[ 215 ]
XCIV. There are three kinds of the [1]Sinopic; of a deep Red, another of a whitiſh Colour, and the other of a middle Colour between the other two, which is called the pure ſimple Kind, becauſe it is uſed without mixing, whereas they mix the others.
- ↑ The Sinopic Earth, which we know at preſent, is the firſt Kind mentioned by this Author; the other two we are wholly unacquainted with, though among the Antients they were much in Eſteem with Painters. Our Rubrica Sinopica is a denſe, heavy, firm Subſtance, of a deep red Colour, ſtaining the Fingers in handling, and of a ſtyptic aſtringent Taſte. Tournefort imagines it a native Crocus Martis; and certain it is, that it owes its Colour, at leaſt, to that Metal.
It is dug at this Time, as it was in that of Theophraſtus, in Cappadocia, and carried to Sinope for Sale, from whence it has its Name, and from whence Sinopis became afterwards a general Name for the Red Ochres. Μίλτος εἶ δος ἐρυθρὸν Σινώπιδος, Heſychius; and ſo many others. If the preſent Eſteem for this Subſtance was greater than it is, as indeed I can on Experience affirm it ought to be, it might be had, I believe, in many other Places beſide Cappadocia. I have ſome of it perfectly fine,
Reddle of a firm Conſiſtence and deep red Colour, dug in the ſame Place, but never made into any Form, or ſealed; but purchaſed in the rough Glebes by Artificers of many kinds, who had Uſes for it in Colouring. That Pliny confounds theſe two Subſtances is to be ſeen in this Paſſage: Rubricæ genus in ea voluere maximè intelligi. Quidam ſecunde auctoritatis, palmam enim Lemniæ dabant. Minio proxima hæc eſt, multum antiquis celebrata, cum inſula in qua naſcitur, nec niſi ſignata venundabatur: unde & Sphragidem appellavere: Where it is evident, that he thought the Lemnian Reddle was the Subſtance ſealed and called Sphragis, or Sealed Earth. But that they were not the ſame, and the Earth, and not the Reddle was the Subſtance which was ſealed, is evident from Galen, l. i. de Antidotis, Καθάπερ ἐπὶ Λεμνίας γῆς καὶ μίλτȣ, καλεῖν δ᾽ ἀυτὴν ἄμεινον ȣ᾽ μίλτον, ἀλλὰ γῆν. ἐϛὶ γάρ τις Λεμνία μίλτος, ἐν τῇ wide, noAsiy 9 dutiy diueivoy gd pinto, oad vi. él yep Tis Aguile uiATos, €v Ti Anpve, yewoueon ampes annens a psias emir deios, é way él¢ ds’ 4 “are pévy Aypvia, oQpayis,
