Quantcast
  Due to a new server, slow response may occur for which we apologize Portal logo
Login/Register
Bactrian Gold Treasure from Afghanistan, coming soon....
/gemstones/king-gems-decorative-stones/page_064 - 2
 

Beryllus, Beryl

Beryllus, Beryl Page of 384 Beryllus, Beryl Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
BERYLLUS.
55
one monster facetted aquamarine, with a big jacinth for its pommel, and the ends of the cross-guard terminating in lions' heads carved in diamond.
It is a curious fact that Beryllus is the Low Latin term for a magnifying glass : hence the German " Brille," a pair of spectacles. For this reason Nicolaus de Cusa, bishop of Brixen (who died 1454), gave the name of "Beryllus " to one of his works, " because by its aid the mind would be able to penetrate into matters which otherwise it would be unable to pierce."* Which designation he thus explains in his second chapter, saying, " the Beryl is a shining, colourless, transparent stone, to which a concave as well as a convex form is given by art ; and looking through it one sees what was before invisible." Probably the first idea of this invention was caught by accidentally looking through a double-convex and clear Beryl, or one cut "en cabochon" (the usual form given to antique transparent gems), and thence concluding that a piece of glass similarly shaped would produce the same effect in magnifying minute objects. Mediaaval glass being never colourless, but always tinged more or less with green, the resemblance as to colour and form of a lens in such a material to an actual Beryl was sufficiently obvious to induce the communication of the name to the new discovery. Protoprodromus, as early as 1150, humorously describes the physicians of Manuel Com-nenus as using tho íßëéïí to examine the nature of his
* A similar derivation exists in the French language, where " loupe," a magnifying or convex lens, comes from the Low Latin "lupa,"' an unpolished precious stone. The term seems to have been at first a simile allusive to the untamed condition of the stone. It appears restricted to the Sapphire, a gem more or less convex in its native form. Thus, in the Jocalia Sti. Thomae (Dart. Hist. Cant. Cath. Ap. xiii.)—Annulus magnus cum Sapphire nigro qui vocatur lup.—It. An-nulus cum pnrvo Sapphire nigro qui vocatur lup." That " lup " denotes the shape, appears from the next item, " annulus cum Sapohiro quadrato aquoso."
Beryllus, Beryl Page of 384 Beryllus, Beryl
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page