Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
October 1766
Primary Source Reference:
"Catalogue raisonné des morceaux d'Histoire Naturelle que j'ai l'honneur d'envoyer ci-joint à Monsieur du Simitierre," Du Simitière Scraps, Library Company of Philadelphia, no. 50, p. 1
Additional Source Text:
"Se nomme aussi Amianthe. Les anciens en faisoient une toile dont on enveloppent les cadavres qu'on bruloit; cette toile qui resistoit à l'action du feu -- empéchoit la cendre du mort de le confoudre avec celle du bucher. Je le crois des Pyrénées."
Trans.: Also called Amianthe. The ancients made of it a canvas with which they wrapped the corpses that were burnt; this canvas, which resisted the action of fire, prevented the ashes of the dead from being mixed with that of the pyre. I believe it was from the Pyrenees.
Marginal note in Du Simitière's hand: "perdu" (lost)
Notes:
The donor was a man named Frey, of Basel, Switzerland. He may have met Du Simitière during miltary campaigns in Flanders. The men corresponded and exchanged natural history specimens in 1765 and 1766. Frey's covering letter for his shipment of fifty fossils and other natural history specimens was dated at Basel, 1 Oct 1766. Du Simitière Papers, Library Company of Philadelphia.
