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Introduction

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10         NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
Jews of that country, famous then both as physicians and al­chemists. In fact, many of the described sigils bear a striking resemblance to the myriogeneses, or symbolical figures repre­senting the influence of the thirty degrees in each sign, translated by Scaliger from the Arabic, in his Commentary upon Manilius. The latter are indeed referred by the astrologers to the ancient Egyptians, but internal evidence discovers that such an ascrip­tion is a mere pretence, designed to acquire additional authority for the rules there laid down in connexion with them. That such is fer from being a bare assumption appears from the names of the authors ' On Sigils' quoted by Camillo Lionardo. This sage (physician to Cesare Borgia) has, in his ' Speculum Lapidum' (written in the year 1502), collected and published all the treatises on the subject that came within his reach. The names, we find, are all such as figure in the library of the alchemist. Hermes Trismegisttis, as the author of the ' Liber Quadripartite;' Chad (i. e. Jael), " a most ancient doctor amongst the children of Israel in the wilderness;" Ragiel, in his ' Book of Wings,' a tractate indispensable to all students of magic; Solomon; and Thetel Babanus, better known as Rabanus Maurus. This last, styled by Camillo " a most ancient doctor," was abbot of Fulda in 822, and the most learned man of the Carlovingian era. As he had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land (which indeed was the necessary complement to the education of a philosopher at that date), he may possibly have there acquired his knowledge of the science of sigils. From Camillo's remark as to his anti­quity, one might infer that the other writers in his company were supposed to belong to a more recent age.
To give a few examples of the mode in which these wizards explained the designs of ancient art, and of the virtues they attri­buted to the same, on the strength of such interpretation. For as Camillo acutely observes, " All things in nature have a cer­tain form, and are subj'ect to certain influences. Stones therefore, being natural productions, have a certain specific form, and are subj'ect likewise to the universal influence of the planets. Hence, if they be engraved by a skilful person under some particular in­fluence, they receive a certain virtue as though they had been endowed with life through that engraving. But if the effect
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