and
very seldom purple. The best are found in Media, but nowhere are they
found transparent. Besides this, they are difficult to be worked and
useless for the engraver, as they contain certain crystalline spots."
Isidore, however, remarks that the " sapphirus cœruïeus est cum purpura habens pulvere» aureos »parses." May not this be the lapis-lazuli ? Some modern authors believe the modern sapphire to be the ancient cyanos, of
which Pliny writes : " Turquoise stone of a blue colour. . . . The best
are found in Scythia; the next best in Cyprus, and after them, in
Egypt. They are generally imitated by means of a certain tincture, and
the discovery of this is attributed to a king of Egypt. This stone is
also divided into masculine and feminine. It sometimes contains dust of
gold, not like that of the sapphire."
It
is generally believed that this substance is the sulphate of copper,
which, in its native state, is almost transparent, and of considerable
hardness ; this opinion agrees with the description given by
Theophrastus* of the cyanos, in which it is clearly seen that
the Egyptian imitation of the cyanos is the paste or blue
vitrification which is found in almost all ancient Egyptian ornaments,
and still made by modern Egyptian workmen, and called zaffre.
But, on the other hand, let us remember what Solino has written :
" Amongst the Ethiopian things of which we have spoken, the hyacinthus is of a bright bluish colour ; * Chap. 55.
