent invention, if we consider the various implements that belong unto them, and with how little labour they are kept up to perform their work, when they are once set in order. I will show you (saith Rodulph Prince of Camerino to the Duke of Anjou) two stones that do excel all in your Cabinet, and showed him two Millstones. These cost but ten florins, said he, and they bring two hundred florins yearly. But the Mill called the Basacle at Thelous in France, Itiner. Gallo Belg is a Machine of more than common art, as Abraham Golnitz (that saw it) tells us; It is a thing worth your seeing (saith he) for there is not such another in all France: So is that at Dantzick in Prussia, which hath eighteen rooms, and brings a gold gulden of profit every hour to the public Treasury, saith Mr. Morison in his Travels. At the Mint of Segovia in Spain, there is an Engine that moves by water so artificially made, that one part of it distendeth an Ingot of gold into that breadth and thickness as is requisite to make coin of; it delivereth the plate that it hath wrought unto another that printeth the figure of the coin upon it, and from thence it is turned over to another that cutteth it (according to the print) in due shape and weight; and lastly, the several pieces fall into a reserve in another room, where the Officer (whose charge it is) findeth treasure ready coined, as a noble and learned Gentleman of this Nation in his Treatise of Bodies relates. Sir K. D. The Italians make rare devices by the motions of water; In the Duke of Florence his garden at Pratolino, is the picture of Pan sitting on a stool with a wreathed pipe in his hand, and Syrinx beckoning unto him to play on his pipe: Pan putting away his stool and standing up, plays on his pipe; this done, he looks on his Mistress, as if he expected thanks from her, takes his stool again, and sits down with a sad countenance. There is also the Statue of a Landress beating a buck, and turning the clothes up and down with her hand, and the battled or wherewith she beats them in the water. There is the Statue of Fame, loudly sounding her Trumpet; The picture of a Toad creeping to and fro, and a Dragon bowing down to drink water, and then vomiting it up, with divers other knacks of wonder and delight, as Mr Morison relates. At Tybur or Tivoli near Rome, in the Gardens of Hippolytus d' Este Cardinal of Ferrara, there are the pictures of sundry Birds on the tops of Trees, which by Hydraulic art and secret conveyances of water through the trunks and branches of the Trees, are made to sing and clap their wings, but at the picture of an Owl appearing suddenly out of a Bush, they are all mute and silent, as Schottus in his Itinerary of Italy. It was the work of Claudius Gallus, as Possevin informs in l. 15. of his Biblioth. select. c. 1. There are in sundry places of Italy and elsewhere, certain Organa Hyaraulica, that is, Organs that make good Music of themselves, only by forcing the water up the pipes, and by the collision of the Air and Water therein: The lower part of the pipes are placed in the water (as Petrus Victorius describes them) which water being forced up with a screw, or such device, doth inspire the pipes, as well as the wind that is made with a bellows. Among the water-works in the Duke of Florence his garden, there was an Hydraulic Organ that with the turning of a cock would make sweet harmony, as Mr Morison relates; the invention is ancient, for Ammianus Marcellinus makes mention of one l. 14. and Claudian describes one thus in his Poem de consulatu Mallii Theodori. Et qui magna levi detrudit murmura tactu Innumer as voces segetis moderatus Aë nae Intonat erranti digito, penitusque●rabali Vecte, laborantes in carmina concitat undas. Which invention is by some ascribed to Ctesibius, an ingenious Artist of Alexandria, by others to Archimedes of Syracuse, as Tertullian writes, of which he speaks thus, Specta potentissimam Archimedis munificentiam (scilicet) Organum Hydraulicum, tot membra, tot compagines, tot parts, tot itinera vecum, tot compendia sonorum, tot commercia Nodorum, tot acies tibiarum, & una moles erant. In those Roman spectacles or public shows exhibited by the Roman Emperors, we read of divers rare devices, and artificial motions, some whereof may not improperly be inserted in this place. There were Amphitheatres both at Rome and Verona, and elsewhere, Insana● Moles. which were prodigious piles, both for magnificence of cost, and inventions of Art; whole groves of great Trees (with green branches) were brought and planted upon the sandy Theatre, and therein a thousand Ostriches, a thousand wild Boar●, and a thousand Stags put in for the people to hunt. This Forest being removed, they would on a sudden overflow all with a deep Sea, fraught with Sea monsters, and strange Fishes; then might you see a Fleet of tall Ships ready rigged and appointed, to represent a Sea-fight: then all the water was let out again, and Gladiators or Fencers fight, where the Galleys stood but even now; which things are expressed in verse by Juvenal in his third satire thus: — Quoties nos descendentis Arenae Vidimus in parts, ruptâque voragine terra Emersisse feras & iisdem saepe latebris Aurea cum Croceo creverunt Arbuta libro? Nec solum nobis Sylvestria cernere monstra Contigit, Aequoreos ego cum certantibus Ursis Spectavi vitulos & equorum nomine dignum Sed deforme pecus— Translated by H. V. How oft have we beheld wild Beasts appear From broken gulfs of earth, upon some part Of sand that did not sink? How often there And thence did golden boughs o'er saffroned start? Nor only saw we monsters of the wood, But I have seen Sea-Calves whom Bears withstood; And such a kind of Beast as might be named A horse, but in most foul proportion framed. Sometimes they caused a steep mountain to rise in the midst of the Amphitheatre, covered with fruitful Trees, with streams and fountains of water gushing out: sometimes a tall Ship would float up and down of its self, which splitting asunder, would disgorge five or six hundred beasts to be baited, then vanish away: sometimes odoriferous waters would spout out to bedew the people, and refresh them with the scent; sometimes they would represent the Fable of Orpheus, and then the Trees must move up and down, as the Poet's fame they did when Orpheus played on his Harp. Repserunt scopuli, Mart. Epig. 23. mirandaque sylva cucurrit Quale fuisse nemus creditur Hesperidum Affuit immixtum pecudum genus omne ferarum Et supra vatem multa pependit avis. The Rocks did creep, vast Woods did strangely move, Such ('tis believed) was the Hesperian Grove; Wild Beasts and tame profusely came to sight, And o'er the Poet's head, birds did alight: So Martial speaks of this representation by Domitian the Emperor, wherein those things were really performed on the Theatre, which the Poets had but fabled, as he saith, Quicquid fama canit donat arena tibi. Which motions were performed per Machinamenta 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Mr Farnaby conjectures in his Annotations, or by men placed in the hollows of the Trees and Rocks; but in this creeping Forest there were beasts of all kinds among the trees, and birds on the tops of them, all attentively listening to the ravishing harmony that was made by some Musician that did personare the Thracian Lutinist. In Rome there were versatilia Coenationum Laquearia, Epist. 90. as Seneca tells us, that is, certain dining chambers made with that art, as if they were movable Scenes; for whilst the guests sat at Supper, they should be turned about to several rooms adorned with differing furnitures; at every new course of meat, they should be transported into a new chamber, they sitting still all the while in their seats, Sen. Ep. 20. That Plicatilis domus, that portable Palace made of Wood by Henry the 8th, and carried over to France to that famous interview that he had with Francis the first, was a work of great magnificence and art, and much spoken of by foreign Writers, especially Paulus Jovius; and among our own, by my Lord of Cherbury in his History of that Prince, the model whereof was preserved, and was to be seen of late years (as he saith) in the Tower of London. Of MEMNON'S Statue. MEMNON was a King of Egypt and in memory of him, there was a Colossus or mighty statue made of black marble * Called Basalius. , and set up in that magnificent Temple of Serapis in Thebes. It was made by the Theban Priests with such art and contrivance, that in the morning upon the striking of the beams of the Sun upon it, it made a kind of Music; it was so famous a piece, that men traveled from far to see it. Lucian the Sophister went to see that Miracle, as he calls it, as he relates in his Philopseudes; so did the Emperor Severus, as Spartianus tells us, and Germanicus, as Tacitus; and Strabo that judicious Geographer went to see it, and heard the Music, and a great multitude of people at the same time with him; so did Apollonius of Tyana, as Philostratus relates. This Colossus upon a certain earthquake that happened, was broken in the middle, and yet it was as Musical as when it was whole, as Strabo affirms in the 10th of his Geography, and Juvenal Sat. 15: avers the same, Dimidio Magicae resonant ubi Memnone chordae. This matter need not seem fabulous or incredible (nor will not saith Natalis Comes) to any that understand the power of Art and humane Wit, and how expert the Theban Priests were in Astronomy, and all other Philosophical Sciences, see, Pliny hereof, l. 35. c. 7. Ath. Kircher in his Oedipus, conceives it was a Telesme, Who li●t to kno● more of Telesmes and Talismanic Art, may read Mar●il. Ficinus de vitâ coelitus comparanda l. 3. c. 18. Joseph Scaliger l. 3. Epistola 226. a. and learned M. Gregory his Opuscula, cap. 8. or made by Talismanic * Art, and that the Devil was conjured within the hollow of it to perform that effect, because it continued for so long a time, namely to the time of Apollonius Tyanaeus, which from the first rearing of it was about eleven hundred years. But yet he shows, that such a Musical statue may be made by Mathematical and natural contrivance upon the ground of rarefaction: magnam enim vim in natura rerum, rarefactionem obtinere, nemo ignorat, saith he, Tom. 2. O●d. Egypt. where you may find more examples of pneumatical devices among the Egyptians in their Temples. CAP. IU. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, The Art and Mystery of Writing, with the Instruments thereunto belonging. AMong all the Inventions and productions of humane Wit, there is none more admirable and more useful than Writing, by means whereof a man may copy out & delineate his very thoughts and mind, and make that visible which none can see but he that made it; whereby a man can utter his mind without opening his mouth, and signify his pleasure at a thousand miles' distance, and this by the help of four and twenty letters, and fewer in some places; by various joining and combining of which letters, as also by the transposing and moving of them to and fro, all words that are utterable or imaginable may be framed; for the several combinations of these Letters and different ways of joining them, do amount (as Clavius the Jesuit hath taken the pains to compute and observe) to 5852616738497664000 ways; In sphaeran Joh. de Sacro ●osco c. 1. so that all things that are in heaven or in earth, that are, or were, or shall be, that can be either uttered or imagined, may be expressed and signified by the help of this marvellous Alphabet▪ which may be described within the compass of a farthing. The Chinois have 40000 letters at least, as Purchas and others tell us, which makes the language so difficult, that a man cannot learn it in an age, which renders our Alphabet of 24 letters the more admirable. Though the vulgarity and commonness of this art hath made it less esteemed and set by, yet wise and considerate men that look upon things erudit is oculis (as Cicero speaks) do much admire the Invention. The Hebrews call it Dick-Duk, inventum subtle, a subtle and ingenious Invention: Greg. Theolosanus, Divinum Miraculum, l. 16. de Rep. c. 2. a Divine miracle; Cicero speaks of it with admiration, Quis sonos vocis, qui infiniti videbantur paucis litterarum notis terminavit? l. 1. Tuscul. The Indians admired it not a little, Purchas l. 8. of America. when they saw the Spaniards send Letters to and fro, and maintain a kind of a dumb Commerce among themselves by this way; they fancied that these Letters were some Spirits that were the Internuncii or Interpreters between them. Quisquis erat meruit senii transcendere metas Tho. Readi inventa Adespota Et fati nescire modum, qui mystica primus Sensa animi docuit magicis signare figuris. etc. So a modern Poet sings in commendation of it. For the first Invention of Letters, the Phoenicians carry most voices. Phoenices primi (Famae si credimus) ausi Mansuram rudibus vocem signare figuris. Phoenicians, that (if Fame we dare believe) To Humane Speech first Characters did give. Among the Phoenicians Cadmus had the honour of this Invention; whence one calls letters 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and another, ingellas Cadmi filias, the black and swarthy daughters of Cadmus: Auson. Epigr. But the truth is, they did but borrow them from the Hebrews, as all other Nations did; though perhaps by adding some few, or varying and altering their form and character, they seem now to have different Alphabets, Herm. Hugo. The Librarians of old, who lived by writing books which others had made, were very admirable in handling the pen as appears by ancient manuscripts, which are so neatly and artificially done as if they were printed. Some of the latter age have been excellent in this Mystery. One Francis Alumnus did write the Apostles Creed and the first fourteen verses of St John's Gospel, in the compass of a penny, and in full words, which he did in the presence of the Emperor Charles the 5th, and Pope Clement the 7th, as Genebard relates in his Chronologie, and Sim. Maiolus out of him, who had also in his own possession such a miracle (as he calls it) or the very same I believe, Nos domi idem miraculum servamus, these are his words in his 23d Colloquy. Pliny hath a parallel example of one (whom he doth not name) that wrote all the Iliad of Homer in a piece of Parchment that was so little, that it was contained in a Nutshell. Cicero and others mention the same, though Lancelotti puts it among his Farfalloni, and reckons it for one of the popular errors of Pliny. I read of one Thomas Sweicker, a Dutchman, who being born without hands and arms, could write with his feet, and that elegantly; he could also make his pen with his feet, and many other feats, which I find expressed in these verses. Mira fides! pedibus dextre facit omnia Thomas Cui natura Parens brachia nulla dedit. Namque bibit pedibus, pedibus sua Fercula sumit Voluit & his libros praeparat his calamos. Quin & litterulas pede tam benè pingere novit Artificis superet grammata Ducta manu. Maximus hoc Caesar stupuit quondam Aemilianus * Maximilian the Emperor. Donaque scribenti largus honest a dedit. The Duke of Saxony doth keep some Copies of his Writing among his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, or Rarities, as Fel. Platerus relates in his observations. There was a woman in this Kingdom of late years that could write with her feet, and do many other things to the wonder of the beholders, and went about the Kingdom. Besides the common way of Writing, there are some mysteries and secret ways, and that either by abbreviation, setting a letter for a word, and a word for a sentence for brevity sake, as the Hebrews and Romans anciently used to do; or else by using different characters from the common and vulgar ones, such as none can read or understand but the author or deviser of them, and such as he is pleased to impart the mystery to, and give him a key to decipher and open the secret by; which sort of characters the Ancients used to call Furtivas notas, and Sifras, and Ziglas, and the Art itself Ziglography and Brachygraphy, it is very useful for two respects, 1. For haste and brevity. 2. For privacy and secrecy. 1. For brevity and expedition; it is a good way to take a speech or a sermon, or any thing else that is dictated, as fast as it is spoken; hereby the Notary's hand will keep pace with the speakers tongue, and outstrip it too; Currant verbalicet, Mart. l. 14. tamen est velocior illis, Nondum lingua suum, dextra peregit opus. This is scribere 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, as Cicero Ep. 13. l. 5. l. 5. ad Atticum. Dion ascribes the invention to Maecenas, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. He first found (saith he) these Abbreviatures and compendious way of Writing for expeditions sake. Hic erit & foelix scriptor, Manil. l. 4. Astron. cui litterum verbum est, Quique notis linguam superet, cursumque lequentis, Excipiat, longas nova per compendia voces. 2. This Ziglography is useful for secrecy or privacy ad elusionem examinis; for hereby a man may carry a letter open in his hand, and understand never a word of it; and they that make no Religion of opening letters, find themselves deluded; which is of good use in time of war, and at other times against paperpyrats that lie in wait for such poor booties; Quod ad te de decem legatis scripsi, parum intellexti credo, quia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 scripseram, saith Cicero to his friend Atticus, who did not understand all the letter that Cicero had written unto him, because he had written part of it in characters. Julius Caesar had found out such a device for secrecy, sic structo litterarum ordine ut nullum verbum effici posset, he did so tumble, invert, and transpose the Alphabet in his writing, that no man could pick any sense out of it; and this he devised when he began to think of the Roman Monarchy, and was by him used but to private and tried friends that were his confederates, and privy to his Design. An Appendix of the Instruments of Writing. THe Instruments of Writing are either 1. Active, or 2. Passive. That is, either the Instruments wherein we write, or wherewith we write. The instruments wherein we write are divers; as Stone, Brass, Wax, Led, Barks and Leaves of Trees, Paper and Parchment. The first Writing that we read of was in stone, God did write the Law in two Tables of Stone, Exod. 19 which Salvian calls Rupices paginas. Moses wrote in Saphyr and Onyx, Exod. 28. 