A Lapidary: Or, The History of Pretious Stones:

£16,500 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Wing N1145 (there is a more common variant state of the title with imprint “Cambridge: by Thomas Buck, Printer to the Universitie of Cambridge, 1652.”). Reissued the following year with a new title, Arcula gemmea: or, A cabinet of jevvels : discovering the nature, vertue, value of pretious stones, with infallible rules to escape the deceit of all such as are adulterate and counterfei t, and with a London imprint for Nathaniel Brooke, 1653. Reissued again in 1659 with a new title, Gemmarius fidelius, or, The faithful lapidary … ,, with Nicols’ name replaced with initials and with a London imprint for Henry Marsh. This copy has an extra leaf after B2 with a 28-line poem by the author on the recto (verso blank) titled “A friendly pleasure” and signed “T.N.”: “Askest thou how Nature doth form her births? | What’s the mysterious off-spring of th’ earths | Womb? Wouldst thou know how gemms have their glory? | …”. It has not been noted as appearing in other copies and is not included in the Union First Line Index of English Verse . Nicols, of whom little is known except that he was a son of a Cambrdge physician and was admitted to Jesus College, Cambridge in 1640, “wrote what is **generally considered to be the first independent gemmological book by a British author…**he book is separated into two distinct parts. The first part is a general treatise on gemstones, while the second describes the individual characteristics of particular gemstones and decorative materials. Nicols states

• Year: 1652

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