gems, early lapidaries, Alfonso X, Spain, Catalan, astrology, mythology, magical gems

Amasuno investigates the presence and transformation of the pharmacological tradition of Dioscorides’ De materia medica in the Lapidario produced under Alfonso X of Castile. Rather than treating the Lapidario simply as a work of mineralogy or astrology, he places it within the broader medieval tradition of materia medica, examining the medicinal virtues attributed to stones and the textual channels through which classical scientific knowledge reached thirteenth-century Castile. Particular attention is given to the transmission of Dioscoridean material through the Arabic scientific tradition, its relationship to other lapidary sources, and the ways in which medical, astrological and magical concepts were brought together in the Alfonsine work. The study thus uses the Lapidario as an example of the translation, adaptation and synthesis of Greek and Arabic scientific learning at the court of Alfonso X. Amasuno’s later discussion of the medical content of the Lapidario explicitly refers back to this book for its treatment of the different eastern and western lapidary traditions.