The yellowed pages of ancient parchments keep many secrets, riddles and allegories. Lapidaries, florarias, bestiaries in the ideal library of the Middle Ages stood in a place of honor. The miniatures, whose colors have not faded to this day, were interspersed with descriptions of distant unknown lands, arguments about healing or, conversely, poisonous properties, with ideas "about the nature of things." The boundaries defining the specifics of each genre were quite transparent, because the very ideas about the living and the nonliving in the medieval mind were very unclear.
But, speaking in modern language, bestiaries still described to a greater extent the fauna, floraria - flora, and lapidaries - everything that belongs to the world of "inanimate nature". Stones and what a man of that time counted among them (organic objects such as corals, amber, waste products of living beings, etc.), of course, occupied a huge place in various areas of his life. They were both a measure of values, and magical amulets, and ornaments, and medical drugs, and poisons, and antidotes … The world of stones for a person of that time was less accessible for knowledge than the world of plants and animals, and therefore was considered mysterious, mysterious and even magical …
The lack of objectivity of human knowledge, the imperfection of technology and processing tools, the resistance of the processed material - all these difficulties led to the emergence of legends and beliefs about the soul of stones, their magical properties. The stone becomes not just a value or decoration: it is already an amulet, a talisman - the owner's guardian, an accomplice in business, a patron of lovers, a healer of the sick. There is practically no ancient civilization that has escaped the cult of mascot stones. And there is not a single people that has not created beliefs associated with stones.
There are no religions that would not use these myths in their rituals, rituals and sacraments. Comprehension of information about stones was limited by the theory of the divine essence of everything earthly, the lack of knowledge and elementary literacy gave rise to confusion of mineralogical, religious, superstitious and mystical ideas. The ancient works of Theophrastus, Pliny the Elder, Pliny the Younger, Vitruvius are full of poetic, but, alas, not always true arguments. Medieval lapidaries became the successors of ancient traditions, but also contributed to the information chaos.
The earliest mention of stones is found in the cuneiform texts of Sumer and Babylon. It was possible to determine exactly which stones were in question only in a few cases, and it can be recognized that even then a person isolated lapis lazuli, jade and carnelian, which were considered sacred stones and helping in certain situations.
The beliefs about stones of the ancient Egyptians are known in more detail thanks to the custom of mummification of the dead, in which stone funeral amulets were also put into the mummy's clothes. The texts regulating funeral rites were canonized and preserved in the so-called "Book of the Dead", which describes stones for amulets and their special properties. From the preserved stone amulets, it was established that the Egyptians knew lapis lazuli, carnelian and other varieties of chalcedony, turquoise, jasper, malachite, rock crystal, feldspars, obsidian, amber and quartzite.
Pythagoras (580–510 BC), Plato (427–347 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC) mentioned the healing or protective properties of stones. The most complete source of information about the stones that has survived to this day is, of course, represented by the Natural History of Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD). In it, the author expounded in detail the ideas about the magical and healing properties of stones that were widespread in his time, accompanying the descriptions with comments of a skeptical and sometimes sarcastic nature.
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The Alexandrian scientist Plutarch (45-127 AD) compiled a collection of information about stones, their medicinal and magical properties. At the same time, Dioscorides from Cilicia, the doctor who wrote the pharmaceutical work "On medical material", in addition to 600 plants, described about 30 minerals, useful, in his opinion, in the manufacture of medicinal mixtures.
The oldest document of the Jewish and Christian religions - the Pentateuch (the oldest part of the Old Testament) - describes 12 stones of the breastplate of the Jewish high priests, and in the New Testament - 12 stones-bases of the wall of the mythical city of New (Heavenly) Jerusalem, and the lists of stones differ in 6 cases out of 12 The Bible itself does not contain precise indications of the magical properties of breastplate stones, but commentators and commentators of the Talmud (a detailed commentary on the Pentateuch) have created a whole theory devoted to such properties.
