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Bible Encyclopedias
Emerald
1911 Encyclopedia Britannica
or a bright green variety of beryl, much valued as a gem-stone. The word comes indirectly from the Gr. if apay50s (Arabic zumurrud), but this seems to have been a name vaguely given to a number of stones having little in common except a green colour. Pliny's "smaragdus" undoubtedly included several distinct species. Much confusion has arisen with respect to the "emerald" of the Scriptures. The Hebrew word no phek, rendered emerald in the Authorized Version, probably meant the carbuncle: it is indeed translated avOpa in the Septuagint, and a marginal reading in the Revised Version gives carbuncle. On the other hand, the word baregath, rendered ap.fipaybos in the LXX., appears in the A.V. as carbuncle, with the alternative reading of emerald in the R.V. It may have referred to the true emerald, but Flinders Petrie suggests that it meant rock-crystal.
The properties of emerald are mostly the same as those described under Beryl. The crystals often show simply the hexagonal prism and basal plane. The prisms cleave, though imperfectly, at right angles to the geometrical axis; and hexagonal slices were formerly worn in the East. Compared with most gems, the emerald is rather soft, its hardness (7.5) being but slightly above that of quartz. The specific gravity is low, varying slightly in stones from different localities, but being for the Muzo emerald about 2.67. The refractive and dispersive powers are not high, so that the cut stones display little brilliancy or "fire." The emerald is dichroic, giving in the dichroscope a bluish-green and a yellowish-green image. The magnificent colour which gives extraordinary value to this gem, is probably due to chromium. F. Wohler found 0.186% of Cr 2 0 3 in the emerald of Muzo,- a proportion which, though small, is sufficient to impart an emerald-green colour to glass. The stone loses colour when strongly heated, and M. Lewy suggested that the colour was due to an organic pigment. Greville Williams showed that emeralds lost about 9% of their weight on fusion, the specific gravity being reduced to about 2.4.
The ancients appear to have obtained the emerald from Upper Egypt, where it is said to have been worked as early as 1650 B.C. It is known that Greek miners were at work in the time of Alexander the Great, and in later times the mines yielded their gems to Cleopatra. Remains of extensive workings were discovered in the northern Etbai by the French traveller, F. Cailliaud, in 1817, and the mines were re-opened for a short time under Mehemet Ali. "Cleopatra's Mines" are situated in Jebel Sikait and Jebel Zabara near the Red Sea coast east of Assuan. They were visited in 1891 by E. A. 'Toyer, and the Sikait workings were explored in 1900 by D. A. MacAlister and others. The Egyptian emeralds occur in mica-schist and talc-schist.
On the Spanish conquest of South America vast quantities of emeralds were taken from the Peruvians, but the exact locality which yielded the stones was never discovered. The only South American emeralds now known occur near Bogota, the capital of Colombia. The most famous mine is at Muzo, but workings are known also at Coscuez and Somondoco. The emerald occurs in nests of calcite in a black bituminous limestone containing ammonites of Lower Cretaceous age.. The mineral is associated with quartz, dolomite, pyrites, and the rare mineral called "parisite" - a fluo-carbonate of the cerium metals, occurring in brownish-yellow hexagonal crystals, and named after J. J. Paris, who worked the emeralds. It has been suggested that the Colombian emerald is not in its original matrix. The fine stones are called canutillos and the inferior ones morallion. In 1830 emeralds were accidentally discovered in the Ural Mountains. At the present time they are worked on the river Takovaya, about 60 m. N.E. of Ekaterinburg, where they occur in mica-schist, associated with aquamarine, alexandrite, phenacite, &c. Emerald is found also in mica-schist in the .Habachthal, in the Salzburg Alps, and in granite at Eidsvold in Norway. Emerald has been worked in a vein of pegmatite, piercing slaty rocks, near Emmaville, in New South Wales. The crystals occurred in association with topaz, fluorspar and cassiterite; but they were mostly of rather pale colour. In the United States, emerald has occasionally been found, and fine crystals have been obtained from the workings for hiddenite at Stonypoint, Alexander county, N.C.
Many virtues were formerly ascribed to the emerald. When worn, it was held to be a preservative against epilepsy, it cured dysentery, it assisted women in childbirth, it drove away evil spirits, and preserved the chastity of the wearer. Administered internally it was reputed to have great medicinal value. In consequence of its refreshing green colour it was naturally said to be good for the eyesight.
The stone known as "Oriental emerald" is a green corundum. Lithia emerald is the mineral called hiddenite; Uralian emerald is a name given to demantoid; Brazilian emerald is merely green tourmaline; evening emerald is the peridot; pyro-emerald is fluorspar which phosphoresces with a green glow when heated; and "mother of emerald" is generally a green quartz or perhaps in some cases a green felspar.
See [[Aquamarine, Beryl. (F. W. R. *) Emeric - David, Toussaint - Bernard]] (1755-1839), French archaeologist and writer on art, was born at Aix, in Provence, on the 10th of August 1755. He was destined for the legal profession, and having gone in 1775 to Paris to complete his legal education, he acquired there a taste for art which influenced his whole future career, and he went to Italy, where he continued his art studies. He soon returned, however, to his native village, and followed for some time the profession of an advocate; but in 1787 he succeeded his uncle Antoine David as printer to the parlement. He was elected mayor of Aix in 1791; and although he speedily resigned his office, he was in 1 793 threatened with arrest, and had for some time to adopt a vagrant life. When danger was past he returned to Aix, sold his printing business, and engaged in general commercial Ppursuits; but he was not long in renouncing these also, in order to devote himself exclusively to literature and art. From 1809 to 1814, under the Empire, he represented his department in the Lower House (Corps legislatif); in 1814 he voted for the downfall of Napoleon; in 1815 he retired into private life, and in 1816 he was elected a member of the Institute. He died in Paris on the 2nd of April 1839. Emeric-David was placed in 1825 on the commission appointed to continue L'Histoire litteraire de la France. His principal works are Recherches sur fart statuaire, considers chez les anciens et les modernes (Paris, 1805), a work which obtained the prize of the Institute; Suite d'etudes calquees et dessinees d'apres cinq tableaux de Raphael (Paris, 1818-1821), in 6 vols. fol.; Jupiter, ou recherches sur ce dieu, sur son culte, &c. (Paris, 1833) ,2 vols. 8vo, illustrated; and Vulcain (Paris,1837).
These files are public domain.
Chisholm, Hugh, General Editor. Entry for 'Emerald'. 1911 Encyclopedia Britanica. https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/bri/e/emerald.html. 1910.
