| Title: | Green earth |
| Original Title: | Terre verte |
| Volume and Page: | Vol. 16 (1765), p. 174 |
| Author: | Louis, chevalier de Jaucourt (biography) |
| Translator: | Abigail Wendler Bainbridge [West Dean College] |
| Subject terms: |
Natural history of fossils
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| Original Version (ARTFL): | Link |
| Rights/Permissions: |
This text is protected by copyright and may be linked to without seeking permission. Please see http://quod.lib.umich.edu/d/did/terms.html for information on reproduction. |
| URL: | http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.077 |
| Citation (MLA): | Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Green earth." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Abigail Wendler Bainbridge. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. Web. [fill in today's date in the form 18 Apr. 2009 and remove square brackets]. <http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.077>. Trans. of "Terre verte," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, vol. 16. Paris, 1765. |
| Citation (Chicago): | Jaucourt, Louis, chevalier de. "Green earth." The Encyclopedia of Diderot & d'Alembert Collaborative Translation Project. Translated by Abigail Wendler Bainbridge. Ann Arbor: Michigan Publishing, University of Michigan Library, 2013. http://hdl.handle.net/2027/spo.did2222.0003.077 (accessed [fill in today's date in the form April 18, 2009 and remove square brackets]). Originally published as "Terre verte," Encyclopédie ou Dictionnaire raisonné des sciences, des arts et des métiers, 16:174 (Paris, 1765). |
Green earth. Name of a hard earth, of a dark blue-green, that is found in layers in large flat pieces that are four or five feet in diameter; in cutting them one breaks them irregularly, so it comes to us in pieces of different sizes. This earth is smooth, shiny, soft to the touch, and in some respects resembles morochtus; [1] it attaches firmly to the tongue, [2] does not color the hands at all in handling it, but in rubbing it against something hard, it makes a whitish mark that tends toward green; it does not mix at all with acids, and in burning assumes a dark brown color.
It is dug up on the island of Cyprus, in the neighborhood of Verona, and in many places in the kingdom; It is used a lot in painting, especially fresco, because it gives a lasting green, and is mixed usefully with other colors.
Notes
1. Another sedimentary earth, commonly called clay-marble in period English because of variegation in color. See John Wallis, The Natural History And Antiquities Of Northhumberland: And of So Much of the County of Durham A Lies Between the Rivers Tyne and Tweed; Commonly Called, North Bishoprick. In Two Volumes (Strahan, 1769), p.39-40.
2. I.e. an astringent