certaining the gum given in the recipe of Theophilus which
M Merimee believed to be copal. Vernice was the _name_ of sandarach, and
was in common use in its dry state, as pounce, but when made into a
varnish with oil, it was called vernice liquida.

To those who delight in etymologies, it will afford amusement to learn
that the word varnish is with much reason conjectured to be derived from
the name of a daughter of one of the Ptolemies, celebrated for her
amber-coloured hair,--the heroine of the poem of Callimachus of which we
have only the translation by Catullus, the "Coma Berenices." Eustathius,
the commentator on Homer of the twelfth century, states that amber
([Greek: elektron]) in his day was called [Greek: beronike]. Salmasius
spells it [Greek: bereniki]. "Even during the classic ages of Greece
[Greek: b] represented [Greek: ph] in certain dialects." Veronica, in the
Lucca M.S., (eighth century,) more than once occurs among the ingredients
of varnishes. "And it is remarkable," adds Mr Eastlake, "that in the
copies of the same recipes in the Mappae Clavicula (twelfth century) the
word is spelt in the genitive--Verenicis and Vernicis," and thus we come
by very legitimate derivation to the English word varnish. Sandarach,
however, becoming in process of time the common substitute for amber, took
the name: and to distinguish this oleo-resinous varnish from that of the
real amber, the latter is called "Vernice liquida gentile." The "Mappae
Clavicula," spoken of above, is a very curious publication, in the last
No. of the Archaeologia, vol. xxxii. part 1, of a MS. treatise on the
preparation of pigments during the middle ages. Speaking of the vernice
liquida, Mr Eastlake says:--

"The amber varnish had been adopted in its stead by the early Flemish
painters, and though often represented by[13] copal, had never been
entirely laid aside; it had even returned to the north from Italy in the
hands of Gentileschi. Rembrandt, from motives of economy, may have
employed the scarcely less durable common "vernix" or sandarac oil
varnish; and for certain effects may have reckoned on its tint. Either
this, or the rapidly drying Venice amber before described, was in all
probability used by him freely."

Mr Eastlake thinks that the darkness of the vehicle had been allowed to
increase (and the darker the thicker it would be) with the darkness of the
colour employed. That this was the case, we might conjecture, not only
from the wor