The description of the stones of the breastplate of the Jewish high priests was given in his book "Antiquities of the Jews" by a contemporary of Pliny and Plutarch, the Roman historian Flavius Josephus (37–95 or 100 AD). He himself belonged to one of the noble families of Judea, he could see these stones before the destruction of the Jerusalem temple by the Romans in 70. It is safe to say that the belief in the special properties of stones was widespread among all the peoples of the Mediterranean. Greek authors speak about this, although they hardly knew the holy book of the Jews, which was translated into Greek only in the 3rd century BC. e. already in Alexandria of Egypt (Septuagint).
The letter of the Bishop of Salamis (in Cyprus) Epiphanius (310–403) to the Byzantine Bible commentator Diodorus, bishop of Sicily, gained great popularity. This letter was titled "On the Twelve Stones" and contained a description of the bib stones. The full Greek text of the letter has not survived, only its concise retellings and translations are known, first into Coptic, Latin and Syrian, in the 10th century - into Armenian and Georgian, and in the 11th century - into Bulgarian and Old Russian. The most complete is the Georgian version (synopsis translation) of the 10th century. In the 13th century, a new translation of Epiphanius's work into Armenian was made by Mkhitar Ayrivanetsi, accompanying the description of the stones with indications of their magical properties known to the Armenians of his time, which did not always coincide with the ideas of Epiphanius.
The works of European authors on the medicinal properties of minerals were mainly comments on the works of ancient writers and doctors, primarily Theophrastus and Pliny. In the Middle Ages, Theophrastus' composition "On the Stones" served as the basis for many imitations. One of the main sources of information about the medicinal and magical properties of stones, along with ancient writings, was also Biruni's extensive treatise "Collection of information for the knowledge of jewelry."
It contains not only descriptions of stones, but also related legends. Much attention is paid to the healing properties of minerals in Al-Kawzini's "Cosmography" (XIII century). The author of this fascinating essay discusses the treatment of eyes with lead shine, the benefits of drinking from crystal, the property of alum to stop bleeding, drilling stones in the urinary ducts with a diamond drill, and the healing properties of a magnet. Already in the late Middle Ages, "Cosmography" was compared with the "Natural history" of Pliny, and Cavzini received the nickname "Eastern Pliny".
In 635, Isidore, the bishop of Seville in Spain, compiled a new description of the stones of the Bible, and it was he who was referred to until the 12th century, when the works of Marbod, and then Alfonso X, became more popular.
Most of the lapidaries are based on the classic work, The Book of Stones, written between 1067 and 1081. The text of this most famous lapidary belongs to the pen of the bishop of the city of Rennes in Brittany, Marbaud (1035-1123). It is written in the form of a didactic poem about the healing and mystical properties of stones.
Bishop Marbod argued that the Lord endowed precious stones with even more power than herbs. This work largely continued the traditions of ancient authors. Each of the 60 chapters of the Marboda poem is dedicated to some precious or semiprecious stone, mineral or "stone" formed in the internal organs of animals or birds. Bishop Marbod described 60 stones, but at present only 30 of them can be identified. Research has shown that he used the books of Josephus and Pliny, and also often used materials from Isidore of Seville.
The Lapidarium of the King of Castile Alfonso X the Scientist (1221-1284) was compiled as a summary of information about stones known by that time in Spain, mainly from Arab (Moorish) sources, which included data from the Syrian (Chaldean) original, and more often compilation works. This essay did not receive wide distribution in Europe, since it was written in Spanish, and not in Latin - the language of scholars of that time (Alfonso X obliged all public documents to be written in Spanish). In addition, the names of the stones were in many cases Arabic, incomprehensible to other Europeans, except the Spaniards, who lived side by side with the Moors for almost six centuries.
Western authors were known in Russia, and the Izbornik of 1037, compiled for the Kiev prince Svyatoslav, included translations of works by Joseph Flavius, Epiphanius, George Amartol, Kozma Indikoplov and other authors, one way or another related to gems. Trade relations with the states of Central Asia, Transcaucasia and the Iranian Highlands made it possible to receive information from Bukhara, Khorezm, Persia, India, Georgia and Armenia. So our ancestors were familiar with the concept of stones.
