being done poure aqua stygia or aqua regia or aqua fortis into those places where by engraving you have taken away the wax with your pencil thus let the stone rest for a day and the aqua stygia by eating into the stone will engrave that part of the stone from whence the wax was taken away and the rest of the gemme which is covered with the wax vvill remain vvhole and untoucht Faculties of Gemms SOme there are that do deny gemms the proper grace of their naturall faculties but surely this possession doth dispossesse them of their intellectuall guide of reason or else by the onely elementary constitution they would have been informed that such pure matter could not be without their vertues nor these forms more then others want their vires since that there are virtuall forms reason by experience every day confirmed doth convince us Nor this elementary union sympathizingly concording to beget a glorious beauty be without its quinta qualitas the result of the union of its elements wonderfully altered and diversly inter se mixtorum Surely men of such opinions never dream'd of gratia parvis but we know that God hath given every thing its proper grace for Inest sua gratia parvis Inest sua gloria gemmis and Inest sua singulis propria virtus Now as these who do denie the elements inter se mixtis their peculiar qualities and their essence or quinta qualitas which doth arise of their coalescencie as the result of the union of their matter do à scopo nimis aberrare so on the other side those do keep at no lesse a distance from the truth who do attribute to gemms that are naturall things powers supernaturall or above nature as will appear in what follows Effects attributed to pretious stones which their nature is not capable of effecting SOme do impute such vires to produce such effects to them as these creatures cannot possibly be capable of It is impossible that by the power of the naturall faculties or elementary qualities of gemms or pretious stones any man should be made to walk or be invisible though Albertus Magnus and other Lapidists do attribute such a faculty as this to the stone called Opthalmius Opthalmius lapis And as impossible it is that any stone should be so prevalent by the power of any vertues which naturally it can be capable of as to obscure the Sunne or darken his beams which facultie Plinie and others do attribute to the Heliotrope of which they say Heliotrope that if you put it into water in a vessel opposed to the Sunne it will mutare fulgorem solis accedentem percussu sanguineo and for this cause they call it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is solis versionem But such have been the errours of the great searchers out of the secrets of nature as that they have attributed to inanimate creatures which are of the lowest orders of all natures productions powers supernaturall and vires which their natures are not capable of knowing and therefore they cannot possibly produce such effects as they report of them Such as are the making of men eloquent Extraordinary effects of gemms or making of men poore or the making of men acceptable or to be favoured or rich or fortunate or safe or secure Yet are the strange transportations of some men even at this day such as that they will not let to affirm these things to be true in their experience affirming that to be done by the naturall faculties of precious stones in making men either favoured or accepted or to be invisible or to be suddenly enricht which being contrary to the workings of God with men must necessarily be the work of the devil to delude and ensnare and enthrall men by Strange things are reported of Lapidists concerning the vertues of gemms and of their strange changes upon severall occasions Of the Diamond which the high priest wore in the breast-plate of Judgement upon the Ephod when he went into the sanctum Sanctorum it is said That if the Jews had sinned against God the Diamond would turn black Of an Emerauld Lapidists say That it doth discover adultery and that where it accidentally meeteth with such persons it doth suffer very strange changes and alterations Of the Turkey-stone they say That it doth participate with all its masters dangers perils and evils and that it doth receive his injuries and the harm of his blows falls and contusions into it self But those that think that any gemms or pretious stones are sensible of injuries or affected with strange alterations by a naturall discord which is betwixt them and unclean persons think much amisse for all gemms are materiall mixt naturall things and therefore by their own proper qualities they can effect nothing else but naturall things now to the effecting of all naturall things whether the thing be effected by a gemm or by any other thing it is necessary that there should be a connexion or some kind of knitting of its cause with the effect but in the discovering of sinne by gemms or in the gemms receiving its masters injuries into it self there can be no such probable connexion of the cause with the effect found therefore such admirable effects cannot truly be said to be the naturall effects of gemms Neverthelesse though gemms as being materiall mixt bodies cannot by their own proper power and faculties produce such admirable and supernaturall things as that we may say that they are truly and absolutely causes of such effects yet they may be said to be continent causes if we grant that which some affirm namely that oft-times they are the habitacles of daemones and intelligences which Johannes Langius in his epistles calleth syderum orbium motores and if we grant that gemms are habitacles for these we need not doubt but these are those occult properties which do produce so many strange effects as are imputed either to the interposition wearing or carrying of gemms to the deluding of the senses of men in the right understanding of the truth of the nature of gemms and pretious stones Langius his opinion of the generating of gemms THese intelligences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or motores orbium inhabiting under this concave orb of the Moon and cooperating aethereo syderum calore spiritu do saith Johannes Langius epistolis medicinalibus without a semen both by sea and land produce various effigies in rocks in Conchyliis and likewise they do oft in their sporting frolicks transform by the power of their own elaborations sticks boughs trees and plants into stones and by a like admired Metamorphosis they do procreate many strange births some of them to be admired for their originall others for their shape These are those that do possesse men with the strange effects of gemms as if they were the true causes of such effects when indeed they are the unespyed and secret productions of the hidden workings of these intelligences Though Cardan
