The history of silk, cotton, linen, wool, and other fibrous ... - Cd3wd.com

USES OF ASBESTOS. 399
city with himself. For there can be scarcely a doubt, but that
Leo, who wrote the MS., was the same who was the author of
the Chronicon. The author of the Chronicon, at the commencement
of his history, calls himself " Frater Leo, cogno-
mine Marsicanus*". He was made Bishop of Ostia A. D. 1101,
so that we may suppose him to have been twenty or thirty
years of age, when the MS. was made. Of his aptitude for
such an employment we cannot doubt, when we consider his
future labors as Librarian and author of the Chronicle. But
if these facts be evident, it is equally manifest, that these two
accomplished Benedictines could not have expressed their ven-
eration towards their founder in any way better suited to their
ideas and belief than by exhibiting in the manner described
that relic, WHICH WAS SOLEMNLY DISPLAYED
ONCE A YEAR WITH BURNING CANDLES AND
ATTENDING ACOLYTHES TO THE ADMIRING
AND ADORING CROWD OF DEVOTEES.
On inquiry it is found that this relic exists no longer at
Monte Casino, although the original copy of the Chronicon of
Leo Ostiensis is still preserved in the Libraryf. It appears that
the relic has long been lost, since there is no mention either of
it, or of the casket which contained it in the " Descrizione Is-
torica del Monastero di Monte Casino, Napoli, 1775."
A large glove of this substance is in the Hunterian Museum
at Glasgow. An English traveller states that he has latel}'^ seen
at Parma a table-clolh, made of Amiantus from Corsica, for
the use of the ex-Empress Magja Louisa, who resided there
after the fall of Napoleon. ^P
In modern times cloth of asbestos is scarcely made. Indeed
it is not probable that this material will ever be obtained in
much abundance, or that it will cease to be a rarity except in
the places of its production. "
It is never seen in Great Britain,
or on the continent, save in the cabinets of the curious.
* Marsicana (civitas) was in Marsica, the territory of the ancient Marsi.
+ Excursions in the Abruzzi, by the Hon. Keppel Craven, vol. i. p. 54.