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Ch. 9: Gemstone Imitations

Ch. 9: Gemstone Imitations Page of 296 Ch. 9: Gemstone Imitations Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
242
PRECIOUS STONES.
upon the subject; and Pliny declared that it was a difficult task to distinguish between the false and the true. Not only in Rome were false stones in vogue, but, according to Pliny, the Indians coun­terfeited jewels with success, especially opals.
The processes that Pliny was so careful not to divulge, were not held sacred with the same scru­pulousness by the alchemists of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Both Albertus Magnus and St. Thomas Aquinas refer openly to this subject;
and the latter in his treatise on the Essence of Minerals, states explicitly that there were "men who fabricated artificial jewels." Among the pre­cious stones counterfeited, he instances the hya­cinth, sapphire, emerald, ruby, and topaz.
At the commencement of the Renaissance the fabrication of false stones still continued; but it was not yet separated from much hesitation and experi­ment. Cardan proves this in his curious receipts.
A century later we perceive by the descriptions
Ch. 9: Gemstone Imitations Page of 296 Ch. 9: Gemstone Imitations
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