10. Saxon Grammaticus speaks, that the Danes did record the noble Acts of their Ancestors in verse, which were cut in stone, in saxis ac rupibus (as he saith) voluminum loco, vastas moles amplectebantur, codicum usum à cautibus mutuantes. Marmora Arundel. ●●oliisque 〈◊〉 & Apud Seldenum. The Sibyl's books were written in the leaves of Trees; the Indians of the west do write in the leaves of the Plane tree, which are as broad as any sheet of paper, and four times as long, saith Jos. Acosta l. 4. cap. 21. So in Malabar, and other parts of the Levant, they write in the leaves of the Palm, as the Syracusians did in an Olive leaf; from which manner of Writing the pages of books are termed to this day folios or leaves. The ancients used also to write in sheets of lead; this is intimated by Job, O that my words were graven with an Iron pen, and lead in the rock for ever, Job 19 23. The Poems of Hesiod called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were found in Boeotia written in plates of lead, saith Pausanias in Boeoticis. There was a common manner of writing also in thin rinds of trees growing under the upper bark, which is called by the Latins Liber, or Caudex & Codex. Udoque docent inolescere libro. Virg. Georg. l. 2. Whence books are called Libri and Codices; for liber properly is interior tunica corticis quae ligno cohaeret in quâ antiqui scribebant, as Isiodor defines it. The Indians of the East used such a kind of writing, as Q. Curtius' mentions l. 8. libri Arborum teneri, haud secus quam Cerae, litterarum notas capiunt: They wrote also in the leavs of certain reeds, which Isaiah called papyr-reeds, Isa. 19 7. growing in the marshes of Egypt, which reed ●or sedge is called Biblus or Byblos, so Lucan, Nondum flumineas Memphis contexere biblos Noverat— Which the Translator doth english papyr. The River yet had not with papyr served Egypt. Tho. May. From which term or name of Biblos, books are by the Grecians called Bibloi and biblia dimunitively; and that book of books the Bible; because books were usually made of this kind of reed or sedge; and the manner was thus; they divided these leaves into thin flakes called Phylirae, into which they naturally divide themselves, then laying them on a smooth table, and moistening them with the water of Nilus (which is of a glutinous nature) they placed one cross under the other, like a woof and warp in a weaver's loom, & then having pressed them, they set them to dry in the Sun, as Pliny relates in l. 13. of his Natural History. The Roman Laws called the Laws of the 12 Tables, were written in leaves, or tables of brass. Small boards or tables of wood waxed were in frequent use among the later Romans to write in, which were called Cerei pugillares in sundry Authors, and Ceratae tabulae or tabellae, whence Letter-carriers were called Tabellarii. These were the Writing tables that Zacharias called for Luke 1. 36. Write these things upon a table: Isa. 30. 8. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Septuagint, box tables. These boards were sometimes made of Box and Cedar●wood, whence that of the Poet Persius, — Cedro digna locutus: He spoke things worthy to be written in Cedar, and worthy of immortality. Eumenes' King of Pergamus devised a way to dress the skins of beasts, and to make them fit for writing, as Vellum & Parchment. This latter is called Pergamum, from the Town of Pergamus, where it was first made. But the modern invention of paper surpasseth all in this kind. My Lord Bacon reckons it inter monodica artis among the singularities of Art, as being a singular and excellent invention; adeo ut inter materias artificiales vix inveniatur simile aliquid, saith he, it is a web or piece of cloth that is made without a Loom, & without spinning or weaving▪ as a modern Poet is pleased to describe it, Denique compacta est nullo subtemine tela, Exuperans candore nives, AEtate metella, etc. It derives its pedigree from the dunghill, being made of rags, and things cast out of doors as useless; we do not go to the expense of making it of Cotton-wool, as the Mexicans do, but of nasty clouts; Magnarum usque adeo sordent primordia rerum; of so mean a birth and original is this commodity, Quâ humanitas vitae & memoria maximè constat, imo quâ hominum immortalitas, as Plin. lib. 13. cap. 11. which Grotius describes thus: Nunc aurata comas, & sicco pumice laevis Charta, senis scabri fascia nuper eram. In some parts of the East they make paper of silk, as was to be seen in Ferdinand Imperatus his Cabinet of Rarities. Now speak we of the active instruments, or those wherewith we write: The two Tables of the Law were written with a miraculous pen, to wit, Gods own finger: for writing in brass or lead they had certain Graving tools that were hollow, called by the Latins c●lum and celtes, from the hollowness thereof, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 〈◊〉. In waxen tables they wrote with pointed bodkins of iron, steel, or brass called stylus; this was sharp at one end for to make impression in that wax; but it was flat and broad, and somewhat hooked at the other end, for to scrape or blot out the letter if need were. Men write in glass with pointed Diamonds, which yield to be cut by nothing else, except the Smiris or Emeril. In ancient paper made of seggs, they wrote with a reed called calamus scriptorius & arundo, which kind of reed grew much about Memphis and Cnidos, and the banks of Nile. Dat Chartis habiles calamos Memphitica tell us. Mart. l. 14. Epigr. 38. In parchment and the modern paper, they write with a pen or quill plucked from the wing of some Fowl, called by Ausonius Fissipes, from the slit that is made in it for to let down Ink, which is a very useful invention, and commended by an ingenious Muse of the Low Countries. Praeteritos reddit, praesentes prorogat annos, Barlaeus de Penna. Invidiamque feri temporis una domat: Absenti loquitur, laedit rostra●a juvatque; Dumque aliis vitam foenerat, ipsa caret. Past years it rescues, makes the present spread To ages, and times envy striketh dead, Instructs the absent, hurts and helps at need, And wanting life, makes others live indeed. Opmerius makes mention of the three last in his Chronicle, In pugillares scribebant stylis ferreiss, in papyros autem arundineis calamis & postmodum etiam avium pennis; so he. Some write with coals, but the verse tells you who they are, Stultorum calami carbones, moenia chartae. The Cutlers of Damascus write in iron steel, and brass, with corroding waters only, wherewith they make frets of curious figures and characters in sundry colours; as may be seen on Turkish Scimiters, and those Gladii Damascinati, Swords made at that City of Damascus, beautified with Damask work and Embroidery. It lasts long, for with one pen did Dr Holland a Physician of Coventry, a learned and industrious man, write out the great Volume of Pliny, translated into English by himself, which (for a memorial) a Lady preserved, and bestowed a silver case upon it. The Queen of Hungary in the year 1540 had a silver pen bestowed upon her, which had this Inscription on it, Publii Ovidii Calamus. Found under the ruins of some Monument in that Country, as Mr Sands in the life of Ovid (prefixed to his Metamorphosis) relates. CAP. V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OF Printing, and Printing-Presses. THis is a divine benefit afforded to mankind, De invent. rerum. saith Polydore Virgil; an Art that is second or inferior to none; (saith Cardan) either for wit or usefulness: it puts down hand-writing for neatness and expedition; for by this, more work is dispatched in one day, than many Librarians or book-writers could do in a year. — Quam nulla satis mirabitur aetas Ars Coelo delapsa viris; consumere nata Materiem, veloxque omnes transcribere libros, Readi inventa adespota. Cum positis, quadrata acie (miro ordine) signis. This Art by multiplying books, hath multiplied knowledge, and hath brought to our cognizance both persons and actions remote from us, and long before our time, which otherwise had perished in oblivion, and never come to our ears. To whom we owe this Invention, we do not certainly know, it is one of the Inventa Adespota, of the masterless Inventions. Laus veterum est meruisse omnis praeconia famae, Et sprevisse simul— Ancient Worthies were more studious of doing good then ambitious of Fame or praise for so doing. That it is a Dutch invention is agreed upon by most voices. O Germanica muneris repertrix Quo nihil utilius dedit vetustas, Libros scribere quae doces premendo. But whether higher or lower Germany shall have the honour of it, is yet in strife and undecided; and in the upper Germany, whether Mentz, or Basil, or Strasburg; for all these do challenge it, and do no less contend for the birth place of this mystery, than the Grecians Cities did for the Cradle of Homer. The general voice is for Mentz, and one John Guttemberg Fust (as others term him) a Knight and Citizen of that City to have been the true Father or Inventor of this Art, about the year 1440. as we have heard it boldly affirmed by the Citizens of that City, saith Polydore, l. 2. de Invent. rerum. c. 7. for a testimony hereof they produce a copy of Tully's Offices printed in parchment, and preserved in the Library of Ausburg, bearing this memorandum at the latter end of it, Praesens M. Tullii opus clarissimum Jo. Fust Moguntinus Civis, non Atramento plumali Cannâ, ne●▪ aereâ, sed arte quâ dam per pulchrâ manu Petri Gerskeim pueri mei foeliciter effeci, finitum Anno 1440. die 4ᵒ mense Feb. This is cited by Salmuth in his Annotations on Pancirollus, who stands stiffly for Germany (his own Country) in this point, and citys another argument from the Library of Francfort, wherein an old copy of the decisions of the Rota are kept; at the latter end thereof it is said, that it was printed in Civitate Moguntiae, artis impressoriae inventrice & elimatrice primâ. But Hadrianus Junius a very learned man of the Low Countries, is as stiff on the other side for Haerlem, and thinks to c●●ry it clearly from the High Dutch, and make the Town of Haerlem the birth place of this Noble Art: You may see what esteem men do make of it, when they do so zealously strive and contend for the original Invention of it. his Junius tells us (in his History of the Netherlands) that one Laurence John, a Burger of good Note and Quality of Haerlem, was the first Inventor of it, and saith that he made Letters first of the barks of Trees, which being set and ranked in order, and clapped with their heels upward upon paper, he made the first essay and experiment of this Art: At first he made but a line or two, then whole pages, and then books, but printed on one side only. Which rudiments of the Art Junius saw in that Town. After this the said Laurence made Types or characters of Tin, and brought the Art to ●urther perfection daily: but one John Faustus (infaustus to him) whom he had employed for a Compositor, and who had now learned the mystery, stole away by night all the Letters and other Utensils belonging to the Trade, and went away with them to Amsterdam first, thence to Collen▪ and last to Mentz, where he set up for himself, and the first fruit and specimen of his Press there, was the Doctrinal of one Alexander Gallus, which he printed Anno Dom. 1440. Thus far Junius from the relations of sundry grave ancient Burgomasters of Haerlem. Hegenitz a Traveller saith, that the house of Laurence John is yet standing in the Market place of Haerlem, with this Inscription in golden Letters over the door, Memoriae sacrum. Typographiae Ars Artium Conservatrix, hic primum inventa, circa An. 1440. Vana quid Architypos & Praela (Moguntia) jactas? Harlemi Archetypos praelaque nota scias. Extulit hic monstrante Deo Laurentius Artem Dissimulare virum hunc, dissimulare Deum est. So Petrus Scriverius, who calls it palladium praesidium & tutelam Musarum, & omnis Doctrinae. Joseph Scaliger contends that the first Printing was upon wooden Tables, the Letters being cut or carved in them, and he saith, that he had seen Horologium Beatae Mariae (to wit) our Lady's hours done upon Parchment after such a manner, in his answer against Shcioppus, called Confutatio Fabulae Burdomanae. Yet let not the Germans or any others be too proud of this Invention, for the Chinois had such an art long before the Europeans saw or heard any thing of it, as it is affirmed by Parus Maffeus', and sundry others of his fellow-Jesuites that have traveled that Country. One Nicol. Trigault that had been of late years in that Country affirms, that that Nation had this art above 500 years since. But their Printing and ours do very much differ from one another, for they do not print by composing of Letters, but as we use for Maps and such pieces, they make for every leaf a board or table with characters on both sides, which is more laborious, and less neat than the European way, as Gonsalvo Mendoza a Spanish Friar and others do affirm of it. Now if our Printing surpass for neatness and expedition. and is so far different from that of the Chinois as is before alleged, it is a sign that the Germans did not borrow from them this art; so that the praise and commendation of this Invention remains to them whole and entire without diminution. Mrs. Joan Elizabeth Weston, one of the Muses of England, hath composed a Latin Poem (among sundry others of her compositions) in the praise of this art, which is indeed the preserver of all other arts. AS Printing itself is praise worthy, so some Print-houses deserve here to be remembered, especially that of Christopher Plantin at Antwerp, which a Traveller doth not stick to call Octavum orbis miraculum, the eighth wonder of the world. He describes it thus. Over the Gate is Plantine's own Statue, made of Freeze-stone, and of Moret his Son in Law, and Successor in the Office, and also of Justus Lipsius with his Motto, — Moribus Antiquis. Here are twelve Presses, and near upon an hundred sorts of Characters: two sorts of Syriac, ten of Hebrew, nine of Greek, forty seven of Latin, and the rest of several other Languages, with Musical characters of sundry sorts, and admirable brass cuts for Frontispieces of books. Here that excellent work called the King of Spain's Bible was done. The first Printing Press in England was set up in Westminster Abbey by Simon Islip Anno 1471. and William Caxton was the first that practised it there, as Stowe in his Survey of London affirms. CAP. VI 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, The Art of Limning and Painting. PAinting comes near an Artificial Miracle, Of Architecture. Elinguis umbrarum & luminum eloquentia; muta line●rum poesis. saith Sir Henry Wotton, to make divers distinct eminences appear upon a Flat by force of shadows, and yet the shadows themselves not to appear, is the uttermost value and virtue of a Painter, saith that Learned Knight. — miror Praelia rubricâ picta aut Carbone velut si Re verâ pugnent, feriant, vitentque moventes Arma viri— This is a lawful dissembling or counterfeiting of natural things; it is a witty and subtle Art, it gives life (in a manner) to the dead; by this we see those that have lived many ages before us in their true and proper colours, and read not only the shape and stature of their Bodies but their Attire, Habiliments and Fashions, which no relation of History can so well represent unto us or inform us of. By this we see our absent Friends, and call to mind what is far out of sight. By this Apelles showed to King Ptolemy the servant that brought him to the King's Dining-Chamber, by drawing his picture on a wall with a coal, when he could not find his person. By this, ancient Histories are acted (in a dumb show before us, and every real becomes a book; wherein the most ignorant man can read something, and understand by the pencil what he cannot by the pen. St Gregory spoke right enough in this: quod legentibus Scriptura, haec Idiotis pictura praestat cernentibus; quia in ipsa etiam ignorantes vident, quoth sequi debeant, in ipsa legunt qui litter as nesciunt. And because the eye is a better informer than the ear, and conveys things more effectually to the mind, and imprints them deeper; therefore some visible Representations are as useful for our instruction as those things that we take in at the ear. Upon this consideration, that excellent Emblem of Mortality called Chorea Mortuorum, or Deaths-dance, that was portrayed on the wall of a Church in the Town of Basil in Germany being decayed with time, Hentzneri Itinerarium. was thought fit (by the Aedills or public Surveyors of that City) to be renewed; ut qui vocalis picturae divina monita securi audiunt, mutae saltem Poëseos miserabili. spectaculo, ad seriam Philosophiam excitentur, as the new Inscription there speaks. This Art had but rude beginnings, as all others had; the shadows of men projected upon the ground or the wall, gave it birth; whence pictures are termed shadows, which very name betrays their original. A Coal was at first both the pencil and the colour, and a white wall was their table and canvas. Pictorum Calami carbones, maenia Chartae. From one colour they rose to ten; they have decem palmarios colores, as Bullinger saith; ten colours of principal note, besides others. Painters (of old) were desired to set a name on every thing they drew, that men might know what they meant. Thus it was, when this Art was yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as Aelian speaks) in its swaths and cradle. At first they portrayed but the bare Lineaments and natural Representations of things in one solemn posture and scheme called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, and Aristides the Theban was the first, qui animum pinxit & sensus, saith Pliny; that added the Ethick part of Painting, and expressed the passions with his pencil; that made his mute tables to laugh or weep, smile or frown, as the drift of his fancy suggested unto him. Apelles brought this Art to perfection, as the same Pliny affirms; for he surpassed omnes prius genitos, l. 35. Hist. Nat. c. 10. futurosque posteà, as he saith; all that went before him or ever should come after him. He painted things that could not be painted, as Lightning and Thunders, as Pliny relates of him, l. 3. 