Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis

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	132	DE NATURA FOSSILIUM

	species. The first species they call granatus and these are chrysolithus. The second species, which is also chrysolithus, they call citrinus. The third they call venetus and these are sapphires. Solinus also confused sapphire with hyacinthus and gem merchants always call sandastros and chrysolithos, hyacinthus. This is enough concerning the purple gems.²⁹ Sard is red. It is called sarda, sardo and sardius in Latin. This name was given to the stone by the Sardians after the place where it was first found. The gem merchants call it carneolus (carnelian), because it has a color similar to flesh (Latin, carneus, fleshy).³⁰ It is found in many places, in Germany along the Rhine near Marburg; at Ephyra; in Troy, Asia; at Sardis, Lydia; in Armenia, Babylon, Persia, Arabia, India, and near Egypt. Sard is not a single color. It may be redder than the cooked shell of a marine crab, dark red, light red, honey-yellow, or similar in color to the dirty dregs from a wine cask. Sometimes it has a very unusual color due to some foreign substance. The more brilliant stones are called masculine, the duller ones feminine. The masculine stones may be translucent, such as those from Babylon, the Rhine and the first quality stones from India. The feminine stone is so dense and gross that one cannot see into it, such as those from Arabia and the second quality stones from India. These are called δήμιος by the Greeks because of their grossness. The most prized stones are very red while the darker and lighter tones are of less value. Stones of other colors are worthless. Sard is improved by the artisans. In Egypt they back the stones with gold foil and in India they back the third quality stones with silver foil. The gem has always had a wide use because it can be engraved with ease and is excellent for seals since the wax will not stick to it. It will make a sharp imprint longer than any other of the transparent gems because the hot wax wears it away very slowly. Oil will wear it away faster than any other material, according to Pliny. Pulverized and drunk with sour wine it stops menstruation and profuse bleeding from a severed vein. Sometimes a mass of red sard is underlain with white onyx and from these two gems a third is created which is called sardonyx (sardonyx). When the white portion of the stone is turned up it has the appearance of a human fingernail with the flesh underneath it. The colors of the upper and lower layers of this mineral vary greatly. The upper layer may be the color of the finest sard, darker, lighter, brighter, honey-yellow, a dirty red or some other shade of red produced by foreign material. The lower layer may be the color of the human fingernail, wax-colored or horn-colored. It may have different colors, be ornamented with circles or resemble the rainbow. Although sardonyx is usually translucent some is found that ²⁹ Agricola, and later De Boot and De Laet, regarded hyacinthus as a variety of amethyst. There is an obvious confusion in the description of this gem and different writers applied the name to different gems. It takes its name from the hyacinth flower but this name was given to a number of different flowers by the older writers. ³⁰ Carnelian and sard are translucent varieties of chalcedony which are distinguished by color. Carnelian is a light orange-red; sard, a reddish to dark brown.

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