In the 11th century, the works of Central Asian scholars Biruni (Abu Reikhan Muhammad ibn Ahmed al-Biruni, 973 - about 1051) "Collection of information for the knowledge of jewels" (1048) and Avicenna (Abu Ali al Hussein ibn Abdallah ibn al-Hosan ibn Ali ibn Sina, about 980 - 1037) "Canon of Medicine". It is curious that the outstanding physician of his time, Avicenna, said that all stones were somehow useful, and the mathematician and astronomer Biruni did not take anything on faith and often ended the description of stones with the words: “This is not confirmed by experience” - or even more sharply: “And there is no end these nonsense."
The abbess of the monastery of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) studied medicine and treated the sick on a duty of Christian charity. She knew Pliny, learned a lot from Constantine the African (1020-1087), a learned monk who translated the works of the leading figures of Arabic medicine into Latin, and from Marbod of Rennes. She describes 25 minerals, and the recommendations are always very specific: heat the stone and apply it to the sore spot, or drink water in which the heated stone was lying, or often look at an emerald for a long time.
Minerals were studied by the outstanding European scientist Albert Bolyptedsky (1193–1280), and his works, called by his followers "Big Albert" and "Little Albert", were readily quoted by authors of the Middle Ages. In his treatises on minerals, he describes in detail the secret properties of stones, some of which he himself tested on experience. In the same treatise, he states that carved gems are endowed with mystical power, especially if they are produced by nature itself, without human intervention. Such ideas lead closely to the practice of making talismans - magical images, medals and seals designed to protect their owner. Scientists of antiquity and the Middle Ages believed that these objects owe all their miraculous virtues to the influence of the stars, for, according to Aristotle, celestial bodies rule earthly events.
In 1669, the “Book of Histories” by Arakel Tavrizhetsi, abbot of the Echmiadzin monastery, was published in Armenian in Amsterdam. This book contained two manuscripts by unknown authors, which by all indications belonged to the X-XII centuries and were devoted to the beliefs about stones that existed at that time.
With the development of natural sciences, books on the unusual properties of stones began to be considered collections of fairy tales and legends, folk legends and superstitions unworthy of the attention of serious readers, and only at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, works dedicated to these pages of the history of civilization began to appear.
A large summary of legends and legends about precious stones was published by the New York mineralogist J. F. Kunz in 1913 (reprinted in 1971), and in the same year the Prague mineralogist Professor Karel Tuchek reviewed the beliefs about stones in his lectures. Researchers have made serious attempts to understand what scientific facts are at the heart of poetic mineralogy, whether there are answers to riddles that keep ancient manuscripts, on the pages of which truth and fiction, facts and legends are closely intertwined.
Lapidaria, as collections of knowledge about minerals, kept a wide variety of stories about the wonderful properties of stones, descriptions of both realistic and the most fantastic recipes using stones in various forms to treat diseases and perform all kinds of magical manipulations. Here is what Marbod Rennes wrote about the emerald:
All that is green, emerald surpasses beauty;
There are twelve types of it, they say, exist in the world.
The best shape for those with an even body:
Such a stone, they say, is convenient for testers: sacraments, If they want to foresee and give predictions on the water.
This stone multiplies piously acquired riches, In all cases, endowing words with persuasive power:
As if eloquence itself is in such a stone.
If hung by the neck, will humble the fever ferocity, Way: by the same: the same can heal and epileptic sufferers, Heals with green medicine the bonds drooping in decrepitude, And it is believed that he averts the fury of the storm.
And he, they say, moderates impulses of lust.
He can achieve greater greenery and perfect beauty, If watered and smeared with wine: green olive.
An anthropomorphic theme is common in lapidaries: stones have a “soul” and experience emotions. There are coexisting and antagonistic stones - "friendly", which can be worn simultaneously by one person, and "warring", which, when worn at the same time, lead to illness, loss of sleep and other troubles. Stones, like people, have character and can have a liking or dislike for each other.
Do such statements have a real basis? Most likely, such a formulation of the question seems to lie in a purely aesthetic sphere, but we must pay tribute to the observation of the authors of the lapidaries. Indeed, if different decorations were used at the same time, the described painful symptoms can be observed, but we are not talking about stones, but about a metal base - jewelry frames. The simultaneous wearing of gold and silver or some other different metal things leads to the effect of electrolysis, albeit weak.