being hung by a thread perpendicularly in the midst of a glasse against the sides of the glasse the houres are spontaneously indicated it may I say be concluded that if this pulsation by which the houres are indicated or shewed be not caused by the motion of the hand of the person that holds the string to which the ring is fastened quod puto saith Boetius then that this motion hath its perfection from the power and help of the devil Gemms and pretious stones are onely naturall causes of their effects and for this cause the effects of them can be onely naturall and such as are alwayes reall effects and never intentionall and materiall effects and seldome spirituall viz. then onely when such effects are effected by some mean or other which may more truly be determined to be a cause then the gemm it self What we have determined concerning the Turchoyse the same upon the same ground we may determine and conclude concerning those gemms which are said to work strange effects by the power of celestiall figures engraven on them for all such celestiall figures are nothing else but fictitious and imaginary things and no reall entities at all and therefore cannot be capable of any power to do any such strange effects neither have such figures or can they have any conveniencie or agreement at all with things here below for the producing of any effects in them or by them Whether the cause of this or that effect be the true cause of it or no will appear by these things Rules 1. If the cause be such as doth in no kind repugne or contradict the effect Such causes as these are all those that have in themselves the perfection of the effect either virtually or formally 2. If the cause do act within the certain limits or bounds alicujus spatii together with all such things as are necessary to produce such an effect And the effect doth upon this working of the cause without any prejudices to the contrary or interceding impediments follow in its determined time according as the cause within the determined bounds of its space is applyed to produce this or that effect sooner or later 3. If the cause applyed have alwayes the same power and force and be free from all superstition and every suspition thereof 4. If that the cause being taken away the effect notwithstanding all other things and circumstances remain doth not or cannot follow III. That we may not be mistaken in the effects of creatures it is necessary to be known How many kinds of effects from all causes may be found in the whole universe Such effects as are to be found in the world are these First Effects which are in their perfection above all the power of naturall causes For example sake 1. No naturall cause can separate the heat from the fire nor can any naturall cause make fire to burn without heat 2. It is above the power of a naturall cause to make a man invisible no naturall cause can effect this because man is an opake or an obscure body and such a body as hath no perspicuity or transparency at all in it and therefore it cannot possibly be that it should be made inconspicuous or disapparent without some present impediment Boet. Secondly Effects which do not exceed the power of naturall causes but yet are above the mean which naturall causes do use to produce such effects according to the prescript rule and order of nature Such an effect is this which followeth The Saviour of the world was born of the Virgin Mary as it is naturall for a man to be born of a woman but here the mean and manner of begetting and of conception is supernaturall and above all the power of naturall causes for here the conception and manner of begetting was altogether without the coition and congression of man which effect could be no otherwise caused then by a supernaturall power namely by the power of God who did wonderfully effect the conception and birth of Christ in the wombe of the Virgin by the power of his Holy Spirit These two first kinds of effects which have been and may be found in the world Boetius l. 1. p. 45. saith cannot possibly be brought to passe but by the power of God or of the devil God permitting Thirdly Effects which do not exceed the power of naturall causes but yet the causes applyed for the producing of these effects do not keep the ordinary mean for the producing of them Such an effect is this of Chymistry when as by chymicall art gold is made of silver And such an effect is this which is so oft practised in natures orchards and gardens where when as nature by her own work doth produce the severall species of fruits from their own proper and peculiar originalls art doth as it were force and violate her to contradict her law rule and order by insitions and inoculations and by this means we may oft times see the fruitfullest and best trees bearing fruits of other stocks then their own Fourthly Effects which do depend upon naturall causes which observe and keep the ordinary mean which are to be applyed for the producing of such and such effects Such an effect as this it is when as the rain is generated by the ascending up of vapours and when ice is dissolved into water by the power of the heat of the Sunne and when man is generated of man and woman which is natures ordinary way for generation These are the effects which are found in the world the fourth and last kind of which are purely naturall which that they may be really so they do require divers conditions Conditions to make effects truly naturall 1. That an effect may be truly naturall it is required that there should be some subject present which may receive the effect from its efficient cause 2. It is required that there should be a certain latitude or distance betwixt the efficient cause and the subject out of which the effect is to be produced beyond which distance or limit the effect cannot at all be produced this will appear by this solary example The sunne whilest it hath its residence in Tropico Australi or in the Tropick of Capricorn cannot so warm the regions and countreys that are situate about the Artick pole as it doth warm them when it hath its residence in the Tropick of Cancer 3. That an effect may be naturall it is required that the efficient cause or immediate agent be not hindred in its action upon its subject and penetration of its subject by some other interposing or intermediating body 4. It is required that there should be a full space betwixt the cause and the effect that is spatium continuum conjunctum that so naturall things may in se mutuò agere and thus obtain their perfection 5. That an effect may be naturall it is required that the medium or mean which is betwixt the cause and the subject be aptly and
A LAPIDARY OR THE HISTORY OF PRETIOUS STONES With cautions for the undeceiving of all those that deal with Pretious Stones By THOMAS NICOLS sometimes of Jesus-Colledge in CAMBRIDGE Inest sua gratia parvis CAMBRIDGE Printed by THOMAS BUCK Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge 1652 To the Right Worshipfull the Heads of the Vniversitie of CAMBRIDGE Right Worshipfull EVery thing according to its perfection is valuable and the more glorious the more estimable It is not the greatnesse of any thing that ought to purchase it esteem nor must the smalnesse or littlenesse of a vertuous created substance decrease its worth But great things as joyned with the glorie of their perfection are so and no otherwise of great and high esteem and little things are no otherwise valuable then according to the glorious beauty of their perfection Here Right Worshipfull I present you with things great and small but with none without their vertues They are created substances of the most enduring nature which this our part of the subcelestiall world doth contain The glory of those which shall here find beautified with externall grace will feed your eyes with much pleasure in beholding and their internall vertues and the symboles whereby by them are discovered to us the glorious excellency of super-celestiall things will in the right consideration of them no lesse feed your spirit with delight then doth their externall beautie and perfection please your eye when it doth behold their glory Every one out of their common apprehensions of worth and out of that mean perception which they have of things dignified