"Jasponyx" Quotes from Famous Books
 ... derived from the Semitic languages; and from the confused description of Theophrastus ('De Lapidibus', 23 and 27) and Pliny (xxxvii., 8 and 9), who rank jasper among the "opaque gems," the name appears to have been given to fragments of 'jaspachat', and to a substance which the ancients termed 'jasponyx', which we now know as 'opal-jasper'. Pliny considers a piece of jasper eleven inches in length so rare as to require his mentioning that he had actually seen such a specimen: "Magnitudinem jaspidis undecim unciarum vidimus, formatamque inde effigem Neronis thoracatam." According to Theophrastus, ...
— COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 • Alexander von Humboldt |
