Folio 93v - the age of man, continued. De lapidibus igniferis; Of fire-bearing stones
Folio 94r - fire-bearing stones, continued. De lapide adamas; Of the adamas stone
COMMENTARY
Text
Isidore on the etymology of death. Physiologus on fire-bearing stones.
Illustration
The tale is divided into two scenes. A naked man and woman stand apart above a fire, offering each other fire stones. In the lower image, they embrace.
Comment
A literal illustration of the text only requires a picture of stones, as shown in London, B.L.Harley MS 3244, f. 60, but the arrangement of the figures and tree is intended to suggest the Fall in the Garden of Eden.Fire-bearing stones are male and female. When they are apart the fire does not ignite, when close together, the mountain burns. The warning is for men to stay clear of women and avoid kindling lust. Beside the painting are sketches which are a combination of the Ashmole and Aberdeen illuminations. Ashmole Bestiary, f.103v. Their comparisons are analysed here. There are colour indications: aerie or harie (blue) at the base of the upper marginal sketch (Clark 1992,225, reads this as mine for minium, red); in the upper sketch bisors, (grey). f.93v is glued to f.93r.
COMMENTARY
Text
The fire-bearing stones which ignite when near each other. Iron pyrites provide the geological basis for this account. The adamas stone.
Illustration
The adamas stone on a mountain.
Comment
The twelfth-century hand ends half way down the page and the text resumes in a late thirteenth-/early fourteenth-century script. There is a hastily painted sketch of a hill with a circle or rock on top. The upper initial is type 2. The lower initial represents the start of the later series of initials, type 4.