And this often causes unpleasant sensations in people who are nervous, sensitive and painful, up to eczema and inflammation. For example, one woman, who wore silver earrings for many years and then replaced them with gold ones, had earlobes festering - there was an electrolytic effect from the interaction of gold and silver microparticles remaining in the skin.
As knowledge about stones improved, new types of cutting, refinement and color of stones were developed, superstitions associated with stones also accumulated. Indeed, often a person, be it an ancient Greek, a medieval European or a modern American, wants to have not just a beautiful thing, but an amulet, a talisman, something mysterious and powerful.
Secular rulers and princes of the church passionately collected rings, gems, and precious stones. Naturally, with the growth of these collections, rumors about them spread, all sorts of legends spread, and superstitions grew stronger.
It was believed, for example, that the ring of the Lydian king Gyges could make its owner invisible. The careful English king John Lackland did not part with a ring decorated with turquoise. In those days, it was believed that turquoise detects poisons and protects the owner from poisoning. Emeralds and sapphires also often adorned the golden royal dishes, since it was believed that, like turquoise, they helped to detect poisonous drenched in food. Describing the circumstances of the death of King John Lackland, the 16th century English historian Raphael Nolinshed mentions the king's suspicions that the pears given to him were poisoned, "because his precious stones were immediately covered with moisture."
The magical power of their rings was assured by those around, and perhaps they themselves believed in it, the French king Philip the Handsome, the Russian Tsar Ivan the Terrible, the Scottish Queen Mary Stuart, writers and poets of later times: Walter Scott, Francois Rabelais, Oscar Wilde, Honore de Balzac, Alexander Pushkin.
The lapidaries contained information about the various occult and astrological potentials of precious stones, echoes of this knowledge have survived to this day in the form of all kinds of stories about a stone - a talisman that every person has and depends on his date of birth.
For the first time, the month of birth was associated with a specific stone by the already mentioned bishop of Seville Isidore in 635. And by the 13th century, an extensive literature on the magical properties of stones literally swept Europe. The Holy Fathers, counting and using "practically" their jewels and being the only carriers of "bookish knowledge" in medieval Europe, did not forget to describe the real and imaginary properties of these stones. Books appear in French, English, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Latin, German, as well as translations from Arabic, Persian; retell and write down legends, tales and signs on this topic.
The chemical and other properties of minerals were explained from the standpoint of symbolic meaning. In general, nature was seen by medieval man as a huge repository of symbols. Jacques Le Goff writes: "In stones and flowers, symbolic meaning was combined with their beneficial or harmful properties."
Medieval medicine was an interesting collection of heterogeneous information indicating that the man of that time was an excellent observer, often interpreted what he saw in a rather peculiar way. When it was necessary to draw conclusions from observations, unrestrained fantasy, obsessed with the desire for a miracle, led to poetic, but false conclusions. The thesis that like should be treated like like led to very amusing incidents. Anemia ("pale sickness") was treated by ingesting rubbed pearls or, apparently, on the principle of "contradictory" - rubies, red spinels.
The stones found in the insides of killed animals and birds have traditionally also been credited with magical and healing properties. With the help of a stone from the stomach of a pigeon, it was recommended to treat cancer; a stone extracted from the liver or gallbladder of a bull was ground into powder and used to treat eye diseases. In medieval Europe, as well as in the Renaissance, it was believed that stones from the stomachs or nests of swallows helped in the treatment of epilepsy; deer heart stone - in the treatment of heart disease and bleeding; a stone from a porcupine head - for a headache. Especially appreciated was the "dragon stone" taken from the head of reptiles. He was credited with the ability to cure leprosy.
In the painting of the great Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1460-1516) "Operation of stupidity" a wandering physician removes from the head of his patient the "stone of stupidity" that had been formed there. The artist's attitude to this kind of tricks is reflected in various symbols: an inverted funnel means that the doctor is a charlatan, the book on the nun's head personifies the ostentatious wisdom of itinerant preachers, and the tulip removed from the head of an unfortunate patient was traditionally identified in Holland with gold. To steal money - this is the goal of the whole trinity of crooks who managed to confuse an overly gullible patient.
