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, birthstones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal and planetary / by George Frederick Kunz, with 86 illustrations in color, doubletone and line.

  • Kunz, George Frederick, 1856-1932.
Date:
1913
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: 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, birthstones, lucky stones and talismans, astral, zodiacal and planetary / by George Frederick Kunz, with 86 illustrations in color, doubletone and line. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    even an unavoidable defect, but it should be minimized as much as possible. The treatise known under the title “Cyrianides” was, as we have noted, a product of the Alexandrian school. It was asserted to be the work of Hermes Trismegistus, the name given by the Greeks to the Egj^ptian god Thoth. Here we have a specimen of S of N C T r , V • e -1 the species ot magic known as Jp J[ 1 O JE* litteromancy, or divination by means of the letters of the alphabet, since a stone, a bird, P I PHAN 11 EPI*. SCOPI CYPRI AD DIO- a each begin- Liber GfzCus, & c rcgione Latinust lola Hierotarantirto intcrprctc; cum Corollano Conr«« di Gcfacri. ning with the same letter and signifying the four elements, are given for each of the twenty-four letters of the Greek alphabet. These four objects were to be grou^Ded together to form a talisman, the bird being usually engraved on the stone, while a portion of the fish and of the plant was placed in the bezel of the ring in which the stone was to be set.® Another, almost contemporary work, is the exceedingly curious and in- teresting treatise by St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Con- stantia, on the twelve gems on the “ Breastplate of Judg- ment” of the high priest (Ex., xxviii, 15-21). This unique production is in the form of a letter addressed to Dio- dorus, Bishop of Tyre, and it is peculiarly valuable as the * De Mely, Les lapidaires de I’antiquite et du moyen-age,” vol. ii, “Les lapidaires grecs,” Paris, 1898, pp. 1-50. TlGVJlt M.D.LXrr, Title page of the first edition of the Greek treatise by St. Epiphanius on the Gems of the Breastplate, with a Latin version. Edited and issued at Zurich in 1566 (1565) by Conrad Gesner.