6. 10. Paint me a voice (saith the Angel in Esdras, and call back yesterday; intimating both to be impossible. His Masterpiece was the picture of Venus rising out of the Sea, and wring the water out of her dishevelled hair. This was called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, whereof Ovid makes mention, l. 4. de Pont●. Ut Venus artificis labor est & Gloria Coi, Aequoreo madidas quae premi● imbre comas. When this Apelles came to Rhodes, where Protogenes (another famous Painter) lived, he went to his house, and not finding him within, he drew with a pencil a straight line, very small and slender, and left it as a challenge, and went his way. Protogenes coming home and finding this line, did guests that Apelles had been there, and thereupon drew another line through the very midst of that line of Apelles with a different colour, which was (in effect) an answer to the challenge; Apelles returning again to Protogenes his shop, and finding a line most artificially drawn through the midst of his, took the pencil and drew a third line in a different colour, from the two former, nullum relinquens amplius subtilitati locum (saith my Author) leaving no room for further art or subtlety, and so was Victor in this invention. However, Protogenes was esteemed nothing inferior to Apelles, whom Petronius mentions; Protogenis Rudimenta cum ipsius naturae veritate certantia, non sine quodam horrore tractavi, saith Petronius Arbiter. There is a pretty story in the same Pliny to this purpose, touching Zeuxes and Parrhasius, two famous Artisans and Masters of the Pencil in their times: for Quintilian calls this Parrhasius the Legislator among the Painters, that is, one that gave Law to all others in this Art, l. C. 12. C. 10. Zeuxes for his Masterpiece hung forth a Table wherein he had drawn a Boy carrying Grapes in his hand, which were so lively done, that the Birds flew to the Table to peck at the Grapes: But Parrhasius painted a Curtain upon a Tablet so artificially, that Zeuxes thinking it had been a Curtain indeed, stretched his hand to draw the Curtain aside, that he might see the picture which he thought to be behind it; at which error he was so abashed, that he yielded the best to Parrhasius, adding this ingenuous confession, That Zeuxes his piece had deceived but silly Birds, but that of Parrhasius deceived an Artist. The same Zeuxes painted an Old Woman so lively and so deformed, that he died with extreme laughter at the spectacle and his own ridiculous fancy and conceit therein, as Quercetan reports in his Diaetat. Polyhist. Pliny makes mention of some Women painters; and of one Lala a Virgin of Cyzicum, that drew her own picture by a Glass: and Mountaigue in his Essays speaks of a picture which he had seen at Barleduc that Ren King of Sicily had made of himself and presented to the French King Francis the Second. It is a pretty Art, that in a pleated paper, and table furrowed or indented, men make one picture to represent several faces; as one I have seen, that looking from one place or standing, represented Edward the Sixth; from another, Queen Elizabeth; and from a third place, King James. Another I read of, that being viewed from one place, did show the head of a Spaniard, and from another the head of an Ass. This was the conceit of a Frenchmen (I believe) who can neither speak well nor think well of a Spaniard. One of the late Chancellors of France had in his cabinet a picture which presented to the common beholder a multitude of little faces, which were the famous Ancestors of that noble man; but if one did look on the said picture through a Perspective, there appeared only the single pourtraicture of the Chancellor himself: the Painter thereby intimating, that in him alone were contracted all the virtues of his Progenitors. So the ingenious translator of Pastor Fido in his Epistle Dedicatory relates. Mr. Fanshaw. Painting in Oil is a modern Invention, which was wanting to the full compliment and perfection of this Art; for hereby Colours are kept fresh and lively from fading, and pictures are made to bear against the injuries of time, air, and age; when their Prototypes and originals cannot, notwithstanding all the Fucuses and decorations and Adulteries of Art among our Women-painters, who can never repair the decays of nature with all their boxes and shops of Minerals. The Art of Sculpture or Engraving in brass (which the French call de taille Douce) is near of kin to this art, and herein to be preferred before it; for that when a picture in this kind is finished upon a table of Brass or Copper, or the like metal, a thousand Copies may be taken of it (by the help of a Rolling-Press) in a few hours space, as in Printing, when one page of a leaf is set and composed, that one form will serve to make a thousand more by it, and that in a trice, whereas a picture in colours is not so soon copied out. But the highest piece of perfection in this art (in my judgement) are those perspective pieces which do represent Temples, wherein the vulgar eye discerns nothing upon the Tablet but arched lines and steps, degrees, or ascents; but with a Perspective glass you may see (as it were) the inside of a Temple at full length with the arched roofs above, & windows on each side: Some Statues cast in brass do show much wit and art. The brazen Cow of Myron is made famous by the Epigram of Ausonius translated out of Greek, which was so lively done, that Bulls passing by thought to cover her; as the Poet (if he do not overreach) informs us. Bucula sum, coelo genitoris facta Myronis Aerea, nec factam me puto sed genitam Ausonium Epig. 57 Sic me Taurus init, sic proxima bucula Mugit Sic vitulus sitiens ubera nostra petit: Miraris quod fallo gregem? Gregis ipse Magister Inter pascentes me numerare solet. But the chiefest of this art of Foundery or Imagery was Lysippus, Plin. l. 35. cap. 8. who did cast one Image of brass so rare and exquisite, that Artificers called it the Canon, that is, the rule or standard from whence all Artists must fetch their Draughts, Symmetries, and Proportions, as from the pattern and most absolute Masterpiece. Of late times the Italians and Germans do surpass in these Arts, Michael Angelo Buonarota of Florence, was both an Architect, a Painter, and a Sculptor. — Veras depingere formas, Naturam ipse doces, victam subigisque fateri: Dextra sed ingenio non infoelicior, & te Nobilitant Calami, sicut coelo atque colores So one of his countrymen writes of him. Albertus Durerus of Norimberg was not inferior to Apelles, as Wimphelingius tells us; Van Dijk a Dutchman was very famous in London, and attained to very great wealth by his art; Paulus Rubeus of Antwerp is vivum Europae miraculum, (if he be yet alive) as an ingenious Traveller styles him, whose Table of the Last Judgement was valued at five thousand Florins; Tabulae oppidorum opidus emptae; so Pliny of the Curiosities of his time. The Art of Painting in Glass, which they call Annealing, is very ingenious: when they have laid the colours upon the Glass, they put the Glass into some hot Furnace for fifteen or twenty days to imbibe the colours: This art was known unto the Ancients, as Bullinger is persuaded, and citys a Distich of Martial for it; Non sumus audacis plebeia Toreumata vitri Nostra nec ardenti gemma feritur aqua. But the Poet means no such matter there, but he speaks of certain cups made of Crystal, or some subtler and finer sort of Glass which cannot brook hot water, as common glasses can, but crack presently when it is poured into them, as appears by his words in another Epigram which give light to this; Nullum sollicitant hoc Flacce torreumata furem Et nimium calidis non vitiantur aquis. l. 12. Epig. 57 The Egyptians had a device of making pictures in their fine linen cloth, which was thus; when they had drawn the colours upon the cloth, and those pictures & fancies they thought fit, nothing would be seen upon the cloth until they had cast it into a cauldron of boiling water, wherein certain herbs and juices had been boiled, and having sokened them there, in a little while they drew them forth with perfect and lively pictures; so Bulenger de Pictura & Statuaria, lib. 1. c. 12. out of Pliny. To work pictures not only upon cl●th out in cloth, to inlay and incorporate them (as it were) into the very substance and contexture of the Webb, and that so lively, as the Pencil can scarce mend them, as we have seen in Carpets and Chamber-hanging, which is an art no less subtle and ingenious than any of the rest. These are called Picturae textiles by Tully l. 4. contra Verrem, & by Lucret l. 2. By this Art we have Fountains, Gardens, and Forests in our chambers, Roses that never fade, Flowers that look fresh all the year, also Groves and Forests that are always green, with all manner of Beasts and Birds therein, with chaces and Hounds so lively represented, that there wants nothing but noise and sound to make up the Game, as Marshal said of the carved Fishes made by Phidias so lively, that there wanted nothing but water to make them swim. Artis Phidiacae toreuma clarum Pisces Aspicis? add aquas, natabunt; Phidias did these Fishes Limn, Add but water, they will swim. The Babylonians were the first that taught this art, as Polydore Virgil acquaints us: But the Artificers of Arras in Flanders whence our rich Arras is fetched, & called Arras-work, are not thought inferior to any Nation in this Workmanship. I will conclude this chapter with Mosaic work, which the French call Marhuetrie, the Latins Musaeum, and Musivum opus, the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it's a work wrought with stones of divers colours, metals, marble, glass, and all wrought into the form of knots, flowers, and other devices, wtih that excellency of cunning, that they seem all one stone, and rather the work of nature than art. The Ancients were not ignorant of this Art, see Pliny lib. 36. Nat. Hist. cap. 25. and more copiously in Bulenger, de Pict. l. 1. c. 8. The picture of La●co and his two sons with the serpents clasping about their middle, according to Virgil's description in the 2d of the Aeneis, is now in the Pope's Palace at Rome, and is esteemed the most absolute piece of Art in the whole world, and which Mich. Angelo (one that could well judge of such things) did not stick to call artis miraculum, the miracle of art, as Laurent. Schraderus in l. 2. of the monuments of Italy. It is a piece of antiquity, mentioned by Pliny, laboured by three Rhodian Sculptors, that were the excellentest in their times, as the said Pliny hath recorded. CAP. VII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, The Art of Spinning and Weaving; with the several Materials of Garments among sundry nations. WE come now add Vestificin● ingenia (as Tertullian speaks) to the Art of Spinning and Weaving; l. de Pall. which, though they be vulgar Occupations, yet are no vulgar Mysteries and inventions, as appears by the various instruments that are used for both. The former invention, to wit Spinning, is ascribed to less Deity than Minerva the Goddess of Wisdom: 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hes. Ovid calls it — Divinae Palladis artem. He that considers the Wheel, the Wherve, the Spindle, with other Tackle and Accoutrements that belong to Spinning, with the fabric of the Loom and Shuttle, and other instruments of Weaving, will confess that it was no vulgar wit that devised and framed them. In Dantzick in Poland there was set up a rare invention for weaving of 4 or five Webs at a time without any humane help; it was an Automaton or Engine that moved of itself and would work night and day: which invention was suppressed, because it would prejudice the poor people of the Town; and the Artificer was made away secretly (as 'tis conceived) as Lancellotti the Italian Abbot relates out of the mouth of one Mr Muller a Polonian that had seen the device. The first Garments that we read of, were made of Figg-leaves sowed together, as our first-parents did, Gen. 3. 7. Paul the Hermit (desirous to take the thriftiest way and simplest to live) made him a suit of the leaves of Palm-trees. Nexilis antefuit uéstis, quam textilis unquam. Suits of the primitive fashion were made of the skins of Beasts, which men killed for food: cum antea induviae hominum, erant brutorum exuviae, H●urn. l. 1. Spinning is a subordinate Art to Weaving, and therein Arachne was excellent in her time, and presumed so much on her skill that she challenged Pallas herself to a trial of skill in this Mystery. — Tantus decor affuit arti, Sive rudem primos lanam glomerabat in orbs, Seu digitis subigebat opus repetitaque longo Vellera mollibat, nebulas aequantia tractu. Whether she orb-like rolled the ruder wool, Or finely fingered the selected Cull, Or draw it into cloud-resembling flakes, Or equal twine with swift-turned Spindle makes. As thread is spun and made of wool, silk, hair, hemp, flax and the like: so cloth is weaved and webs are made of these several sorts. The nettle affords a kind of thread like hemp, whereof Nettle-cloth is made. I have seen cloth made of the innermost bark of a tree; Mr Purchas makes often mention of the like; Strabo of the Massagetes hath the same: Massagetae vestiuntur libris arborum, quòd lanâ careant, Strabo l. 11. Geogr. And Purchas saith farther, That of certain Palm-trees, Velvets, Satins, Damasks, and Taffita's are made, in the 6th book of his Pilgrimage and description of Africa: which Art the Europaeans are ignorant of, I suppose. The Mexicans make cloth of the bark of the Maguei that famous Tree, which bears the Coco which we call Coker-nut, and which is a Cornucopia of itself, as ●u-Bartas describes it. — which serves in Mexico For weapon, wood, needle, and thread, to sow, Brick, honey, sugar, sucket, balm and wine▪ Parchment, perfume, apparel, cord and line. Monsieur Peyresc, that great storer and preserver of the rarities of Art and Nature, had a kind of a Pompion brought from Mecha, that was thready within like silk; and he had also a little web of cloth that had been made of that thread, which was very good silk, as Dr Gassendi relates in the life of the said Peyresc. Besides this, there is no Sericum vegetabile, no vegetable silk, as some have supposed; there is no such delicate wool as to make silk of, growing upon the leaves or barks of trees, as Virgil sings of the Aethiopian and Cathaian Forests. Qui nemora Aethiopum molli canentia lana, Georg. l. 2. Velleraque è foliis depectunt tenuia seres? Whose mistake Pliny hath followed, speaking of the Seres lanificio sylvarum nobiles, etc. in the 6th book of his nat. hist. c. 17. & Indos suae arbores vestiunt: which Authors Lipsius follows in his Commentaries on Tacitus. But, the truth is, that silk is made and spun out of the bowels of a little Grub or worm, which is called the Silkworm, which feeds upon lettices and the leaves of Mulberries, and no otherwise, as Julius Scaliger learnedly shows in his Exercitations against Cardan. Exer. 159. c. 9 and the Seres or people of Cathaia were the first that made use of this Spinner's thread, and keemed it and woven it into a web, from whence it hath the name of Sericum: from them it came first into Europe, tam multiplici opere, tam longinquo orbe petitur, ut in publico Matrona transluceat, saith the excellent Pliny, who inserts many a moral lesson among his natural observations: so far these thin airy stuffs, this ventus Textilis (as Petronicus calls it, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Gr. Nazianzen) is fetched, that it may be fit for Ladies; who delight in such diaphanous wears and foreign wares: it was of high esteem in all ages. This precious fleece was only used to adorn The sacred loins of Princes heretoforn, saith the divine Bartas. And in another place; — flecces fit for Prince's robes In Serean forests hang in silken Globes. But not growing naturally upon the trees, but spun by the worm that feeds upon them in the forest. One Pamphilia of the Isle of Coos was the first that woven silks: whence Coa vestis properly is used for silk; the first that wore a garment hereof in Europe, was the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. The worm was first brought into Europe in the Emperor Justinians time, by certain Monks that had traveled Cathaia: They brought the eggs only to Constantinople, and then hatched the worms by putting the eggs in warm dung. The Spider's lawn or web which he hangs upon the hedges, and (sometimes) in our windows, though it affords matter of wonder to the considerate beholder, that shall observe the accurateness and evenness of the thread, and the Geometry and regularity of the work in all points, yet it is of no use, except the sight of it hath (perhaps) given a hint to the art of Weaving. Only in the Summer Islands and in some other parts of the West-Indies there are Spiders that (in Summer) spin perfect raw silk, both in substance and colour; the thread so strong that birds are entangled therein. These spiders are bigger than ours, and of rich, orient colours, as Oviedo the Spaniard hath related, and Captain Smith our Countryman in his description of those Islands. The Prophets of old wore garments made of Hair, whence Elias is called vir pilosus, the hairy man, 2 Reg. 1. 8. St John the Baptist had a garment made of Camel's hair, Matth. 3. 