[Sca-cooks] Precious stones to ward off evils

[Elaine Koogler]

I have done some research on jade, particularly as I wanted to use it
as part of my heraldic title.  Jade appears to have been encountered
first by the Spanish in the Americas in the 15th century, where it was
used as a specific against kidney disease.  Because of this, the
Spanish called the stone "ijada de piedra" or "stone of the kidney."
The French began use of the stone in jewelry after that and
transliterated the name into French...can't remember the French
equivalent.  It then passed over the Channel into English as "jade."
This would have been the semi-precious jade, nephrite, which is what
is mined in the Americas including central and South America as well
as Alaska.  I don't know of any instance, even close to period, of
precious jade, jadeite, in Europe. This stone is found in China and in
southeast Asia.  All of the ceremonial jade implements in China were
nephrite jade...and it was referred to as the "Stone of Heaven."  The
character/kanji for Emperor is, interestingly enough, the same as jade
(a single vertical stroke with three horizontal strokes) with a single
dot added on the bottom crosswise stroke.

Kiri

On Nov 27, 2007 2:12 AM, Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:
> Suey replied to someone:
> <<<
> > Be that as it may there are some stones that are relatively region
> > specific, jade is specific case in point.
> >

> Jade appears to have been unknown in Europe and would have had to
> have been imported in period. So it might well be the opposite of
> what you detail. From the A-Lapidary-art file I mentioned earlier:
>
> "jade  and turquoise  do not appear in the lapidaries."
>
> Of course this is based on only four lapidaries and there could be
> other problems as highlighted by Agnes deLanvallei:
> The contents are freely "translated" by me, combining the 4
> lapidaries, possibly adding errors of interpretation.  This is
> consistent with the work of the Medieval translators (especially
> Manucript B above), whose translation of French or Latin works into
> English was in places very badly done.
>
> Stefan
>

-- 
Learning is a lifetime journey…growing older merely adds experience to
knowledge and wisdom to curiosity.
                    -- C.E. Lawrence