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Ch. 9: Smaragdus, Emerald

Ch. 9: Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 377 Ch. 9: Smaragdus, Emerald Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
       
     
 
SMARAGDUS.
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signify " by the aid of an Emerald." The supposition of the concave lens is supported by the puzzling remark of Pliny a few lines before, " they are usually concave, so as to concentrate the sight " (ut visum colligant). And So-linus actually describes his smaragdi (xx.) as both convex and concave in form ; and the test of their goodness : " if they be transparent, if when globose they colour neigh­bouring objects by the reflection of their lustre, or when concave image back the faces of those looking into them."*
Epiphanius informs us that, even down to his times (the close of the fourth century), the name Neronian was given to a kind of Emerald particularly austere and green in tint, transparent, and lustrous. This epithet arose from a discovery attributed either to Nero or Domitian, of a recipe for improving the colour of the gem, by macerating it in oil left standing in a copper vessel until it had imbibed sufficient verdigris to turn it green. By others, this
  
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
       
Ch. 9: Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 377 Ch. 9: Smaragdus, Emerald
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