4. Grograms are made of Goat's hair, pulled from off their backs: which kind of Goats, B●bequius reports that he had seen in Asia, whose hair was very fine and glistering, not inferior to silk, and hanging to the very ground: they have four horns, saith Seal, Ex. 199. Camelots' or Chamlets are made of Camel's hair, which is so fine, especially those of Persian race, that they may compare with Milesian wool for fineness, as Aelian reports, and the great ones used to wear thereof in those Countries. Flax and hemp were first dressed in Egypt; Fine linen, with broidered work, and sails, first came from Egypt, saith the Prophet Ezek. C. 27. V. 7. and the Egyptians are deciphered by this periphrasis in Isaiah, They that work in fine flax, and wove Networks, Isa. 19 9 The Egyptian priests did always wove linen in the Temples, and therefore are termed linigeri; so did the Jewish Priests, their Ephods, Mitres, and other Vestures were linen; and so the Priests of most Nations, Velati lino & verbena tempora vincti. Virgil. Of finest Flax their Vestures are, And on their heads they vervain wear The fine linen so often mentioned by Moses for the holy garments, is made of the Bombase or Cotton that grows in balls upon certain shrubs; which kind of shrub is termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, by theophra, the Wool-bearing Tree, and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. simply, the Tree; whence Linum Xylinum in Tremellius his Translation is still rendered in the English Bible fine linen; so that the fine linen vestments of the Priests were made of Bombase, as the learned Salmasius hath observed in his Exercitations upon Solinus: so that the wool-bearing Trees in Aethiopia which Virgil speaks of, and the Eriophori arbores in Theophrastus, are not such trees as have a certain wool or dowl upon the outside of them, as the mall-Cotton, but short trees that bear a ball upon the top, preg●ant with wool, which the Syrians call Cott, the Grecians Gossypium, the Italians Bombagio, and We Bombase. But I believe that some part of their vesture was also of Flax, Mundissima lini seges indatui & amictui sanctissimis Aegyptiorum Sacerdotibus usurpatur, saith Apuleius in Apologia. Hadrianus Junius a most learned man in his description of the Netherlands, doth highly extol the fine linen made by the soft hands of the Belgic Nuns in Holland and the Town of Cambray, called from thence Hollands and Cambrics; quarum cum nive certat candour, cum sindone tenuitas, cum bysso pretium; so he speaks of them, and calls them Regum & Reginarum praecipuas delicias; the chiefest delight of Kings and Queens. There is a certain Shellfish in the Sea called pinna, that bears a mossy dowl or wool whereof cloth was spun and made, as Tertullian speaks in his book de pallio. Et Arbusta nos vestiunt, & de mari vellera. These are his words; not only Trees afford wool, but also the Sea to cloth us withal; this wool or moss is so soft and delicate, that it is nothing inferior to silk saith Lacerda, and therefore he calls it Byssum marinum, Sea silk, in his notes upon Tertullian, though the true Byssus be lost, and also the Carbasus, whence Carbasinae vestes, insomuch that great Clerks can scarce tell us what they were, but that fine Stuffs were anciently made of them. One Ferdinand Imperatus, a Drugster of Naples, a great storer of exotique and domestic Rarities, had some of this Sea-silk both weaved and unweaved, and also the Shellfish that did bear it. Men have found a way not only arbores Nere, sed & lapides, not only to spin threads from Trees, as Tertullian speaks of the Seres, but also from stones. There is a stone called Lapis Caristius, and Lapis Cyprius, from the Countries that this stone or mineral is found, to wit Cyprus as Strabo, and mount Caristus in Attica, as Trallianus and Dioscorides report; it is like Allom in colour, and being beaten with a Mallet, it shows like a small hair, therefore called Trichitis, or the hairy stone by some Greek Authors, & Alumen Plumaceum, or downy Alom, by the Latinists it is also called for the resemblance of it, villus Salamandrae, Salamander's wool: Langii Epist. Medicine. This hair or dowl is spun into thread, and weaved into cloth, and the cloth so made hath this strange property, that being cast into the fire it will not burn, but if it be foul or stained, comes forth more bright and clean out of the flames; it is therefore called also Amiantus. Ferdinand Imperatus (before mentioned) had a piece of this cloth much like white silk. Of this hairy stone some made wick for candles that would not consume or burn out: such a candle was made by Callimachus, and hung up in the Temple of Minerva at Athens, as Salmasius relates in his Plinianae exercitationes: There was a vegetable of this kind, a sort of Flax called by the Grecians Asbestos and Asbestinos, that had the like property with the mineral before mentioned, saith the same Salmasius, whereof Pliny makes mention in l. 9 of his History, c. 1 and calls it Indian flax, and linum v●vum, quick inconsumptible flax. Solinus makes mention of some sails made in Crete of this stuff, quae inter ignes valebant (as he saith) that would not take fire, if it hath this property indeed, it is pity to put it to such vulgar use as to serve for sails, that would better serve at our tables; for if men had table-clothes and napkins of this stuff, they might prefet them before Diapers and Damasks, for it would save some cost & no small trouble in washing and drying such household implements, it is but throwing them into the fire, and they are presently washed and dried at once. Pliny indeed esteemed it equivalent to pearl and precious stone, for it was hard to be found, and difficult to be weaved, for the shortness of it (as he says) the bodies of Kings were used to be wrapped in this kind of cloth when they were to be burnt, that the ashes might be preserved unmixed, for to be laid up in urns or pitchers, as the manner than was. Pliny saw some Napkins of this sort in his time, and the experiment of their purifying demonstrated. One Podocattar a Cyprian Knight, and who wrote de rebus Gypriis in the year 1566. had both flax and cloth of this sort with him at Venice, and one Thomas Porcacchius hath seen the same in that Knight's house, and many others with him, as he relates in his work concerning the Rites of Funerals. Ludovicus Vives also saw a Towel of that kind at Louvain in Brabant, as he relates in his Commentary upon St Augustine de Civitate Dei, l. 21. c. 6. Baptista Porta saw the same at Venice with a woman of Cyprus, and calls it Secretum optimum, perpulchrum, perutile, a very useful and profitable secret, Nat. Magia, l. 4. c. 25. As stones and trees have been spun and weaved into cloth, so some metals may be wrought to that use; Attalic garments were weaved all of gold & thread, which sort of Vesture the Italians call Veste di Brocato dioro: Such a garment Mary the wife of the Emperor Honorius was buried in; for her Marble Coffin being digged up at Rome in the year 1544. where the foundation of St peter's Church was laid, all her body was found consumed save the Teeth and a few bones, but her golden apparel was fresh; out of which (being melted) was extracted 36 pounds' weight of pure gold, as Aldourand relates in the first book of his Musaeum Metallicum. The Sidonians made the like kind of garments, as appears by these verses in Virg. Aen. xi. Tum geminas vestes ostroque auroque rigentes Extulit Aeneas, quas ill● laeta laborum Ipsa suis quondam manibus Sidonia Dido Fecerat, & tenui telas discreverat auro. St Hierom in one of his Epistler, and and Paulus Diaconus do make mention of a sort of wool that was reigned down in the year 1119▪ in the Reign of Valentinian and Valens, which fell most about Atrebatum, or the Province of Artois in Flanders, which was spun into cloth, and did much enrich the Country thereabouts. The heavens reigned down meat once for the people of Israel, now it reins down clothing; l. 1. de Provide. as there was coelum escatile, as Salvian speaks of the admirable Manna, when men did eat Angel's food, so here was coelum textile, as I may so term it; the sky affords both food and ●ayment! Some of this wool in memorial of the miracle, is preserved to this day in the chief Church of Arras; to wit, St Maries Church there. De Plumificiis. An Appendix of the Plumary Art. IN Florida, and other places of the West Indies, the Inhabitants make garments of Feathers with marvellous Art and Curiosity; as also rare and exquisite pictures; for in those Countries there are Birds of rare plumage, of very gay and gaudy colours, that have a gloss like silk, and put down the pride of the Peacock; some are of orient green and some of excellent carnation and scarlet, more especially in their Phenicopters, Parrots, and Tomincios. Their manner is to strip the Feathers from the Quills with neat pincers, and then to join them together with paste, mingling variety of colours in such a rare medley, that they make a very glorious show. Ferdinando Cortes the Spaniard found abundance of these curious works in the Palace of Motez●m●, the wealthy Emperor of the Mexicans, which were such and so excellent, that none could make in silk, wax, or of needlework any things comparable to them; so he speaks in his second narration; and in his third he adds this, that they were so artificial and neat, that they cannot b● described in writing, or presented to the imagination, except a man sees them. Cardinal Paleottus had the picture of St Hierom kneeling before a Crucifix made of this Workmanship, which was sent him from Spain; some Friars that had resided in those Countries of America, had learned the Art (it seems) from the Natives. These pictures are made so accurately, that it would pose a judicious eye to discern or distinguish them from those that are made with the pencil, or the art of the painter. This art was not unknown to the Ancients in this Hemisphere of the world: St Hierom makes mention of operis Plumarii, this plumary workmanship, in his Commentary upon Exod. l. 26. 1. and on chap. 39 of Exod. v. 29. Seneca makes mention of it in his Ep. 90. Non avium plumae in usum vestis conservantur, etc. So also Julius Fermicus l. 3. Astronom. c. 13. & Prudent. in Ha●martig. — Hunc videas lascivas praepete cursu Venantem tunicas; avium quoque versiculorum Indumenta novis Texentem plumea telis. If this art be lost in the old world (as indeed we can no where find it on this side the Globe) it is preserved (it seems) in the new, and that in the highest perfection, insomuch that it puts down not only the admired pieces of Zeuxes and Apelles of old, but also those of Michael Angelo, and Raphael Urbino of later times: and the plumes of those birds seem to surpass all their colours, not only for lustre and beauty, but also for duration and lasting. See more of this Art in the learned Fuller his Miscellanea sacra, l. 4. c. 20. in Jos. Acostal. 4. La Gerda his Adversaria sacra. Pancirol. de novo Orb tit. 1. CAP. VIII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, Of the Art of Music, with sundry Instruments thereunto belonging. THere is Music in heaven and Music on the way thither, in the spheres, as the Pythagoreans affirm: and therefore the soul of man being descended from heaven, & passing through those harmonious spheres, doth naturally delight in Harmony: Anima in corpus defert memoriam Musicae, cujus in coelo conscia fuit, saith Macrob. l. 2. in somn. Scipionis. Nay, God made the body of man (wherein this musical soul is to sojourn) a kind of a living Organ or Musical instrument: Life is an harmonious Lesson (as one saith) which the soul plays upon the Organs of the body. There is but one pipe to this Organ (to wit) the Weasand; the Lungs are the bellows to make wind, and to inspire this pipe; yet with this one pipe (being variously stopped) we can express a thousand sorts of notes and tunes, and make most ravishing music; for there is no Harmony that is so delightful and pleasing to man as vocal, or the music of man's voice. In imitation of this musical pipe in the throat of man, men devised to make music with a Syringe or Reed; which being bored with holes, and stopped with the fingers, and inspired with man's breath, was made to yield various and delightful sounds. This was Pastoral Music or Shepherd's Delight, and was the invention of Pan the God of Shepherds, and of the Arcadian plains, in those golden days. Pan primus calamos cerâ conjungere plures Instituit.— Virg. Ecl. 2. Whence the Poets have feigned Pan to be in love wit a Syrinx, Ovid. l. 1. Metam. a Nymph of that name, but (in the moral) in love with that Pastoral music of the Reed then in use. Lucretius doth ascribe the first hint of this Pastoral music to the whistling of the winds among the reeds, in his 5th book. Et Zephyri cava per calamorum sibila primùm Agrestes docuere cavas inflare cicutas, Ind minutatim dulces didicere querelas, Tibia quas fundit digitis pulsata Canentûm. Avia per nemora ad sylvas saltusque reperta, Per loca Pastorum deserta, atque otia Dia. By murmuring of wind-shaken reeds, rude Swains Learned first of all to blow on hollow Canes, Then pipes of pieces framed, whence Music sprung Played on by quavering fingers as they sung, Devised in shades and plains, where shepherds graze Their bleating Flocks with leasure-crowned lays. In imitation of the Reed, some have made tuneful pipes of the shankbone of a Crane, which is called Tibia; from whence the pipe is also called Tibia, or a Flute, and he that plays thereon Tibicen, a Flutinist. This was called Manulos (as Pliny testifieth) that is, single or simple Music, and therefore probably the first; for men naturally do light upon single or simple notions, before mixed or compound, and begin with plain things before they proceed to finer curiosities; as plain songs were before descants and chromati● moods. There were Musical Instruments in the world before Pan's time. Jubal the son of Lamech was pater omnium tractantium citharam & organon, as the holy Spirit speaks, Gen. 4. 21. pater, that is, in Hebrew sense, the Author and Inventor of the Harp and Organ, but what kind of Instruments these were, Moses doth not inform us. The Egyptian Mercury was the first Inventor of the Lyre or Harp. Horace calls him curvae lyrae parentem. The Invention was casual, thus: Finding a Tortoise-shell near the Nile-side, to the which some nerves or strings did hang, reaching from the one end to the other; these strings having been dried by the sun and well stretched, and being accidentally touched with the fingers, gave a shrill sound or twang from the hollow of the shell; which gave him (being sagacious) a hint of framing the Lyre, or (as others say) the Lute. As dubartas (for one) who speaking of this Mercury and the Tortoise-shell, sings thus, in his Handicrafts. And by this mould frames the melodious Lute, That makes woods hearken and the stones be mute; The hills to dance, the heavens go retrograde, Lions be tame, and tempests quickly vade. Indeed, the Lute doth much resemble the Tortoise-shell, and from that resemblance it it called Tostudo. So in Propert. lib. 2. Tale facis carmen doctâ testudine, quale Cynthius impositis temperat Articulis. What some have invented, others have perfected: Terpander made a Lyre or Harp of seven strings which before had but three, answerable to these three principal notes of Treble, Mean, and Base, Obloquitur numeris septem discrimina vocum. Simonides added an eighth string, and Timotheus a ninth, and holy David makes mention of a Decachord or ten-stringed Instrument. Many Instruments have been invented by K. David for to be used in God's service. But all sorts of these vafa Cantici, (as Amos calls them, Am. 6. 5.) of these musical Utensils, are divided into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I may express them in English either Mouth-Instruments or hand-Instruments, sounded either with the breath of the mouth or the touch of the hand: Of the first sort, are all Flutes, Pipes, Trumpets, Cornets, Sacbuts, etc. Of the other sort, are the Lute, Harp, Organ, Psaltery, Virginal, etc. All Instruments of Music were by the Latines called Organa, Organs. But that which is more especially called by that name, makes a grave solemn Music like the sober Doric, and hath been very anciently used (with Psalmodies) in Divine Service; the Inventor whereof was King David, as some affirm. Since his time, men have proceeded to marvellous Curiosities both in Music and Musical Instruments. Not many years since, there was a pair of Organs made in Italy that would sound either Drum or Trumpet, or a full choir of men, as the Organist pleased; so that men would think they heard boys and men distinctly sing their parts in Consort, as Leander Alberti (an eye and earwitness thereof) relates, in his description of Italy. A Neapolitan Artisan made a pair of Organs all of Alabaster stone, pipes, keys and jacks, with a loud lusty sound, which he aftrrward bestowed upon the Duke of Mantua, and which Leander Alberti saw in the said Duke's Court, as he relates in his description of Thuscany. The same Leander saw a pair of Organs at Venice made all of Glass, that made a delectable sound. This is mentioned also by Mr Morison in his Travels. Pope Sylvester the Second made in his younger years a pair of Organs that should play without an Organist; Genebr. Chron. ad Ann. 997. he used only warm water to give them motion and sound. Such Hydraulics are frequent in Italy, that are moved with cold water as well as hot. Gaudentius Merula in his 5th book de mirabilibus mundi makes mention of an Organ in the Church of St Ambrose in Milan, whereof the pipes were some of wood, some of brass, and some of white Lead; which being played upon did express the sound of Cornets, Flutes, Drums and Trumpets with admirable variety and concord. Many persons can sing very well naturally, but this natural Music may be improved by Art, when they are taught to sing by Rules and Notes, and to govern their voices by acquired habits; and so there is an Art of Music, as there is artificial Logic besides the natural: but because these natural Singers are but few and scarce, Apparent rari nantes in gurgite vasto; therefore to supply this defect, some have musical Instruments for harmless pleasure and delight, to appease the cares of life, and for many other laudable and honest uses, which I shall more largely handle in the ensuing Appendix of the Power and efficacy of Music. The Power and Efficacy of Music. THe Poets may be thought too lavish, and to strain themselves beyond Ela in praising the efficacy and force of Music, when they extend it to things even without life and sense: when they sing of Orpheus, that trees and rocks and things without sense were sensible of his powerful Lays; that winds were silent and waters stopped their courses to listen to his ravishing Numbers. Horace is much upon this string in several of his Odes; and Claudian sings the same note in the beginning of his second book de Raptu Proserpinae. Vix auditus erat, venti sternuntur & undae, Pigrior