TALISMANIC USE OF PRECIOUS STONES 105
John of Trevisa's version this passage reads as follows:116
His
vertue is contrary to venym, and queneheth it every deale. And yf you
put an attercoppe 117 in a boxe and hold a very saphyre of Inde at the
mouth of the boxe ony whyle, by vertue thereof the attercoppe is
overcome & dyeth as it were sodenly, as Dyasc. sayth [pseudo
Dioscorides]. And this same I have assayed oft in many and dyvers
places. His vertue kepeth and savyth the syght, & clearyth eyen of
fylthe wythout ony greyf.
Voicing
the general belief that the sapphire was endowed with power to
influence spirits, Bartolomaeus says that this stone was a great
favorite with those who practised necromancy, and he adds: "Also
wytches love well this stone, for they wene that they may werke certen
wondres by vertue of this stone."118
There
was in the South Kensington Museum, in London, a splendid sapphire of a
peculiar tint. In the daylight it shows a beautiful rich blue color,
while by artificial light it has a violet hue and resembles an
amethyst. In the eighteenth century this stone was in the collection of
Count de Walicki, a Polish nobleman, and Mme. de Genlis used it as the
theme of one of her stories, entitled "Le Saphire Merveilleux." Here
the sapphire is used as a test of female virtue, the change of color
indicating unfaithfulness on the part of the wearer. If the owner of
the stone wished to prove that the subject of the test was innocent,
she was made to wear the sapphire for three hours of daylight; but in
the opposite case the test was so timed that it began in daylight and
ended when the
116 Bartolomsei
Anglici, " De proprietatibus rerum," London, Wynkyn de Worde, 1495,
lib. xvi, cap. 86, De Saphiro. 117 Old English for spider. 118 Bartolomaeus Anglicus, 1. c.
