Petroleum is an oil that, by the grace of God the Creator, oozes and drips from a rock by the effect of the sun in a strange and wonderful manner in the estate of the Duke of Ferrara near a town called Modena of Mount Sybia. It is called balsam by some people on account of its great and outstanding virtue, and several people call it Saint Catherine’s oil. As a result of this, the mountain no longer has any snakes or poisonous reptiles, which have all now been driven out, even though this region is favorable to these vermin. This proves the virtue of the oil.
First, this oil purges and cleans any sore and heals any wound of long standing. It also gives help to those who are hard of hearing or who have some blockage of the ear; it cures when one or two drops are placed in the ear with cotton. Likewise, if a woman is pregnant and cannot give birth, she should take three drops of the oil in her mouth and in the navel and should rub the breasts well with it; then she will give birth. Likewise, whoever gets scalded either by fire, boiling water, or tar or is freezing because of frost shall rub himself twice daily with petroleum. Likewise, this petroleum is very good for pains in the eyes of less than one year’s standing. It should be mixed with a little breast milk and then the eyes smeared with it night and morning. Likewise, for coughing or constipation of the stomach resulting from the cold, rub the chest with this petroleum and then drink an eighth of an ounce of this petroleum, which is a good cure for man. Likewise, this oil is more effective in the cold regions for fat people of cold humor than in the hot regions for lean people of cold humor.
If anyone, whether apothecary or doctor, has found that the aforementioned oil is other than good and that it does not come from Modena, he ought to forfeit the liberty of his person and have his chattels confiscated.
From Studies in Early Petroleum History by R.J. Forbes. Copyright © 1958 by E.J. Brill. Used with permission of Brill.
Karel de Minne, from “The Virtue of the Noble Oil.” De Minne is said to have been an apothecary living in Antwerp. He printed this text along with an illustration of an oil seepage in Modena. The illustration depicts an oil stream flowing from a hill; two men lean down to collect it, animals drink from it, and oil is carried away in large barrels on horse-drawn carts and in sacks by men. Elsewhere in this article, de Minne writes that the medicinal uses of petroleum mentioned have been applied by doctors elsewhere in Italy as well as in Germany and France.
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