Alchemy has origins in ancient medicine, metallurgy and gemology. As metallurgy evolves to coloring metals the goal is to make base metals like lead look like silver or gold, and quartz made to resemble stones such as ruby, sunstone and emerald. Things eventually get complex.
Emerald is a gemstone variety of the mineral beryl. Emeralds get sumptuous greens by trace amounts of chromium and possibly vanadium. Beryl has a Mohs hardness of 7.5 - 8 but emeralds often have inclusions creating weak spots.
Like diamond, which is hard but brittle, emerald can usually be shattered with the force of a hammer. The most desirable emeralds in the ancient world and today are stones without visible inclusions.
The Papyri
The Stockholm papyrus is created c. 300 AD, about the time of the Alchemical Golden Age in Alexandria, Egypt. It's usually paired with Leyden (Leiden papyrus), found at the same time. These are written in Greek and illustrated with Egyptian motifs.
While the Leyden papyrus focuses on metals and purple fabric dyes, the Stockholm papyrus details the imitation of various precious stones and gems. Both papyri acknowledge the alloys and gems they describe are reproductions.
It's also clear these trade secrets are meant for skilled or knowledgeable operators, such as alchemists, pigment makers, jewelry makers, artisans and other practitioners with some understanding of methods and processes. The papyri are not meant as consumer information.
The two papyri are found together in Thebes, Egypt in the 19th century. Papyrus is quick to deteriorate in damp conditions and the hot dry climate is significant in preserving them. The ancient Greeks love papyrus and have an active trade relationship with Egypt.
Stockholm Papyrus - Making Emeralds
Pliny the Elder, in the 1st century AD, remarks upon the practice of counterfeiting gems:
"Nay, even more than this, there are books in existence, the authors of which I forbear to name, which give instructions how to stain crystal in such a way as to imitate smaragdus (1) and other transparent stones; how to make sardonyx of sarda (2) and other gems in a similar manner. Indeed, there is no other kind of fraud practiced by which larger profits are made."
(1) Smaragdus is Greek based on Semitic, meaning emerald. Smaragdus or Emerald can also be a given name or surname. A couple of Christian saints are named Smaragdus.
(2) Sardonyx is a type of onyx stone, a variety of chalcedony layered with sard, creating color banding usually in hues of red, white and orange. Sard itself doesn't have color banding.
Simple Preparation of Emerald:
Since the 17th century ashes have the alchemical symbol 🝗. There are two types of ash. The word cinis is used for cold, heavy ashes (cinders), while favīlla is used for glowing, light ashes (embers). Favilla is also a small incandescent fragment of lava from a volcano.
(3) The greenish-blue patina of oxidized copper is known as verdigris. The metal forms a coat of corrosion to protect the copper. Verdigris creates a pigment boom centered in 18th century Montpelier, France.
Women are primary makers of verdigris as they can create it easily at home. They also establish trade networks for the product. In response the government passes inspection laws, ostensibly to curtail fraudulent practices. Verdigris production moves to other regions.
Another recipe for emerald:
"Mix l/2 a drachma of copper green [verdigris], an equal quantity of Armenian blue (4), 1/2 a cup of the urine of an uncorrupted youth, two-thirds of the fluid of a steer's gall, and put into it the stones weighing 1/12 of a drachma each."
"Place the cover on the vessel, lute the cover with clay, and heat for 6 hours with a gentle fire of hard olive wood. However provided that this sign appears – that the cover becomes green – then heat no further but let the stones cool down, lift them out and you will find that they have become emeralds. The stones are of crystal. If crystal is boiled in castor oil it becomes black.
(4) Armenian blue is deep blue azurite from Armenia. It can be ground into powder. In antiquity most products are named after their places of origin, such as Cypriot copper (copper from Cyprus) or earth of Chios, found on the island of the same name in the North Aegean.
Greek drachmas and minas are units of weight before they come to mean currency. In antiquity, weights and measures can vary depending on region. The Attic system is widely accepted.
Approximately:
One drachma = 0.15 oz or 4.3 g
One mina = 100 drachma or 15.4 oz or 436.6 grams
One More Emerald Making Recipe:
"Mix copper green, the urine of a boy, and calves’ bile in a new pot. Lute the cover with clay, but previously put the crystals in the pot, and cook it for 5 hours with a gentle fire of olive wood.
You will suddenly see by the cover when it is to be heated no more. Cool and take them out. The cover of the pot should, however, be unbaked."
Non-Fiction Books:
Fiction Books:
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