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Chrysocolla, Carbonate of Copper

Chalcedonius, Calcedony Page of 384 Chrysocolla, Carbonate of Copper Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
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NATURAL HISTORY OF GEMS.
CHEYSOCOLLA: Native Verdigris.
The mineral which still retains its ancient title is a car­bonate of copper, sometimes opaque, sometimes translucent, and hard as quartz. The ancients obtained the best quality from the copper-mines ; an inferior, from those of gold. It was also prepared artificially by steeping the ore during the entire winter, and evaporating the liquid by the summer heat (Plin. xxxiii. 26). The best came from Armenia, the second quality from Macedonia, but the chief supply was drawn from Spain. It was used in painting, and is reckoned amongst those " florid " colours which on account of their intrinsic value were furnished by the em­ployer, not by the artist. It entered into the list of medi­cines, as a caustic application for wounds, ulcers, sore eyes ; and as an emetic, a very effectual one certainly, but highly dangerous.
But its principal value was as a solder for gold (whence its name, signifying Gold-cement), for which purpose it had been employed from the earliest times, being so mentioned by Theophrastus (26). For this purpose it was steeped in a little boy's urine, together with verdigris and nitrum, and then rubbed down in a copper mortar with a copper pestle. This solder the Romans called Santerna.* Gold
* Either a Punic or Spanish word, as are most of the Roman terms used in metallurgy ; unless from its termination in rna, the Etruscan language, delighting in such endings, has a better claim to it : and
Chalcedonius, Calcedony Page of 384 Chrysocolla, Carbonate of Copper
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