Abstract
Every ornament, ecclesiastical or secular, is a reminder of the curse which rests on mankind.
Translation from Latin by M. Rohde in Gustav Scherz, Steno—Geological Papers, 250–267. Notes by Gustav Scherz and his associates: Our Latin Text did not have the heading Ornamenta in the MS. of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale in Florence (Gal. 291, fol. 192r–203r - the volume also contains the Chaos MS.). This text corresponds in essentials to that of the Biblioteca Laurenziana (Nicolai Stenonis Opera. Medic. Palat. 36. Sermo XL p. 272–285). (L.MS.), which was published for the first time by V. Maar (Oversigt over det Kgl. Danske Videnskabernes Selskabs Forhandlinger 1910. p. 328–337), and which was also the basis for reproduction in Opera Theologica (2, 342–349). The copy not only dates from St.’s own period, but was also checked by him, corrected and implemented in parts by notes in the margin and between the lines. These additions throw also some light on the motive, place, and time of the writing (1675–1677), on St.’s mind, and his knowledge of language. We are grateful to J. and M. Götte of Berlin for a thorough revision of the Latin text which they also compared carefully with the L. MS. and the copy in the OTH. Peculiarities in our Ch. MS. will be apparent from its reproduction, but notes indicate discrepancies.
Translation reproduced by permission from the University Press of Southern Denmark. Read the manuscript in BNCF with errata by Stensen: http://teca.bncf.firenze.sbn.it/ImageViewer/servlet/ImageViewer?idr=BNCF0003561685#page/362/mode/2up.
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- 1.
The classification 1, 2, 3 in box and 1, 2 below from St’s hand.
- 2.
Cf. the following impression of St’s which could stem from his father's goldsmith shop: Ex furnis, ubi minerale excoqvuntur, diffusa lux omnibus omnes etiam sanissimas facies Hippocraticas morti simillimas reddit, et quid de illorum luce dicam, qvae res sanctissimas ut perniciosissimas, impias et sacrilegas repraesentat? (OTH 1, 271).
- 3.
St. had seen the iron-ore mines of Rio and the Monte Calamita on Elba, saltmines and lagoni around Volterra, quarries in Massa and Carrara, mines of salt, silver and emerald in the Tyrol and Salzburg, and gold and silver mines in Schemnitz and Kremnitz in the Slovakian ore mountains—probably also mines in Bohemia and Saxony.
- 4.
St. was familiar with Pascal's experiments with air pressure, and those of the Cimento Academy. He notes in his Chaos MS.: N.B. a continuation of new experiments de pondere aëris. Oxon. 1668 (Firenze. B. N. Gal. 291. fol. 76 v). Remember that it was not until a century later that H. Cavendish and C. W. Scheele described hydrogen and oxygen, and that the 17th century was still occupied with the investigation of the material composition of air (P. Walden, Geschichte der Chemie, Bonn 1950, 43 ff.).
- 5.
Arsenicum, here probably stands for Arsenic trioxide as it is seen in the rusting process of ores containing arsenic under the name of "Hüttenrauch"; it is also found in iron springs containing arsenic, and can be a deadly poison (In Italy in Levico, Roncegno; cf. also H. Bauer, Geschichte der Chemie (Leipzig 1905) 30 f. and T. M. Stiliman, The Story of Alchemy and Early Chemistry (New York 1960) 19 and 46. Also E. S. Dana, Textbook of Mineralogy (New York 1957) 370). Mercurius the Latin name for mercury, quicksilver. It is seldom found in its purest form in nature and is produced by the rusting of cinnabar (mercuric sulphide). Even very faint quicksilver vapours can be deadly poisonous (Cf. Stillman 44; Bauer 1, 30 f.). Antimonium stands for Antimony glance (Sb2S3), soluble in water and more or less poisonous; it was once used a good deal as medicine, but caused too much damage (Bauer 1, 56, Dana Textbook 411). Cf. also the pieces of arsenic-cobalt pyrites (276), cinnabar and mercury ores (44 x, 274, 275) and antimony (15, 273) in Scherz, Indice.
- 6.
