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Jaspis, Jasper, Quartz-gems

Jaspis, Jasper, Quartz-gems Page of 384 Jaspis, Jasper, Quartz-gems Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
JASPIS.
139
another the violet * (Grecian, our pink cyclamen), defini­tions applying exactly to the various shades, some bright and pale, some dull and overcharged with purple, of our common Amethystine Quartz.
The Persian and Caspian kinds were cerulean in colour, which gave them their designation of " Aërizusa," ex­plained by Pliny as resembling the hue of the sky on an autumnal morning : these were also termed Borea (Âïñáá) by the Greeks. That these sorts were our Sapphirine-Calcedony may, besides their colour, be also inferred from another circumstance—the finest and bluest specimens of that stone are chiefly to be met with in the cylinders and conical seals of the Persians, whose country exclusively produced it. That brought from the Thermodon was like­wise cerulean ; the Phrygian was purple ; the Cappadocian turning from purple to cerulean (ex purpura caerulea), dull and lustreless. What species can be intended by these latter descriptions, unless, as above suggested, it be the Amethystine or the Rose Quartz, it is impossible to dis­cover.
There were many other varieties of the Jaspis ; the general fault of them all was the being either cerulean, or crystal-like (i. e. colourless), or resembling the myxa-plum )a dull yellow ?) : all which are peculiarities applicable to our coloured Quartz-gems. To the same family belonged the gems called, by way of distinction, " Sphragides," as the best for making seals—" supremacy over all other signet-stones having been awarded to them on this account by public favour." Theophrastus likewise states to the same effect (23), " that the stones out of which signets are made for the sake of their beauty alone, are the Sard, the Jaspis, and the Lapis-lazuli." And,- earlier than any,
* I fear Pliny has mistaken here the ibs, verdigris, of Theophrastus' Prasitis for tov, the cyclamen.
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