above others with beauty and with glory esteem them valuable Gemms and Jewells are thus dignified with externall glory and enricht with internall symbolical vertues For this cause with those that have but mean and common apprehensions of their worth they are esteemed And for their symbolical resemblances of super-celestiall things amongst the wisest of ancient times they have had upon them an high estimate of value and of worth Surely we live not in the most unknowing times of the world nay never was this part of the world fuller of knowledge then now it is wherein many are blest with excellent gifts and endowments by which they are enabled to enquire more throughly into the nature and causes of things then ever Amongst these who know the true nature of things surely nor gemms nor jewells nor any other vertuous thing shall want their due esteem Nor with you Right Worshipfull I am sure can that which is truly vertuous want its value It is a Philosophick axiome Inest sua gratia parvis I have here taken the pains to open the small cabinets of this excellencie that I may discover the true vertues which are contained in many smal things and little creatures This I have done first by a search and diligent enquiry into the causes and natures of Gemms and into such qualities as may possibly from thence in them arise Then by partly acquainting Anselmus Boetius with the English tongue In the doing of which I have endeavoured according to what I find in Scripture and according to what I find in other Authours to take away that confusion about the species of gemms which doth cause them to be hardly and difficultly known of what species and kinds they are And withall I have not onely laboured with Boetius but also with divers other Lapidists to shew the true way of discerning factitious and artificiall stones or gemms from those that are really and truly the works of nature that so the fallacies and sophistications of Artists being clearly and perspicuously manifested and discovered nature may not be belied in the glory of her own naturall workings and actions This is the summe of that pains which I have here taken which together with my whole endeavours in this kind Right Worshipfull with generall good intentions I dedicate to you that under your protection it may in the light detect falshood and discover truth to many Your Worships humble servant THO. NICOLS To the courteous Reader COURTEOUS READER THat that may be thy profit and pleasure I present thee with though it hath been my labour and pains I acknowledge it as mine it is not a labour worthy thy commendations Neverthelesse as thou reapest profit by it or conceivest pleasure in it so commend the pains of him that hath here laboured and this labour of his painfull endeavours to thy friends Farewell T. N. The Contents of the Lapidary or Book of cautions In the generall Treatise are 1. The generall definition of Stones 2. Generall division 3. Manner of their generation 4. Originall of Gemms according to Hermes and Plato 5. The places of their births in generall 6. The causes of perspicuity and diaphanitie 7. The materiall cause of Transparency 8. Cause of the colour in stones 9. The cause of hardnesse 10. Cause of the ponderousnesse of them 11. Of the adulteration and the way of its discovery 12. The way of making pretious stones in their enclosures appeare fairer and larger then they truly are 13. The use of foyls tinctures and bracteae 14. To help the softnesse of Gemms 15. To colour Crystall that it may resemble gemms with colour 16. The manner of taking away the colours of gemms naturally coloured 17. Artificiall stones the matter of them 18. The way of polishing and engraving pretious stones 19. The faculties of gemms and pretious stones 20. Effects attributed to pretious stones which their natures are not capable of effecting 21. Langius his opinion concerning the generation of gemms and pretious stones 22. Supernaturall effects of stones improperly so called 23. The causes of all effects 24. Rules to discern them 25. Conditions to make effects truly naturall In the Book of Particulars are contained these things 1. The description of the stone in the front of every Chapter 2. The tinctures foyls and Bracteae by which naturall gemms and pretious stones that are either diaphanous or throughly transparent are helpt in their glory and set out in their lustre 3. The adulterations of pretious stones and gemms 4. The names of them by which they are diversly known in severall countreys by severall Nations 5. The species of every gemme and pretious stone accordingly as divers Authours do render the discovery of them that they may be known 6. The places of the births of every kind and species of gemme and pretious stone 7. The dignities and value of every pretious stone and gemme according to divers Authours 8. The properties of pretious stones and gemms 9. The Physick uses of them according as divers Authours have delivered them in their severall writings An Admonition or Advertisement to the Reader Reader IF thou wouldest be free from many superstitions in the use of pretious stones and undeceive thy self as concerning the strange vertues powers and faculties which by divers Authours in the end of every Chapter they are reported and related to be endued withall though contrary to what their
Albertus Rueus and others do affirm that gemms are the causes of such effects yet their affirmation in this kind must not be received as truth because there is no kind of affinity similitude or proportion at all betwixt this kind of complexion or betwixt this cause and this effect for the effects of this kind are oft times more perfect then the cause And yet the axiome is perfectionem effectûs contineri in causa But it cannot truly be so spoken of gemms and pretious stones the effects of which by Lapidists are said to be Extraordinary effects of gemms the making of men rich and eloquent to preserve men from thunder and lightning from plagues and diseases to move dreams to procure sleep to foretell things to come to make men wise to strengthen memory to procure honours to hinder fascinations and witchcrafts to hinder slothfulnesse to put courage into men to keep men chaste to increase friendship to hinder difference and dissention and to make men invisible as is feigned by the Poet concerning Gyges ring and affirmed by Albertus and others concerning the ophthalmius lapis and many other strange things there are affirmed of them and ascribed to them which are contrary to the nature of gemms and which they as they are materiall mixt inanimate bodies neither know nor can effect by the proprieties and faculties of their own constitutions because they being naturall causes can produce none other but naturall effects such as are all the ordinary effects of gemms that is such effects as flow from their elementary matter from their temper form and essence such as are the operations of hot and cold and of all the first qualities and all such accidents as do arise from the commixtion of the first qualities such as are hardnesse heavinesse thicknesse colour and tast These all are the naturall faculties of gemms and these are the known effects of the union of their matter and of the operation of the first qualities one upon another Supernaturall effects of stones THere may no doubt supernaturall effects be wrought by gemms and stones but not such as can properly be said to be the effects of gemms or stones or of which gemms or stones can be truly and absolutely said to be the causes but