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Part II — Chapter 5: Generation of Precious Stones

Chapter Five. How precious stones are generated in the earth and mines.

Precious stones too are splendid wondrous works and noble creatures of God Most High. Like metals, they are mentioned in Holy Scripture. The Lord God commanded Moses to take twelve different stones for the splendid priestly ornament, namely the breastplate containing Urim and Thummim, and to engrave on each the name of an Israelite tribe. He likewise commanded two onyx stones to be set in gold, six names of the children of Israel engraved on each, and the stones attached to the shoulders of the high priest’s ephod.

It is therefore appropriate to say something here about precious stones, their origin and generation, especially as a further description of the operation of our subject.

Concerning their origin, philosophers again agree entirely, as will be repeated in the following chapter, that precious stones arise from the same matter as metals and minerals. Through the perfect red and white philosophical elixir, inferior stones—Bohemian diamonds, crystals, garnets and the like—may likewise be transformed into more perfect and better ones, such as Oriental precious stones. Broken and small gemstones may also be consolidated and enlarged. This may be read, among other places, in the Lamp of the Philosophers’ Salt.

There this art is likewise attributed to Saint John the Evangelist by citing the following verses, sung in his honour in the ancient Church and contained in a particular hymn:

After restoring broken fragments of gems, He sold them And gave the proceeds to the poor. He brings an inexhaustible treasure, Who made gold from twigs And gems from stones.

Concerning the generation of precious stones, describing it is as hazardous as describing that of metals. For the stated purpose of further explaining the operation of our subject, I consider the following sufficient. Just as metals harden after gradual coagulation through the continuous action of warmth hidden in the ores, so precious stones congeal from mercurial moisture through cold, following its prior condensation and sublimation. Sublimation occurs much more easily in uncoloured than coloured matter, since no fatness or sulphur rises without force. I can support this not only, once again, by my own experience, but also by the following examples.

A princely court physician told me that Dr Bier in Amsterdam knew of a special water and brought it from a certain place. It tasted pleasant and was the colour of whey. Poured into wine, it coloured the wine—or, more accurately, itself became coloured with the wine—purple. Dr Bier placed this water in his furnace and, after some time, observing that it had thickened considerably, took it out again. Once it cooled, he found an extremely solid, transparent, somewhat green mass.

With great effort and force he broke several pieces from it. He had the larger pieces polished and various coats of arms engraved upon them, and gave a smaller piece to the physician. The physician likewise had it cut and set in a gold ring. He showed it, among others, to a jeweller from Nuremberg, who judged the little stone to be a pale but otherwise good emerald.

Likewise, M. M., formerly C. M. and now H. F. R. u. W. Chymicus, sent me in 1667 some crystals derived from rainwater and crystallized in the cold. An experienced lapidary likewise judged these to be good stones and topazes.

From this, considering M.’s process, which is partly known to me, and my own experience already mentioned, I conclude that when mercurial moisture encounters a sulphur in the earth, it subsequently acquires a distinct and particular form and colour. This acquisition and alteration of form and colour in that moisture or water cannot occur without suitable means and assistance, even though the water itself contains all colours. This may be observed in crystal and likewise diamond, which retain water’s colour entirely because they lack such assistance and a particular external sulphur.

In my judgment, Bier’s water became purple with the wine into which it was poured because wine’s inner essential colour is red, while that water had already become inwardly specified toward green and properly acquired that colour, as the emerald made from it testifies. When two different colours are mixed, neither remains; a third emerges. Yet a beautiful red also comes from green itself, as may be seen with vitriol. Hence: “From the blood of the green lion must be made the blood of the red lion.”

The aforementioned Basilius Valentinus should also be read on this point concerning the generation of precious stones. I shall leave the matter here for the present.

116.Exodus 28:9–30 describes the shoulder stones, breastplate and Urim and Thummim. The latter’s precise physical nature is uncertain; this passage places them within the breastplate without yet supplying the author’s later alchemical interpretation.

117.These are historical claims and classifications. “Bohemian diamond” was a name used for brilliant rock crystal; “Oriental” commonly indicated prized quality or origin. The account does not provide a modern mineralogical analysis of the purported transformations.

118.The verses invoke a hagiographic miracle tradition concerning John, rather than an episode narrated in the canonical Gospel. Distractas is rendered in the sense “sold”; the distribution to the poor is understood as the proceeds of sale.

119.Coagulation and congelation designate transitions toward solidity. The latter should not be restricted here to the modern sense of freezing water into ice. The proposed contrast is between heat’s role in metallic hardening and cold’s role in forming gemstones.

120.The personal and office initials are left unexpanded because their identification is uncertain. The date is clearly 1667 in the image; machine OCR misreads it as 1637. The reported judgments of jeweller and lapidary are not independent mineralogical verification.

121.Green and red lions are alchemical figures whose meanings vary between texts. Here the author links their “blood” to a green-to-red transformation and expressly invokes vitriol. The passage should not be forced into one universal substance-identification.