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DE NATURA FOSSILIUM
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is built of this stone and has square pillars. But this is enough concerning gray and black marbles and basaltes.
Marbles
from Crocea, Lacedaemon, and Mt. Taygetus are green. The Pulpit of the
cathedral of St. Lawrence in Rome outside the Esquiline Gate and the
temple in Florence dedicated to St. John the Baptist are built, in
part, from this or some similar stone. The latter temple is built of
white, black and green marbles.
Porphyrites is a red marble found in Egypt. When there are white spots in the stone it is called leucostictos. This
stone has been used in many places, e.g., in Constantinople in the
large columns of the very famous Temple of Wisdom called Σοφία* by
the Greeks because it was built by Justinian; in many columns near St.
Mark's, Venice; in the beautiful columns near the Temple of Apollo in
Ravenna; in the columns of the shrine of St. John the Baptist in
Florence as well as in those outside the largest bronze, gold-covered
gate. Three columns were made from it by the Pisans and sent to
Florence in gratitude for a victory over the Tyrians. While the people
of Pisa had been carrying on a campaign against the Lucans their city
had been defended by the people of Florence. Some of the large urns in
Rome are made from porphyrites, one in the Temple of St.
Bartholomew on an island is used as a receptacle for the remains of
saints. The very large and beautiful top of the latter is made of white
marble. There is another urn in the Temple of the Sacred Cross in
Jerusalem which also has a cover but is not as large as the one
mentioned above. There is a second urn in Jerusalem in the Shrine of
Saints John and Paul with the cover surrounded by a protection that is
so highly polished it reflects an image like a mirror. There is an
enormous sepulcher made from this stone in the Temple of St. Constance
on the Numentana Way, a temple formerly dedicated to Bacchus. Three
boys are shown on the side of this sepulcher crushing grapes with their
feet. The boys are winged and nude and the oldest has an amulet about
his neck. The two others hold staffs in their hands. There are other
boys beside these three, some carrying grapes, others carrying them
accompanied by butterflies and a shaggy ram. The rostrum of the very
holy temple of St. Mark in Venice and a part of the rostrum of the
shrine of St. Lawrence in Rome outside the Esquiline Gate are made from
this marble. A portion of the latter, as I have mentioned above, is
made of green marble with hieroglyphics cut in the base.5
Some
marble is reddish such as that found on the left of the entrance to the
cave in Hildesheim named for dwarfs. So much concerning marbles of a
single color.
I shall now take up those marbles that are spotted or that have more
6 The Egyptian porphyrites is
a syenite porphyry and not a marble. The name is derived from the Greek
word meaning purple. The use of the term broadened until it became
meaningless. Currently the name has been redefined to describe an
igneous rock texture characteristic of the original Egyptian rock.
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