The Curious Lore of Precious Stones

Talismans and birth-stones, crystal balls and the High Priest's breastplate — Tiffany's own gem expert gathered every superstition, legend and cure ever credited to a precious stone.

On Ominous and Luminous Stones

12 pages in this part of The Curious Lore of Precious Stones.

On Ominous and Luminous Stones

THE OPAL Mother. Come, let me place a charm upon thy brow, And may good spirits grant, that never care Approach, to trace a single furrow…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Pliny

It rarely happens that Pliny gives any information as to particular jewels, almost all his notices of precious stones being confined to…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Albertus

Albertus Magnus describes under the name orphanus a stone which was set in the imperial crown of the Holy Roman Empire. This gem is…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Shakespeare

The opal seems to have appealed to Shakespeare as a fit emblem of inconstancy, for in "Twelfth Night" he makes the clown say to the Duke…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Garcias

According to Garcias ab Orta (1563), the diamond was not used for medicinal purposes in the India of his time, except when injected into…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: English

An old English ballad, treating of the loves of Hind Horn and Maid Rimnild, recounts that when Hind Horn, who loved and was beloved by the…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Wolfgang

Wolfgang Gabelchover, in his commentary on the sixth book of the treatise "De Gemmis," by Andrea Baccio, gives the following account of a…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Lithica

According to Pliny, the lychnis, perhaps a spinel, was so called a lucernarum accensu (from the lighting, or the light, of lamps). The…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Benjamin

The glories of Emperor Manuel's (ca. 1120-1180) throne are celebrated by the Hebrew traveller Benjamin of Tudela, who visited…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Bologna

A luminous or phosphorescent stone, which has been named the Bologna stone, is the subject of a treatise published by the physician Mentzel…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Kunz

By permission of Mrs. Kunz, wife of the well-known New York mineralogist, I will show you perhaps the most remarkable of all phosphorescing…

On Ominous and Luminous Stones: Moryson

The use of jewelled ornaments to heighten by their luminosity in obscurity or in darkness the effect produced by a sacred image, and to…

Rights & ReuseThe complete text of The Curious Lore of Precious Stones (1913) is in the public domain in the United States — like all works published before 1928 — and is free to read, download, quote, teach from, and reuse. This digital edition (its transcription, restored images, and site design) is © 2026 PhotoOpAI, and any editorial commentary we add is clearly marked as ours; the underlying public-domain text carries no such restriction.