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

Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis Page of 251 Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
134
DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
Albertus among the Sequani between Basilea and Strasbourg. It is found in Greater Germany in many places, for example, in a deserted mine of Mittelbach five miles from Chemnitz, Misena; in a second mine five miles from the first near the town of Langovicius; in a valley between the town of Zuicca and a mountain containing coal. In the latter place it occurs in veins of pure onyx as well as in a black breccia. It is found in Cappadocia near Galatia; in many parts of Scythia; and according to Pliny especially in Carmania, Arabia and India. The onyx found among the Germans and Sequanians as well as other stones similar to it is called chalcedonius (chalcedony). The name is derived from Chalcedon, Bithynia, a town to which this mineral was brought from either Cappadocia or from some other nearby place. All the rest is known by the old name onyx although Pliny calls the mineral from Carmania both onyx and murrhina.n
The color of onyx varies greatly. It may have veins that are fiery red, red and purple with layers that are milk-white such as the German material. It may be fiery red, black, horn-yellow with white circles which resemble the white portion of the eye, according to Pliny, such as the stones from India. The Arabian stones are black with white layers. The stones from Scythia and Carmania have fire-red, purple and milk-white layers. As I have said, Pliny calls these latter stones murrhina. Certain gray stones are found with whitish zones that give them the appearance of an eye. Some have blue layers while the German stones rarely have black, often bluish black and, besides the colors already mentioned, blue and blackish red. The veins or bands found in these stones may be broad or narrow. They may curve smoothly or crookedly and even form eddies which resemble waves. Some of these stones reflect colors such as those seen in the rainbow, according to Pliny. In the shrine of The Three Wise Men, or as we call them, The Three Kings, at Cologne there is a piece of onyx three inches wide with milk-white bands that run in all directions in such a manner that they portray the heads of two youths with a black band resembling a serpent running from the forehead of one to that of the other and the head of an Ethiopian with a black beard. The beard is on top of the jaw bone of one of the white heads. The rest of the gem has the same color as a fingernail. Albertus has also described this same gem. The layers of onyx, no matter what their color, are usually translucent except the black and milky white layers which are opaque. Very often coats of arms are engraved on pieces of white German onyx and these are highly prized by the nobility since they are more transparent than any other onyx and harder than quartz although less transparent. In addition, these stones are backed with colors that tint the coat of arms with the proper colors. The German stones are sometimes used for the little spheres with which we calculate prices as well as for the hilts of swords, goblets and the small mortars in which they grind emery. They
32 Chalcedony is a variety of cryptocrystalline quartz and onyx a variety of chalcedony with straight parallel banding. Some of the "onyx" mentioned here is banded calcite, the Egyptian alabaster of the ancients.
Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis Page of 251 Book VI gems: diamond, emeralds, sapphire, topaz, chrysoberyl, carbuncle, jaspis
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