astrictisTorpuit Hebrus aquis. Ardua nudato descendit populus Aemo, Et comitem Quercum Pinus amica trahit. Englished. No sooner heard, but Winds and Waves were laid; And headlong Hebrus (as if frozen) stayed: The lofty Poplars left high Aemus bare, The Pine came with the Oak to hear his air. So he speaks of that rare Musician Orpheus. Virgil saith the like of Silenus, when he sung Tum vero in numerum Faunosque ferasque videres Ludere; Tum rigidas motare cacumena Quercus. Mr Randolph's Muse is in the same key in commendation of Music, who because he hath expressed the power of Music to the height of Fancy, I thought good to insert his Rapture in this place. Music, thou Queen of Souls! get up and string Thy powerful Lute, and some sad Requiem sing; Till Rocks requite thy Echo with a groan, And the dull Cliffs repeat the duller tone. Then on a sudden with a gentle hand, Run gently o'er the Chords, and so command The Pine to dance, the Oak his roots forgo, The Holm, and aged Elm to foot it too, Myrtles shall caper, lofty Cedars run And call the Courtly Palm to make up one; Then in the midst of all this jolly train, Strike a sad Note, and fix them Trees again. That Music hath any such power over things inanimate I shall suspend my faith; but that it hath a great impression upon all things endued with sense, I shall evince by good proofs. This Regina sensuum, as Cassiodor calls it, Queen Regent of our senses, and sovereign Mistress of our affections. Of all the creatures that God made, there is none that makes Music or Harmony but Man and Birds; but as among men all do not sing tuneably to delight the ear if they would never so fain: So among Birds, all are not fit for the Choir or Cage; There are but few sorts among the infinite variety of them, that are Musical. Nevertheless though all men cannot make Music; yet all are delighted with it; so for birds and beasts, though all do not sing, yet are all affected with melody and singing. But to come from the Thesis to the Hypothesis, I will descend to some particular instances, to show the regency and power of Music over insensible creatures. Over the Rational Creatures Irrational The Roman Orator in his Oration pro Archia Poeta tells us, that Bestiae ●nnanes cantu flectuntur, & consistunt, that savage and innane beasts are so taken with Music, that they will turn back and stand still to listen thereto. Henry Stephens that learned man of Paris testifieth, Praefat. ad Herod. that he saw a Lion in the City of London, qui Musicen audiendi gratiâ epulas suas desereret; that would forsake his meat to hear Music. Mulcentur Cervi fistulâ Pastorali & Cantu, says Pliny, Deer are much taken with the Music of the Pipe; Elephants with singing, and the sound of Tabrets, as Strabo; and among all beasts there is none but the Ass that is not delighted with harmony, Aelian. ●ist. Animal. l. 10. as the Pythagoreans affirm, Birds also and Fowl are generally affected with sweet sounds and harmony; Non solum calamis, Martial. sed cantu fallitur ales. And Fistula dulce canit volucrem dum decipit Auceps, says the grave Cato. I heard from Falconers that singing did much conduce to the cicurating of Hawks: Nay Music commands in all the Elements, and rules not only in the Air, but also in the Water among the Mutes; as that famous story of Arion and the Dolphin does testify: That story is recorded by Herodotus, and Aul. Gellius, and many other grave Historians, and it was briefly thus, Arion being at Sea, and sailing towards his own Country of Lesbos, some of his companions that were with him on shipboard knowing that he had money about him, conspired to rob him, and then to throw him into the Sea; Arion being made acquainted with their purpose, and having his Harp with him, desired so much respite that he might give them a lesson for a farewell, and then let them do their pleasure; when he had ended his lesson, and (like the Swan) has sung his own Dirge and last Notes (as he thought) in this world, he was thrown overboard; but it happened that some Dolphins having gathered together about the Ship to hear his ravishing notes, one of them (in requital of his Music) took Arion on his back, and wa●ted him safe to his own shore, and there laid down his load. In memory whereof the picture of the Dolphin was set up near that shore with a Greek Distich, which Volaterran translated into Latin thus, Cernis Amatorem qui vexit Ariona Delphin: A Siculo subitas pondera grata mari. The story is touched by Ovid in his third book de Arte Amandi; Quamvis mutus erat, voci favisse putatur Piscis, Arioniae fabula nota lyrae. Nay, the irresistible power of Music reacheth deeper than the Sea, even as far as hell, it sways among the infernal fiends upon presumption of his powerful strains; Orpheus went down among them to fetch his wife Eurydice from thence, as Virgil sings of him. Ausus at est manes accersere Conjugis Orpheus Threiscia fretus lyra, Aen. 6. fidibusque canoris. On whom Mr Brown speaking of the commendation of Spencer, hath this reflection in his Pastorals, He sung th' Heroic Knights of Fairy land, Spencer's Fairy Q. In lines so elegant, and of such command, That had the Thracian played but half so well, He had not left Eurydice in Hell. In the second place, for rational creatures, there's nothing more evident and more commonly seen, than that all sorts of people (more or less) are affected with harmony. And with most men it hath such power over their spirits, that it can mould them into any temper; Omnes animi habitus cantibus gubernantur (saith Macrob.) ut & ad bellum progressus & receptui canatur: cantu & excitants & sedante virtutem. It commands all our passions as it lists, Somn. Scipionis, l. 2, c. 3. either of anger or mildeness, joy or sorrow, according to the several strains and tunes it makes, as if there were some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (as Aristotle speaks) some imitations or echoings, Polit. l. 7. c. 3. some secret sympathy between the strings of the Heart and the Harp, or any other Instrument that gives mel●d●e. To illustrate this, I will give certain historical instances or examples of each kind. 1. Music stirs up Anger and Courage, especially that which they call Phrygian Music, which consists of violent and loud notes and sprightful motions, and this is useful for the wars; and therefore Drums, Trumpets and Cornets have been (anciently) used among most nations to encourage the soldiers in the field. Virgil speaking of Misenus (Aeneas his Trumpeter) gives this character of him. — Quo non praestantior alter Aere ciere viros, Martemque accendere cantu. Tyrteus that brave Commander of Lacedaemon made use of the Trumpet against the Messensians, with whose unwonted sound they were much terrified, as his own soldiers were much animated therewith, as they were also with his Songs and Poems, as Horace testifies in his Art of Poetry. — Post hos, insignis Homerus, Tyrteusque mares animos ad martia bella Versibus exacuit.— Horace, who had been a soldier for some years himself, speaks of his Barbiton which he had used in the war, and which now he meant to hang up for a monument after his return home: Defunctumque bello Barbiton, hic paries habebit. 2. As it stirs up Anger, so it doth allay and appease it, and conjures down that spirit which it raiseth up; Cantando malos affectus incantamus. Timotheus the Musician could both enrage and becalm the Great Alexander at his pleasure, only by the different strains of his Music. Clinias the Pythagorean when he began to be heated with anger, would take his Lute to compose his affections; and Achilles (the great Soldier) was wont to do the like, as Aelian reports of them both. Var. l. 14. c. 23. this is Caduceus pacis. The Harp is Tela Musarum loquax, as Cassiodor wittily styles it, a speaking kind of Instrument, whereby a man speaks his passions without a tongue, and by those verbosa stamina doth tell his tale more effectually than he can with the natural Organs of his speech. Therefore the Geteses (knowing the power of Music to move clemency) did use to send harps and Musicians with those Ambassadors that went to treat for peace and amity. Ludovicus Pius the Emperor did set Theodulpus at liberty when he heard him sing an Anthem, which he had composed in Prison. 3. Music exhilarateth the spirits and expelleth the evil spirit of melancholy, as David (the sweet singer of Israel) drove (with his celestial strains) the evil spirit out of Saul, and put him out of possession, without any other exorcism then that of Music: It seems the devil does not love Music; but I know nothing else but does. Scimus Musicam Daemonibus invisam & intolerabilem esse, saith Luther in Epist. ad Senfelium Masicum. This may be better called Fuga Daemonum than the herb Hyperion. Melancholy is the Devil's Bath, wherein he takes much delight. And therefore, since Music is an enemy to Melancholy, we may conclude that it is an enemy to the Devil: Music hath too much of heaven to give him any delight; he loves jars and discord better than concord and harmony. 4. This does compose men to gravity, contemplation, and godly sorrow, especially the grave Doric Music of the Church. Saint Augustine did shed tears when he heard the solemn Music of the Church at Milan, as he confesseth in the 9th of his Confessions. Hereby our devotion is exalted, our souls lifted up to heaven with those echoing sounds, and our spirits better prepared and disposed for prophetic raptures and divine illuminations. When Elisha was desired to Prophesy by King Jehoshaphat, he called for a Minstrel to make music, thereby to defecate and clear his spirits; and as the minstrel played, the hand of the Lord came upon him and he prophesied victory and good tidings to the King, 1 King. 3. 15. and that the Prophets did commonly use musical Instruments for that purpose, as we may learn from the first book of Sam. cap. 14. v. 5. 5. To these I may add in the 5th place, that Music doth avail (not a little) to chastity, sobriety and civil conversation, as it may be used and applied. When some young men of Taurominum were about to force open a house upon some women that they had a mind to, Pythagoras coming casually by, did appease their minds and reduce them to a better mood, by making a Minstrel (that they had with them) to change his notes from nimble Dactyls or triple time into slow Spondaics, & so did becalm their hot and unruly spirits. Spondae● resonante, as C●cero relates in his Tuscul. and Boetius in Prooemio de Musica, and Quintilian also in Orator instit l. 1. cap. 10. A Spondey or Spondaic foot is a grave time consisting of two long syllables, so that if there be many of them in a verse, they make it to be of a slow heavy motion, like the Spanish gate and gravity; as in that verse, Conturbabantur Constantinopolitaniss. Whereas the nimble Dactyls (whereof Galliards consist) are aery and sprightly like the French disposition, and like that verse in Ennius (which runs all upon Dactyls) Et tuba terribili sonitu Taratantara dixit. The very sound and pronunciation whereof rouseth the spirits and maddeth them in a sort; as Aristotle speaks of the Phrygian mode in Music, that it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, 4ᵒ Polit. It is reported of Agamemnon, that when he went to the wars, he left a Musician with his wife Clytaemnestra for to keep her chaste, by singing grave Doric tunes unto her. Modus Dorius prudentiae largitor est, & castitatis effector, saith learned Cassiodor lib. 9 Var. c. 3. ut Phrygius pugnas excitat, & Aeolius animi tempestates tranquillat. Id. 6. Lastly, by the power of Music rude and savage people have been civilised, & brought to humanity and gentleness, brought from Woods and Caves to live in Towns, taught to build houses, to live under Laws and in civil society and correspondency with their own kind; so the Thebans were mollified by Amphion, and the rude Thracians by Orpheus: and this is the true meaning and moral of those Poetical Fables touching those two famed Musicians, as Horace tells us. Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque Deorum Caedibus & victu foedo deterruit Orpheus. Dictus ob hoc lenire Tigers, rabidosque Leones; Dictus & Amphion (Thebanae Conditor Arcis) Saxa movere sono Testudinis, & prece blandâ Ducere quo vellet.— Orpheus the God's interpreter, from blood Deterred wild men and savage livelihood. Hence came the fable, that by Music he Did Tigers and wild Lions lenify: And hence Amphion (who built Thebes) is said To have moved stones with his sweet strains, and led Them where he would, etc.— As Music hath power over the spirits of man, so it hath over his body too, and that in two respects; partly, to keep it from drooping and weariness, while it is at work; and partly to cure it of some maladies, as I shall produce examples of both. 1. It avails to keep the body from weariness and irksomeness, and drooping from under its daily cares, toil & labour. Horace calls his Lute Dulce laborum lenimen, the gentle easer of labour and painstaking. And Quintilian says, That Nature seems to have given this gift of Music to mankind for this very purpose; and from hence it is that all sorts of people use commonly to deceive the tediousness of their dayly-task with with some melody. Parrhasius the Painter used to sing while he was at work. Cantu & modulatione submissâ, laborem artis mitigare solebat; so Aelian tells us, lib. 9 cap. 11. The Husband man sings or whistles at his work. Altâ sub rupe canit frondator ad auras. And his good wife at her wheel at home makes some notes also that serve to please her, if they please no body else. Interea longum cantu solata laborem Arguto conjux percurrit pectine telas. And if men over-toyl themselves and be tired out with labour, Music is very helpful to recreate their spirits, and to make them fresh and vigorous again: Musica est medicina molestiae illius quae per labores suscipitur, saith (the Patriarch of Philosophy) Aristotle. And Tully saith of the Pythagoreans, that after they had been weary with intentive studies, their usual manner was to solace themselves in the evenings with Music, as hard students in our Universities use to do now adays. 2. As this heavenly gift expels weariness from our bodies, so it expels some maladies too. The Old Greek Bard (Homer) saith, the Grecians did cure the plague with Music, in the first book of his Iliads. The reason of this cure is, because Music cheers up the spirits and expels sadness, than which nothing is more fatal in a time of Mortality, or makes the body more obnoxious to the tyranny of diseases. Corporibus vires subtrahit ipse timor: Fear and sadness betrayeth the succours that nature hath provided for her own defence, and doth expose our bodies naked to the malignity of the air and invasion of any malady. Hereof you may find more in the writings of Physicians, and particularly Langius in the 3.d d book of Medicinal Epistles tells us of Xenocrates, that he used to cure Phrenetick persons with songs and music; and of Theophrastus, who by his own experience found that the pains of the Sciatica is much assuaged by Music. They say in France, that Music doth not cure the Toothache: but yet some aches are cured by it; for Macrobius, to the other virtues of Music, adds this, Corporis morbis medetur. But there are two diseases that are proper (in a manner) to Germany and Italy, which are cured by no other means than Music. In Italy, they that are bitten with that venomous Spider called the Tarantula become Phrenetick, and the only way to cure them is to play upon Instruments unto them; at the sound whereof they fall a dancing, and bestir themselves so long until they are quite tired and have sweated out the venom that was shot in by that Insect. In Germany also that disease which they call Chorus Sti Viti, or St Vitus his dance, is cured with Music. It is a kind of a Frenzy too, and when the Patients hear any Minstrel play, saltant ad lassitudinem simul & sanitatem, as Shenkius saith; they dance presently, and never give over till they are both tired and cured. And these are sufficient proofs to show the power and efficacy of Music both over man and beast, and in man both over his body and mind. The truth is, we may observe, that soluta Oratio, plain prose, without harmony or metre, hath a great sway over men's minds, if it be gracefully and pathetically delivered. The Orators among the Grecians had the power of fire and water, to inflame and to extinguish, to make peace or war; such was Demosthenes in Athens. — Quem mirabantur Athenae Torrentem & pleni moderantem fraena Theatri. Juv. Sat. That ruled and managed the people with his eloquent and voluble tongue, as a rider doth his horse with the reins. Eloquence is flexamina & 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, there is some sorcery and enchantment in a well-composed Oration. Hierom. Savanorola, that pious man and eloquent preacher of Florence, did manage that Commonwealth with his tongue. ●ancelotti. M. Antonius milites armatos facundiâ suâ exarmavit. Vell. Paterc. l. 2. cap. 20. And when Ferdinand the Second besieged Rome, one Ugolin a Friar, by a Sermon he made at the Vatican, did move all his Audience to weep, and did so inflame their courage withal, that they took arms unanimously to beat off the enemy from the walls; and they sallied out with so good success, that they raised the siege. If a plain Speech delivered with gravity & gracefulness hath such force, how much more moving are words joined with Harmony and Numbers? All the powers and virtues of Music which we have here at large exemplified, are briefly comprised by the Noble Sallust in these following verses. Sweet Music makes the sternest men at arms Let fall at once their anger and their arms. It cheers sad souls, and charms the frantic fits Of Lunatics that are bereft their wits. It kills the flame and curbs the fond desire Of him that burns in Beauty's blazing fire. It cureth Serpents baneful bite, whose anguish In deadly torments makes them madly languish. The Swan is rapt, the Hind deceived withal, And Birds beguiled with a melodious call. The Harp leads the Dolphin, and the busy swarm Of buzzing Bees the tinkling brass does charm. O! what is it Music cannot do, Sith th'all-inspiring spirits it conquers too? And makes the same down the Empyreal Pole Descend to earth into a Prophets soul. Baptista Porta doth ascribe the wonderful effects of Music to the several sorts of trees that the instruments are made of, whether the Vine or the Elder, the Poplar, Laurel, or the like; which (saith he) have a secret property to cure diseases, more than the sounds that are made by them: but he is mistaken herein; for we know what power inartificial sounds and bare words (without Music added) have over men's minds and spirits. Scaliger argues the case thus: The Vibration or trembling of the air (caused by vocal or instrumental Music) doth move and affect the spirits in man's body, which are subtle vapours of the blood and the instruments of the soul in all her operations; which spirits affect the soul as well as body, so that apt concordant sounds, carried in the curled air to the inward spirits, cause there a titillation or pleasure, and sometimes other affections or passions according to ●he stre●s of the Music, and according to the complexion of the hearer. The Ancient Sages (as Aristotle reports) affirmed the Soul itself to be Harmony or harmoniously composed; so that there is a sort of affinity between ●t and Music, and every man is naturally delighted therewith; so he in the 8th of his Politics. Macrobius cometh very near to this of the Philosopher; Jure ●apitur Musicâ omne quod vivit (saith he) 〈◊〉 coelest is Anima, quâ animatur uni●ersitas, originem sumpsit ex Musica. That it is no wonder that every creature that hath a living soul is taken with Music, since the soul of the Universe (whereof every particular soul is a part or parcel) is made of Harmony Pericles liberis Athenarum cervicibus jugum imposuit Eloquentia; he held captive the free born Athenians by his Eloquence: Eamque urbem egit & versavit arbitrio suo; steered and wound that people which way he listed himself. V. Max. l. 8. c. 9 Hegesias a Philosopher of the Cyrenaic sect did so pathetically set forth the evils and discommodities of this life, that divers of his Auditors did take a resolution to make themselves away; so that the Philosopher was commanded by King Ptolemy to spend his Eloquence upon some other subject. Cic. Tuscul. Quaest lib. 1. CAP. IX. