The sardonyx or Sardian onyx as it is sometimes called was written at
various periods as sardonyse, sardony, sardonix, sardonice, sardonyches,
sarderyk, sardonique, sardonick. Swedenborg corresponds it to Love of
Good and Light. It exhibits sard and white chalcedony in layers, but
some ancient authors account as fine only those specimens which exhibit
three layers at least, a black base, a white zone and a layer of red or
brown—the black symbolizing humility, the white virtue, and the red
fearlessness. The sardonyx is under the heavenly Leo, the sign of
sensation, feeling, “the first aspect of its (the soul’s) future
condition here below.” In the Rosicrucian jewels the sardonyx appears as
the gem of victorious ecstasy and rapture which flow from the eternal
font of delight, banishing grief and woe. It was said to give
self-control, conjugal happiness and good fortune, and it is said that
if the woman whose talismanic stone it is neglects to wear it she will
never marry. It was frequently engraved with an eagle or a hawk as a
talisman of fortune and it is under the celestial Leo. The “Sainte
Chapelle,” the second largest cameo known, is stated by Sir William
Smith and others to measure 12 × 10½ inches. Mr. C. W. King gives the
measurements as about 13 × 11 inches and states that it is a sardonyx of
five layers. The central carving of this “Grand Camahieu,” as it was
called, represents the return of Germanicus from Germany in the year 17
A.D., Tiberius and Livia enthroned receiving him. In exergue, the
grief-stricken captives are shown. Above is the apotheosis of Augustus
by which the whole work is now known. This remarkable cameo was for a
long time believed to typify “the triumph of Joseph in Egypt,” and was
regarded as a sacred relic. The learned Nicholas Claude Fabri de
Peiresc, the great antiquary of France, proved in 1619 the falsity of
this inconceivable belief, and was the first to classify correctly the
subject of this massive gem. By pawning this sardonyx to Louis X of
France for 10,000 silver marks the unfortunate Baldwin II, Emperor of
Constantinople, was able to save his throne a little longer. This cameo
is in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris. Another five strata sardonyx
cameo—the largest known—is the Carpegna cameo, formerly in the
possession of Cardinal Carpegna and now in the Vatican. This large
specimen is 16 inches long by 12 inches. “The subject,” writes Mr. King,
“is the Pompa di Bacco, or Bacchus and Ceres,” Virgil’s “duo clarissima
mundi lumina,” as symbolizing the Sun and Moon, standing upon a
magnificent car: the god holding a vase and a thyrsus, the goddess her
bunch of wheat ears. On his right stands winged Comus. The car is drawn
by 4 centaurs, two male and two female: the first bears a rhyton and a
thyrsus, the second a torch whilst he snaps the fingers of his right
hand: one female centaur plays the double flute, the other a tambourine.
On the ground lie the mystic basket and two huge vases. The large cameo,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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