The History of Chemistry (Vol.1&2). Thomas Thomson

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ De Secretis. 10. De Rebus Metallicis. 11. De Sculpturis Lapidum. 12. De Philosophorum Lapide. 13. Opus Majus, or Alchymia Major. 14. Breviarium de Dono Dei. 15. Verbum abbreviatum de Leone Viridi. 16. Secretum Secretorum. 17. Tractatus Trium Verborum. 18. Speculum Secretorum. A number of these were collected together, and published at Frankfort in 1603, under the title of “Rogeri Baconis Angli de Arte Chemiæ Scripta,” in a small duodecimo volume. The Opus Majus was published in London in 1733, by Dr. Jebb, in a folio volume. Several of his tracts still continue in manuscript in the Harleian and Bodleian libraries at Oxford. He considered the metals as compound of mercury and sulphur. Gmelin affirms that he was aware of the peculiar nature of manganese, and that he was acquainted with bismuth; but after perusing the whole of the Speculum Alchymiæ, the third chapter of which he quotes as containing the facts on which he founds his opinion, I cannot find any certain allusion either to manganese or bismuth. The term magnesia indeed occurs, but nothing is said respecting its nature: and long after the time of Paracelsus, bismuth (bisematum) was considered as an impure kind of lead. That he was acquainted with the composition and properties of gunpowder admits of no doubt. In the sixth chapter of his epistle De Secretis Operibus Artis et Naturæ et de Nullitate Magiæ, the following passage occurs:

      “For sounds like thunder, and coruscations like lightning, may be made in the air, and they may be rendered even more horrible than those of nature herself. A small quantity of matter, properly manufactured, not larger than the human thumb, may be made to produce a horrible noise and coruscation. And this may be done many ways, by which a city or an army may be destroyed, as was the case when Gideon and his men broke their pitchers and exhibited their lamps, fire issuing out of them with inestimable noise, destroyed an infinite number of the army of the Midianites.” And in the eleventh chapter of the same epistle occurs the following passage: “Mix together saltpetre, luru vopo vir con utriet, and sulphur, and you will make thunder and lightning, if you know the method of mixing them.” Here all the ingredients of gunpowder are mentioned except charcoal, which is doubtless concealed under the barbarous terms luru vopo vir con utriet.

      But though Bacon was acquainted with gunpowder, we have no evidence that he was the inventor. How far the celebrated Greek fire, concerning which so much has been written, was connected with gunpowder, it is impossible to say; but there is good evidence to prove that gunpowder was known and used in China before the commencement of the Christian era; and Lord Bacon is of opinion that the thunder and lightning and magic stated by the Macedonians to have been exhibited in Oxydrakes, when it was besieged by Alexander the Great, was nothing else than gunpowder. Now as there is pretty good evidence that the use of gunpowder had been introduced into Spain by the Moors, at least as early as the year 1343, and as Roger Bacon was acquainted with Arabic, it is by no means unlikely that he might have become acquainted with the mode of making the composition, and with its most remarkable properties, by perusing some Arabian writer, with whom we are at present unacquainted. Barbour, in his life of Bruce, informs us that guns were first employed by the English at the battle of Werewater, which was fought in 1327, about forty years after the death of Bacon.

      Two novelties that day they saw,

       That forouth in Scotland had been nene;

       Timbers for helmes was the ane

       That they thought then of great beautie,

       And also wonder for to see.

       The other crakys were of war That they before heard never air.

      In another part of the same book we have the phrase gynnys for crakys, showing that the term crakys was used to denote a gun or musket of some form or other. It is curious that the English would seem to have been the first European nation that employed gunpowder in war; they used it in the battle of Crecy, fought in 1346, when it was unknown to the French, and it is supposed to have contributed materially to the brilliant victory which was obtained.

