E-Books →Speculum Lapidum A Renaissance Treatise on the Healing Properties of Gemstones

Free Download Camillo Leonardi, "Speculum Lapidum: A Renaissance Treatise on the Healing Properties of Gemstones "
English | ISBN: 0271095393 | 2023 | 240 pages | PDF | 5 MB
In early modern Europe precious and semiprecious stones were valued not only for their beauty and rarity but also for their medical and magical properties. Lorenzo de' Medici, Philip II of Spain, and Popes Leo X and Clement VII were all treated with expensive potions incorporating ground gems such as rubies, diamonds, and emeralds. Medical and magical/astrological lapidaries, texts describing the stones' occult and medical qualities as well as their abilities to ward off demons and incantations, were essential resources for their use. First published in Venice in 1502, Camillo Leonardi's Speculum Lapidum is an encyclopedic summary of all classical and medieval sources of lithotherapy.