As testimony of the belief in the efficiency, remedial or talismanic, of precious stones prevalent at the opening of the fifteenth century, may be noted the presence among the manuscript books of Marguerite de Flandres, Duchesse de Bourgogne, of a work listed as follows: “The book of the properties of certain stones.” It was carefully enclosed in a crimson velvet covering.[[593]] Incidentally it is a rather interesting fact that at this early date, 1405, we find in Duchess Margaret’s little library two Bibles in French and a separate copy of the Gospels also in that language. This serves to disprove the popular idea that translations of the Bible into the vernacular were in distinct disfavor with Roman Catholics before the era of the Reformation. Of course until the invention and use of the art of printing there could be no wide diffusion of such translations.
The jacinth is described by Thomas de Cantimpré as being a stone of a yellow color. “It is very hard and difficult to cleave, or cut; it can, however, be worked with diamond dust. It is very cold, especially when held in the mouth.” Among many other virtues, it protects from melancholia and poison, and makes the wearer beloved of God and men. It also acts as a sort of barometer, since it grows dark and dull in bad weather and becomes clear and bright in fine weather.[[594]] Cardano says that when the weather was fine the stone became obscure and dull, but when a tempest was impending, it assumed the ruddy hue of a burning coal. It also lost its color when in contact with any one suffering from disease, more especially from the plague.[[595]]
As a result of his study of precious stones, Cardano was induced to affirm that they had life, but he gravely states that he had never noted that they possessed sex (a common belief in his day), although “as nature delights as much in miracle as we do, some may be so constituted that they are almost distinguished by sex.”[[596]]
The beautiful sapphire has always been a great favorite with lovers of precious stones and to it has been attributed a chastening, purifying influence upon the soul. Even Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, wherein precious stones are rarely mentioned, takes occasion to write as follows of the sapphire: “It is the fairest of all precious stones of sky colour, and a great enemy to black choler, frees the mind, mends manners.”[[597]]
FROM A PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH
In the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, K. G., Hardwick Hall. The queen has jewels in her hair, a pearl eardrop, and two necklaces, one fitting close to the neck, the other falling over the breast. The stiff brocade skirt is embroidered with a wonderful array of aquatic birds and animals. On the left, the cushion of the chair of state is embroidered with the queen’s monogram. Surmounting the chair is a crystal ball. The original canvas measures 90 × 66 inches.
The poets have sung the praises of the turquoise. In Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice, when the “amorous Jessica” made off with her father’s jewels, Shylock particularly bewails the disappearance of his turquoise, crying out that he would not have lost it for “a wilderness of monkeys.” The poet Donne, also, writes of this stone and draws attention to its sympathetic quality in these words:
As a compassionate turquoise that doth tell,
By looking pale, the wearer is not well.
That Queen Elizabeth clung fondly to life is well known, and it is said that she trusted much in the virtues of a talisman which she wore round her neck. This was a piece of gold engraved with certain mystic characters. The statement has also been made that at the bottom of a chair in which she often sat, was the queen of hearts from a pack of cards, having a nail driven through the forehead of the figure.[[598]] Could this have been a spell of witchcraft used against her hated rival, Mary of Scotland?