It's an amazing combination of a proto-Ripley's, a cookbook,
etiquette guide, and almanac. WONDERS OF MINUTE WORKMANSHIP.Link
In the twentieth year of Queen Elizabeth, a blacksmith named
Mark Scaliot, made a lock consisting of eleven pieces of iron,
steel and brass, all which, together with a key to it, weighed
but one grain of gold. He also made a chain of gold, consisting
of forty-three links, and, having fastened this to the before-
mentioned lock and key, he put the chain about the neck of a
flea, which drew them all with ease. All these together, lock
and key, chain and flea, weighed only one grain and a half.
Oswaldus Norhingerus, who was more famous even than Scaliot for
his minute contrivances, is said to have made 1,600 dishes of
turned ivory, all perfect and complete in every part, yet so
small, thin and slender, that all of them were included at once
in a cup turned out of a pepper-corn of the common size.
Johannes Shad, of Mitelbrach, carried this wonderful work with
him to Rome, and showed it to P