gems, early lapidaries, early gemology, early mineralogy

Féry-Hue examines a previously little-studied version of the medieval French Lapidaire chrétien en vers preserved in Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, nouvelles acquisitions françaises 11678. The manuscript, copied in the second half of the fifteenth century, contains the lapidary on fols. 1–68v; its beginning is defective because the first leaf has been lost. By comparing its text with the eight other known manuscripts of the Lapidaire chrétien, Féry-Hue demonstrates that it represents a substantially reworked and expanded recension, rather than an independent lapidary. She analyzes alterations to the traditional sequence and descriptions of stones and identifies interpolated material drawn from other medieval encyclopedic and lapidary traditions. The study therefore adds an important ninth witness to the manuscript tradition and illustrates how medieval lapidaries continued to be reorganized and augmented during transmission.