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-natural-history/page_017 - 2
 

Introduction

Introduction Page of 453 Introduction Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
INTRODUCTION.
9
plete obscuration of these his predecessors ; whilst amongst the Greeks of the same period nothing connected with natural his­tory any longer was cultivated, save what had reference to either magic or medicine. The ' Lapidarium' of Marbodus is the last work professing to treat, however imperfectly, of the natural history of stones. The numerous Lapidaria extant in MS., some as old as the 13th century, are of a totally different class, and bid farewell not only to science but to common sense. They treat not so much upon the natural potency of gems, whether "in medicine potable," or, set as jewels, upon the health of the wearer, as upon their supernatural powers in baffling the influ­ence of demons, and the various evils due to the malice of such beings—plagues, murrains, tempests.
But the great object aimed at by these various authors is to define the different virtues of the sigils engraved upon appro­priate stones. Here a now class of ideas is introduced, no traces of which are to bo discovered either in the ' Origines' or the ' Lapidarium' of Marbodus, although faintly hinted at by riiny, when ridiculing the impudence of the Magi in ascribing virtues to stones (Amethyst and Emerald) engraved with certain devices. Such new ideas are evidently duo to the influence of the Crusades, and the consequent Oriental intercourse, upon the taste of the learned. They were brought in upon the same tide of Arab science that spread the study of alchemy throughout Europe, and were by their nature essentially connected with astrology, now once more cultivated with a zeal unknown before, even under the Lower Empire,
The strange misinterpretations of the most usual classical sub­jects, as represented on gems, betray so total an ignorance of ancient mythology, that such could never have been broached by the learned of Europe, amongst whom the study of the classics was yet to some extent kept up, and whose writings abound with correct allusions to ancient history and fable. It seems therefore to follow that these misconceptions were borrowed from the Arabians10 (of Spain for the most part), and similarly from the
Introduction Page of 453 Introduction
Suggested Illustrations
Other Chapters you may find useful
Other Books on this topic
bullet Tag
This Page