king, chanced to swallow it down as if it had bin some bait; which being afterwards caught by [unspec A] fishers, & thought to be of an extraordinary bignes, was brought as a present into the kings pal∣lace, and so sent into the kitchen; where the cook found within the belly therof the foresaid ring of his lords & masters. Oh the subtiltie of slie Fortune, who all this while twisted the cord that another day should hang Polycrates! This stone (as it is wel known) was a Sardonyx: & if we may beleeue it, the very same it is, which at Rome is shewed in the temple of Concord, where Augusta the Empresse dedicated it as an oblation, enchased within a golden horne: and verily if it be the same, one of the least Sardonyches it is among many other there which be preferred before it.
Next to this stone of Polycrates, there goeth a royall name of the gem which Pyrrhus K. of Al∣banie had, him I mean, who warred against the Romans: for (by report) an Agath he had, where∣in a man might see the nine Muses, and Apollo with his harpe, liuely represented, not by art and [unspec B] mans hand, but euen naturally imprinted: for the veins and streaks of the stone were so disposed, that a man might distinguish euery one of the Muses asunder, & ech one distinguished by their seueral marks and ornaments. Setting aside these two gems aboue-named, we do not read in au∣thors of any great reckoning made of such iewels; vnlesse wee speake of one Ismenias a famous minstrell, who had the name to weare many of them ordinarily about him, and those very gay and glittering: and surely his vanity that way was such, that there goeth a notable tale of him; for meeting vpon a time in a merchants hand with an Emeraud in the Island Cyprus, wherin la∣die Amymone was engrauen, and wherof the price was at first held at six deniers in gold, he made no more ado but caused the mony to be paid presently: but the merchant being a man of some conscience, and thinking indeed the price to high, gaue two of them back again vnto Ismenias: [unspec C] whereat being ill apaid, I beshrew you, (qd. he) for this bating of the mony hath much empai∣red the worth of the stone. This Ismenias (as it is thought) was the first who brought vp the order that all such musicians and minstrels as himselfe, should be known by their gems, and esteemed skilfull in that art according as they were set out therwith more or lesse. And in very truth, Dio∣nysodorus a great minstrell, who liued in those daies with him, vsed likewise to be in his change and variety of pretious stones, because he would not seeme any way to come behind Ismenias. There was a third also as vaine as the best, a musician in that age named Nicomachus, who loued to haue a number of gems about him, but no iudgement hee had in the world to chuse them. These examples which offer themselues by fortune to me in the beginning of this my booke, may serue to pull downe their plumes who stand so much vpon the vaine ostentation of these [unspec D] stones, when they shal see how all the pride they take herein, smelleth but of the vain humor of some odd minstrels. But to return againe to Polycrates his gem, at this day it is to be seen within the temple of Concord, whole & sound. And not only in the time of Ismenias, but also many yeres after, it should seem that Emerauds were wont to be cut and engrauen. This opinion also may be confirmed by the act & edict of K. Alexander the Great, which forbad expresly, That no man should be so hardy as to engraue his image in pretious stone, but Pyrgoteles; who (no doubt) was simply the best in that art. After him, Apollonides and Cronius were of great fame: & principally one Dioscorides, who counterfeited in stone the liuely forme of Augustus Caesar, the which serued the Emperors his successors as a signet to seale withall. Sylla Dictator was wont alwais to signe with a seale representing K. Iugurtha, tied & bound as he was yeelded to him. We read in Chro∣nicles [unspec E] also, that a certaine Spaniard of Intercatia, whose father Scipio Aemilianus slew in single fight, vsed afterwards no other seale but that which represented this combat: whereupon grew this merry conceit of Stilo Praeconinus, who asked, What this Spaniard would haue done if his father had killed Scipio? Augustus late Emperour of worthy memory, vsed at the beginning to seale with the image Sphinx vpon his signet: and verily in the casket of his mothers jewels, two of these he found so like one to the other, that one could not be known and discerned from the other: & as he was wont to weare one of them about him whersoeuer he went, so in his absence (during the ciuile wars which he leuied against M. Antonius) his friends who managed his af∣fairs at Rome, signed with the other Sphinx, al those letters & edicts which passed in his name, for the performance of some demands which those times did require. And from hence it came, [unspec F] that those who receiued any such letters or edicts, containing some matter of difficulty, were wont pleasantly and merrily to say, That the said Sphinx came euer with some hard riddle or other that could not be expounded. Moreouer, the frog, wherwith Moecenas vsed to seale, was al∣waies terrible to those who receiued any letters signed therewith; for euermore they were sure