The Curious Lore of Precious Stones: Being a description of their sentiments and folk lore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination. Crystal gazing, birth-stones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal, and planetaryKunz, George Frederick
Religion
The Curious Lore of Precious Stones: Being a description of their sentiments and folk lore, superstitions, symbolism, mysticism, use in medicine, protection, prevention, religion, and divination. Crystal gazing, birth-stones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal, and planetary
Kunz, George Frederick
Gems; Gems -- Folklore
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 caduceus; this type appears on the coins of
Antioch, because that city was founded in the month over which the sign
Aries presides.[447]
The Austrian Imperial Collection in Vienna contains the celebrated
Gemma Augustea, sometimes called the Apotheosis of Augustus. This
commemorates the Pannonian 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 royal treasure at
Fontainebleau was plundered in 1590, and the stone was offered for
sale, and was purchased, in 1619, by Emperor Rudolph II, for the sum of
12,000 ducats.
[Illustration: THE ZODIACAL STONES WITH THEIR SIGNS.
Old print illustrating the influence believed to be exerted on the
different parts of the body by the respective zodiacal signs, and
through their power by the stones associated with them. This belief
often determined the administration of special precious-stone remedies
by physicians of the seventeenth and earlier centuries.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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