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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
302 NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
cording to the same law that converted " Alfas " into "Elephas," "the big stag," and "Septagen" into "Psit-tacus," " the big jay." *
Emeralds were employed in preference to all other gems by the Persians for adorning those jewelled goblets which owed their origin to their luxurious pomp. Even Theo-phrastus (35) describes them (including perhaps the Tur-quois) as the gems used for theand collected
by horsemen in the deserts ; which Pliny, going a little more into details, informs us were the Bactrian sort. Such a mode of ornamentation was long kept up in Persia. Ben Mansur says, " Several bits of Emerald united together upon one surface, by means of mina, are called Astar." This form of extravagance flourished amongst the Romans : Pliny indignantly exclaims, " We weave cups out of Eme­ralds," i. e., the stones were connected together into a con­tinuous whole by means of a gold skeleton frame, like the Byzantine imitations of the same in translucent enamel ; and Martial talks of a single «up robbing many a finger of its wonted decoration (xiv. 109) :—
Hence the tradition, mentioned by Procopius, that Solo­mon's sacred vessels were of this character, which in its turn gave birth to the legend of the Sacro Catino.
What was the true nature of such " Prasini " vases may be guessed from Dumersan's description of one descending from Roman times and preserved in the Treasury of Saint Denys : " Une autre gondole (aut scaphium) de crysolite, très exquise, couleur de verd de mer, le pied et la bordure
Ch. 9: Smaragdus, Emerald Page of 377 Ch. 9: Smaragdus, Emerald
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