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.

Superstitions and Their Sources

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

Superstitions and Their Sources

FROM the earliest times in man's history gems and precious stones have been held in great esteem. They have been found in the monuments of…

Superstitions and Their Sources: Cuba

The persistence of the most cruel and unnatural practices of old-time sorcery is illustrated by the fact that only a few years ago, in the…

Superstitions and Their Sources: Boot

In the next chapter of his work, De Boot, while extolling the remedial power of a certain group of stones, insists upon the falsity of many…

Superstitions and Their Sources: Syriac

In the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, a new literature on this subject made its appearance, probably in Asia Minor. Some of the…

Superstitions and Their Sources: Thomas

A most interesting medieval treatise on the virtues of precious stones forms part of the De rerum natura of Thomas de Cantimpre…

Superstitions and Their Sources: Dolce

Among literary deceptions one of the boldest was that practised in the early part of the seventeenth century by Ludovico Dolce. This writer…

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