Gems Notes and Extracts Augusto Castellani, Mrs. John Brogden 1871

SAPPHIRE. 229and very seldom purple.The best are found in Media,but nowhere are they found transparent. Besides this,they are difficult to be worked and useless for theengraver, as they contain certain crystalline spots."Isidore, however, remarks that the " sapphirus ccerulensest cum purpura Jicibens pulveres aureos sparsos"May not this be the lapis-lazuli ?Some modern authors believe the modern sapphireto be the ancient cyanos, of which Pliny writes :" Turquoise stone of a blue colour. . . . The bestare found in Scythia; the next best in Cyprus, andafter them, in Egypt.means of a certainThey are generally imitated bytincture, and the discovery of thisis attributed to a king of Egypt. This stone is alsodivided into masculine and feminine. It sometimescontains dust of gold, not like that of the sapphire."It is generally believed that this substance is thesulphate of copper, which, in its native state, is almosttransparent, and of considerable hardness ;this opinionagrees with the description given by Theophrastus* ofthe cyanos, in which it is clearly seen that the Egyptianimitation of the cyanosis the paste or blue vitrificationwhich is found in almost all ancient Egyptianornaments, and still made by modern Egyptian workmen,and called zaffre.But, on the other hand, let us remember what Solinohas written :"Amongst the Ethiopian thingsof which we havespoken, the hyacinthus is of a brightbluish colour :* Chap. 55.