Le miracolose virtù delle pietre pretiose per salute del vivere humano” di Scipione Vasolo: un trattatello rinascimentale sulle gemme come mezzi per mantenersi in salute senza ricorrere a medicine

An unpublished miscellaneous manuscript in the Corsinian Library (Corsinianus 901) contains 14 leaves written by a late 17th century cursive hand of a treaty on precious stones (“gems”) referred to the authorship of Scipione Vasolo, a poorly-known late Renaissance writer. This section of the handwritten codex is here edited for the first time, whilst the following section, dealing with 69 decorative stones (“marbles”) and illustrated with 58 watercolours, is omitted, because it is only an abridged copy of Agostino del Riccio’s Istoria delle pietre (1597) probably compiled during the 17-18th century. The treaty by Vasolo (dated March 20, 1577) describes the properties attributed to 28 gems to keep men in good health and merry, and claims their use as being much more effective than medical treatments, as these lead men to the verge of death. This short text heavily depends upon a series of mediaeval traditions assembled by Albert the Great that mix the graeco-roman information on stones present in Pliny the Elder, as summarized by Solinus and Isidore, with prejudices on their medical and magical effects. These can be traced back to alexandrine Greek tradition (Evax), as made available to latin-speaking medieval Europe by Marbode’s poem on stones, and after some contamination with Arab traditions (e.g., Avicenna). Little original matter can be credited to Vasolo, but his strong feelings against medicines prepared by physicians and full belief on the medical properties of stone. Thus, his short treaty is more a literary piece of work than a scientific one. As such, it should be considered to belong to the tradition of Lithotherapy viz. Cristallotherapy, a pseudo-scientific subject, rather than contributing to Gemmology i.e., entering the main scientific stream of research activity that ultimately led to modern Mineralogy.