Seventh, Eight, and Ninth Century Look at Gems

In the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, a new literature on this subject made its appearance, probably in Asia Minor. Some of the works were originally written in Syriac and later translated into Arabic. Others were composed in the latter language. This source was drawn upon for the production of the Lapidarium of Alfonso X, of Castile. This compilation, although dating in its present Spanish form from the thirteenth century, is based upon a much older original in "Chaldee" (Syriac?). There can be little doubt that many Hindu superstitions, no longer preserved for us in the literature of India, are reproduced in these Syrio-Arabic works, wherein we have also much that is of Alexandrian origin. This indeed is easily explained by history, for the Arabs, through their widely extended conquests, were led to absorb and amalgamate the date they secured, directly or indirectly, from the East and the West.

While this literature was developing in the Mohamedan world, the tradition of Pliny and Solinus was transmitted to the Christian world of the seventh and succeeding centuries by Isidorus of Seville. This brings us to the remarkable poetical treatise on the virtues of precious stones by Marbodus, Bishop of Rennes, a work written at the end of the eleventh century, and often quoted as that of Evax; indeed, it purports to be by him and really contains a good part of the material composing the treatise of Damigeron or Evax. At the same time Marbodus drew freely upon Pliny, either directly or through Isidorus. For the Middle Ages this poem of Marbodus, already translated into Old French in the twelfth century, became known as the "Lapidario" par excellence, and furnished a great part of their material to medieval authors on this subject. Soon, however, extracts from the Arabic sources became available, and the whole mass of heterogeneous material was worked over and recombined in a variety of ways.