onely instrumentall causes Such effects as these are wrought either by the power of God or of the devil What the strange effects wrought by stones in the power of Satan are will appeare by the survey of the extraordinary effects of gemms and pretious stones before mentioned The supernaturall effects of stones ascribed to God in holy writ are such as the Lord God produced in the wildernesse to manifest his power and to make his name great in the sight of his people Israel such was his bringing water out of the rock by the stroke of Moses rod upon it Deut. 32.13 The rock here was the instrument by which this supernaturall effect was wrought but not the cause of the effect of the flowing forth of water for the quenching of the thirst of Israel for in truth none other effectuall efficient cause there was of this effect but onely Gods holy Spirit working in and by the rock as by its instrument conduit or emissary that so it might wonderfully send forth waters of its own springing up as from a fountain to refresh the drought of Israel in a dry and barren wildernesse That we may not be mistaken in the effects of creatures it is necessary that these things should be known 1. VVHat are the causes of effects 2. How to judge of these causes whether they be true or false whether they be supernaturall or naturall causes divine or diabolick causes 3. How many kinds of effects from all causes may be found in the whole Universe The causes of all effects I. The causes of all effects are either supernaturall or naturall they are such causes as are either truly and absolutely causes or causes falsly so called or else they are manifest divine causes or diabolick seeming divine causes all which may be comprehended under the two first heads of supernaturall and naturall causes II. That we may judge of these causes whether they be supernaturall or naturall divine or diabolick true or false these following rules must be observed Rules Supernaturall causes they may be taken to be 1. If it be manifest that the effect doth never follow the cause or that it followeth it by accident 2. If wise understanding judicious men who have the use and experience of things do upon the supposition of ordinary effects deny that which is thought to be the cause to be truly the cause 3. If by comparing the thing with other causes which are known the manner of applying of it be very different involved and intricate 4. If the thing have no affinity with its effect as here when Arbor dicitur producere bovem 5. If the cause doth produce the effect separatim and without any conjunction of other causes which have in them a power of producing 6. If the cause doth produce an effect to some end to which properly the effect doth not belong 7. If such an effect from such a cause do never again happen notwithstanding the remaining or existing of some or of all the same conditions Rules è regione Naturall causes they are taken to be 1. If it be manifest that the effect doth really follow the cause and not by accident 2. If prudent pious men do upon the suppositions of ordinary effects according to their experience in the use of things not deny that which is taken to be the cause to be truly the cause 3. If the thing effected by such a cause being compared with known causes doth not in its manner of applying differ or is not involved or intricate 4. If the cause have affinity with its effect that is if it do produce such an effect as is meet for such a cause to produce 5. If the cause doth produce the effect not separatim but by the conjunction of other ordinary causes which are endued with power and do usually joyn together for the producing of such or such an effect 6. If the cause doth produce an effect for the same end to which properly the effect doth belong 7. If that the same conditions existing the same cause doth produce the same effects Whether the cause be Divine or Diabolick true or false it will thus appear WHat ever things there are that are truly called natural if they undergo or suffer an impulsion into various and divers parts indeterminately and confusedly they cannot be said to be otherwise moved then by an extrinsick power of impulsion which power if it be not open and manifest must of necessitie have an occult and secret spirituall mover which can be none other but either God or the devil either good or bad angels Upon these grounds it may be concluded that the motion of the ring in which the Turkey-stone is set by the pulsation of which it
fitly disposed to receive the vertue of the agent or efficient for else it is impossible notwithstanding the concurrency of all other things together that any naturall effects should universally follow This for the present as concerning the nature and vertues of gemms and pretious stones in generall It followeth that we should make progresse in our inquiries and discoveries of every gemme and pretious stone in particular Of the division of Gemms IN the former treatise we have spoken concerning the causes natures and effects of gemms in generall In what followeth we shall according to Anselmus Boetius shew how they are divided and how particularly distinguished according to their severall species The division which he maketh of gemms or stones is this Division of stones or gemms Stones or gemms are either 1. Small or 2. Great Small ones are either 1. Rare or 2. Common The Rare and excellent ones are either 1. Hard. or 2. Soft 1. The small hard ones are either 1. Fair. or 2. of an evil Colour The Fair ones are either 1. wholly shaddowed as the Turky stone and the Chameus or 2. partly shaddowed as the Sardonyx the Astroites the Leucosapphirus and the Opalus Again the Fair ones are transparent either 1. with Colour or 2. without Colour 1. The Fair ones transparent with Colour are the Jacinth Beryll Ruby Prassius Rubicell Chrysoprassus Spinell Granat Amandine Chrysolite Ballasse Carbuncle Saphire Emerauld Gemma Solis Almandine 2. Fair ones transparent without Colour are Diamonds The small hard stones which are rare and pretious though of an evil Colour are these the Pantarbe Brontia Umbria Dracontia Aetite Lapis palumbellus Chelidonius and the Snake-stone or Egge Secondly The pretious small rare and soft stones are either 1. Fair. or 2. of an evil Colour 1. Fair first in Colour as the Pearl Bezoar Molochite 2. In Figure as the Oculus Cati Glossopetra Umbilicus Marinus Lapis Judaicus and the Trochite Secondly The small rare and soft stones of an evil Colour are the Morochthus and the Lapis Caymaus Enorchis Lapis Cevar Lapis Manualis Lapis Renalis Lapis Porcinus Lapis Anguium Enhydros Callimus Lapis Malacensis Lapis Manatus Lapis Hystericus Lapis Tuberonum Lapis Bugolda and the Toad-stone The small common stones are either 1. Hard. or 2. Soft Hard first as the Bristol diamonds or the Pseudo-diamond of Hungary Or Soft secondly as the Lapis fellis Oculi Cancri Lapis Spongiae Lapis Limacis Lapis Carpionum and Lapis Percae The Great stones are likewise 1. either Rare Hard Fair and shaddowed or 2. Rare Hard Fair and transparent 1. Of the first kind are the Porphyrite Heliotrope Smaragdite Lapis Lazuli Agate Corall Ophyte Cornu Ammonis 2. Of the other kind are the Amethyst Topaz and the Smaragde-prassius which do all partake of tincture or colour and the Crystall and the Bohemian Diamond which are diaphanous without colour Again the rare hard stones are 1. Some of them of an evil colour as the Steatite Eneost Stalagmite Onyx Ceraunia Basaltes Smiris Dactylus Ideus Ossifragus Stalactite Lydius Lapis Nephriticus Bloud-stone