BOOK REVIEWS brief list of references for "suggested additional reading." This book may he commended warmly to the attention of those teaching biochemistry as a terminal course for those undergraduate students, not highly trained in chemistry, who would otlwwise fail to encounter hiorhemistry as a. separate discipline.
RALPHC. CORLEY Purdz~eUniversity Lafayetbe, Indiana
On Divers Arts: the Treatire of Theophilur
Translated by John G. Hawthorne, University of Chieaggo, and Cyril Stanley Smilh, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1963. xxxv 216 pp. Figs. and tables. 17.5 X 25 cm. $8.50.
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The i n c ~ m e dinterest in the history of technology during the last few years is continuing to be astimulus for the puhlication of srholarly translations into English of important technological texts written in medieval Lat,in, old I t d i m , old German, and other difficult languages. The present volume is a. welcome addition t o the small group of English translations of treatises which deal more or less wit,h chemical technology. The present work also is of special interest since it marks the coo~erative effort of the well-known
donym of s German metalworker and Benedictine monk, Roger of Helmmshausen. Theophilus' treatise written in medieval Latin is partioulsriy important for the history of chemical technology, since it has been well established that t,he writer of the treatise was a practical worker in the arts which he describes and not just s. compiler of recipes 38 wm common with most authors of medieval treatises on technology. Theophilus was not a scientist in our modern sense hut s. technologist skilled in the best techniques concerned with the manufacture, preparation and mixing of pigments for painting, the making of glms and in special rnethrwls of metal working. The translators of this work point out that while Thenphilus' treatise has been well known to art historians because of the detailed discussion of paint making, they have also emphasized in detail the instruments and techniques used for glass making and metal working. The translators have reconstructed many of the instruments and sppaxatus described by Theophilus and have illustrated these and their method of operations by drawings. Detailed bibliographic31 information on the various texts and translaiions of Theophilus' treatise are presented and a number of tine illustr:ations in addition to thc d r s w i n ~of the reconstructed instruments and apparatus
(Continued o n page A806)
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BOOK REVIEWS are also included. Many technical notes by the translator make clear certain obscure passages. I t is t o he noted that another English translation of Theophilus' treatise wns published in 1961 under the authorship of C. R. Dadwell, and Dr. Smith and Dr. Hawthorne have exchanged a great deal of information with Dodwell. This book ia recommended to students of the history of technology of chemical arts, to art historians, and, of course, to bibliophiles and hook collectors concerned with the history of technology. SIDNEY M. EDELSTEIN Dexter Chemical Corp. Bmnr. Kern York
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