Since Marco Polo’s times many travellers had given reports on the West Indian pearl-fishing in the Gulf of Manar. St. was probably thinking of the extensive pearl-fishing carried out at Cape Komorin every spring by Parava fishermen from the lowest caste of the Sudro. Dressed in a scanty loin cloth, with a net for the mussels round their necks, and weighted down by a stone, these fishermen dived down into the water at the bare, sun-scorched beach; they gathered all the mussels within their reach within 1 or 2 min, and then they were pulled up again, to continue the work for 5 or 6 h. Some of the fishers bled through the mouth, nose and ears because they had held their breath for too long. Others lost consciousness and suffocated, and some disappeared completely in their struggle with the numerous sharks, or were pulled back into the boat torn to shreds. The mussels were then poured into large ditches, and, covered with flies, gave off a terrible stench before the pearls could be washed out of the rotting flesh. Moorish merchants and rulers cheated the poor divers out of the rewards of their labours and the lamentations of the womenfolk in Parava village over fathers, sons, husbands and brothers who never returned, were dreadful to bear. (G. Schurhammer, Franz Xaver. Sein Leben und seine Zeit. 2 (Freiburg 1963) 261 ff.).
- 7.
St. may have seen how difficult it was to produce the larva out of the cocoon in the silk spinning-mills in Northern Italy. Two of his best friends, M. Malpighi and Jan Swammerdam, were particularly interested in the silk worm at this time (cf. EP 1, 30 f., Cole, History 177 f., 260 ff.). St.’s notes of 1668 show an interest in a work of Henry Bond in which he talks of mulberry trees for silk worms, and he also mentions a tract by a certain Mons. Isuard on “Silk and Silk Worms” (Florence B. N. Gal. 291, fol. 79v).
- 8.
These quotations from the Scriptures (cf. Gen 3, 14, 17–19; 4, 11; 5, 29) are authorative on the Christian attitude to the problem of evil. The sententia judicis, maledictio, is the proclamation of temporal evil and eternal damnation as God's punishment for sin—especially original sin. The discussions about the nature and degree of the disturbed order of the universe and about conceptions such as paradise, freedom from suffering and death often varied and depended on the knowledge of the order of nature. The carentia justitiae originalis was regarded as a result of original sin as was the lack of order in nature caused by concupiscence and the upsetting of the natural order in man, which would also have existed without grace (the darkening of the mind and weakening of the will; cf. Thomas Aqu. S. th. I II g 82, a 5). In his treatise on “Original Sin, Sin and Repentance.” (OTH 2, 453, ff.). St. refers to the opinions of Augustine and Bonaventure and to the theology of his own time. He realises of course that there is also innocent suffering, “so that the works of God will be revealed” (John 9, 3). He also knows of the healing force, wisdom and blessedness of suffering (Matth. 5, 10). On the other hand, in his treatise on the freedom of the will, he opposes the optimism of Leibniz who sees the creation as a necessary revelation of the being of God. Cf. Note 14.
- 9.
Ole Worm had already declared his support of B. de Boot’s view that pearls are formed just like stones in the gall and bladder (Gemmarum et lapidarum historia. 3rd ed. Ludg. Bat., 168. A. Garboe. Ædelstene, 35).
- 10.
The remark: “the small, almost invisible worms of the Kermes berries, the parasitic fruit of the plant-louse bearing stone-oak” refers to the insect-families of the gall-producing Aphidae and of the Coccides which swarm over the quercus coccifera (Scarlet-oak - Kermes-oak or pigmy-oak, an evergreen tree in Southern Europe). The bark was used in former times for tanning (Jul. v. Weisner, Die Rohstoffe des Pflanzenreiches. Bd. 1–3, Leipzig, 1914/21; 2 (1918) 177–221.
- 11.
Cocciniglia (Italian name), belongs to the family of Coccidae (Homoptera), of which upwards of 800 species are known. Insects, usually minute, the male with one pair of wings, the female wingless- and usually so degraded in form that most of the external organs cannot be distinguished. Such Coccids, in their scale, an accumulation of excreted matter, are known as mealy-bugs or as “ground-pearls” (The Cambridge Natural History. Vol. VI. Insects by D. Sharp, 2, 592–599) and a dangerous pest on plants (Stefan von Kéler, Entomologisches Wörterbuch, Berlin 1963, 133 f.).
- 12.
The purple dye of the Ancients was got with great difficulty from the yellowish secretion of the snail species Murex brandaris, and was used particularly for royal robes. Byssus was first the fine transparent linen weave of the old Egyptians, got from a linen plant growing in the Nile Delta; second, mussel silk, also got with difficulty from a glandular secretion on the foot muscle of different mussels. (Handb. der Naturwiss. 6 (1912) 11; 9 (1913) 1232; cf. Scherz, Indice 44 B and C; 120 and p. 218, 230).
- 13.
Exodus 28, 2 ff. Bishop Epiphanius of Salamis (ca. 315–403) wrote: De 12 gemmis Rationalis Summi Sacerdotis Hebraeorum liber ad Diodorum in which the 12 precious stones in Aaron’s shield are described allegorically and scientifically (printed too by Gesner, De omni rerum fossilium genere. Tiguri 1565).
