From the book
Nine Books on the Nature of Things
Attributed to Paracelsus · Diotimos Editions · 2026
Browse this book’s lexicon →Meaning
The life of pearls is their lustre, which the text says they lose in calcination. The later mortification paragraph describes their conversion to a milk-like form, distinct from the adjoining gem and coral account. Lustre names the characteristic visual quality here, not colour in general. The distinction makes pearls an important check against flattening the whole ornamental-material catalogue into one property.
Places to read
- Book 4 · Life · Passage 7Latin“Perlarum vita nihil est aliud quam splendor”