Stones of Nocturnal Luminosity 6i 



translated by M. Berthelot, 1 which cannot lay claim to great an- 

 tiquity. For the purpose of identification, tourmaline (lychnis), and 



1 Introduction a l'etude de la chimie, p. 272 (Paris, 1889). Not only Hirth, 

 but also Mayers (Chinese Reader's Manual, p. 25), T. de Lacouperie (Babylonian 

 and Oriental Record, Vol. VI, 1893, p. 274), and Chavannes (T'oung Pao, 1907, 

 p. 181), without giving reference to any passage, are unanimous in the belief that the 

 carbuncle is the chief night-shining jewel of the ancients. It would be interesting to 

 learn what alleged passage in an ancient author these scholars had in mind. As far 

 as I know, the carbuncle appears as a night-shining stone only in the mineralogical 

 writings of the middle ages, for the first time presumably in the fundamental work 

 De lapidibus pretiosis of Marbodus (1035-1123), the famous French Bishop of 

 Rennes. In the earliest French translation of his book (L. Pannier, Lapidaires 

 francais du moyen age, p. 52) the passage runs thus: 



"Scherbuncles gettede sei rais. 

 Plus ardant piere n'i a mais: 

 De sa clarte la noit resplent, 

 Mais le jur n'en fera neient." 



In the famous letter, purported to have been addressed by Prester John to the 

 Byzantine Emperor Manuel, and written about the year 1165, we find the carbuncle 

 mentioned in three passages (57, 90, 93; F. Zarncke, Der Priester Johannes I, 

 pp. 91, 95, 96), in the fanciful and extravagant description of the palace of the Royal 

 Presbyter in India: "In extremitatibus vero super culmen palacii sunt duo poma 

 aurea, et in unoquoque sunt duo carbunculi, ut aurum splendeat in die et carbunculi 

 luceant in nocte. — Longitudo unius cuiusque columpnae est LX cubitorum, gros- 

 situdo est, quantum duo homines suis ulnis circumcingere possunt, et unaquaeque 

 in suo cacumine habet unum carbunculum adeo magnum, ut est magna amphora, 

 quibus illuminatur palatium ut mundus illuminatur a sole. — Nulla fenestra nee 

 aliquod foramen est ibi, ne claritas carbunculorum et aliorum lapidum claritate 

 serenissimi caeli et solis aliquo modo possit obnubilari." Konrad von Megen- 

 berg (1309-78), in his Book of Nature (ed. of F. Pfeiffer, p. 437), extols the 

 carbuncle as the noblest of all stones, combining all their virtues. Its color is fiery, 

 and it is even more brilliant at night than in the daytime; during the day it is dark, 

 but at night it shines so brightly that night almost becomes day. This belief still 

 prevailed in the seventeenth century, as may be gleaned from the following interest- 

 ing passage of A. Boetius de Boot (Gemmarum et lapidum historia, p. 140, ed. of 

 A. Toll, Lugduni Batavorum, 1636): "Magna fama est carbunculi. Is vulgo 

 putatur in tenebris carbonis instar lucere; fortassis quia pyropus, seu anthrax appel- 

 latus a veteribus fuit. Verum hactenus nemo unquam vere asserere ausus fuit, se 

 gemmam noctu lucentem vidisse. Garcias ab Horto proregis Indiae medicus refert 

 se allocutum fuisse, qui se vidisse affirmarent. Sed iis fidem non habuit. Ludovicus 

 Vartomannus regem Pega? tantae magnitudinis, et splendoris habere scribit, ut qui 

 regem in tenebris conspicatus fuerit, eum splendere quasi a Sole illustretur existimet, 

 sed nee ille vidit. Si itaque gemmam noctu lucentem natura producat, ea vere 

 carbunculus fuerit, atque hoc modo ab aliis gemmis distinguetur, omnesque alias 

 dignitate superabit. Multi autumant gemmas in tenebris lucentes, a natura gigni 

 non posse; verum falluntur. Nam ut lignis putridis, nicedulis, halecumque squam- 

 mis, et animalium oculis, natura lucem dare potest; non video cur gemmis idonea 

 suppeditata materia (in tanta rerum creatarum abundantia) tribuere non possit. 

 An itaque habeatur, aut non, incertum adhuc est. Doctissimorum tamen virorum 

 omnium sententia huiusmodi gemmae non inveniuntur. Hinc fit quod rubentes, 

 et transparentes gemmae omnes; ab iis carbuncufi, anthraces, pyropi, et carbones 

 nuncupentur. Quia videlicet carbonis instar lucent, ac ignis instar flammeos hinc 

 inde radios iaciunt." 



