18 THE CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
et
Bestes." Of this there are two versions, one being an epitome of the
other and termed respectively "Le Grand Albert" and "Le Petit Albert."
These little books were often reprinted and widely circulated, and
eventually enjoyed great popularity among the French peasants. Indeed,
even to the present day they may still be met with in out-of-the-way
parts of rural France. Among literary deceptions one of the boldest was
that practised in the early part of the seventeenth century by Ludovico
Dolce. This writer made, in 1565, a literal translation into Italian of
the "Speculum lapidum" of Camillo Leonardo, printed in Venice in 1502,
and he had the courage to issue it as his own work, under the title
"Trattato delle gemme che produce la natura." In view of the general
familiarity with Latin among the better classes at that period, and the
numerous fine libraries existing in Venice at the time, it seems most
extraordinary that Dolce should have been successful in palming off
this work as his own, but even to-day citations are made from Dolce's
"Trattato delle gemme" and from Leonardo's "Speculum lapidum," as
though these were distinct works.
