THERE is no lack of studies dealing with gem stones and minerals in the Middle Ages, but they are all primarily concerned with the magical lore associated with these substances, or with lapidaries in Latin and the vernaculars which are little more than repetitions of the writings of Pliny and Damigeron. 1 Perhaps it is ignorance on my part, but I know of no reference which seeks to identify systematically, with their modern names, the gems in actual use during the mediaeval period, unless it be the New English Dictionary. Even Studer and Evans, in their edition of Anglo-Norman lapidaries, are too chary of hypotheses. For instance, they list French melochite as mohchitis, a stone -when it should be quite evident from the description that malachite, a well-known green stone, is intended. This malachite served as a pigment for early painters, and it is still used for jewel cases by such ladies as Zuleika Dobson! These same editors also make no statement of identity concerning the aetites or 'eagle stone,' when Miss Evans, in a work two years earlier in date, is well aware that the gold-mounted clapperstone (a piece of limonite with loose pebble inside) preserved in the British Museum answers the description. The late G. F. Kuntz, who contributed so much to the history of gems, has much information of this sort scattered through his books; but there is no systematic discussion of anything but the folk beliefs.In preparing this present article, I have begun by examining the jewel inventories which are extant from the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and which have been accessible to me. 2 These lists should be representative evidence of the stones that were actually treasured and collected, despite the fact that their collectors were kings or wealthy nobles. There are enough mentions of colored glass, false doublets, and 'pierrerie sans valeur' in these inventories to lead one to 1 Chief among these studies are: Joan Evans, Magical Jewels of Ike Middle Ages and the Renaissance (Oxford, 1928), G. F. Kunz, The Curious Lore of Precious Stones (Lippincott, 1918), and The Magic of Jewels and Charms (ibid., 1918), Garrett, Precious Stones in Old English Literature (Munich, diss., 1909), Paul Studer and Joan Evans, Anglo-Norman Lapidaries (Paris, 1924), and L. Pannier, Les lapidaires francais (Paris, 1879). * The most detailed of these inventories is the one made after the death of Charles v of France; it is published as the Inventaire du mobilier de Charles V (Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1879) by Jules Labarte. This is a volume in the Collection de documents inSdits sur I'histoire de France. Less voluminous is the inventory of the goods of Charles vi, edited byDouet d'Arcq in his Piices inidites relatives au regne de Charles VI (Paris: Renouard, 1864), n, 273-407. Inventories of jewels in the possession of Edward n, Edward HI, Richard n, Henry iv, Henry v, and Henry vi of England are accessible in Sir Francis Palgrave's The Antient Kalendars and Inventories of the Treasury of His Majesty's Exchequer (London, 1836), in. T...
