The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)

Chapter 75: CHAP. 18.—AT WHAT PERIOD CEILINGS WERE FIRST GILDED.

Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

About This Book

An encyclopedic survey that first catalogs marine animals, algae, and shellfish, describing habitats, curious behaviors, reported antipathies, and numerous folk remedies and practical uses attributed to specific species, organized by ailments and applications. The later portion treats metals and their ores—including gold, silver, mercury, copper, and brass—describing modes of occurrence, extraction, alloying, testing, gilding, and decorative and monetary uses, alongside technical observations and medicinal remedies derived from metallic substances, with systematic lists and practical instructions interwoven throughout.

CHAP. 18.—AT WHAT PERIOD CEILINGS WERE FIRST GILDED.

The ceilings which, at the present day, in private houses even, we see covered with gold, were first gilded in the Capitol, after the destruction of Carthage, and during the censorship of Lucius Mummius.842 From the ceilings this luxuriousness has been since transferred to the arched roofs of buildings, and the party-walls even, which at the present day are gilded like so many articles of plate: very different from the times when Catulus 843 was far from being unanimously approved of for having gilded the brazen tiles of the Capitol!