"Stones" of organic origin, according to many authors, could be used as antidotes. They were either pounded into powder, diluted with water and taken orally, or they were set in gold and worn in a ring. It was believed that from such a stone dipped in a cup with a drink, the poison loses its strength. The most common talisman against poisoning was the bezoar stone, which was brought from eastern countries. The very name of bezoar is believed to derive either from the Arabic "bezodar" - wind (that is, a substance that dissipates the force of the poison just like the wind scatters clouds), or from the Persian "padsarch" - an antidote.
Legends tell about the origin of the bezoar, one of which was set forth by an Arab doctor of the 12th century: “The best bezoar is formed in the East around the eyes of a deer. Large deer in these countries eat snakes to become stronger, and before feeling sick, they rush to throw themselves into cold water, into which they plunge headlong … When it starts flowing from the eyes, this moisture, accumulating under the eyelids, thickens, freezes, gets denser … becomes hard, like a stone, and subsequently, with the help of the deer rubbing against a tree or other object, falls off. This bezoar is the best and most useful in medicine. Bezoar, valued more than gold, was actually extracted from the stomach of ruminants. Gradually, any stone-like antidote came to be called bezoar.
However, not all "medieval superstitions" deserve only irony and oblivion, even if we are talking about such seemingly incredible things as the use of bezoar as an antidote. About thirty years ago the American chemist E. Benson, examining stones extracted from the stomach of ruminants, suggested that they are really capable of neutralizing arsenic compounds. Between the phosphoric acid salts, which are contained in large quantities in the stone, and the poisonous compounds of trivalent arsenic, an exchange reaction occurs: instead of the arsenic salt, a harmless phosphorus compound passes into the solution. In addition, pentavalent arsenic is bound into a non-toxic complex by protein compounds of the bezoar stone. So it remains to be seen whether Napoleon was right when he ordered the bezoar to be thrown into the fire - a gift from the Persian Shah. The emperor did not believe in "empty superstitions".
Why, when studying the properties of bezoar, Benson considered its interaction with arsenic compounds? But because it was one of the most famous and popular minerals for "internal use". The Greeks got acquainted with arsenic already in the 4th century BC. e. after the campaigns of Alexander the Great in Asia. Arsenic is commonly referred to as white arsenic, or arsenic oxide. Dioscorides gave arsenic the name "arsenicon" (Latin "strong"): doctors used it in small doses as a potent medicine.
In large doses, it affects the internal organs of a person, blood, skin and mucous membranes; when dissolved, it does not give color and odor. In the Middle Ages, European alchemists were well aware of the poisonous properties of arsenic. Over time, it supplanted plant poisons and became the basis for most poisonous mixtures.
By the way, an interesting clue is the role of turquoise, so beloved by John Lackland, as an indicator of the presence of poison in liquid or food. It is known that the bright blue color of turquoise becomes dull over time, as jewelers say, turquoise "dies".
Modern chemical scientists have established the cause of this phenomenon. Turquoise is a combination of hydrous copper and aluminum phosphate; over time, a process of disrupting its chemical structure and, therefore, color occurs. Turquoise is quite unstable chemically, it easily absorbs fats, absorbs moisture, under the influence of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the air, it gradually loses its sky-blue color and becomes greener. In the sun, it slowly discolors, so the average lifespan of a stone does not exceed twenty years. Some chemicals can speed up this process, while they can - in combination, so to speak - be poisons to humans.
The spread of poisons in the late Middle Ages, and then the Renaissance, made the study of antidotes very relevant. Many medical schools have compiled collections of medicines and antidotes. Often they were based on the "Antidotarium" of the famous medical school in Salerno. It contained precise weight prescriptions for medicines, for the first time a weight unit was introduced - a grain equal to the weight of one medium-sized wheat grain, as well as other units (scruple, drachma, ounce). The introduction of these units allowed doctors to more accurately determine the single, daily and weekly doses of drugs to study their pharmacological action, and pharmacists to introduce the state tax on drugs.
Often completely chemically neutral substances also became poisons, the question was in the way of their application. For example, crushed precious stones, most often emeralds and rubies, were a very popular recipe for a variety of ailments.
