ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Role of the Lapidary as a Purveyor of Mineral Materia Medica in Early Modern London

• In Event: UNEARTHED II: Res inanimatae in Late Medieval and Early Modern Medicine

English Abstract

The assortment of medical professionals practicing within the early modern medical marketplace of seventeenth century London was as diverse and eccentric as the treatments they administered. This paper seeks to add to existing scholarship on early modern pharmacology by recognizing the role of a little-known purveyor of cures and therapies within this community: the lapidary. While commonly defined as “one who sells stones or produces jewelry,” print and manuscript sources suggest that a “lapidary,” or lapidarius, occupied a professional position parallel to an apothecary by dispensing cures recommended by apothecaries, midwives and physicians. An expert on the natural healing virtues of the materia medica that fell within the pharmacological category of “stones” as established by the natural studies and pharmacopoeias of the ancient and medieval world, a master lapidary sold gemstones and therapeutic items of jewelry along with the medical knowledge about their healing “virtues.” To better understand the role of the lapidary as a heath practitioner within the consumer-driven medical marketplace of early modern London, this paper will explore references to and representations of lapidaries found in both early modern popular print as well as manuscript sources focused on the trade of gemstones & minerals. Drawing on the personal journal of a master lapidary working in seventeenth-century London as well as apothecary inventories from the same period, this paper also examines the origin and costs of items for sale within an early modern English lapidary along with their intended uses found within contemporary pharmacopoeias and manuals of popular healing.

Author

• Nichola Harris, SUNY, Ulster