Merrifield, Mary P.: The art of fresco painting, as practised by the old Italian and Spanish masters, with a preliminary inquiry into the nature of the colours used in fresco painting: with observations and notes (London: Charles Gilpin, 1846)

IN FRESCO PAINTING. xix
a yellow juice (p. 175),—that it is found also in iron mines, but
more frequently in veins alone—that the Haematite and the Schist
differ in appearance, the latter being easily split in a particular
direction, and its fibres being arranged in such a manner as to re-
semble congealed wood—that the Haematite and Schist are pro-
duced in many parts of Germany and also in Spain and other places
—that where the Haematite is found, there is also found the Terra
Sinopide. He adds, that the Schist is sometimes dull externally but
sparkles internally, like artificial Minium, and that painters call it also
Cinabrio, and that this kind is found in the Black Forest—that the
Schist and the Haematite, being like congealed blood, whenever they
are burnt, or calcined, imitate the colour of Cinnabar—that the Schist has
the same colour as the Haematite,—that the best Haematite is that
which has the colour of congealed blood, which is diffusible in water,
which is equally coloured throughout, which is pure, (p. 251, 253).
By the term Schist he evidently designates the Lapis Amatita, and by
Haematite, he means the softer kind mentioned in the next chapter.
The French Encyclopaedia describes the Haematite as “ une pierre,
ou plutot une vraie mine de fer dont la figure varie, son tissu est
tantot strie ou par aiguilles, comme 1’antimoine; tantot il est
compose de filamens ou de fibres, qui a la couleur pres, la font
ressembler a du bois, (wood iron,) tantot elle est spherique ou hemi-
spherique, tantot elle est en mamelons, et formee par un assemblage
de globules qui la font ressembler a une grappe de raisins; tantot elle
est garnie de pyramides et de pointes; tantot enfin elle parait
composee de lames ou de feuillets qui laissent quelquefois des inter-
valles vuides entr ’eux, et la font ressembler a un rayon de miel.
L’Haematite varie aussi pour la couleur; il y en a de rouge, de
pourpre, de jaune, et de noiratre ou couleur de feu, mais lorsqu’ on
1’ecrase, elle est toujours d’ un rouge ou d’un jaune plus ou moins
vif. L’Haematite, quoiquefort chargee de fer, ’n’est point alterable par
1’aimant, le fer qu’elle donne est aigri et il est difficile de lui procurer
la ductilite convenable; il y en a dont le quintal contient jusqu ’a 80
livres de ce metal. Voila pourquoi quelques gens 1’appelent Ferret.—■
Encyc. Franc. Art. Haematite.
Pliny enumerates five kinds.—The five sorts differ chiefly in point
of hardness. The best, according to Dioscorides, is that which is