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BOOK II
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27
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Italy;
and the dolia from the island of Ischia which is also called Pithecusa
by the Greeks. The pottery of Pergamon and Tralles has added to the
fame of Asia. The pottery from Cos was well known to the ancients and
that from Samos has been described repeatedly. The exquisite pottery of
Aretina and many other localities in Italy and Persia is still being
made today. The vessels made at Askalon are highly prized in Syria. The
Greeks brought utensils from Keft, Egypt, that had been mixed with
scent and resembled the pottery from Rhodes. They called this pottery
"aromatic." The Waldenburg pottery easily holds first place as regards
usefulness although it is not beautiful while that from Seburg is
second. Neither absorbs liquids. Norinberg produces earthenware
furnaces used in refining metals and ores. The crucibles used in making
brass are made from a clay found near Roteberg, a fortified city twelve
miles from Norinberg. When these crucibles, filled with brass, are
withdrawn from the furnace they do not break but can be drawn out and
twisted like glass. The triangular crucibles used by the men who coin
money come from Ipsa, a town of Upper Pannonia. These are made from the
Tasconia clay, in Spain. This clay, according to Pliny, is white and
resembles argilla. The crucibles cannot be used a second time.
Among
the men who work with clay are those who make bricks. They use
unctuous, porous clays since these are more coherent and lighter.
Although they use clay of any color they prefer that which is either
white or red. Plasterers use only those clays which are unctuous. The
men, called fornacei, who build furnaces and furnace walls
prefer an unctuous earth since, according to Pliny, the furnace walls
are constructed by tamping earth between two boards instead of building
them. If different kinds of earths are available, when constructing
high furnaces, heavy earths are placed in the lower portion of the
walls, intermediate earths in the middle and light earths at the top. A
high furnace of this type can be seen today near Ceruecia, Saxony, and
many were built in Spain according to Pliny. Hannibal mentions having
seen earthen observation towers that were located on the highest peaks
of the mountains in Spain. This class of edifice, although less
attractive than one of wood or stone, is more resistant to fire, rain,
or wind. Earth tremors damage stone towers more than earthen ones.
Rains may destroy wooden and even rough stone towers while earthen
towers are little affected, if at all. Winds may blow down wooden and
even stone structures while those built of earth are more resistant.
For this reason Pliny writes that in Africa and Spain walls made of
earth resist fire, wind and rain and last forever, actually becoming
more resistant with age. In Thuringia and Saxony they mix hair with the
clay, as a rule, and construct walls without first tamping the clay
into bricks. Such a wall can be seen today at Cribera, Misena, about
five miles from Leipzig.
I
shall now take up fuller's earths which are unctuous but, having been
dried over a fire, become acrid and, because of this, possess the power
to
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