LatineEnglish
And thou shalt pitch it within and without with bitumen.1
Et bitumine linies intrinsecus et extrinsecus.
Bitumen, inquit Rabanus, est ferventissimum et violentissimum gluten, cuius haec est virtus ut ligna quae eo lita fuerint nec vermibus exedi nec Solis ardore nec ventorum flatibus nec aquarum possint violentia dissolvi. Verum de bitumine uberius atque luculentius in lib. 35 cap. 15 disputat Plinius, eius naturam, vires ususque varios, etiam multiplex natale solum enarrans. Est sane incorrupta vis bitumini aquisque contumax, ideoque ligna conservat ne combibant humorem noxium, neque patitur aërem penetrare, et tineas, teredines aliaque a lignis vitia prohibet, propter quae diuturnitatem operibus maxime praestat; sed et virtus in eo est praecipua copulandi, praeter ligna etiam corpora, colligat enim vulnera nervosque conglutinat. Calcis quoque praebuit usum Semiramidi reginae, ita ferruminatis latere testaceo Babylonicis muris. Bitumen quod erat in lacu Asphaltite Iudaeae, et Mare mortuum in sacris litteris nominatur, singularem habuit admirationem; tantae enim tenacitatis fuisse dicitur ut quaecunque eo essent oblita, non alia re quam superfuso muliebri sanguine menstruo dissolvi possent.
Bitumen, says Rabanus, is a most fervent and most powerful glue, whose virtue is such that timbers smeared with it can be eaten neither by worms, nor dissolved by the sun’s heat, nor by the blasts of the winds, nor by the violence of the waters. But about bitumen Pliny disputes more fully and brilliantly in book 35, ch. 15, setting forth its nature, powers, and various uses, and even its manifold native soil. The force of bitumen is indeed incorruptible and stubborn against waters, and so it preserves timbers from drinking in noxious moisture, nor does it allow air to penetrate, and it keeps off moths, ship-worms, and other faults from timbers — on account of which it especially affords durability to works; but there is in it also a chief virtue of joining, not only timbers but even bodies, for it binds up wounds and glues together sinews. It also provided the use of lime to Queen Semiramis, the Babylonian walls being thus soldered with brick of baked clay. The bitumen which was in the Lake Asphaltites of Judaea — also named in the sacred writings the Dead Sea — was held in singular admiration; for it is said to have been of such tenacity that whatever things were smeared with it could be dissolved by nothing else than menstrual blood of a woman poured over them.2
Propter has itaque tam opportunas structurae Arcae bituminis virtutes, praeter lignorum frontes intus et extra, tota quoque latera iuncturarum, dum inter se committerent, denique totum opus intestinum credendum est fuisse bitumine oblitum; id quod non tan-...
On account, therefore, of these virtues of bitumen, so opportune for the structure of the Ark, besides the faces of the timbers within and without, all the sides of the joints too, where they met one another, and finally the whole interior work, must be believed to have been smeared with bitumen; which not on-…3
...tum valuit ad coagmentationem, verum etiam ad centum annorum durationem ante diluvium, quod tempus fabricandae arcae creditur exactum; post quod tempus etiam usque ad Iosephi tempora quaedam eius Arcae reliquiae perdurarunt per annos amplius bis mille. Iubetur porro arca tam extrinsecus quam intrinsecus ungi bitumine: extrinsecus quidem, ut iuncturae tabularum bene clauderentur adversus aquas tam circumfusas quam superfusas arcae; intrinsecus autem, ne violentus aquae impetus — vel superne praecipitantis, vel ad latera ipsius arcae vehementer allisae — si exteriorem lituram abraderent, resistente interiore litura intro ad arcam penetrare posset; vel ne magna humiditas exterior parte interiorem arcae limosam redderet.
…only availed for the cementing, but also for the hundred years’ durability before the Flood, which time is believed to have been spent in building the ark; after which time, even down to the times of Josephus, certain remnants of that Ark endured for more than two thousand years. The ark, moreover, is commanded to be smeared with bitumen both without and within: without, indeed, that the joints of the boards might be well closed against the waters, both those surrounding and those poured over the ark; but within, lest the violent force of the water — whether falling from above, or vehemently dashed against the very sides of the ark — should, if they scraped away the outer coating, be able (the inner coating resisting) to penetrate inward to the ark; or lest the great moisture on the outer part should make the inner part of the ark slimy.4
Translator’s notes
- Genesis 6:14b (the continuation of the lemma). ↩
- §12: bitumen — a most powerful glue (Rabanus); its nature, virtues, and uses (Pliny); the Dead Sea bitumen. Margins: Rabanus; ‘The virtue of bitumen’; Pliny. ↩
- §13 (continues on p. 191): why the whole work was pitched — for joining and for hundred-year durability. ↩
- §13 (continued from p. 190): the pitching served both for joining and for durability (remnants survived to Josephus’s day); why pitched inside and out. Margin: Josephus, Antiquities, bk. 1. ↩