THESE precious Treasures, which lie concealed in the Bowels of the Earth, and in the Depths of the Sea, have likewise merited the Attention of our most celebrated Criticks. Their laudable Curiosity has pushed them on to examine the Beauties, Nature, Use and Properties of these Stones, which the Avarice of Mankind puts them upon ransacking both Sea and Land to discover.
S. Epiphanii de duodecim gemmis pectoralis summi Pontif. t. 2. Operum. This little Treatise was printed separately in Greek and Latin at Zurich, 1566. in 8vo. and with Salmasius’s Notes, in the Work of Matthew Hiller upon these twelve Stones, printed at Tubingen, 1698 and 1711, in 4to. Of this last Author we have been just now speaking.
Franc. Ruæi, de gemmis Apocalyps. Franc. 1596, in 12mo. It is printed likewise with Lemnius’s Treatise upon Plants. See the foregoing Article. His Work is divided into two Books, whereof there have been several Editions; that which we have taken notice of is the last. He also put out the Hebrew Names of Precious Stones, in a Piece printed at Lyons, 1588, in 8vo. He was of Lisle in Flanders, a Doctor of Physick, and died in 1585.
Ludovic. de Dieu, Comment. in Exod. c. xxviii. 17. See his Title in the Index.
Edward. Bernard. Not. ad Josepb. l. 3. Antiq. p. 180. We have before mentioned this Edition in the Beginning of the Article of History.
Paschasii Baldwini, de Hebraicis gemmarum nominibus. This is only a Letter which Baldwin wrote upon the Hebrew Names of Pearls, and it does not appear that it was printed. The Author was a Fleming, and a Canon-Regular, according to Valerius Andreas, who speaks of him in his Bibliotheca Belgica, where he takes notice of his Works that do not continue in Manuscript.
Joan. Braunii, de vestitu sacerdotum Hebr. l. 2. c. 8. where he speaks of the Stones belonging to the Pectoral. The Edition is mentioned above. See his Title in the Index.
Jacobi Bayeri, Dissert. de Sapphiro sacræ Script. printed at Altorf, 1705. He pretends here that this was nothing more than the Lapis-lazuli, or Azure Stone, which is the same thing. Bayer was a German Lutheran, Professor of the Mathematicks, at Altorf, about 1707. See his other Dissertations upon Job.
Samuelis Reiberi, Mathesis Mosaica. Kiel. 1679. in 4to.
Joan. de Mey, Physiologia Sacra. Middleburg, 1661. in 4to.
Fabricius in his Bibliographia names several others who have written upon the same Subject.