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Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum

Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum Page of 453 Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
       
     
 
HYACINTHUS.
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the Precious Corundum already at the close of the fifteenth century designated " Sapphirini " by Camillo Leonardo in his ' Speculum Lapidum,' to distinguish them from the red and yellow varieties of the same class, the Ruby and Oriental Topaz. The Hyacinthus of the Romans is invariably blue and lustrous ; even Isidorus, in the sixth century, contenting himself with an abridgment of the already quoted passage of Solinus. Thus we find Martianus Capella speaking of the " flucticolor profunditas Hyacinthi," the dark violet of the Mediterranean before a storm—
or the billows shining, as Catullus hath it, " purpurea a luce." So Heliodorus (2Eth. ii. 30) extols the Hyacinthi in the necklace of Queen Persine, "as imitating the colour of the shallow sea, under a steep rock, quivering gentry, and tinging with violet the bottom." Hence appears also the appropriateness of the favourite epithet νακινθιναι as applied to the flowing hair of southern beauty, the black of which exactly represents the violet reflex of the raven's plumage. In the panegyric upon an imperial bride found by Mai in a MS. of Symmachus and of the same date (fifth century), the rhetorician describes the " Hyacinthi tetra luce vibrantes, quum luminibus Claris mixtse cernuntur emicare nigredines." The " gloomy lustre " and " mingled blackness," or deep violet, aptly illustrate the preceding remarks. Epiphanius, however (a.p. 400), notices some other important varieties of this gem.2 Ho divides the Hyacinthus into five sorts, because the deeper in colour the greater the value of the gem, inasmuch as the Hyacinthus, like dyed wool, displayed various shades of purple. The first quality was called Thalas-sites, or Marino (i.e. deep blue, according to the analogy of Yenetus and ultra-marine) ; the second, the Eose-coloured ; the
 
 

 
 
 
 

 
       
Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum Page of 453 Hyacinthus, Sapphire, Corundum
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