Geodes Loadstone Hephestite Hysterapetra 2. Again of the great and rare stones some are 1. soft and fair 1. either in colour 2. or figure or 2. soft and evil coloured In colour first as the Specularis Alabaster Amber Lapis Armenus In figure secondly as Amites and Stellaris Those that are soft and evil coloured are the Asius Samius Ageratus Melitites Gagate Porus Schystus Thyites Amiantus Galactites Magargenteus Hematite Phrygius Calamita Alba Fungifer Again there are common great stones which are 1. either hard fair and beautifull or 2. hard and evil coloured First the hard fair and beautifull stones of magnitude are the Marble Secondly common hard evil coloured stones are the Whetstone Pyrite the common stone the Flint Soft stones of magnitude are Gypsum Pumeise Lythanthrax Talcum Scissilis This is the generall division of gemms and stones according to Boetius Now of stones in particular and of their generall species The first part of the Lapidarie Of Gemms in particular Of diaphanous and whole transparent Gemms CHAP. I. Of the Diamond Description of the stone THe true Diamond is a hard diaphanous perfectly transparent stone which doth sparkle forth its glorie much like the twinckling of a glorious starre The true Diamond is the hardest of all other stones without colour like unto pure water transparent and if it have any yellownesse or blacknesse it is a fault in it This property it hath that it will snatch colour and apply it and unite it to it self and thus will it cast forth at a great distance its lively shining rayes so that no other jewell can sparkle as it will By this excellent emission of its rayes or beams or by this generous sparkling forth of its glory do the most judicious Jewellers distinguish the true Diamond from those of bastard kinds Of its tincture or foyl THe tincture foyl or colour for a true Diamond is thus made R. pure mastick and a small quantitie of ivory burnt black and finely powdred mix it according to art then distend a small portion of it and fitly dispose of it for your foyl or tincture Of the adulteration of the Diamond A True Diamond may be adulterated or counterfeited with a Saphire or with an orientall Amethyst or with a Topaze or with a Chrysolite and by all stones that are hard and transparent and which may be deprived of colour The colour of those gemms which are fit for this use may by the heat of fire be thus taken away R. calx viva and the filings of steel bury the stone in them or in either of them then overwhelm them w th a fire at some distance frō them that the stone by degrees may grow hot then increase the fire and the colour will vanish Jewellers and judicious artists well know in what space of time by the continuance of this great heat any such excellent gemms may be deprived of all their colour which colour of the gemm so soon as they do conceive it is vanisht by the power of the heat then do they extinguish the fire by degrees till there be no more heat left And if by this first operation it be not perfectly deprived of all its colour then the same work must again be begun and carried on as before by severall degrees of heat and if need be it may be iterated ever observing this that as it must be heated by a graduall increase of the fire so likewise by a graduall decrease of the heat the fire must be extinguisht Caution for the over-sudden heating or over-sudden cooling of the stone may cause a crack in it and so rob the stone of the glory of its beautie and value and the artist of his hopes by frustrating him of his endeavours Anselmus Boetius saith that he saw a Topaz in this manner changed which is better then an other stone for this purpose because of its hardnesse and
certain extrinsecall ornaments given of God to the creatures for distinction and that they are produced out of their own proper seminary out of which also he thinketh that their extrinsecall form ariseth And that sal armoniacum which Quercetan calleth balsamum naturae he saith is their vehiculum For the most part all those stones and gemms which have a peculiar and proper form have a seminarium principium coloris in materia ex qua formantur Boetius p. 25. l. 1. Varietie of colours are produced by the mixture of colours The stones which have no determined form or figure he saith have their tinctures from exhalations as their remote cause and from the minerall spirits and Sal Armoniack as their propinque and nearest cause The primarii colores or especiall colours which arise not from the commixtion of other colours are these Boetius de naturis gemmarum in genere White black blue or skie colour yellow red miniatus color or vermilion or fiery red Almost all kinds of colours are caused by the various mixture of these colours But in their own originalls they are not mixt with others Boetius By the Mixture of white and black is produced the colour of ashes the more white there is the more bright the colour is the lesse the more obscure Mix skie colour and yellow and it will produce a green colour Mix red and skie colour and you will have a violet colour Mix a miniated colour or a fierie red and a red together and you will have a purple colour Mix a white and a red and you will have a rose colour Mix a white and skie colour and you will have a milkie colour Mix a miniated colour or a fierie red and yellow red together with a white and you shall have a helvus or gilvus that is a carnation or flesh colour Mix yellow and green and you will have an orenge or straw colour Mix a miniated colour or a simple red or a vermilion and a yellow and a red and a white together and you will have an orenge colour straw colour or a wax colour Mix white and orenge or straw colour and you will have a pale colour Mix vermilion and yellow and you will have a yelk colour Mix green yellow and white and you will have a box colour or pale colour Mix red yellow and vermilion and you will have a saffron or gold colour or a brown or swarth colour or a puke colour sad russet or tawney according to the various proportion of every colour Thus have we seen the various judgements of divers Authours concerning the originall of divers colours in gemms or pretious stones and in plants and other creatures some imputing the originall of the varietie of beauty in colour to the balsamum naturae or to the Sal armoniacum contained in the substantiall matter of all things others making minerall exhalations the cause of colours in them others the elaboration of the first qualities upon the matter of their substance Some imputing it to the various commixtion of two extremities to wit of black and white of darknesse and light But how can this be seeing darknesse is no colour but a privation of colour and a very forgetfulnesse of all those colours which by light we may discover for in its presence we are deprived of the remarkable views of those visible qualities of various colours by which we do on earth distinguish things Then as for light we see that it is guilty of no tincture in it self and by how much it hath more or lesse of colour accidentall so much it doth fall short of the perfection of its light Light and darknesse are at continuall strife the presence of the one causeth the absence of the other No sooner did that blessed Spirit of light move upon the face of the waters of the great deep but straight darknesse affrighted with the all-awfull presence of its glory fled away No sooner doth the sunne arise to runne its course gloriously setting forth from under its pavilion but straight the amazed shades of darkest nights flee