{"id":13863,"date":"2015-01-14T22:01:26","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T22:01:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=13863"},"modified":"2015-01-14T22:01:26","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T22:01:26","slug":"zosimos-of-panopolis-on-soap-and-soap-making","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2015\/01\/14\/zosimos-of-panopolis-on-soap-and-soap-making\/","title":{"rendered":"Zosimos of Panopolis on soap and soap-making"},"content":{"rendered":"

Previously<\/a> we looked at the claim that Galen knows of soap.\u00a0 In the same article we find the claim:<\/p>\n

\n

Zosimos the alchemist [148] (c. A.D. 250) mentions both soap (\u03c3\u03b1\u03c0\u1f7d\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd<\/span>) and soap-making (\u03c3\u03b1\u03c0\u03c9\u03bd\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u1f72 \u03c4\u1f73\u03ba\u03bd\u03b7<\/span>).<\/p>\n

148.\u00a0 Berthelot, Collection des anciens Alchemistes Grecs<\/em>, 1888, vol. ii, 142<\/span><\/a>.3, 143.7.\u00a0 (This\u00a0contains Zosimos; French translation here<\/span><\/a>).<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is always good practice to check these claims.\u00a0 Fortunately we can.\u00a0 And if we look at the online copy of the Greek, we will see both these phrases\u00a0for soap (sapo<\/em>) where they are supposed to be.\u00a0 But what is the context?<\/p>\n

As might be supposed, this is an alchemical recipe, in a book full of these.\u00a0 On p.143 of the French translation we find the text:<\/p>\n

\n

III. 8. On the same divine water<\/span><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Taking some eggs, whatever quantity you like, boil them, and after breaking them, remove all the white, but don’t use the shell.\u00a0 Taking a male-and-female glass, which is called an alembic, put into it the yellows of the eggs, using the following amounts: 1 ounce of yellow, calcined egg-shell, two carats, neither more nor less, but exactly as written.\u00a0 Then stir; then, taking some\u00a0more eggs, break them and throw them\u00a0into the alembic with the stirred yellows, so that the whole eggs are covered by the yellow.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

A process of distillation then follows, and the “water” is what comes out of this.<\/p>\n

So what of our soap-making?\u00a0 A little further on it says:<\/p>\n

\n

2. … Then mix with the ashes other egg-yellows, as in the art of soap-making; stir together the wet and dry materials, and put them all into an alembic.\u00a0 Do the same operation as before, but changing the recipient of the water, that is the rogion<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The notes make plain that in this case “the ashes” is a sulphur residue; but the point is that Zosimos knows that soap is made by mixing ashes – from wood, in the case of soap-making – with a fatty substance.<\/p>\n

(At this point I must confess that I knew little about how soap is made, but a google search tells me that wood ash, or “potash”, contains Potassium Hydroxide (KOH), which is the alkali in soft soaps, which combines with the fat – usually oil – to make soap.\u00a0 Hard soaps, in bar form, require Sodium Hydroxide.)<\/p>\n

But there are two references to sapo<\/em> in this text.\u00a0 The other is close to the end:<\/p>\n

\n

Now after 41 days, remove the alembic from the hot place and let it cool completely for 5 days.\u00a0 Once the 5 days have elapsed, place the alembic on the sawdust ashes and extract the divine water from it; not into your hand, but into a glass vessel.\u00a0 Then, taking this water, put it into an alembic, as before, and heat it for 2-3 days.\u00a0 After removing it, stir and expose to the sun on a shell.\u00a0 When the product becomes as compact as soap, warm an ounce of silver and cover it with this solidified\u00a0 water, i.e. 2 carats of dry powder, and you will have some for<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The total number of days of the operation is 110 days, according to what Zosimos the Christian and Stephanus say.\u00a0 As for me, having foraged from everywhere like a bee and plaited a crown with many flowers, I do homage to you, my master.\u00a0 Next I will explain what are the devices.\u00a0 Take care in Jesus Christ, our God, now and forever and in all the ages of ages.\u00a0 Amen.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The compact soap, from which moisture has evapourated,\u00a0is all very well.\u00a0 But the last paragraph betrays that we are not dealing with a text written directly by Zosimos, whatever his date; but with a compilation of fragments, assembled from Zosimos, and from Stephanus – perhaps a commentator – in a form that looks suspiciously like a pupil’s notes.<\/p>\n

In the circumstances, can we be sure that these references to soap making are original to Zosimos?\u00a0 Rather than a later addition?<\/p>\n

It is slightly depressing to find the evidence for the early use of soap so fragile.\u00a0 The author of these statements did indeed know how to make soap, that much is clear.\u00a0 But was he Zosimos, or some much later writer?\u00a0 Without knowing more about the transmission of these works – and technical works, by their very nature, tend to be revised, amended, “corrected”, and so on,\u00a0when copied\u00a0– it might be rash to be certain.<\/p>\n

All the same, I suspect that it is simpler and involves fewer hypotheses if we assume that the statements are indeed original, than to posit an interpolator; in which case, we may reasonably assume that Galen, in the late 2nd century, is probably using the word “sapo” in the same way as Zosimos, and therefore the use of soap does indeed start to appear in the times of Marcus Aurelius or thereabouts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previously we looked at the claim that Galen knows of soap.\u00a0 In the same article we find the claim: Zosimos the alchemist [148] (c. A.D. 250) mentions both soap (\u03c3\u03b1\u03c0\u1f7d\u03bd\u03b9\u03bf\u03bd) and soap-making (\u03c3\u03b1\u03c0\u03c9\u03bd\u03b1\u03c1\u03b9\u03ba\u1f72 \u03c4\u1f73\u03ba\u03bd\u03b7). 148.\u00a0 Berthelot, Collection des anciens Alchemistes Grecs, 1888, vol. ii, 142.3, 143.7.\u00a0 (This\u00a0contains Zosimos; French translation here). It is always good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[137,1547,1775],"class_list":["post-13863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-alchemy","tag-soap","tag-zosimos-of-panopolis"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13863\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}