In regard to the ancients' knowledge of lead compounds, we may state that the substance described by Dioscorides as, uoXv,3Saiva was undoubtedly litharge, that Pliny uses the word minium in its present sense of red lead, ana that white lead was well known to Geber in the 8th century.
Massicot is the raw material for the manufacture of "red lead" or "minium."
Pliny mentions it under the name of minium, but it was confused with cinnabar and the red arsenic sulphide; Dioscorides mentions its preparation from white lead or lead carbonate.
C. t has for its subject pavements and roads, their construction, mosaic floors; c. 2 is on white stucco for walls (opus albarium); c. 3 on concrete vaults, gypsum mouldings, stucco prepared for painting; c. 4 on building of hollow walls to keep out the damp, wall decoration by various processes; c. 5 on methods and styles of wall painting, the debased taste of his time; c. 6 on fine stucco made of pounded marble - three coats to receive wall paintings; c. 7 on colours used for mural decoration; c. 8 on red lead (minium) and mercury, and how to use the latter to extract the gold from wornout pieces of stuff or embroidery; c. 9 on the preparation of red lead and the method of encaustic painting with hot wax, finished by friction; cc. to-14 on artificial colours - black, blue, purple;, c. to white lead and ostrum, i.e.
The oil, when boiled with small proportions of litharge and minium, undergoes the process of resinification in the air with greatly increased rapidity.