Vitriol is the general chemical name encompassing a class of chemical compounds comprising sulfates of certain metalsoriginally, iron or copper. Those mineral substances were distinguished by their color, such as green vitriol for hydrated iron(II) sulfate and blue vitriol for hydrated copper(II) sulfate.
These materials were found originally as crystals formed by evaporation of groundwater that percolated through sulfide minerals and collected in pools on the floors of old mines. The word vitriol comes from the Latin word vitriolus, meaning "small glass", as those crystals resembled small pieces of colored glass.
Oil of vitriol was an old name for concentrated sulfuric acid, which was historically obtained through the destructive distillation (pyrolysis) of vitriols (sulfates). The name, abbreviated to vitriol, continued to be used for this viscous liquid long after the minerals came to be termed "sulfates". The figurative term vitriolic in the sense of "harshly condemnatory" is derived from the corrosive nature of this substance.
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 (23âÂÂ79 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 JÃÂbir ibn ḤayyÃÂn (died c. 806âÂÂ816 AD, known in Latin as Geber), Abà « Bakr al-RÃÂzë (865âÂÂ925 AD, known in Latin as Rhazes), Ibn Sina (980âÂÂ1037 AD, known in Latin as Avicenna), and Muḥammad ibn IbrÃÂhëm al-Watwat (1234âÂÂ1318 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.