in Marbodus, as " a stone of a fiery colour mingled with sea-green ;" an apt expression for the lustrous Chrysoberyl. It
came from Ethiopia. If set in gold and strung upon hairs plucked out of
an ass's tail, being worn as a bracelet on the left arm, it drove away
demons, and dispelled the terrors of the night. De Boot notices that
the jewellers of his times confined the name of Chrysolite to the
ancient Topazius (our Peridot), and that it was then so common a stone
that he does not take the trouble to fix its market-value. His
contemporary, Shakespere, seems to have esteemed it more highly, for
he uses as a synonym for incalculable price—
" One entire and perfect Chrysolite."
At the same date, the Topaz meant a yellow stone, and was divided into the Oriental and the European.
Marbodus, even at his early epoch, distinguishes the yellow Corundum as the Citrinus, a
designation, Citrino, still retained for it by the Italian jewellers,
and much more appropriate than the erroneous and arbitrary distinction
of Oriental Topaz.
His
Citrinus, like the two other species of Hyacinthi, protected the
wearers from danger in travelling, against pestilential air, and gave
them favour with princes.
(For the Chrysolite of the moderns, see Topazius.)
