The study of vitriol began during
ancient times.
Sumerians had a list of types of vitriol that they classified according to the substances' color. Some of the earliest discussions of the origin and properties of vitriol is in the works of the Greek physician
Dioscorides (first century AD) and the Roman naturalist
Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD).
Galen also discussed its medical use. Metallurgical uses for vitriolic substances were recorded in the Hellenistic alchemical works of
Zosimos of Panopolis, in the treatise
Phisica et Mystica, and the
Leyden papyrus X.
Medieval Islamic chemists like
Jābir ibn Ḥayyān (died c. 806–816 AD, known in Latin as Geber),
Abū Bakr al-Rāzī (865–925 AD, known in Latin as Rhazes),
Ibn Sina (980–1037 AD, known in Latin as Avicenna), and
Muḥammad ibn Ibrāhīm al-Watwat (1234–1318 AD) included vitriol in their mineral classification lists. Sulfuric acid was termed "oil of vitriol" by medieval European alchemists because it did not evaporate spontaneously in air (hence
oil vs
spirit in archaic parlance), and it was prepared by roasting "green vitriol" (typically a mixture of Iron and Copper Sulfates) in an iron
retort. The first vague allusions to it appear in the works of
Vincent of Beauvais, in the
Compositum de Compositis ascribed to Saint
Albertus Magnus, and in
pseudo-Geber's
Summa perfectionis (all thirteenth century AD). Systematic attempts to identify and analyze the nature of the various substances classed as vitriols were in full swing by the late 17th Century. ==References==