gems, early lapidaries, early gemology, early mineralogy, Arabic Mineralogy, early lapidaries

With the question “Where from?”, with the search for origins or “principles,” theory separates itself from practice, whose question is “To what end?” Both in fact have an infinite goal; we know as little of the ultimate purposes as of the first beginnings. But asking about ultimate purposes is simply not “practical”; practical people are concerned only with immediate aims, which, for most, are also the ultimate ones. The seeker of origins relies not only in the natural sciences but also in human history—particularly in the history of science and literature—on the supplementation of facts by conjectures and assumptions (hypotheses), which are legitimate or, as the French say, have a raison d’être, as long as they avoid the appearance of being facts and are presented for what they are. This necessary caution should guide us as well, when we introduce a relatively rich branch of medieval literature with an attempt to discover its roots before we endeavor, in a brief overview, to survey some of its fruits. We imagine the origin and development of lapidaries in the following way.