all away No sooner doth the Sunne of Righteousnesse begin to dart his beams of glory into the horrid darknesse of mans sinfull heart but straight this powerfull word moving on the surface of this centre begets a new creation and sets up there a glory by which through the qualities of earthly colours we may discover the excellency of heavenly vertues But the darknesse of the heart all amazed at this sudden powerfull motion in this centre straight forsakes its station and fearfully fleeing leaves its habitation to the light If then there be such a distance betwixt light and darknesse that nothing may interpose for agreement how shall we think they should ever joyn by mixture in substantiall matters to produce varietie of colours Since therefore there can be no agreement betwixt these two extremes to make for the effecting of such distinguishing qualities as are colours then if from them they do proceed they must be the sad effects of their contrary operations sad I say because light being oppressed by darknesse wains and which is our grief darknesse can nothing be impayred there being nothing worse then it As it is darknesse it cannot be impayred but as it is darknesse extended it may be and is and shall be coarctated The cause of hardnesse in gemms THe durities and hardnesse in gemms is caused by the exact and perfect union of their pure well compacted matter which is freed of its moisture by the power of heat exhaling or extracting it or of cold compelling it by compression Aire maketh gemms friable and subject to be broken with every touch water doth possesse them with a mollities softnesse and thinnesse of texture and a tendernesse of parts The hardest of all other gemms is the Adamant then the Topaz then the orientall Chryssolite next the Saphire Granate Jacinth then the Smiris then the Jasper Achate Basaltes The softest of all other gemms is the Opalus Perspicuitie in gemms is a signe of their excellent union and of the well compactednesse of their matter and from their well compactednesse and exquisite union proceedeth their durities or hardnesse which hardnesse doth beget in all stones a fitnesse for politure and an irresistible power against fire As doth appear by the Adamant which because of its hardnesse can scarce be injured by the power of the fiercest fire and for this cause it may be used symbolically as a signification of constancy The Bohemian Granate by reason of its exquisite durities doth likewise suffer little injury by fire The cause of the ponderousnesse of Gemms AS hardnesse in gemms is said to proceed from their exact union so likewise this is some cause of their heavinesse weightinesse for those gemms which are not well compacted and united are light porous and full of levitie Another cause of the ponderositie of gemms is a Mercuriall substance which is contained in them of these sorts of
candidus or the white Saphire These are many times substituted for Diamonds and they are called the female Saphires the other the male That stone which Pliny doth in some place call the Saphire is the Cyanus or Lapis Lazuli The places They are found in Calecut Cananor and in the kingdome of Bisnager in Zeilan in the kingdome of Pegu and in the Eastern Countreys there are also of these stones found in the Western Countreys as in Bohemia and very good ones in Silesia in these parts there are of these stones found very transparent but soft of a milkish colour mixt with a blew and they are called Leucosaphirus these are subject to many harms The best are so hard that they cannot be filed the colour of these Saphires may so be taken away as that they may be converted into a very excellent Diamond Of its faculties and properties The Saphire is of a cold and drie faculty even as are most pretious stones it is reported of it that it is good against feverish distempers hence this old distick Corporis ardorem refrigerat interiorem Sapphirus Cypriae languida vota facit The best of these are very comfortable to the eyes if they be often looked one It is reported of it that if it be worn by an adulterer by loosing its splendour it will discover his adultery and that the wearing of it doth hinder the erections that are caused by Venus But surely as either lustfull thoughts or this wicked spirit Asmodeus moving them or stirring up such disorders and irregularities without them in the body are the causes of such undue erections of the flesh so when he withdraweth himself this stone hath power to hinder them and not before Many have written of the faculties of this stone as Galen Dioscorides Cardanus Garcias and Macer the Poet lib. 5. c. 5. It is reported of it that it is of so contrary a nature to poysons that if it be put into a glasse with a Spider or laid upon the mouth of the glasse where the Spider is the Spider will quickly die And that it keepeth men chaste and therefore is worn of Priests Anselmus Boetius saith that S. Jerome affirmeth in his exposition of the 19. chap. of Isaiah that the Saphire being worn of any man procureth him favour with Princes and with all men pacifieth his enemies freeth him from inchantments and from bonds and imprisonments and that it looseth men out of prison and asswageth the wrath of God Anselmus Boetius p. 49. Of its dignity and value For its sacred use it hath been esteemed of great worth as Exod. 28.18 And for its superstitions take this caution use it with much circumspection Amongst the Ancients and with the Heathen this gemm hath been of very great authority because they thought it did not a little prevail with God * Andr. Bacc. cap. 7. de gem nat The Gentiles consecrated this gemm to Apollo because in their enquiries at his oracle Vide Andrae Bacc. c. 7. de Nat. Gem. if they had the presence of this gemm with them they imagined they had their answer the sooner It is desired of many for its excellent beauty for it is fair like unto a serene skie No better a description of its excellent beauty can you find then that which is given of it Exodus 24.9 10. Where it is spoken after the manner of men not as if the children of Israel saw any appearance of God in the form of man That the children of Israel saw the God of Israel and there was under his feet as it were a paved work of Saphire stone and as it were the body of heaven in its clearnesse This stone is valued according to the excellency of its colour beauty purity and greatnesse one of the weight of four grains is worth many crowns The best of these are as much worth as a Diamond of the same bignesse CHAP. XI Of the Opalus Description of the stone THe Opalus is a pretious stone which hath in it the bright fiery flame of a Carbuncle the pure refulgent purple of an Amethyst and a whole sea of the Emeraulds spring glory or virescency and every one of them shining with an incredible mixture and very much pleasure so that this cannot easily be counterfeited or adulterated as other jewels may Boetius saith of it that it is the fairest and most pleasing of all other jewels by reason of its various colours Cardanus saith that he bought one for 15 crowns Cardan de Subt. l. 7. that he took as much pleasure in as he could do in a Diamond of 500 aureos In many of these stones do appear Skie-colour Purple Green Yellow Red and sometimes a Black and White or Milkish colour but we must not think that all these colours are severally in the jewell for break but the Opalus and all the variety of colours do perish by which it doth appear that the variety of colours in the Opalus ariseth from the reflection of one or more colours as