Note 8 — BOOK I.
Herbert Hoover translation
Atramentum sutorium—"Shoemaker's blacking." See p. 572 for description of method of manufacture and historical footnote. In the main Agricola means green vitriol, but he does describe three main varieties, green, blue, and white (De Natura Fossilium, p. 219). The blue was of course copper sulphate, and it is fairly certain that the white was zinc vitriol.