The ancients were also unacqnainted With that useful substance, soap, which gives us a superiority in scouring, and some parts of the art of dyeing ; instead of it they used two species of plants, one called radicula by Pliny, and struthian by the Greeks, which some think to be our saponaria, soapwort; and the other be ing a species of poppy, according to Pliny: some of the bolar earths were likewise employed for the same purpose.
From America we have acquired seve ral substances, which have been found useful in dyeing ; namely, cochineal, bra sil-wood, and anotta. But above all, we are indebted for the superiority of our co lours to our preparations of alum, and the solution of tin, which give so much brilliancy to many of our dyes.
The Venetians, who derived much of their power from furnishing shipping for the crusades, acquired the arts of dyeing used in the east at the same time : from thence they spread over the rest of Italy : in the year 1338, Florence contained two hundred thousand manufacturers, who are said to have made from seventy to eighty thousand pieces of cloth.
About the year 1300, archil is said to have been discovered accidentally by a Florentine merchant. Having observed i that urine gave a very fine colour to a certain species of moss, he made experi: ments, and learned to prepare archil. He kept this discovery long secret, and his posterity, (a branch of which still sists, according to Dominique Marini,) have retained the name Itucceltai, from oreiglia, the Spanish term for that spe cies of moss.
The first collection of the processes employed in dyeing appeared in Venice, in the year 1429, under the title of " Ma riegola de l'Arte de i Tentori :" a second edition of it much improved came out in 1510; and a certain person called Ven tura llosetti, having formed the design of rendering this description more useful and extensive, travelled through the dif ferent parts of Italy, and the neighbour ing countries, to make himself acquaint- i ed with the various processes employ ed, which lie published, under the title " Plictho," and which, according to M. Bischoff, ought to be considered as form ing the leading step toward the perfec tion which the art of dyeing has since at tained. ft is remarkable, that in " Plic tho," not a word is said either of cochi neal or of indigo, which makes it proba ble that these two dyes were not employ ed in Italy.
Pliny speaks of a substance called indi cum, but only as being used in painting.
It is probable, however, that the Indians employed it in dyeing. The first of it tried in Europe appears to have been brought by the Dutch from the East In dies. The cultivation of it in America was first established in Mexico, and after wards in other parts, where it acquired a superior quality to that which is ed from India. The use of indigo Wag not at first easily established; it was strict ly prohibited in England in the reign ot Elizabeth, as was also logwood, and the the prohibitionwas not taken off till the reign of Charles II. Its use was also pro scribed in Saxony, and in the edicts ,, against it, it is spoken of as a corrosive co lour, and called food for the devil, fres gende teufelg.• The prohibitions against indigo were caused by the representations of those who prepared woad, that its use would destroy the sale of this article, which was the produce of the country. The preju dice against indigo was likewise,commu nicated to France, and Colbert's instruc tion forbade the use of more than a cer tain quantity in the pastel vats.
Cochineal was, introduced into Europe shortly after the conquest of Mexico. The Spaniards having observed that the Mexicans employed cochineal in painting their houses, and in dyeing their cotton, gave their government an account of it, and in the year 1523, Cortes was ordered to promote the increase of the valuable insect from which it is ob tained.
The natural colour obtained from co chineal is only a dull crimson ; but soon after it was known in Europe, an emi nent chemist, of the name of Kepler, found out the present process for dye ing scarlet with it, by means of a solu tion of tin, and carried the secret to London, in the year 1543: this process was first used at Bow, and hence the scarlet produced by it was called the Bow dye.
A Flemish painter, called Gluck, got possession of the secret, and communi cated it to Giles Gobelin, who establish ed a manufactory of it in the place in France which still hears his name. This undertaking was deemed so rash, that it was termed Gobelin's folly : but his as tonishing success at length induced peo ple to suppose that he had made a com pact with the devil, from which the appli cation of the term goblins to evil spirits is probably derived. The knowledge of this process afterwards spread through out all Europe.