hat this account is based upon and
clumsily accommodated to the idea, prevalent in Vasari's time throughout
Italy, that Van Eyck not merely improved, but first introduced, the art
of oil-painting, and that no mixture of color with linseed or nut oil
had taken place before his time. We are only informed of the new and
important part of the invention, under the pointedly specific and
peculiarly Vasarian expression--"altre sue misture." But the real value
of the passage is dependent on the one fact of which it puts us in
possession, and with respect to which there is every reason to believe
it trustworthy, that it was in search of a _Varnish_ which would dry in
the shade that Van Eyck discovered the new vehicle. The next point to be
determined is the nature of the Varnish ordinarily employed, and spoken
of by Cennini and many other writers under the familiar title of Vernice
liquida. The derivation of the word Vernix bears materially on the
question, and will not be devoid of interest for the general reader, who
may perhaps be surprised at finding himself carried by Mr. Eastlake's
daring philology into regions poetical and planetary:--

* * *

"Eustathius, a writer of the twelfth century, in his commentary on
Homer, states that the Greeks of his day called amber ([Greek:
elektron]) Veronice ([Greek: beronike]). Salmasius, quoting from a
Greek medical MS. of the same period, writes it Verenice ([Greek:
berenike]). In the Lucca MS. (8th century) the word Veronica more than
once occurs among the ingredients of varnishes, and it is remarkable
that in the copies of the same recipes in the _Mappae Clavicula_ (12th
century) the word is spelt, in the genitive, Verenicis and Vernicis.
This is probably the earliest instance of the use of the Latinized word
nearly in its modern form; the original nominative Vernice being
afterwards changed to Vernix.

"Veronice or Verenice, as a designation for amber, must have been common
at an earlier period than the date of the Lucca MS., since it there
occurs as a term in ordinary use. It is scarcely necessary to remark
that the letter [Greek: beta] was sounded v by the mediaeval Greeks,
as it is by their present descendants. Even during the classic ages of
Greece [Greek: beta] represented [Greek: phi] in certain dialects. The
name Berenice or Beronice, borne by more than one daughter of the
Ptolemies, would be more correctly written Pherenice or Pheronice. The
literal coinc