- 14.
Cf. Ps. 45, Cant. 4 and 8. Cf. A. Dragsted, De ædle Stene og deres Mystik (Kjøbenhavn 1933) p. 162 ff.
- 15.
Matth. 2, 11.
- 16.
Matth. 13, 43 ff. Cf. Dragsted, p. 174 ff.
- 17.
Luk. 13, 22.
- 18.
St. knew Athanasius Kircher in Rome, the most distinguished scholar of hieroglyphic and Egyptian literature in his time (EP 1, 109 f.).
- 19.
Many books on precious stones, in Classical Times and in Middle Ages, dealt with the symbolism of precious stones and interpreted their colours in the spirit of Christian perfection. This symbolism was still current when St. himself and Boyle gained a more thorough knowledge of minerals. J. G. Scheuchzer (1672–1733), Physica Sacra (I—IV) (Aug. Vind: 1731/35 1, 224 ff.) was still one of the main works in this field in the 18th century. In it the symbolism of stones is explained in the Razionale of the Jewish High Priest (A. Pazzini, Le Pietre Preziose 57 ff., 250 ff.). St. liked to see a reflection of spiritual beauty in the beauty of creation, cf. his Proemium (OPH 2, 249 ff.), the many exclamations on the beauty and fascination of glands (OPH 1, 18), of the ray's eye (1, 206) and of anatomy in general, in his scientific writings. Yet, it is remarkable that discussing the qualities of stones as symbols of virtue, Steno never speaks of their pretended psychical or medical qualities, the chief subject of old books of that kind (Cf. Garboe, Ædelstene 61ff.).
- 20.
To the privileges of a bishop belong especially the liturgical garments at episcopal functions, as for example the garments for feet, hands, the Tunicella, the Cappa Magna, which are put on to the accompaniment of prayers—most important are the mitre, ring and staff. Codex Juris can. 337; Lex f. Theol. u. Kirche 8 (1936) 373.—Canon Missae ad usum episcoporum etc. Ed. V. (Ratisbonae 1922) 11ff.
- 21.
Elektron stands either for amber, or a gold-silver mixture with a varying proportion. Ezechiel 1, 4 ff.
- 22.
In the Christian era, the terms oricalcum or aurichalcum undoubtedly refer to brass (Georgius Agricola, De Re Metallica ed. by H. Bl. Hoover and I. H. Hoover (London 1912) 409).—Aurichalcite a basic carbonate of zinc and copper, is found near Campiglia in Tuscany (Dana, Textbook 529).
- 23.
Jasper is impure opaque colored quartz (Dana, Textbook 473).
- 24.
Maar has adornamentorum. Sapphire may be a lapis lazuli. The term is also often used to indicate corundum gems of any color except red (Dana, Textbook 473).
- 25.
Sardonyx, sardin like onyx in structure, but includes layers of cornelian (sard) along with others of different colors (Dana, Textbook 338, 473). On Sardin cf. note 36, and Dragsted, De ædle Stene 80ff.—Garboe, Ædelstene p. 37 ff.
- 26.
Apoc. 1, 12–16; 21, 15; 19–21 etc. Franciscus Rueus (De la Rue) wrote De gemmis aliquot, iis praesertim quarum D. Johannes Apostolus in sua Apocalypsi meminit (Francoforti 1608), printed by Gesner (cf. Note 21). Hyacinth, the orange, reddish and brownish transparent kind of the Zircon Group, used for gems (Dana, Textbook 610).
- 27.
1. Cor. 2, 9. According to St. Paul it is usually ascendit.
- 28.
Myrrhinum. The wine, spiced with a bitter resin-like Arabic plant extract, myrrha. (Forcellini, Lexikon 3 (1940) 325).
- 29.
Ps. 49, 11.
- 30.
Ps. 146,11.
- 31.
Math. 10,30.
- 32.
1 Cor. 15,28.
- 33.
See Gen. 3,1f. Just as Hagar (Gen. 16, 7), Abraham (Gen. 22, 11), Tobias (3, 25ff.) or Isaias (6, 2) had visions of angels in the O.T.—so did Joseph (Matth. 1, 20 ff.), Zacharias (Luc. 1, 12) and many others in the N. T. Compare Gen. 3, 1 for the angel's words to the serpent.
- 34.
Gen. 2,20.
- 35.
Gen. 3,7.
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Kardel, T., Maquet, P. (2018). 2.36 Ornaments: Monuments, Signs, Arguments. In: Nicolaus Steno. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-55047-2_47
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