Latin Texts & Translations

When chrysocolla has been thus dyed, painters call it "orobitis," and distinguish two kinds of it, the cleansed ^[Note] orobitis, ^[Note] which is kept for making lomentum, ^[Note] and the liquid, the balls

being dissolved for use by evaporation. ^[Note] Both these kinds are prepared in Cyprus, ^[Note] but the most esteemed is that made in Armenia, the next best being that of Macedonia: it is Spain, however, that produces the most. The great point of its excellence consists in its producing exactly the tint of corn when in a state of the freshest verdure. ^[Note] Before now, we have seen, at the spectacles exhibited by the Emperor Nero, the arena of the Circus entirely sanded with chrysocolla, when the prince himself, clad in a dress of the same colour, was about to exhibit as a charioteer. ^[Note]

The unlearned multitude of artisans distinguish three kinds of chrysocolla; the rough chrysocolla, which is valued at seven denarii per pound; the middling, worth five denarii; and the bruised, also known as the "herbaceous" chrysocolla, worth three denarii per pound. Before laying on the sanded ^[Note] chrysocolla, they underlay coats of atramentum ^[Note] and parætonium, ^[Note] substances which make it hold, and impart a softness to the colours. The parætonium, as it is naturally very unctuous, and, from its smoothness, extremely tenacious, is laid on first, and is then covered with a coat of atramentum, lest the parætonium, from its extreme whiteness, should impart a paleness to the chrysocolla. The kind known as "lutea," derives its name, it is thought, from the plant called "lutum;" which itself is often pounded with cæruleum ^[Note] instead of real chrysocolla, and used for painting,

making a very inferior kind of green and extremely deceptive. ^[Note]