A Lapidary of Sacred Stones: Their Magical and Medicinal Powers Based on the Earliest Sources

This book consists of folklore from ancient times to the middle ages concerning stones and gems. It is arranged alphabetically by the scientific name of the stone or gem. The author is Claude Lecouteux, a former professor at the Sorbonne who lives in Paris. It is evident that considerable research of medieval literature was required to compile this fine reference work.The editorial review provided with the Amazon product description was highly complimentary of the book's illustrations. However, if one is anticipating elegant color photographs, such as the one shown on the book's cover, the book may be disappointing. Most of the illustrations consist of small, simple black and white line drawings of various folk scenes in the medieval style. Connecting the illustrations to the surrounding text requires some imagination on the part of the reader. The majority of entries are actually text only and the book was clearly never intended to be a work of graphic art. I personally like the quaint line drawings and find them appropriate for the topic.I am enjoying the casual browsing of the very interesting content, and the book is undoubtably an informative reference source.

I love this book. Never seen a source like it, honestly, it's so close to being useful that it's painful. The stones are only organized by their ancient names, so if you're trying to find information on a stone and you only know its modern names, this will not help you. I see why there's no idex by modern name (Most of these stones have only recently been identified in any reliable way), but I'm still trying to write one that at least breaks them down by color so it's a more searchable resource. Worth the money, but know that this will also be an investment of time.

Right after I received my copy I paid $15.00 for, I got a catalog offering it on sale for $21.00 marked down from $26! I was happy I'd gotten such a good deal.

Thorough volume on the subject matter. Collecting the authors books. Must-haves.

An excellent collection of stones and the magical and sacred purposes that they have been used for. Another great look b Claude Lecouteux into the minds and beliefs of our ancestors.

This book is uses too many words in poorly delineated explanations. It relies on other people's information. I am afraid I do not like it enough to use it as a reference, the reason I purchased it. Thank you.

Great reference book for my jewelry business.

Excellent resource and reference books for ancient and medieval understandings of sacred stones!

Lapidaries were best sellers in the middle ages and so i was delighted that someone was prepared to return to those sources and others from the ancient and Arabian world and draw them together in an overview of the genre. The black and white book takes the form of an a-z list of fossils, precious and non-precious stones. Where possible the entry includes a description and then moves on to the various benefits each stone was supposed to confer.Unfortunately the result is a bit of a missmash and while the author cites sources at the end of each entry, it is impossible to determine which beliefs were attached to the stones by which ancient or medieval authors. This means anyone wanting to know which beliefs a particular authority held, would have to return to the idividual original sources, with all the difficulties of translation.I suspect the result is a little too dry and not pretty enough for the casual reader and too vague for the enthusiast.

This is an essential starting point for any serious study of medieval lapidary culture, as Lecouteux has helpfully gathered many references to stones across various sources. As said below, the specific beliefs about each stone are not attributed to their sources, but this would be a further huge work of scholarship as many virtues overlap across texts. Very handy for comparing various spellings of stone names, also.

Lots of obscure references in here, along with in depth descriptions of the more popular and well-known gems.