sometimes is seen in the Rain-bow and may be experienced in a triangular Crystall where the alone reflection of the light upon the angles or corners of the Crystall do in the Crystall produce various colours which otherwise is diaphanous perfectly transparent clear and without colour Of its foyl or tincture Though the gemm be a transparent gemm yet there can be no foyl for the setting of it off for the variety of colours in the foyl would cause a confusion in the various colours of the Opalus Of its adulteration Though a foyl can hardly be usefull in the setting off of the true jewell yet by other stones it cannot be counterfeited imitated or adulterated but by the help of a foyl Impostours can adulterate it with a double glasse tinctured or coloured or with a convenient tinctured foyl betwixt them or with two Crystals or other diaphanous stones joyned together with a convenient foyl Baptista Porta saith that if the Calx of tinne be cast into molten Crystall glasse it will cloud it and colour it like an Opalus Quercitanus saith that the spirit of Nitrum will colour a glasse alembick with variety of colours like unto an Opalus as appeareth by his book called Priscorum Philosophorum vera medicina Of its names It is known of jewellers that are most expert by the name of Opalus In English it is so called The Italians call it Girasole and Scambaia The kinds of it There are four kinds of it The first kind of it doth imitate red green skie-colour and purple and sometimes purple with a yellow colour and these are the best of all other These are known by their Carbuncle flame by their Amethyst splendour and by their Emerauld viridity all shining together with an incredible mixture and by their admirable and wonderfull ponderosity for this is a gemm that though it be seldome found bigger for magnitude then a bean and for the most part of lesse bignesse yet its weight will
gr 10. Macis ℈ i. fiat pulvis sumat in aquae Saccharatae quantitate sufficiente pro una dosi Aetius lib. 2. c. 47. saith that it is good to give five grains of this stone to those that are troubled with melancholy or to children in pectorall diseases or to Phreniticks or Epilepticks or R. Centaurei minoris M. iii. Coque in lb. iiss aquae majoranae ad lb. i. Decocto colato adde ℈ i Lapidis Armeni See Dioscorides Cardanus Garcias ab horto The colour of this is extracted as the Lapis Lazuli and is then called Azure CHAP. XXXV Of the Astroites or Starre-stone Description of the stone THe Astroites or Starre-stone is saith Boetius a dark gemm of a whitish colour full of starres in the stead of which sometimes it hath the appearance of Roses and sometimes of waves of water and sometimes all these representations are to be had in one and the same gemm He taketh it for a kind of Achate and saith that these stones are to be found sometimes in the bignesse of a mans head Marsilius Ficinus calleth it the Dracontium and thinketh that it is taken out of the head of the Indian Dragon But this is thought to be nothing else but a falshood and a story of it raised by impostours to advance the price of it Andreas Baccius saith of the Astroites or Asteria that it cometh near to the form of Crystall and sheweth by repercussion a certain light in a pale colour in which internally some certain rayes after the manner of starres do appear And in his Annotations he saith it is a hard stone which being circumverted sheweth the sunne shining within it Cardanus saith that the Stellaris lapis doth differ from the Astrites as not being pretious at all nor perspicuous but onely a stone distinguished with many spots of the colour of ashes Martinus Rulandus calleth this the Astroites mas and saith it is of the figure of a half globe full of ashy coloured starres Its names It is called Astroites Asteria and Astrites In Dutch it is called ein Siegstein voller sternen and ein pater noster von folchen siegsteinen and that because in old times they made use of this stone to number up Pater nosters by In English it is called the Starre-stone Its kinds Of this stone Boetius maketh three kinds which he representeth to the eye in their severall forms and figures The one of which is round and hath no starres at all in it The other is full of starres and round as the former And the last is composed of divers starres united together in longitude which may easily be separated either with the hand or by the help of some instrument and in their separation they shiver into the form of starres And this last Anselmus Boetius calleth Asteria vera or the true Starre-stone as lib. 2. de Gemm p. 151. C. de Astroite Martinus Rulandus doth also make three kinds of this stone The first a male one full of starres The second a female one in which is many resemblances of the worms which do destroy the herb Rocket and Colewort which are commonly called Canker-worms and Palmer-worms in this he saith there is no appearance at all of any of the starres of the masculine one The third kind he calleth globuli ex Astroite Of its nature and properties It is reported that four grains of this stone in some appropriate water is excellent good against the plague and to expell worms out of the body History Cardanus reporteth wonders of the Stellaris lapis which Andreas Baccius in his Annotations attributeth to the male Astroite Cardanus saith that it being put into a vessel of vineger doth move it self and imitate the goings of creatures this stone and the power and faculties thereof was in times past saith Cardane very well known to Rabbi Aben Ezra The progression or motion of this stone in a vessel of vineger or wine he attributeth to the vapour of the wine or vineger which penetrating the stone and finding not speedy issue out of it again doth by impulsion move the stone too and again as being a light substance Which wonder of motion as before I said Andreas Baccius in his Annotations attributeth to the male Astroite and the cause of this motion he rendereth from Agricola thus the starres being rare and of a thin substance and the intermedium grosse and thick the meatus passages or porosities of the starres do imbibe or drink in the vineger or wine and afterwards expell the vapour or air of the wine or vineger which in its expulsion doth move the stone and thus dissolve the wonder and take away the cause of admiration Some attribute unto it a power of obtaining victory for him that weareth it against his enemies hence the Dutch call it Siegstein It swelleth and enlargeth it self in its growth in the form and figure of an eye It is said to be good against Apoplexies and by the very touch of the body to hinder the generation of worms It s dignitie and value These stones are sometimes found of very great bignesse and sometimes no bigger then the breadth of a mans nail but of excellent beauty and esteemed worth two crowns a piece these for their beauty are oft set in gold and worn on the finger CHAP. XXXVI Of the Garatromo or Toadstone Description of the stone THis stone is of a brownish colour somewhat tending to rednes convex on the one side on the other side sometimes plain sometimes hollow Some say this stone is found in the head of an old Toad others say that the old Toad must be laid upon the cloth that is red and it will belch it up or otherwise not you may give a like credit to both these reports for as little truth is to be found in them as may possibly be History Witnesse Anselmus Boetius in lib. 2. in the chapter of this stone who saith that to try this experiment in his youth he took an old Toad and laid it upon a red cloth and watcht it a whole night to see it belch up its stone but after his long and tedious watchfull expectation he found the old Toad in the same posture to gratifie the great pains of his whole nights restlessenesse and since that time he taketh that stone which is called Garatromo or the Toad-stone to be an obscure Starre-stone Its names This stone is called Batrachites and Brontia and Ombria and Garatronium Lapis Borax Lapis Bufonis Lapis Rubetae In French un Crapaut Crapaudine In Germane ein Krattenstein Some in Latine call it Crapontina In English a Toadstone Of its kinds Baccius maketh two kinds of this stone One of a whitish brown colour Another of a black colour with a bluish eye This stone saith Boetius is sometimes found of the bignesse of an egg and those that are so great are sometimes brownish sometimes reddish sometimes yellowish sometimes greenish Some are no bigger then the nail
