Note 27 — The Second Book.
Reading edition
Some imagine that the crystal is snow turned to ice which has been hardening thirty years, and is turned to a rock by age.
Mirror of Stones, by Camillus Leonardus Physician of Pisaro, dedicated to Cæsar Borgia.
“In the cabinet of the Prince of Monaco among other rarities are two pieces of crystal each larger than both hands clenched together. In the middle of one is about a glass full of water, and in the other is some moss, naturally enclosed there when the crystals congealed. These pieces are very curious.
Tavernier.
Crystal, precious stones, every stone that has a regular figure, and even flints in small masses and consisting of concentric coats, whether found in the perpendicular fissures of rocks, or elsewhere, are only exudations, or the concreting juices of flint in large masses; they are, therefore, new and spurious productions, the genuine stalactites of flint or of granite.
Buffen.