The comparative value of Oriental and Occidental bezoars was still an open question toward the end of the sixteenth century. In a letter written by Sir George Carew to Sir Robert Cecil, on October 10, 1594, the former states that he had submitted a bezoar from the West Indies to a London jeweler named Josepho, who had told him that had the substance come from the East Indies he would value it as high as £100, but that never having made trial of West Indian bezoars, he would not venture on an estimate, although he did not doubt but that they were quite as good. Nevertheless he would not care to buy this one before having tested its virtues experimentally.[433] 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 Horne, 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.[434] After the death of Rudolph 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, Rudolph’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 (½ oz. Troy) to 25½ 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 regarded as having therapeutic virtues, such, for instance, as a “stone” from the body of a doe; this had been found by a certain Helmhardt Jörger and by him presented to the emperor; another of these treasured concretions came from the stomach of a stag. A specimen of the famed “eagle-stone” is also listed; this had a double gold setting, and on it were inscribed the words “Piedra Geodas,” showing that the real character of this stone as a geode was then well understood.[435]