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: Touching the Invention of Glass and Glass-works. GLass is made of bright shining sand, and the ashes of a weed called Cazal and Zuhit, — Calices vili de pu●v●re nati. Mart. and the Ferne called by the Arabians Kali Alkali, that is Glass-wort. The invention was casual, and hinted thus, Certain glebes or large pieces of Nitre being brought out of a ship upon the shore, and taking fire by accident, melted the sand round about, so that it ●an in a liquid transparent stream, as Pli●y relates l. 36. Nat. Hist. and Josephus●1 ●1. de bello Judaico; and the Sidonians ●vere the first that took the hint or document therefrom; Sidon artifex vitri, Plin. ●5. This noble liquor (as Pliny calls it) ● so obsequious and pliant (while it is hot) that it may be spun into thread, and wrought into any form that a man can fancy; nay Art doth here imitate the Creation; for as God made creatures by the breath of his mouth, so the Artist makes glass with a breath, and blows it into what shape and figure he pleaseth. Vitrarius suo spiritu vitrum in habitus plurimos format, qui vix diligenti manu ●ffingerentur, as a contemplative Philosopher observed of old touching this business, Sen. Epist. 90. When it is cooled, it will not yield to the point of any Iron or Steel, but only the Diamond; and the restless Quicksilver, that which pierces through Iron gold, and brass, will not pierce through this. Cups and Vessels made of gl●ss are very neat, clean, and wholesome. For they do not impart any ill taste or tincture to any liquor that is contained in them. And they were (no doubt) as precious at first in this Hemisphere of the world as now they are in some parts of the I●●dies; for in the Kingdom of Tydor and other places, they exchange gold fo● glasses, as Pigafetta and sundry others d● do relate; so much are they taken wit● the airy brightness and transparency 〈◊〉 them: Moreover glass doth not wear with the using: It admits no poison, but be●rays it by breaking; any excessive cold or heat breaks it, especially if it be fine, like that of Venice; so Crystal is impatient of heats, as Pliny tells us, and Martial the Epigrammist in an Epigram we quoted before, Non sumus audacis Plebeia * Toreumata.] This word shows that glasses were sometimes wrought upon the Turn, or the Turner's wheel, as earthen vessels are; the word comes from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to turn; And Pliny doth expressly teach, that glass was wrought either by blowing of it, or by being Turned, or by being engraven like silver, l. 36. Nat. Hist. toreumata vitri Nostra nec ardenti flamma feritur aqua. The best of this kind are made at th● Murano, a place within 2 miles of Venice, so that the Venice glasses do bear the bell from all others: Here to make their glasses so clear and transparent, and so like Coristal, they dip it (while it is hot) in clean water, whereby it is clarified, and made like the water itself, wherein it is so tincted and seasoned. Though the glass we now use be brittle ware, and easily shattered in pieces, yet there was an Artist in Rome in the Emperor Tiberius his time, that had found a way to make glass malleable and yielding, and such as would bow rather than break; for the man bringing a glass-phial for a present to the Emperor to show his art, he threw the Vessel against the stone pavement, with which blow it was not broken, but dented; then taking his hammer he beat in the dent again, to the no small wonder of the spectators, as Dion relates in the 56th of his History, and Suetonius, with others. The man was secretly made away, and so the Art was suppressed, lest gold should be discountenanced and become vile, as the same Suetonius adds in the life of that Emperor. The use of glass is various and manifold, not only for making cups & vessels, but also for Looking-glasses, Telescopes, Microscopes, Thermometers, Spheres, Spectacles, Ocularia. or Lunulets, as the French, and Bis-oculi, as my Lord of St Alban calls them; by the help of glasses, weak eyes are strengthened, & old eyes become young and vigorous; small objects are magnified and represented much bigger, things invisible are made visible, & things that are behind us, brought before us: Yea, what things are done in our neighbour's houses, and in our enemy's tents, are brought to our knowledge without any Mephistophilus or Magic Art. See Baptista Porta his third book of his Natural Magic. Cornelius van Dreble, a Citizen of Alcmar in Holland, and a rare Engineer, who lived in King James his Court here in England (as we mentioned before) invented the Vitra Microscopia, the Microscopes or glasses whereby we plainly see and discover the subtlest objects and the smallest, as the distinct colours and members of Flies and Worms and Nits, and the spots and small grains in Gems, as also in Urine or Blood, which the eye could not otherwise discern. With these the Anatomists (in dissecting of bodies) discover the smallest veins and strings and fibres in the body of man or beast. There are Glasses called Thermosc●pi and Thermometers, which being placed in a man's chamber, will discover the disposition and temper of the air, whether it be hot or cold, moist or dry, or inclining to either, invented by one Sanctorius, a Physician in Milan. There are also Glasses called Telescopes, from their use in discovering things afar off. invented first by Jacobus Meti●s of Alomar, as Des Cartes tells me, and perfected (since) by Gallileo Gallilei the Florentine, whereby they have discovered many new stars in the firmament, which no mortal eyes had noted before, which will represent objects thirty times bigger than their apparent quantity, and a hundred times nearer than their apparent distance. By these men have discovered not only new stars, but also new worlds in the stars, brought the moon before them to be better surveyed and perused, which they find to be another America, full of pleasant rivers, hills and dales, and also well inhabited with people (such as they are) viz. Lunatic people. One Telesius a Dane hath (of late) given us a Selenographia or description of the Countries and Provinces there, with their several maps. Cornelius' Drebble beforementioned had a little glass (but of a hands breadth in Diameter) which he called Fabus Opticus, wherewith he could distinctly see all the hills and spacious plains in the Lunary world, as also all the forests, cities and buildings there, as Dr Gassendi relates it in l. 5. written of the life of Peyresc. There are Burning-glasses, wherewith (like Prometheus) we fetch fire from heaven; to wit, that celestial coal the Sun, by gathering his fiery beams into some narrow compass, and uniting them to that strength, that they can set any combustible stuff on fire: With such glasses Archimedes fired the Roman ships in the Harbour of Syracuse, Mar●ell●s being General, as Plutarch reports in the life of Marcellus. With the like glasses Proclus (after him) defended Constantinople, by firing the ships of Vitalianus, who was beleaguering the town by sea, as Zonaras hath recorded in the life of Anastasius Dicorus. Roger Bacon out Countryman, a * Vir tam vastae d●ctrinae, ut Anglia, imo orbis, ca re nihil haberet simile aut secundum Voss. de artibus popular Artis magnae, l. 10. great Scholar and an acute man, told the Pope, That if he would be at the charge of making certain Burning-glasses after his direction, he would annoy the Turks more than all the Galleys of Italy, or an Army of an hundred thousand men could do, as Gaffarellus and others relate. Kircher, a great Scholar (now living in Rome) confesseth that he hath busied his head very much about those glasses of Archimedes and Proclus, and about making the like, but he could never hit upon the experiment; and he saith, that he never saw or heard of any glasses (of late) that would burn above 15 paces distance. But Baptista Porta professes a way how to make glasses that would burn and fire things at any distance. And John Dee, an eminent Mathematician of this Nation, doth profess (in a preface to a book of his called Monas Hieroglyphica) the Art to make a Glass that should calcine stones and reduce them to impalpable dust: these are magnalia Artis. But these things have been yet but in speculation for aught I find; not but that very strange and wonderful things might be done in this kind and many other ways, if there were any encouragement for Artists, or if any would go to the expense of proving some useful experiments, that are projected and thought feasible by ingenious and rational heads for the public benefit. Archimedes, that rare wit of Syracuse, made a Sphere of Glass, which did represent the perfect order and motions of the Heavenly bodies, which (besides many others) Claudian makes mention and describes in one of his Epigrams, which is set down before in the 7th Chapter. But Athanasius Kircher. de Magnete, l. 1. (whom we often mentioned) doth affirm, That the Sphere was not all of Glass, but only the outside of it, that men might the better discern the wheels and motions within; yet Petrus Ramus tells us, that he saw at Paris two Spheres of Glass like those of Archimedes; one brought from the Sicilian, the other from the Germane spoils. Marcus Scaurus made an Amphitheatre of Glass, as Pliny relates in the 36th book cap. 15. But I find by others that the Pavement was of Marble, and but the middle scene or story of Glass; which Glass was not our common Glass, neither (as I suppose) but rather Obsidian glass, which the same Pliny mentions elsewhere, and is found (or rather was found, for we hear of none now) in Aethiopta, which is very black like jet, and transparent as glass, friable and easy to be wrought with the cheesel; of which sort of glass was the stately Tomb which Ptolemy King of Egypt built at Alexandria for a Monument of Alexander the Great, as Strabo relates: And Herodotus also tells us, l. 17. Geogr. that this natural fossil-glass called Obsidian, was wont to be wrought hollow, and placed about dead bodies, as a Case through which they might be seen of the beholders. The Specular stone was of this kind, but that it was brighter and liker to Crystal. It was (anciently) used for windows (as Martial shows) to keep out cold. Hibernis objecta notis specularia puros Admittunt soles, & sine faece Diem. It was also used for a defence to some choice fruits, that they might not be nipped in the bud with the cold frosts and Northern winds; but this kind of Stone is not now extant; Guido Pancirollus returns it inter non inventa. Tit. 6. Leander in his description of Italy makes mention of a complete Galley of Glass that he had seen at Venice, and also a pair of Organs of Glass; to wit, of fusile or common ordinary Glass. Mr James Howell saw such a Galley at the Murano of late times, as he informs us in his History of Venice. As Glass is diaphanous, and permits a free passage of species through its body, as freely as air or water doth, so it is also reflexive, and beats back the said species that fall upon it; if the back side of it be lined with Tinnfoil, that is, the leaf of Tinn, Silver, or or other metal; and thus Looking-glasses are made, whereof there is manifold use, besides what Ladies use them for: for with such kind of Glasses many strange feats may be performed, so strange, that it hath betrayed some men to a suspicion of Magic and unlawful Arts, who have used to show some representations and apparitions, either in the air or otherwise, when ignorant people did not understand the Contrivances or art of them. CAP. X. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, The Invention of Shipping and Sailing; as also of the Mariner's Compass. Sailing was an Invention no less useful than bold; the Sea is a rough and dangerous Element, yet men have taken the boldness to set their foot upon the back of it, and ride upon the surging billows with a wooden horse: Equo ligneo vehuntur per vias caeruleas, saith the Comical Plautus. How far will Art (joined with courage) carry a man? Illi robur & aes triplex circa pectus erat, etc. That man (saith Horace) had a heart of oak and a breast lined with brass, that did first adventure to confront the winds and waves in a small tottering bark, when at every step he goes, he treads upon his grave. Et prope tam lethum quam prope cernit aquam. Which the Author of the book of Wisdom hath expressed thus. Verily, desire of gain hath devised Shipping, and the workman built it by his skill. But thy Providence, O Father, governs it, for thou hast made a way in the sea and a safe path in the waves. Showing that thou caused save from all dangers, yea though a man went to sea without Art. Nevertheless, thou wouldst not that the works of thy wisdom should be idle; and therefore do men commit their lives to a small piece of wood, and passing the rough Sea in a weak vessel, are saved. Wisd. 14. 2, 3, 4, 5. We shall admire their holdness the more, if we consider what Implements they had in the first ages to sail in, and some people at this time. The Egyptians used to make boats of Reeds and Bulrushes, saith Pliny. l. 13. Nat. Hist. and Lucan. l. 4. Phars: — Sic cum tenet omnia Nilus Conseritur bibula Memphitica cymba papyro. Which kind of boat or basket Moses was put to swim in, when Pharoah's daughter took him up. The Prophet Esay makes mention of such Utensils, in that Periphrasis of Egypt; Woe to the land shadowing with wings, that sends Ambassadors by sea in Bulrushes, Isa. 18. 