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Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt

Carbunculus, Ruby Page of 453 Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
     
     
 
CERAUNIA, 153
 
 

 
 
CERAUNIA.
By this name two very different things are designated, according as the idea expressed is a resemblance in the stone to the bright­ness and flashing of lightning, or its being the actual missile itself.
The first part of Pliny's description (52) applies clearly to either the bright Blue Beryl, or to the paler and more lustrous kind of Sapphires. " Amongst colourless (Candidas) gems is that called Ceraunia, which snatches its lustre from the stars (alluding to its celestial origin). Of itself it is like crystal, but its lustre is sky-blue ; it is found in Carmania. Zenothemis allows that it is colourless, but that it contains a sparkling star; there are also Ceraunise that are dead, yet if steeped for a few days in nitre and vinegar they conceive the same kind of star, but lose it again after the same number of months." This would seem to indicate an Asteria or Star-Sapphire; in fact, the Ceraunia is termed an inferior kind of Astrion. Later, however, the name seems to have been applied to the Ruby to distinguish it from the other numerous varieties of the Carbunculus, for Tertullian (De Anima, ix.) uses the simile : " In the gem Ceraunia the sub­stance is not necessarily fiery because they sparkle with a ruddy blush (rutilato rubore)." Isidorus also makes two sorts: one like crystal, but blending an azure with its red, found in Carmania ; the other from Lusitania, like the Pyrope, but setting the fire at defiance,—the last character a proof that he is speaking of the Ruby.
In these gems, therefore, Ceraunia or Ceraunias was no more than an epithet, " Lightning-like," applied to any especially lustrous stone of the Corundum class.
 
 

 
     
Carbunculus, Ruby Page of 453 Ceraunia, Thunder-bolt
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