Folio 99v - Decimum crisopassus; The tenth, chrysoprase. Undecimum Iacinctus; The eleventh, hyacinth
The tenth, chrysoprase The tenth foundation is chrysoprase. This stone, according to Isidorus, comes from India, and is purple in colour with separate, small gold marks; for this reason it gets its name crisopassus, 'scattered everywhere with gold'. It signifies desire of the the heavenly land, which burns the more brightly, the more it is affected by tribulation, because, as Gregory says: 'What a bellows does to coal, tribulation does to love.' Chrisoprase is placed in the tenth position, because holy men, in their desire for heaven, hasten to reach the tenth order of angels by observing the ten commandments. The tenth order is the one which will be renewed from men. In this context, man is called, in Luke, 15, the tenth piece of silver which the woman searched for and found (see 15:8-10). Verse India, its home, sends us the stone called chrysoprase. It shines with the sap of the leek and is of mixed colour, tinted with purple and marked with gold. The eleventh, hyacinth The eleventh foundation is hyacinth. This stone changes in accordance with the weather: on clear days, it is transparent; when the sky is overcast, it is opaque. For this reason it signifies the judgement of holy men, who use it, as the Lord did, to adapt to all conditions of life, in order to win the hearts of all men; as the apostle says, 1 Corinthians, 9: 'I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save all' (see 9:22); Romans, 12: ' Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep' (12:15). This virtue enables holy teachers to know what, to whom, when and how to preach. This stone is placed in the eleventh position, because through it, especially, all manner of sin is avoided. Verse The learned say that there are three kinds of hyacinth. The best is the kind whose colour is not so dense as to be obscure or so light as to be transparent but has a purple, myrtle-like bloom drawn from both parts of the spectrum.
Folio 99v - Decimum crisopassus; The tenth, chrysoprase. Undecimum Iacinctus; The eleventh, hyacinth | The Aberdeen Bestiary | The University of Aberdeen