Preface

Pliny the Elder’s Naturalis Historia (Latin for “Natural History”), as the largest and most authoritative source of knowledge from the classical world, was the starting point for many a discussion in early modern Europe. There was a sense that much of the knowledge of the ancient world had been lost in the Dark Ages and the purpose of the Renaissance was to rediscover that ancient knowledge. Pliny would be their encyclopedia. Pliny had his critics. But for every critic that accused Pliny of getting it wrong, there were numerous apologists who suggested that the fault lay not with Pliny but whatever source he was using, or some later error in transcription. ¹

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Of all the passages in Pliny, perhaps none had received as much attention as these thirty-six words on the spring of Tungri. The passage was reprinted, in its entirety or in part, in dozens of book in the 1500s and 1600s. Across Europe, individuals during these centuries were engaged in identifying springs that had all the same magical qualities as Pliny’s spring, springs across western and central Europe in places with names like Spa, Marienbad, and Pyrmont. For all that ailed you, these were the places to go.

TVNGRI CIVITAS GALLIAE FONTEM HABET INSIGNEM PLVRIMIS BVLLIS STILLANTEM FERRVGINEI SAPORIS QUOD IPSVM NON NISI IN FINE POTVS INTELLEGITVR PURGAT HIC CORPORA TERTIANAS FEBRES DISCUTIT CALCVLORVUMQUE VITIA EADEM AQVA IGNE ADMOTO TVRBIDA FIT AC POSTREMO RVBESCIT

That was all that Pliny had to say about it, all 36 words of it. A pretty fair translation in English would read:

Tungri, a civitas of Gaul, has a spring of great renown, which sparkles as it bursts forth with innumerable bubbles, and has a certain ferruginous taste, only to be perceived after it has been drunk. This water is strongly purgative, is curative of tertian fevers, and disperses urinary calculi: upon the application of fire it assumes a turbid appearance, and finally turns red.     Pliny XXXI.viii.12.

Pliny described about one hundred aquae in his Natural History, many of which he had undoubtedly only read about in other ancient texts. He recounted some fabulous stories like stories about springs that turn white sheep’s wool black, etc. But, to Pliny, even after all the knowledge he had gained about mineral springs, there was still something quite special about this spring of the Tungri. He heard of no other spring that tasted of iron, and no other cold water spring that boiled. Or one that turned red on heating. Or any other waters that were good for tertian fever.

Everything about the physical appearance of Pliny’s spring was unique. The bubbles. The rusty taste. The turbid appearance on heating. The final turning red. Pliny certainly mentions no other spring with any of these features. And there is no reference to such a spring in any of the extant writings about springs from ancient Greece and Rome. In James Reuel Smith’s thorough coverage of the Springs and Wells in Greek and Roman Literature (1922), the Tungri well is the only spring mentioned with either ferruginous or cold-water sparkling bubbly qualities.

In retrospect it seems shocking that the ancient Romans and Greeks with all their travels and informants would not have come across other springs of this kind in ancient times, considering how many were later discovered in the 16th and 17th centuries. Perhaps the ancients did come across them but the sight of water “which sparkles as it bursts forth with bubbles innumerable” were simply not as worthy of as much notice as, say, springs that turn white sheep’s wool black. As with Paracelsus and Agricola and failing to notice the reddish/yellowish sediment, observers only see what they are looking for, and the ancients just were not looking for these kinds of waters. The fact that Pliny did note this one among the Tungri is remarkable in and of itself.

What the ancients as well as the moderns were looking for were certain medicinal virtues, what the waters could do rather than their physical features. What attracted attention, whether in Pliny’s time or Paracelsus’s time were the medicinal virtues of the waters. And, with regard to its reported medicinal qualities, Pliny’s spring was hardly unique. Many other spring waters were purgative. Although more rare, there were several springs as we have already seen which were known to dissolve urinary calculi.

(to be continued)