of the hand and these by Jewellers are taken for the true Toad-stones It is reported of it that it is good against poyson if it be worn so as it may touch the skin and that if poyson be present it will sweate and that if any inflations procured by venemous creatures be touched with it it will cure them So saith Weckerus Lemnius and Baccius The third part of the Lapidarie Of non-transparent and common stones CHAP. XXXVII Of the Corall THus having made progresse with much perspicuitie through all the species of diaphanous perfectly transparent gemms and through all the species of semi-transparent or half-transparent gemms amongst which some non-transparent gemms for their excellencie beauty value and worth are reckoned as the Turkey-stone Lapis Lazuli and a kind of the Astroites and some others which are wont to be enclosed in gold and for their beauty and esteem worn on the finger or elsewhere about the body for its greater grace and ornament we are at length arrived at the third part of our labour which is a port or baven that lets me into the consideration of stones that are not called by the names of gemms or pretious stones though many of them for their beauty and vertue if we consider them joyntly are comparable to some of the beautifull diaphanous stones and excelling in beauty and vertue many of the semi-transparent or half-perspicuous gemms and with these to the consideration of stones commonly so called as they follow in their order after these stones of external beautie which for their softnesse are of no great value or price In the order of these stones the first place the Corall challengeth to it self as being more beautifull then the rest and as full of vertue as any This is a bud of maritime beauty and the delight of children the best of natures buds as some-what furthering the spring-tide of their growth The Corall is a plant of natures setting in the sea which though being covered with the waters of the sea it be green and soft yet so soon as it is elevated above the waves and discovered in the region of the aire it altereth its colour and changeth its nature its colour from green to a very noble beautifull red its softnesse into the compacted firmnesse and solidnesse of a stone beautifull and lasting by the operation of the aire encompassing its sometimes soft and flaccid substance It is under the waters of a brinish sea a thriving growing plant sprung up by nature with the ornament of many pretty branches which is no sooner violently forc'd from the place of its growth and brought to light above the overflowings of the waters but it blusheth at the injurious hand that offereth violence to its secret silent tender spreading growth Description of the Corall The Corall is a delightfull pleasing beautifull red hard stone resembling a plant adorned with many pretty branches Ovid. 4. Metamorph. concerning the originall of the Corall hath this fiction Medusa's head being cut off A fiction of the originall of the Corall Perseus took it and put it in the sand of the sea-shore with leaves and green rods under it which rods by the touch of the head grew hard and into a stony substance which when the sea-nymphs saw they took of those rods and spread them abroad in the sea which became the seeds of Corall Hence saith Ovid Nunc quoque Coraliis eadem natura remansit Duritiem tacto capiant ut ab aere quódque Vimen in aequore erat fiat super aequora saxum in lib. 15. Sic Coralium quo primùm contigit auras Tempore durescit mollis fuit herba sub undis Of its adulteration In imitation of Nature Art doth oft excellently find out a way of resembling this stone The manner of it is this Take the shrub which groweth out of the old wild Pear-tree which is scarce a foot high and cover it over with a very hard emplastre made of Minium Colophonia and White-wax this being perfectly dry must be levigated or polisht by the fire and it will be so exactly like unto the Corall that it will hardly be discerned from it Or take the fine powder of Corall and the white of an egge and mix them together and with them Minium and then presse them in forms Its names In Hebrew it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ramoth as Job 28. 18. In Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thus Metrodorus calleth it of the fiction of its originall from the Gorgons head It is called of Plinie l. 32. c. 2. and of some others besides him Corallum Caeralium Ciralium and Curalium for that it is pluckt up with nets or cut up with an iron instrument It is also called Dentrites of Plinie It is also called in Latine Coralium and Corallium and Sandastrum In Arabick Bassad Besed Bassath Belisis In German Coral In Italian Corallo In French du Coral Of its kinds Dioscorides Plinie Cardane Rulandus and Boetius reckon three kinds of Corall red white and black yet all these are of the same kind of greennesse while as yet they remain in the place of their growth under the waters of the sea The best of these kinds is the red Corall which imitateth the naturall Minium Next this is the white Corall and then the black There is also Corall yellowish brownish and greenish and reddish falling much short of the beauty of the first Corall Of the places Some of these kinds of Corall are found in the West parts of England about S. Michaels Mount There is Coralline found growing to Oyster-shells muscle-shels and to stones in the sea under a place called Reculvers and Marget in the I le of Thanet and in other places along the sands from thence to Dover It s nature and properties The Corall is cold and dry and astringent It is reported of it that it will be of greater beauty if a man wear it then if a woman and that it will contract ungratefull spots if the possessour of it be dangerously sick By the change of its colour it is said to foreshew ensuing diseases If it be worn in the manner of an amulet it is said to drive away fears and to keep men from inchantments from poysoning from epilepsies and from the insultings of devills from thunder from tempests and from all manner of perills for this cause idolaters were wont to dedicate this stone to Jupiter and to Phoebus This stone hath been thought of power to hinder the delusions of the devil and to secure men from Incubus and Succubus So Ansel Boetius Dioscorides Arnoldus de villa nova adviseth to give to new-born children as soon as they are come into the world before they have tasted any thing ten grains of the powder of Corall in the mothers milk by which means he saith they shall be preserved all the dayes of their life from the epilepsie The same remedie Camillus Leonardus Medic. Pisauriensis