Lapis armenus
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Lapis armenus, also known as Armenian stone or lapis stellatus, in natural history, is a variety of precious stone, resembling lapis lazuli, except that it is softer, and instead of veins of pyrite, is intermixed with green. "The Armenian stone" is so nearly identical to lapis lazuli that it has often not been distinguished from it[1][2]; Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary for instance treats the two terms as synonyms[3].
Herman Boerhaave believed it rather to rank among semi-metals, and supposed it was composed of both metal and earth. He added that it only differs from lazuli in degree of maturity, and that both of them seem to contain arsenic.
It has been found in Tirol, Hungary, and Transylvania, and used both in mosaic work, to make the blue color azure, and as a treatment of melancholia.[4]
The 1816 Encyclopedia Perthensis notes that Armenian stone "was anciently brought of Armenia, but now found in Germany, Tyrol".
[edit] References
- This article incorporates content from the 1728 Cyclopaedia, a publication in the public domain. [1]
- ^ Simply Crystals Jackson, p. 102
- ^ Handbook and Descriptive Catalogue of the Collections of Gems and Precious Stones p. 201 by George Perkins Merrill]
- ^ 1998 Webster's
- ^ Burton, Robert (1621). SUBSECT. II.—Simples purging Melancholy downward.. The Anatomy of Melancholy. Retrieved on 24 May 2006.
