gems, early lapidaries, Albertus Magnus, French lapidaries, magical properties, medicine

The Middle Ages believed in the powers of precious stones: their medicinal and magical virtues were recorded in encyclopedic treatises known as lapidaries. This knowledge, inherited from Antiquity, endured for centuries: diamond grants invincibility; sapphire frees prisoners; emerald heals vision problems; amethyst protects against drunkenness; hematite stops bleeding, and so on. The powers attributed to stones operate by analogy—a mode of thinking that prevailed throughout the medieval period. This anthology of medieval lapidaries offers, for the first time, a bilingual edition of these long-dismissed and still largely unknown texts, with a selection of excerpts in Old and Middle French accompanied by their translation.