object
Copal
A named Mesoamerican tree-resin of offering smoke, later a varnish. Not amber, and not frankincense.
Nahua tradition
Copal appears in Nahua tradition.
The Florentine Codex treats copalli among Nahua resins of offering and material culture. A named Mesoamerican resin in that ethnography, not Mediterranean bitumen and not KF incense-node churn.
from Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators · Florentine Codex, c. 1577
appears in · sourced · documented
Copal is historically related to Resin.
In Merrifield's Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting, Copal is kept among the working lemmas, companion to Resin.
from Mary Philadelphia Merrifield · Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting, 1849
historically related to · sourced · documented
Copal is historically related to Turpentine.
In Bitmead’s French Polishing and Enamelling, copal varnish is worked with spirits of turpentine among the finishing coats — turpentine thins and carries the copal where a flowing varnish-polish is wanted.
from Richard Bitmead · French Polishing and Enamelling: A Practical Work of Instruction, PD Gutenberg #17935
historically related to · sourced · documented
Alchemy
Copal varnish is historically related to Copal.
Merrifield’s varnish survey seats copal among the hard resins cooked into oil varnishes in later treatise speech she edits. A named copal-varnish historically related to copal, not amber-varnish and not damar soft varnish.
from Mary Philadelphia Merrifield · Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting, 1849
historically related to · sourced · documented
sources
- Florentine Codex · Bernardino de Sahagún and Nahua collaborators
Bernardino de Sahagún, General History of the Things of New Spain (Florentine Codex).
- Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting · Mary Philadelphia Merrifield
Mary Philadelphia Merrifield, Original Treatises on the Arts of Painting (1849).
- French Polishing and Enamelling: A Practical Work of Instruction · Richard Bitmead
Bitmead, French Polishing and Enamelling (PD Gutenberg ed.).