342 CURIOUS LORE OF PRECIOUS STONES
Some
choice examples of astrological gems may be seen in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York; among these is a green jasper bearing symbols
of Luna, Capricorn, and Taurus. This gem is from the collection of the
late Rev. C. W. King, which has been acquired for the Museum, and is
described as figuring the horoscope of the owner. In the same
collection is a banded agate engraved with Sagittarius as a centaur,
surrounded by the stars of this constellation in their proper order.
King states that this was the earliest horoscopical gem known to him.
Still another gem of this collection is a sard bearing the symbol of
Aries carrying a long cadu-ceus; this type appears on the coins of
Antioch, because that city was founded in the month over which the sign
Aries presides.7
The
Austrian Imperial Collection in Vienna contains the celebrated Gemma
Augustea, sometimes called the Apotheosis of Augustus. This
commemorates the Pan-nonian triumph of Tiberius, 13 a.D., and
above the figure of Augustus appears the sign of Capricornus, the
constellation of his nativity; beneath the figure of Tiberius is
engraved the sign of Scorpio, under which that emperor was born. This
celebrated cameo, the work of the famous gem-engraver Dioskorides, is
mentioned in an inventory of the treasury of St. Sernin, in Toulouse,
dated 1246. It is said to have been offered by Francis I of France to
Pope Clement VII, on the occasion of their meeting in Marseilles in
1535; however, as the gem only reached Marseilles two days after the
pope's departure, Francis decided to retain possession of it. The
* " Collection of Engraved Gems," Metropolitan Museum of Art, Handbook No. 9, pp. 53, 54.
