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Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt

Camahutum, Cameo Page of 384 Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
CERAUNIA.                                        77
CERAUNIA.
By this name two very different things are designated, «cording as the ideas expressed are a resemblance in the stone to the brightness and flashing of lightning, or its being itself the actual missile shot from the clouds.
The first part of Pliny's description (52) applies clearly to either the bright Blue Beryl, or to the paler and more lustrous kind of Sapphires. " Amongst colourless (can-didœ) gems is that called Ceraunia, which snatches its lustre from the stars (alluding to its celestial origin). Of itself it is like crystal, but its lustre is sky-blue ; it is found in Carmania. Zenothemis allows that it is colour­less, but says it contains a sparkling star ; there are also Cerauniae that are dead, yet if steeped for a few days in nitre and vinegar they conceive the same kind of star, but lose it again after an equal number of months." This would seem to indicate an Asteria or Star-Sapphire ; in fact, the Ceraunia is termed an inferior kind of Astrion. Later, however, the name seems to have been applied to the Ruby, to distinguish it from the other numerous varie­ties of the Carbunculus, for Tertullian (' De Anima,' ix.) uses the simile : " In the gem Ceraunia the substance is not. necessarily fiery because they sparkle with a ruddy blush (rutilato rubore)." Isidorus also makes two sorts : one like Crystal, but blending an azure with its red, found in Carmania ; the other from Lusitania, like the Pyrope, but
Camahutum, Cameo Page of 384 Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt
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