_Having promis'd_ (Says our Author)[30] _to say something of that most
precious sort of Jewels,_ Carbuncles, _because they are very rarely to be
met with, we shall briefly deliver what we know of them. In_ Clement _the
seventh's time, I happen'd to see one of_ _them at a certain_ Ragusian
_Merchants, nam'd_ Beigoio di Bona, _This was a Carbuncle white, of that
kind of whiteness which we said was to be found in those Rubies of which we
made mention a little above,_ (where he had said that those Rubies had a
kind of Livid Whiteness or Paleness like that of a Calcidonian) _but it had
in it a Lustre so pleasing and so marveilous, that it shin'd in the Dark,
but not as much as colour'd Carbuncles, though it be true, that in an
exceeding Dark place I saw it shine in the manner of fire almost gone out.
But as for colour'd Carbuncles, it has not been my Fortune to have seen
any, wherefore I will onely set down what I Learn'd about them Discoursing
in my Youth with a_ Roman _Gentleman of antient Experience in matters of
Jewels, who told me, That one_ Jacopo Cola _being by Night in a Vineyard of
his, and espying something in the midst of it, that shin'd like a little_
glowing Coal, at the foot of a Vine, went near towards the place where he
thought himself to have seen that fire, but not finding it, he said, that
being return'd to the same place, whence he had first descry'd it, and
perceiving there the same splendor as before, he mark'd it so heedfully,
that he came at length to it, where he took up a very little Stone, which
he carry'd away with Transports and Joy.
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