12. Papyraceis navibus armamentisque Nili naviga nus, Plin. Nat. Hist. The Indians had the like boats, Indorum rates Scirpeae, atque etiam vestes, Herodot. l. 1. The Britain's of Old had their Naves Vitiles, as Pliny calls them; the Irish and the Natives call them Corraghes, & some Corracles; they were little Vessels of wicker, covered with leather, & not much bigger than a basket, with which they would as proudly bestride the seas as Jason with his Argo. Lucan mentions and describes them thus, l. 4. Primùm cava salix, madefacto vimine, parvam Texitur in puppim, caesoque induta Juvenco Vectoris patiens tumidum superenatat Amnem: Sic Venetus stagnante Pado, fusoque Britannus Navigat Oceano: sic cum tenet omnia Nilus Conseritur bibula Memphitica cymba papyro. — Of twiggs and willow bored, They made small boats, covered with bullocks hide, In which they reached the Rivers farther side. So sail the Veneti, Mr May, if Padus flow: The Britain's sail on their calm Ocean so: So the Egyptians sail with wooven boats * These kind of Baskets or Boats described by Lucan, were 〈◊〉 by Julius Caesar, to transport his army over the river Sicoris●●ainst ●●ainst Petreius, and other rivers elsewhere; and he had learned the ●aking of them (as it seems) from the Britain's, when he was 〈◊〉 this Island, as himself confesseth in his first book de Bello ●●ivili; Cujus generis, cum superioribus usus Brittanniae docuer●●: 〈◊〉 h●e describes them thus: carinae primùm ac statumina ex le●● materia fiebant, reliquum corpus navium vimi nibus contextum ●iis integebatur. Loco citato. Of papery rushes, in their Nilus floats. They have the like Vessels on the river ●uphrates to carry commodities to Babylon, and so like to these British ones, that (according to Herodotus his description of them) a man would think that either the Britain's borrowed the pattern from the Babylonians, or the Babylonians from them: For Herodotus in Clio, that is, the first book of his History, saith, that they had boats made of Osier or Willows of an orbicular for, in fashion of a Buckler, without prow or poop, and covered over on the outside with the hide of a bullock tanned: In these, besides other Countrey-commodities, they used to carry Palm-wines (in tonns) to be sold at Babylon; two men with an oar a piece in their hands guiding the Vessel. These Vessels were so light, that the owners used to carry them upon their backs to and from the water; the Master would carry his boat by land and the boat would carry its Master on the water: As the Arabian Fisherman useth to do with his Tortoise shell, which is his shallop by sea and his house on the firm land, under which he sleeps; which we have expressed in this Latin Epigram. Haec ratis atque domus; nostrae en compendia vitae! Hac habitat solers, hac mare sulcat Arabs. Se tegit hac terris, hac vict●m quaerit in undis: Ipsa domus dominum portat, & ipse domum. This I found expressed (afterwards) by the excellent dubartas, and his no less excellent interpreter Sylvester, thus: The Tyrian Merchant or the Portugez Can build one ship of many trees; But of one Tortoise when he list to float, The Arabian Fisherman can make a boat. And one such shell him in the stead doth stand, Of Hulk at sea, and of a House by land. Much like these are those which the Aeg●yptians use (at this day) upon the Nile, which they took upon their backs when they came to the Cataracts and steep falls of that River. Boterus calls them Naves Plicatiles, De politia illustrium, lib. 4. and which they use in some places of the West-Indies. For in the year 1500, we read that there were brought to Rouen seven Indians in one small vessel or boat, which was so light that one man could lift it up with his hand, as the same Boterus relates. In some places of the West-Indies they fish with Faggots made of Bulrushes, which they call Balsas; having carried them upon their shoulders to the sea, they cast them in, and then leap upon them▪ & then row into the main sea with small reeds on either side, themselves standing upright like Tritons or Neptunes; and o● these Balsas they carry their cords and nets to fish with. Joseph. Acosta, l. 3. c. 15▪ Strabo sailed to Egypt in a small thing like a Basket made of wicker, as himself relates in the seventeenth of his Geogra●phy. The Indians have long boats called Canoas', neatly made up of one tre● made hollow. In Greenland the Fishe●●mens boats are made like Weave● shuttles, covered outwardly with ski●● of Seals, and fashioned and strengthened with the bones of the same fishes; which being sewed together with many doubles, are so strong, that in foul weather they will shut themselves up in the same secure from the rocks, wind and weather. Purchas l. 8. of America. These are about 20 foot long, and 2 foot and a half broad, and so swift that no ship is able to keep way with them; and so light, that one man may carry many, and they carry but one oar. I saw a ship (saith a learned man, and one that spent 40 years in travels, and the only man that I read of that outstripped Sr John Mandevill, who traveled but 33 years (as Balaeus delivers) laden with Arabian Merchandise, which was made up without Iron, but the planks and ribs wears sewed with cords, and the sutures covered with sweet smelling Rosine, which came from the frankincense tree. The tackle, sails, and every part of the ship was made of one tree, which bears the Indian Nut. So Petrus Gellius in his description of the Thracian Bosphorus. — The Indian Nut alone Is clothing, meat and trencher, drink and can, Boat, cable, sail, and needle all in one. So that pious and Seraphic Poet Mr George Herbert. At first, one small tree did serve to make a boat, being made hollow: After this, men stitched large planks and boards together with Prows and Poops, fit to plow up the liquid plains; then they added Masts and Sails, and gathered the wind in a sheet, for to drive those Hulks on their way. The Tyrians, who were famous Navigators of old, are said to be the first that made such kind of Vessels. Utque maris vastum prospectet turribus aequor, Prima ratem ventis credere docta Tyros. Ovid tells us, that Jason King of Thessaly was the first contriver of ships; — primaeque ratis molitor Jason. And that his ships name was Argo, wherewith he fetched the Golden Fleece from Colchos, and which the Astronomers afterwards have stellified or fixed as a Constellation in heaven. Vellera cum Minyis nitido radiantia villo, Per mare non notum primâ petiere carinâ. Ovid. Metam. l. 6. Lucan confirms the same, l. 3. Ind lacessitum primò mare, cum rudis Argo Miscuit ignotas temerato littore gentes. The Fish called Nautilus, or the Little Mariner, was Navigiorum Archetypus, the first type or pattern of a Ship; for when he is to swim, he composeth his body and fins into the form of a Galley under sail: from the sight whereof, some (as Pliny conceives) took the first hint of framing a Ship. As from the sight of a Kite flying in the air and turning and steering himself with his tail (as fishes do in the water) some have devised the stern of a ship, Natura monstrante in coelo, quod esset opus in profundo, as Pliny l. 10. and Seneca also Epist. 91. Nulla ars intra initium suum steterit: As there is no art but receives addition and perfection by degrees, so hath this: Suet. in Vita. Caligula made a stately Galley of Cedar, with spacious Halls, and costly rooms therein, with gardens also and trees (fresh and green) upon the Decks, like the Pencil gardens of Semiramis; so that it seemed a floating garden, as well as a floating Castle. But Ptolomaeus Philopater outstripped him far, who built a Ship (saith my Author) that the like was never seen before or since; Pancirol. de rebus nuper inventis, tit. 38. It was two hundred eighty cubits in length, fifty two cubits in height from the bottom to the upper Decks; it had four hundred banks or seats of Rowers, four hundred Mariners, and four thousand Rowers, and on the Decks it could contain three thousand soldiers; there were also Gardens and Orchards on the top of it, as Plutarch relates in the life of Demetrius. Thus what was invented at first for necessity, is now improved to Riot and Luxury. The Ancients had a way to drive their ships without Oar or Sail, so that they could never be wind-bound; Vitruu. they had in their ships three wheels on each side, with eight radii of a span long jetting out from every wheel; six Oxen within did turn this Machine and wheels, which casting the water backward, did move the ship with incredible speed and force; they had in these ships an instrument called Garrum, which went with wheels in fashion of a Dyal, which at the end of every hour did let fall a stone into a Basin, and so divided the hours of the day. There have been Boats made here in England to go under water, which my Lord of St Alban seems to touch, No. Organum, l. 2. Audimus inventam esse Machinam aliquam Naviculae aut Scaphae, quae subter aquis vehere possit ad spatia non nulla: We are not now content to sail upon the waters, but we must sail under them too. I know not whether Julius Scaliger was a braggart or no, but he doth confidently aver, that he could make a ship that could steer herself as easily as kiss his hand (as we say) Naviculam sponte sua mobilem ac sui remigii authorem faciam nullo negotio; and to frame a flying Dove like that of Archyt●s velfacillimè profiteri audeo, saith the same great Scholar, Exer. 326. In a Naumachia or representation of a Naval fight in the time of Claudius Caesar, a Triton (or Sea god) sprung up in the midst of the Lake, sounding aloud with a silver Trumpet, Suet. in vit. Claudii. Juvenal makes mention of earthen boats to sail with, used also in Egypt; for speaking of the deadly feud and fight between the Towns of Ombos and Tentyra about their gods, he speaks thus, Sat. 15. Hac saevit rabie imbelle & inutile vulgus Parvula fictilibus solitum dare vela Phaselis, Et brevibus pictae remis incumbere testae. An Appendix of the Mariner's Card or Compass. THough these flying Coaches on Sea were brought to great perfection many years since, yet there was no small deficience in the Art of Navigation before the use of the Compass was found out; which was invented first here in Europe by John Goia, or Flavius Goia, as others call him, of the Town of Amalphi in Campania, in the Kingdom of Naples▪ Prima dedit Nautis usum Magnetis Amalphi: Du Bartas calls him Flavio in these words, We are not to Ceres so much bound for bread, Neither to Bacchus for his clusters red; As Signior Flavio for thy witty trial, For first inventing of the Seaman's Dyal. Before this invention, Pilots were directed in their right voyages by certain stars which they took notice of, especially the Pleiades, or Charles his Wain, and the two stars in the tail of the Bear, called Helice and Cynosura, which are therefore called Load-stars, or leading stars; As Travellers in the Deserts of Arabia and those of Tartary were always guided by some fixed stars in the night time, to steer their courses in those pathless & uncouth ways, so Seamen were directed by the like heavenly guides, in the pathless wilderness of waters, before this excellent invention was found out. Sidera Cuncta notat tacito labentia Caelo. So Virgil speaks of Palinuras, who was Ship-master or chief Pilot and Steersman to Aeneas; but if the sky chanced to be overcast, and the stars to be curtained with clouds, than the most experienced Mariner was at a loss, and must cast Anchor presently, and take up his rest. Cum neque Temo Piger, Star: l. 1. Theb. nec amico Sidere monstrat Luna vias, medio coeli pelagique tumultu Stat rationis inops— But the ingenious Amalphitan hath devised a remedy against this grand inconvenience, and found a way that men might steer a certain and infallible course in the darkest nights, and this by the help of a little stone, called (from the use and benefit) the Loadstone. This Loadstone ●s now our Load-star, and the Mariner's Directory. This stone (for the universal benefit and use of it) is the wonder of all stones; as Rabelais said, that a Millstone was the most precious stone of any other, so I may say, that a Loadstone is comparable to all the gems and precious stones in the world; it is but obscure and mean in sight, no sparkling lustre to be seen in it. — Lapis est cognomine Magnes Decolor, ●laud. de Magnete. obsâurus, vilis, etc. Si tamen hic nigri videas miracula saxi Tunc superat pulchros cultus, & quicquid Eoi Indus littoribus rubr● scrutatur in Algâ This stone hath two strange properties, the one of Attraction, the other of Direction; this property of Direction, (which chiefly concerns our present business) is, that being set in a dish, and left to float freely upon the water, it will with one end point directly to the North, and with the other to the South, and will give this faculty or property to a needle that is rubbed or touched with it. From these two faculties of Attraction and Direction, many excellent, useful, and ingenious Inventions have been found out, especially this Pyxis Nautica, or Mariner's Card or Compass, which carries a needle touched with the Loadstone in the middle of it, with two and thirty Rumbs or lines drawn round about it; according to the number of the Cardinal and Collateral Winds. Now this animated needle shows with the Lilly-hand (or point) the North in any part of the world, which is a great help to the Pilot to direct him to what point of the Compass to steer his course. This Pyx or Card is no less useful by Land than it is by Sea; so that they that travel through Deserts, as the Carovans do to Mecha and Medina, and other places, do now make good use of this device, whereas heretofore some star was their best guide by night. Pliny speaks of the Inhabitants of Taprobana (now called Sumatra) that because they do not see the Polestar to sail by, they carry with them certain birds to sea, which they do often let fly; and as these birds by natural instinct fly always towards the land, so the Mariners direct their course after them. In Syria, and some Countries of the East that are covered with sand, so that there is no tract or path to guide the Traveller, and those sands are also scorching hot, that they cannot be endured by day, they travel by night, and by the direction of certain stars, which they use as certain way-marks to steer their course by: As Mor Isaac in Philosophia Syriaca. So also in the Country of the Bactrians, as Curtius relates: Navigantium modo Sidera observant, ad quorum cursum iter dirigunt, Curt. l. 7. Lud. Bartema relates, that they that travel over the Deserts of Arabia, which are all covered with light and fleeting sands, so that no tract can ever be found, do make certain boxes of wood, which they place on Camels backs, and shutting themselves in the said boxes to keep them from the sands, and by the help of the Loadstone like the Mariner's Compass, they steer their course over the vast and uncouth Deserts. Some do ascribe this invention to that ingenious people of China. Dr. Gilbert affirms, that Paulus Venetus brought it first into Italy in the year 1260, having learned it from the Chinois, as he saith l. 1. de Magnete, c. 2. and Ludovicus Vertomanus, another traveller, saith, that when he was in the East Indies about the year 1500 (above an hundred and fifty years since) he saw the Pilot of his ship direct his course by a Compass (framed after the same manner as we have now) when he was sailing towards Java. The Mariner's Compass is not brought yet to that perfection, but that it requires some rectification and amendment; for the Magnetic Needle doth not exactly point to the North in all Meridian's. but varies and swerves (in some places more, in some less) from the Direct posture, Configuration, and Aspect of the North and South, which puts Seamen to much distraction, and makes them run oftentimes on dangerous errors. Van Helmont a great Paracelsian of Germany, professeth a ready way to rectify this grand inconvenience, namely, how to make a Needle that should never vary or alter from the right point, which may be performed by a strong imagination, as he saith, thus; If a man in framing the Needle shall stand with his back to the North, and place one point of the Needle (which he intends for the North) directly towards himself, the Needle so made shall always point regularly and infallibly toward the North without variation. I wish that some Fancy-full man of an exalted imagination would make some Needles for experiment after Helmont's direction, since it is a business of great concernment to the public Weal, to have this business rectified. CAP. XI. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, The Art of Cicuration and Taming wild Beasts, WHile I look back upon the title of the Book, which is Historia Naturae subactae, The History of Nature subdued and brought under the power of man; I conceive this ensuing Chapter will be no digression or seem impertinent, but will prove pertinent enough to the scope and design of the work. In this Theatre of man's wit, it will not (a little) illustrate the power of it, if we bring wild Beasts upon the stage, to show that the most savage creatures have been managed by man's wit and made docile and tractable for all services and employments. The Spirit of God hath spoke it; That every kind of Beasts and of Birds, and of Serpents, and things in the sea is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind, Jam. 3. 7. I shall verify and confirm this position of the Apostle by Examples of several kinds. 1. For BEASTS; l. 2. de Ira Aspice Elephan torum colla jugo submissa, saith Seneca; behold the Elephant, which is the strongest and biggest beast in the Forest, yet this hath been tamed and managed and made serviceable for all the offices both of Peace and Warr. It hath been taught to draw and carry; some ride him for the Wars; some yoke him for the plough; & some make him to draw their Coach, as the Emperor Gordian had some to draw his, as Julius Capitolinus reports of him. Many stories (that seem incredible) of the Officiousness and Docileness of this creature, you may read amassed together (out of several Authors) by Lipsius in one of his Epistles ad Germanos. The Lion himself, whom some term the King of Beasts, hath been (by the dexterity of man's wit) made tractable and officious for many Menial Offices. Mark Anthony had Lions to draw his Triumphal Chariot, as Pliny reports. Primus Romae Leones ad Currum junxit M. Antonius, non sine quodam ostento temporum, generosos spiritus jugum subire illo prodigio significante, Pl. l. 8. c. 16. Hanno the Carthaginian had a Lion so tame and familiar, that he could either ride him or lead him with any carriage for to bring it to Market, as Plin lib. 8. Nat. Hist. cap. 16. and Maximus Tyrius serm. 32. do relate. But this cost him a Banishment; for the jealous Carthaginians began to fear that he m●ght soon put the reins in their mouths and ride them too, that had done so by a Lion. It is no Poetical fable (perhaps) that Tigers drew the Coach of Bacchus, which Silius Italicus makes mention of. — odoratis descendens Liber ab Indis Egit Pampineos fraenata Tygride Currus. For that Monster Heliogabalus had Lions and Tigers (at once) to draw his Coach, as Lampridius relates in his life. Martial, lib. 8. Epist. 26. mentions the same in Domitian's time. Vicit Erythraeos tua (Caesar) arena triumphos, Et victoris opes, divitiásque Dei. Nam cum Captivos ageret sub Curribus Indos, Contentus geminâ Tygride Bacchus erat. And that the fierce Bysons were taught to draw the Chariot; and also Stags at their public shows, is affirmed by the same Poet. As I have seen in England by Walton upon Thames 4 Stags drawing a small Coach; and it is no poetical fiction that Stags drew the Coach of Diana, as Claudian the Poet sings of her. — Frondosâ fertur ab Alpe Trans pelagus; Cervi currum subiere jugales. Fabricius Veiento, when he was Praetor of Rome, brought into the Cirque a Chariot drawn by Dogs, as Lipsius tells me in his notes upon Tacitus: nay, Ostriches have been taught to draw in a Coach by the Emperor Firmus, as Textor reports in his Officina. The Count of Stolberg in Germany had a Deer which he bestowed on the Emperor Maximilian the Second, that would receive a rider on his back, and a bridle in his mouth, and would run a race with the fleetest horses that came in the field, and outstrip them too, as Michael Neander relates, Physic. part. 1. Martial, l. 13. Epigr. 96. makes mention of a Deer used to the bridle. Hic erat ille tuo domitus, Cyparisse, capistro, An magis ille tuus, Sylvia, Cervus erat. Sir Hierom Bows at his return from Muscovia (where he had been Ambassador) brought over certain Does of admirable swiftness, of the nature of the Rangifer, which being yoked and coupled together in a Coach, would carry one man with great speed, as Cambden in the Annals of Q. Elizabeth relates, part. 3. The King of Cambaia hath tame Panthers, Lions & Leopards, which he useth as hunting dogs or Greyhounds to hunt Dear and Wild boars withal, as Aelian reports, l. 17. variar. hist. and Scaliger, Excer. 