      4. Raymond Lully is said to have been a scholar and a friend of Roger Bacon. He was a most voluminous writer, and acquired as high a reputation as any of the alchymists. According to Mutius he was born in Majorca in the year 1235. His father was seneschal to King James the First of Arragon. In his younger days he went into the army; but afterwards held a situation in the court of his sovereign. Devoting himself to science he soon acquired a competent knowledge of Latin and Arabic. After studying in Paris he got the degree of doctor conferred upon him. He entered into the order of Minorites, and induced King James to establish a cloister of that order in Minorca. He afterwards travelled through Italy, Germany, England, Portugal, Cyprus, Armenia and Palestine. He is said by Mutius to have died in the year 1315, and to have been buried in Majorca. The following epitaph is given by Olaus Borrichius as engraven on his tomb:

      Raymundus Lulli, cujus pia dogmata nulli

       Sunt odiosa viro, jacet hic in marmore miro

       Hic M. et CC. Cum P. cœpit sine sensibus esse.

      M C C C in these lines denote 1300, and P which is the 15th letter of the alphabet denotes 15, so that if this epitaph be genuine it follows that his death took place in the year 1315.

      It seems scarcely necessary to notice the story that Raymond Lully made a present to Edward, King of England, of six millions of pieces of gold, to enable him to make war on the Saracens, which sum that monarch employed, contrary to the intentions of the donor, in his French wars. This story cannot apply to Edward III., because in 1315, at the time of Raymond’s death, that monarch was only three years of age. It can scarcely apply to Edward II., who ascended the throne in 1305: but who had no opportunity of making war, either on the Saracens or French, being totally occupied in opposing the intrigues of his queen and rebellious subjects, to whom he ultimately fell a sacrifice. Edward the First made war both upon the Saracens and the French, and lived during the time of Raymond: but his wars with the Saracens were finished before he ascended the throne, and during the whole of his reign he was too much occupied with his projected conquest of Scotland, to pay much serious attention to any French war whatever. The story, therefore, cannot apply to any of the three Edwards, and cannot be true. Raymond Lully is said to have been stoned to death in Africa for preaching Christianity in the year 1315. Others will have it that he was alive in England in the year 1332, at which time his age would have been 97.

      The following table exhibits a list of his numerous writings, most of which are to be found in the Theatrum Chemicum, the Artis Auriferæ, or the Biblotheca Chemica. 1. Praxis Universalis Magni Operis. 2. Clavicula. 3. Theoria et Practica. 4. Compendium Animæ Transmutationis Artis Metallorum. 5. Ultimum Testamentum. Of this work, which professes to give the whole doctrine of alchymy, there is an English translation. 6. Elucidatio Testamenti. 7. Potestas Divitiorum cum Expositione Testamenti Hermetis. 8. Compendium Artis Magicæ, quoad Compositionem Lapidis. 9. De Lapide et Oleo Philosophorum. 10. Modus accipiendi Aurum Potabile. 11. Compendium Alchymiæ et Naturalis Philosophiæ. 12. Lapidarium. 13. Lux Mercuriorum. 14. Experimenta. 15. Ars Compendiosa vel Vademecum. 16. De Accurtatione Lapidis.

      Several other tracts besides these are named by Gmelin; but I have never seen any of them. I have attempted several times to read over the works of Raymond Lully, particularly his Last Will and Testament, which is considered the most important of them all. But they are all so obscure, and filled with such unintelligible jargon, that I have found it impossible to understand them. In this respect they form a wonderful contrast with the works of Albertus Magnus and Roger Bacon, which are comparatively plain and intelligible. For an account, therefore, of the chemical substances with which he was acquainted, I am obliged to depend on Gmelin; though I put no great confidence in his accuracy.

      Like his predecessors, he was of opinion that all the metals are compounds of sulphur and mercury. But he seems first to have introduced those hieroglyphical figures or symbols, which appear in such profusion in the English translation of his Last Will and Testament, and which he doubtless intended to illustrate his positions. Though what other purpose they СКАЧАТЬ