The Lapidarium of the King of Castile Alfonso X calls the ruby the one that removes sorrow and gives joy. "The wearer will not be upset, and if the stone is ground into powder and mixed with heart medicine, it will be very effective in treating inflammation and breaking down blood clots." Apparently, ruby was added to the drug to enhance its cardiotonic effect.
Emerald crushed into powder was given to children with pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption). The powder, mixed with honey, was taken by nursing mothers as a lactic acid agent. The crushed emerald was taken orally with a snakebite. Leprosy, liver and stomach diseases were also treated with emerald powder.
“An emerald placed at the head of the bed heals hypochondria, prevents nightmares, calms heartbeats, promotes enterprise success and dispels longing. The emerald does not tolerate moral impurity and bursts when criminal desires are satisfied. Crushed emerald, taken in drinking, neutralizes poison, witchcraft and rescues those stung by poisonous reptiles, and when placed under the tongue, it communicates the gift of divination "(Albertus Magnus." Treatise on Minerals ").
“The emerald is crushed and taken inside in a drink weighing against seven grains of barley, then it saves a person from the food of a mortal. Atze who often looks at the emerald, then the human gaze strengthens: and keeps his eyes healthy from the illnesses that come along, and brings gaiety to the wearer. The same stone, crushed in drinking, is accepted, benefits lepers and helps the liver for stomach diseases”(Russian“Ancient Clinic”).
One problem: crushing hard rocks in those conditions was a very difficult task. The powder obtained in this way almost always contained microscopic particles in the form of needles and sharp plates. These particles easily injured the gastrointestinal tract, causing internal bleeding, were stuck in it and were not immediately excreted.
A story about the curse of the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, is connected with the medicine made from crushed emeralds. King Philip the Handsome destroyed the order of the Knights of the Temple, and gave up the "apostate" knights to torture and execution. Jacques de Molay and the prior of Normandy Geoffroy de Charnay were burnt alive in Paris, on the Jewish Island. At the last moment, when the flames had already engulfed the body, de Molay pointed towards the palace and shouted:
- Pope Clement! King Philip! Guillaume de Nogaret! In less than a year, I will call you to the judgment of God! I curse you! A curse on your kind up to the thirteenth generation!..
Jacques de Molay's dying prediction came true, and pretty soon: a month after the auto-da-fe on the Jewish Island, on April 20, 1314, Pope Clement V died of a sudden attack of an acute intestinal infection. A month later, Chancellor Nogare died in terrible agony. And at the end of the same year, on November 29, King Philip suddenly died, always distinguished by enviable health.
Was the reason for the sudden death of the three main culprits of the downfall of the Order of the Temple was the curse of the Grand Master, or, as some historians believe, secret agents of the Templars, who are very knowledgeable in Eastern poisons, had a hand in their quick and mysterious death? But it is known for sure that Clement V was brought to his grave by an "effective" medicine from crushed emeralds from the hands of the best healers, which was given to him, following the most advanced techniques of that time.
By the way, one must also bear in mind that emeralds, rock crystal, quartz, amethyst and some other minerals are silicon dioxide. They are practically insoluble in all body fluids. And even non-sharp particles can become seed centers on which gallbladder and kidney stones will grow.
Despite the harmful properties of emeralds (and their counterparts) as medicines "inward", these superstitions held firmly, and the fashion for emeralds often depended on them.
The belief that a precious stone is the surest remedy for poisoning is rather a delusion based on the enormous authority of a rare and valuable (since it costs so much, it must be useful) stone, dozens of legends, fairy tales, fantastic legends. The healing properties of sparkling crystals have not yet been confirmed.
However, the Russian scientist K. P. Patkanov (1833–1889), who translated and published with his comments a book by the Armenian historian of the 16th century Arakel Tavrizhetsi (Tavrichesky), writes: stones played an important role; announcing to the patient that the emerald, hung at the head of the bed, dispels hypochondria, bad dreams, calms the heartbeat, dispels melancholy, etc., the doctor could count on complete success, bearing in mind the patient's faith in the effectiveness of the remedy. What is this if not psychotherapy?
Source: "50 famous mysteries of the Middle Ages"