DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4098#0388
ERECHTHEION. 351
and it is not probable that the paintings which Pausanias1 mentions
as being on the walls, would be executed upon the bare marble,
but on a thin coat of stucco, which receives and retains the colours
better than any other material. Stuart2 imagines that the windows
were closed with transparent marble, or ph en gites : that stone however
seems not to have been known until the time of Nero.3 They were
perhaps closed with lapis specularis, which though a general term is
commonly supposed to signify talc, or mica. Glass might even have
been employed; but this was not likely; for though in many parts
of Greece I discovered fragments of glass vases, and several glass
bottles in the Athenian sepulchres, yet I never found any fragments
perfectly flat, as the glass used in windows must be.
It is said that a glass window almost entire was discovered many
years ago amongst the ruins of Pompeii; and it would appear from
Pliny, that it was used by the Greeks as well as by the Romans; but.
probably not in early times. Vopiscus4 asserts, that Firmus fur-
nished his house with square bits of glass; these were perhaps win-
dows, but the author is not sufficiently explicit. Seneca5 mentions
windows long before this time, but it is probable they Avere of lapis
specularis. Tertullian6 mentions corneum specular, which seems to
allude to windows closed with horn; but the passage is obscure.
As very few fragments of window-glass, and none of phengites
and lapis specularis, have been found in the ruins of Grecian cities,
not even at Pompeii nor Herculaneum, we may reasonably infer that
windows of those materials were very rare in early times. At all
events, the mica, phengites, and horn, were only calculated to ad-
mit the light, like ground glass, but without the limpid transparency
of our modern panes. Tavernier7 says, that in his time, some of the
1 B. 1. c. 26. 2 Vol. 2. c. p. 21. 3 Pliny, Nat. Hist. b. 36. c. 22.
* De hujus divitiis multa dicuntur; nam et vitreis quadraturis bitumine aliisque medicamen-
tis insertis, domum induxisse perhibitur.—Life of Firmus, p. 708.
s Epist. 90. 6 De Anima, c. 53. p. 303.
7 Relation du Serrail, c. 15.
and it is not probable that the paintings which Pausanias1 mentions
as being on the walls, would be executed upon the bare marble,
but on a thin coat of stucco, which receives and retains the colours
better than any other material. Stuart2 imagines that the windows
were closed with transparent marble, or ph en gites : that stone however
seems not to have been known until the time of Nero.3 They were
perhaps closed with lapis specularis, which though a general term is
commonly supposed to signify talc, or mica. Glass might even have
been employed; but this was not likely; for though in many parts
of Greece I discovered fragments of glass vases, and several glass
bottles in the Athenian sepulchres, yet I never found any fragments
perfectly flat, as the glass used in windows must be.
It is said that a glass window almost entire was discovered many
years ago amongst the ruins of Pompeii; and it would appear from
Pliny, that it was used by the Greeks as well as by the Romans; but.
probably not in early times. Vopiscus4 asserts, that Firmus fur-
nished his house with square bits of glass; these were perhaps win-
dows, but the author is not sufficiently explicit. Seneca5 mentions
windows long before this time, but it is probable they Avere of lapis
specularis. Tertullian6 mentions corneum specular, which seems to
allude to windows closed with horn; but the passage is obscure.
As very few fragments of window-glass, and none of phengites
and lapis specularis, have been found in the ruins of Grecian cities,
not even at Pompeii nor Herculaneum, we may reasonably infer that
windows of those materials were very rare in early times. At all
events, the mica, phengites, and horn, were only calculated to ad-
mit the light, like ground glass, but without the limpid transparency
of our modern panes. Tavernier7 says, that in his time, some of the
1 B. 1. c. 26. 2 Vol. 2. c. p. 21. 3 Pliny, Nat. Hist. b. 36. c. 22.
* De hujus divitiis multa dicuntur; nam et vitreis quadraturis bitumine aliisque medicamen-
tis insertis, domum induxisse perhibitur.—Life of Firmus, p. 708.
s Epist. 90. 6 De Anima, c. 53. p. 303.
7 Relation du Serrail, c. 15.