Topaz
is divided into two species, the Oriental and the European,*—the
Oriental yellow Corundum, and the large Bohemian yellow Crystal.
As
early as the eleventh century we find Marbodus describing under "
Chrysolite," the stone now known by that name, Pliny's Chrysopteron. He
also divides the Topazius into two kinds : one bright yellow and hard
(our Chrysolite) ; the other greenish and soft. Thus the name "Topaz"
came to he applied to any bright yellow and hard stone that did not to
the eye display the distinctive mark of the Chrysolite, a tinge of
green, and gradually became restricted to the sense it now bears.
The name Peridot can
be traced far back. In the Wardrobe Book of 27 Edward I., is entered
amongst the jewels of the deceased Bishop of Bath and Wells (escheated
to the Crown), " Unus annulus auri cum pereditis." This term
implied a distinction from the Topazius ; for the preceding item is,
"Unus annulus auri cum topacio." The origin of the word can only be
conjectured.
An older form of Peridot is Perithe and
Peridonius, defined by Albertus Magnus as a gem of a yellow colour good
for the gout ; and one sort of it resembling the Chrysolite. He
derives the name from Pyrites, but without good grounds.f
That
very elegant gem the Pink Topaz of our jewellers, emulating the Baiais
in tint and lustre, is not a natural variety, but merely the
dark-orange Brazilian metamorphosed by the action of fire. The change
is simply and
*
This was the reason why the Brazilian Topaz, when it came to be largely
imported into Europe at the end of the next century, being a
fashionable stone, and of considerable value, at once usurped the name
of a species with which it had no affinity whatever except in colour.
f Others give for the root the Arabic of the same sound, signifying " a gem." " Topaz '' has been derived from the Semitic patazd, transposed, coming from the Sanscrit pita, yellow.
