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SNAKE STONES AND BEZOARS 215
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Nevertheless he would not care to buy this one before having tested its virtues experimentally.24
That
good Queen Bess shared the beliefs of her age as to the virtues of
stones is well known, and she appears to have regarded her bezoars as
worthy of a place among the treasures of the Crown, for in the
inventory of the jewels made at the accession of James I we read :
Also
one greate Bezar stone, sett in goulde that was Queene Elizabeth's,
with some Unicorne's Home, in a paper; and one other large Bezar stone,
broken in peeces, delivered to our owne handes, by the Lord Brooke, the
two and twentith day of Januarie, one thousand sixe hundred and twenty
and two."
After
the death of Eudolph II, in 1612, the Venetian envoy, Girolamo Soranzo,
wrote to the Doge, "No other monarch has ever accumulated so many
jewels." He also communicates the fact that some at least of these gems
were to follow him to the grave, for when interred, his head was
covered with a cap adorned with many valuable precious stones. However,
Eudolph's fondness for the more splendid gems and jewels was
accompanied by a very particular taste for the collection of Oriental
bezoars, of which a large number are noted as in his possession at the
time of his death. These ranged in weight from 1 loth (1/2 oz.
Troy) to 25-1/2 loth (a little more than one pound Troy) ; most of them
were provided with a rich gold setting, and one especially prized
bezoar, weighing about 8 ounces, reposed in a silver box decorated with
32 diamonds and 26 rubies. Another of very singular shape, resembling
"four toes," is also entered on the list. Besides these the imperial
collection included several other curious animal concretions, probably
"Historical Manuscripts Commission, MSS. of the Marquis of Salisbury, Pt. V, London, 1894, p. 3.
*
Archeologia, vol. xxi, p. 153, London, 1837. From Warrant of Indemnity
given by King James I to the guardians of the crown jewels.
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