Dell'Historia Naturale di Ferrante Imperato Napolitano, Libri XXVIII (1599)

A natural history in 28 books by the Neapolitan apothecary Ferrante Imperato, printed at Naples in 1599 with a dedication by his son Francesco to Don Giovanni di Velasco. The title page says it deals chiefly with mines and stones, with some histories of plants and animals. It has a well-known engraving of Imperato's museum and many woodcuts of minerals, shells and animals. Book 25 groups 'incombustible' minerals with the talcs. Its chapter 'Del Fiocco di pietra, ò Amianto' describes amianto as a talc-like stone made of fine, hair-like fibres that can be spun. The book says cloth woven from it is cleaned in fire, that wicks made from it burn without being consumed, and that women rub the loose flock on their cheeks to redden them. A woodcut shows the fibre, a wick and cloth in a fire. Amianto is also mentioned in passages on glass-making, gem compositions and mineral growth forms.