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Smaragdus, Emerald

Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 453 Solis Gemma, Moon-stone Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
SMARAGDUS.                                     327
the operation that these cracks do not become too conspicuous upon the surface.1
De Boot (ii. 53) gives a long list of the medicinal virtues of the Emerald, then firmly believed in. If worn, it was a pre­servative against epilepsy (as Marbodus too teaches), cured the dysentery, and preserved the chastity of the wearer, or else betrayed its violation by immediately bursting into fragments.2 De Boot gives a receipt for preparing the Tindura Smaragdi— a most efficacious medicine in dysentery, epilepsy, and malignant fever.
In the Middle Ages the value of this gem was enormous. Fran. Maria, Prince of Urbino, paid 113 gold pieces for an Oriental Emerald weighing only 2 carats. Cellini puts it at 400 gold scudi the carat, or four times his estimation of the Diamond.
Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 453 Solis Gemma, Moon-stone
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