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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
BOOK VI
139
Hormesion has the shape of an eye, a golden luster and, as Pliny states, a white line around the edge. Syrtites has a honey-yellow to saffron color and contains pale stars within the body of the stone. It is found on the shores of Syrtis and Lucania. But this is enough concerning the gems that glow.
Morion is black and transparent. It is found in Misena, the lower Alps, Cyprus, Tyre, Galatia and India. It may be very black and is then called pramnion or it may have some other color mixed with the black. When the red of the carbunculus is mixed with it, it is called alexandrinus because these stones are carried to Alexandria. When mixed with the color of sard it is called cyprius since it is usually found on Cyprus. When mixed with the color of hyacinthus it is called misenus since it is mined at Volchenstein, Misena. Morion is seen to occur in the lower portion of these stones and to be formed from a denser essence which has settled to the bottom. How­ever the variety I have described as pramnion has been found in this vicin­ity with the bottom portion quartz and only the end very black. This also has the hexagonal form of quartz, especially that found at Volchenstein with hyacinthus in the end. This gem is engraved the same as quartz.46
Cepionides is transparent, sometimes glassy, sometimes crystalline, sometimes similar to green jaspis. They are found at Atarnea, in Aeolis. Pliny writes that when full of inclusions these stones are so splendent they will reflect an image the same as a mirror. This concludes the transparent gems.
I shall now take up those gems with such variations in color that differ­ent species are seen to be included under a single name. Among these gems is jaspis. This may be as green as the emerald, for example, the abundant dark green material found in Noricum, Thrace and India. It may have an oily bluish gray color similar to that obtained by mixing green pigment in milk. This variety is found in the district of the Lygii near the town of Striga and on the island of Cyprus. Some has a pale green color similar to callais and this, according to Dioscorides, is called tere-binthizusa. Pliny also uses this same inappropriate name. Sometimes it is as blue as the clear sky such as that found in Cappadocia near the Terma river. Sometimes it resembles the autumnal sky early in the morning, a color that is obtained when mixing blue in milk and for that reason it has been called ορίζουσα by some of the older writers, borea by others and turcica by the younger writers. This variety is found around the Caspian Sea, especially around Lake Neusis in Spain, at Hircanus and in the mountains near the town of Crerma. It is found in Scythia beyond Imau in the district called Cuniclus. Very rarely it is the color of the stones from the Strigian district or purple as is the Phrygian material. Equally rare are the rose-colored stones which appear to have been tinted with flowers. These are obtained from the deepest caves of Mt. Ida. Other rare colors
<e Agricola identifies morion with the modern smoky quartz or cairngorm. Today the name morion is given to the nearly black variety. Here hyacinthus is identified with amethyst.
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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