189. At Prague, in the King of Bohemia's Pa●ace, Mr Morison saw two tame Leopards that would (either of them) at a call leap behind the Huntsman, when he went abroad a hunting, and sit like a Dog on the hinder part of the horse, and would soon dispatch a Hart. These Examples show forth the excellency of man's spirit, which (by a discreet managery) can reduce those creatures (that have revolted from their Homage to their natural liege Lord and Sovereign, Man) to their primitive obedience, which they did once voluntarily and freely pay unto him before the fall of Adam, and before the first man revolted (by sin) from his maker; and we may see hereby that saying of Xenophon verified, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, it is far easier taming & managing any creature than man; and that of Seneca, Est nullum animal homine morosius, aut majore arte tractandum; there is no creature so wayward and fierce and untractable as man. 2. For Serpents, that have been tamed by man (as the Apostle mentions) we may vouch Strabo for a tame Crocodile in Egypt in the Lake of Myris: and Seneca for a tame Dragon that took meat from the hand of Tiberius; he mentions elsewhere, repentes inter pocula sinusque innoxi●olapsu Dracones, l. 2. de Ira. Dragons that crept upon men's tables among their cups, and harmlessly along their bosoms: and the four-legged Serpents in Cairo were tame and harmless, that we spoke of before in the Chapter of Music. 3. For Birds and wild Fowl, we may instance in the Ostriches, that were put to draw a Coach; in Eagles, that are trained in Turkey like Hawks to fly at any fowl; Exer. 232. in the Crow, that Scaliger saw in the French Kings Court, that was taught to fly at Partridges, or any other fowl, from the Falconers fist; and lastly, in Wild- Ducks, that are tamed and made Decoys, to entice and betray their fellows, which is commonly known. 4. Then fourthly, for things in the Sea that have been tamed, we may instance in a fish called the Manatis, or Sea-Cow, well known about Hispaniola and other places of the West-Indies; it hath the form of a Cow, and hath four feet, and comes often to land to eat grass: Peter Martyr in his Decades speaks of an Indian Cacique or Lord of the Country that had one of these tame Cows, that would eat meat out of his hands, and was as sportful as an Ape, & would carry his sons and servants (sometimes ten of them at a time) on his back, and waft them over a great Lake from one shore to another. We may instance also in the Sea-Horse that hath been tamed, and made tractable to carry men on his back, as Leo Afer reports of one he had seen, in his History of Africa; and in the Fish called Reversus, by whose help and admirable industry, the Indians used to catch Fish in the Sea, as Bodin relates in the third book of his Theatrum Naturae: He is let loose at the prey, as the Greyhound from the slip, as Purchas saith; and Peter Martyr hath the like story of it in his Decades: Pliny speaks the same of Dolphins, which he had seen (in some places) to be used for to catch Fish, and to bring them to shore, and upon receiving some part of the prey, to go their ways; and if they failed in some point of service, they suffered themselves patiently to be corrected, as Setting-Dogs, and Qua-Ducks, or Decoy Ducks (as we commonly call them) use to be. This same is affirmed of the Dolphins by Oppianus a learned Writer, in his Halieuticks. Otters have been tamed, and taught to drive Fish into the Net, as Dogs use to drive cattle into the Fold, as Cardan relates. But this is not all, wild beasts and birds have been tamed not only for the service, but also for the pleasure and pastime of man: As man hath learned some Arts from them, so they have learned some from man: Camels have been taught to dance, as the African Leo hath seen in his Country. Elephants have also been taught the same; and not only on the earth, but also in the air, ambulare per funem, to dance upon the Ropes: Seneca is my Author for it, Epist. 85. The manner of teaching them to dance is thus, Sands Travels. They bring some young Elephant or Camel upon a floor of earth, that hath been heated underneath, and they play on a Cittern or Tabor, while the poor beast lifts up his stumps from the hot floor very often, more by reason of the heat then any lust to dance; and this they practise so often, until the beast hath got such a habit of it, that when ever he hears any Music he falls a dancing. Bubsequius saw a dancing Elephant in Constantinople, and the same Elephant playing at ball, tossing it to another man with his Trunk, and receiving it back again. Michael Neander saw in Germany a bear brought from Poland, that would play upon the Tabor, and dance some measures, yea dance within the compass of a round Cap, which he would afterwards hold up in his paw to the Spectators, to receive money (or some other boon) for his pains. There was a dance of Horses presented at the marriage of the Duke of Florence, which Sir Kenelm Digby mentions. Treatise 〈◊〉 Bodies. An Ass hath not so dull a soul as some suppose; for Leo Afer saw one in Africa that could vie feats with Banks his Horse, that rare Master of the Caballistick Art, whose memory is not forgotten in England. The Sybarites (a people of Italy being given to delicacies) had taught some Horses to dance; The Crotonians hearing thereof, and preparing War against them for some former quarrel, brought with them some Flutes and Flutinists to the War, who had direction to pipe it as loud as they could, when the Sybarites were ready to charge with their Horse; whereupon the Sybarites Horses, instead of rushing upon the Enemy, fell a dancing, and so gave the victory to the Enemies thereby, as three grave Authors have recorded, Diod. Sic. l. 12. Ael. l. 16. c. 23. Plin. l. 8. C. 42. A Baboon was seen to play upon the Guitta●; Baltasar Castilione de Aulico. and a Monkey in the King of Spain's Court was very skilful at Chess-play. Some birds have been taught to speak man's language, and to utter whole sentences of Greek and Latin articulately; There were seen in Rome Stairs, Pies, and Crows, that could do this to the admiration of all men. Cardinal Ascanio had a Parrot, that could repeat the Apostles Creed verbatim in Latin; and in the Court of Spain there was one that could sing the Gam● ut perfectly; and if he was out, he would say, No va bueno, That is not well; but when he was right he would say, Bueno va, Now it is well; as John Barns an English Friar relates in a most learned Book of his, De Aequivocatione. What witty feats and tricks Dogs have been taught to do, are so well known, that I may spare instances of this kind. Many of these examples that I have produced to make good the Title of this Chapter, and the Apostles saying abovementioned, are briefly summed up by Martial in his Book of Shows, the 105th Epigr. which I have here annexed, with the Translation of M. Hen. Vaughan Silurist, whose excellent Poems are public. Picto quod juga delicata collo Pardus sustinet, improbaeque Tigers Indulgent patientiam flagello, Mordent aurea quod lupata Cervi; Quod Fr●nis Lybici domantur Ursi, Et quantum Caledon tulisse fertur Paret purpureis Aper Capistris. Turpes a British Chariots▪ essed a quod trahunt Bisontes b Wild Oxen in the Herc●●nian Forest called Buffles. , Et molles dare jussa quod choreas: Nigro c The N●●gro or Black-Moor, the●rides hi● Bellua d The Elephant. nil negat Magistro, Quis spectacula non putet Deorum? Haec transit tamen ut minora, quisquis Venatus humiles videt Leonum, etc. That the fierce Pard doth at a beck Yield to the Yoke his spotted neck, And the untoward Tiger bear The whip with a submissive fear; That Stags do foam with golden bits And the rough Lybic bear submits Unto the Ring; that a wild Boar Like that which Caledon of Yore Brought forth, doth mildly put his head In purple Muzzles to be lead: That the vast strong-limbed Buffles draw The British Chariots with taught awe. And the Elephant with Courtship falls To any dance the Negro calls: Would not you think such sports as those, Were shows which the Gods did expose; But these are nothing, when we see That Hares by Lions hunted be, etc. Elephants (which are the most docile creatures of all others, and come nearest in sense to man) are taught to understand the language of the Country, and to perform all duties by the sole command of their riders. Horses and Mules understand Carters language, who with their terms of Art, as Gee and Ree, and the like, will make them go or stop, turn on the right hand or on the left, as they please. Clandian observed this pretty discipline in French Mules, which he thought worthy of a cast of his pen. Aspice morigeras Rhodani Torrentis alumnas Imperio nexas, imperioque vagas. Dissona quam varios flectant ad murmura cursus, Et Certas adeant voce regente vias. Absentis longinqua valent praecepta magistri Fraenorumque vices lingua virilis agit. Mark how the docile Mules of Rhone now close And forward draw, now wheelingly and loose; What various courses at the Carters voice They shape, and still tread new commanded ways; Their distant drivers notes each one observes, And his loud tongue for bit and bridle serves. In France and Italy where they plow with Horses, one man serves to hold the plough, and drive the horses too: Dogs have been trained up for the Wars by the ancient Britons and Gauls, as Strabo and Cambden relate; so have Bull●, and Boars, and Lions, as appears by Lucret. lib. 5. Tentarûnt etiam Tauros in moenere belli, Experti●●ues saevos sunt miltere in hosts. Et validos Parthi prae se misere Leones Cum Ductoribus armatis, saevis● Magistris Qui moderarier hos possent, vinclisque tenere. Which instances have verified that Emblem and Motto of one of the Germane Emperors, which was, a Lion in a chain with this word, Ars vincit Naturam: and that of the Greek Poet, 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Naturâ ubi super amur, arte vincimus. And this of another cited by Grotius● his Annotations on his excellent Trac● de veritate Religionis. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉. Vis exiguaest, quamcun● homini Natura dedit: sed consili●● Varils' arts quae nata marl, Et quae terrâ, aereque domant. Una ratio omnes omnium animantium vires potestate in se continet. Plut. de Fort. Romanorum. A summo opifice cunct a animalia serva facta sunt animanti ratione utenti. Orig. contra Celsum, l. 4. CAP. XII. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉: OR, Certain Sports and Extravagancies of Art. AS Nature hath her ludicra, so Art hath hers too; that is, some pretty knacks that are made, not so much for use, as to show subtlety of Wit, being made the Gaiete de Ceur, and for pastime as it were; yet the workmanship and elegancy of these may justly deserve admiration; and I may say of them as Virgil said of his Poem concerning Bees, In tenui labor est, l. 4. C cor. l. 8. de Var. c. 43. at tenuis non gloria: and we may further say of Artificial things, as Cardan spoke of Natural things, Non minori miraculo in parvis ludit Natura (ludit Ars) quam in magnis: Art (as well as Nature) is never more wonderful then in smaller pi●ces. Saint Augustine saith, That he did not know whether to wonder at more, the tooth of an Elephant, or that of a Teredo or Moth, which eats not only cloth, but consumes posts and pillars, whose tooth is so far from being seen, that the whole body of it is scarce visible. Some examples and instances of this kind, which I have casually lighted upon in tumbling over books, I have thought fit to annex to this former Rhapsody. Admiranda tibi levium spectacula rerum Exhibeo— One Callicrates a Stone cutter of Sparta, made Ants of Ivory, with all their limbs, so small, that the eye could scarce discern them. Myrmecides the Milesian made a Chariot of Ivory, with Horses and Charioteer in so small a compass, that a Fly could cover them with her wings: He made also a ship w●th all her tackle, that a Bee could hide it, Pl. l. 7. c. 21. & l. 36. c. 5. And Aelian l. 1. var. hist. c. 52. are my Authors. Ovid speaks of the admirable chains & nets which Vulcan made to apprehend Mars in conjunction with his Venus, which were so fine and subtle, — Quae fallere lumina possent, That the wanton Lovers could not see them till they felt them: Ovid describes them thus, l. 4. Metam. — Exempla graciles ex aere Catenas, Retiaque & laqueos, quae fallere lumina possent, Elimat, non illud opus tenuissima vincant Stamina, nec summo quae pendet aranea Tign●: Utque leves tactus, momentaque parva sequantur, Efficit, & lecto circundata collocat aptè. A Wagon and Oxen made of glass that might be hidden under a Fly, are mentioned by Cardan, l. 10. var. c. 52. Leander Alberti in his description of Italy, makes mention of a Lock very neatly and artificially made of Wood, without any Iron in it. But one Mark Scaliot a Black smith and Citizen of London, for proof of his skill and workmanship, made one hanging lock of Iron, Steel and Brass, of eleven several pieces, and a pipe key, all clean wrought, which weighed but one grain of gold, which is but one wheat corn. He also made at the same time a chain of gold of 43. links, to which chain the lock and key being fastened and put about a fleas neck, she drew the same with easo: all which lock and key, chain and flay weighed but one grain and a half: A thing most incredible to believe, but that I myself have seen it, saith M. John Stow, in the Annals of Q. Elizabeth. Scaliger makes mention of a flea that he had seen with a gold chain about her neck and kept daintily in a box; Exerc. 136. which for her food did suck her mistresses white hand. Leo Afer saw the like flea and chain in Memphis or Grand Cairo, and the Artificer l. 8. Hist. Afric. that made the chain had a suit of cloth of gold bestowed upon him by the Sultan after the manner of that Country. Hadr. Junius saw at Mech in in Brabant, a cherry stone cut in the form of a basket, wherein were fourteen pair of d●ce distinct, each with their spots and number easily to be discerned with a good eye. l. ●. Animadvers. Galen makes mention of a precious stone enchased in a ring, l. 17. De usu pantium. wherein was the picture of Phaeton, most accurately cut, driving the chariot of the Sun, and being not able to rule his fiery Steeds, tumbling headlong into the River Eridanus (or the Po) The world being all set on a flame, according to Ovid's description, l. 3. Metam. George Whitehead whom we mentioned before, made a Ship with all her tackle to move of its self on a table, with rowers plying the Oars, a woman playing on the Lute, and a little whelp crying on the deck. Schottus in Itinera Italiae. G●fferellus a Frenchman makes mention of a clock that he had seen at Legorn, made by a Germane (for these Germans are said to have their wits at their finger's ends) on which clock a company of shepherds played upon the bagpipes, with rare harmony and motion of the fingers, while others danced by couples, keeping time and measure, and some others capered and leapt. Cap. 6. of Unheard of Curiosities. Cardan speaks of an Artisan at Lions, that made a chain of Glass that was so light and sl●nder that if it fell upon a stone pavement, it would not break, Card. l. 10. Var. c. 5●. Amongst these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉, we may reckon an Iron Spider, mentioned by Walchius in his ninth fable, which was exactly made to the form and proportion of a Spider, and was also made to imitate his motions; which I confess was a singular piece of Art, if duly considered. And though these knacks are but little useful, and take up more time than needed to be lost, yet they discover a marvellous pregnancy of wit in the Artificers; and may be experimenta lucifera, if not frugifera hints of greater matters; of which Iron Spider I may say as Du Bar●as speaks of the Iron Fly made by Johannes Regiomontanus, or John of Regensberg, that rare Mathematician of his time, O Divine Wit! that in the narrow womb Of a small Fly, could find sufficient room. For all these springs, wheels, counterpoise, and chains, Which stood instead of life, and spur, and reins. A Dutchman presented the Landtgrave of Hessen (not many years since) with a Bear, and Lion of gold, that were hollow within, and each of the length of a man's middle finger, and every part and lineament of them answering truly to the proportion of the length, and both these did not exceed the weight of a French crown; but the Prince gave him three thousand Crowns in reward of his invention: A fair and Princely encouragement for ingenious Artists. Claudian hath an Epigram de Quadriga Marmorea, like that of Callicrates (mentioned before) made of Ivory; and it is thus, Quis dedit innumeros uno de Marmore vultus? Surgit in Aurigam currus, paribusque lupatis Unanimes froenantur equi, quos forma Deremit Materies cognata tenet; Discrimine nnllo Una silex tot membra ligat, ductusque per artem Mons patiens ferri, varios mutatur in artus. What artful hand into one shape did put So many different shapes, and all well cut: The Driver on his Chariot mounted sits, His well matched horses with wrought marble bits And reins, are curbed; and though each Figure varies, Yet all are but one piece; one marble carries Unsundered, all those shapes, the patient stone Cut into various forms, shows all in one. John Tredeskin's Ark in Lambeth, can afford many more instances of this nature; and so can the Archives of sundry Princes and private persons, who have their Pinacotheca's and Technematophylacia for to preserve all rarities; among others, we find great mention of Bernard Paludanus a Physician of Enchuysen in Holland; at the sight of whose rarities a Traveller composed this following Epigram ex tempore, Orb novo & veteri rarum & mirabile quicquid Dat natura parens, Artificisque manus: Una Paludani domus exhibet, ingeniumque Sublime ac studium testificatur Heri. Translated. In the old world or new, what wondrous thing Did art to light or nature lately bring, This Paludanus house doth show a rare Proof of the owners sovereign wit and care. Another you may find touching this business in Grotius his Poems. FINIS.