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chalcedony - am I blue?
Protective amulets of opaque chalcedonies like the one to the right would have been quite common in the ancient world.

The fierce inscription on this Assyrian white chalcedony demon amulet reads: "May SÎN, lord of the crown, quiet you; may Ninurta, lord of weapons, break your weapons; may Nergal, lord of the netherworld hold you in battle; may Ea and Asalluhi cut off your poison. Clear off!"
protective magic

chalcedony demon amulet, assyria, 900-600 bc
photo: the schoyen collection

Many past cultures chose chalcedonies as the medium from which to craft their amulets. Created by temple priests, amulets were worn for any variety of reason -- to secure public favor, ensure victories, keep a lover faithful, keep one safe on a journey, or protect the wearer from political upheaval or war.
Greek seafarers in the third or fourth century AD wore chalcedony and 'carbuncle' (probably garnet) amulets to avoid drowning. And astrologers of the Middle Ages wore engraved signet rings of chalcedony as amulets.
In 330 AD, Roman Emperor Constantine made Byzantium his capital, renaming it Roma Secunda (the "new or second Rome"). Several emperors later it became Konstantinoupolis ("city of Constantine"). Again renamed after the Ottoman conquest in 1454, it became Dar-es-Saadet ("Door of Happiness"), morphing to Stamboul or Istamboul , a corruption of the Greek expression eis ten polin , meaning "in the city."
From a strategic standpoint, Byzantium's location was light years better than Chalcedon's -- a factor in Constantine's choice of a new capital. While Constantinople resisted all comers until the Venetians breached its walls in 1204 AD -- a run of nearly a thousand years -- Chalcedon, by contrast unprotected, suffered through numerous sackings by would-be conquerors of the city across the Bosporus.
Delphi's oracle, the medium (always a woman) through which the god Apollo spoke, was called the Pythia. Located at Mount Parnassus on the Greek mainland, people of the ancient world came from its far reaches to have their questions about the future answered. Evidence suggests the oracle's revelations may well have been based on hallucinogenic gases rising from a nearby spring.
The Lydian kingdom was a frequent aggressor against Chalcedon and the city may have been under their rule during the rulership of Croesus (who was to lose his kingdom to the Persians in 548 BC).(Prior to this, Croesus had offered lavish gifts to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi where the Pythia told him that if he made war on Cyrus of Persia, "a great empire would be destroyed." Unfortunately for him, it was Lydia.)
Called the "richest city in the world," in its heyday, Herodotus credits the Lydian kings with the invention of coinage.
 an inauspicious beginning

A stone with a long and rich history, chalcedony is named after the ancient port city of Chalcedon (pronounced "kal SEE dun"), on the Asia Minor side of the Bosporus.
Now the Turkish city of Kadikoy (Cakilköy) and a suburb of Istanbul, Chalcedon was colonized by the Ionian Greek city of Miletus in the seventh century BC, just opposite the shore where a few years later the colonizing Greeks from near Athens would found the city of Byzantion (in Latin, Byzantium) on one of the most impregnable city sites of the ancient world.
The butt of ancient Greek humor, Chalcedon's citizens no doubt endured endless quips regarding their 'blindness' -- for how else could their founders have missed so preferable a site only a mile or two across the water?
city of the blind
According to legend, Byzas, leader of the Greek colonizers, consulted the Oracle at Delphi about building a new city and was advised to build it "opposite the land of the blind." Looking for the ideal location, they explored the perimeter of the Aegean, passed down the Dardanelles -- the narrow straight connecting the Aegean and the Propontis (Sea of Marmara) -- and into the Golden Horn.

From the vantage point of what is now Istanbul's Sarayburnu ("Seraglio Point"), they looked across the water at the colony of Chalcedon, founded seventeen years previously. Astonished at the 'blindness' of the colonists who had failed to see the natural and strategic beauty of the spot on which they were standing, they realized they had found their new home "opposite the land of the blind."

chalcedony intaglio representing a griffin; necropolis of a kushan princely family, bactria
photo: university of alabama archive

About two-hundred years after Chalcedon's founding, a relatively near neighbor to the southwest, the city of Sardis, was just reaching its zenith.
Chief city of the Kingdom of Lydia, it was said to be remarkable for its beauty. Sardis, whose name was also synonymous with wealth, was home to the fabulously wealthy King Croesus (r. 560-548 BC).
Expert geologists, miners and lapidarists, Sardians excelled at extracting gold from their streams (the source of the king's wealth) and excavating precious stones from the ground.
Making lavish use of brightly colored, semi-precious stones such as fire opal and banded agate, the Sardians also used blue chalcedony which they mined nearby. It's very probable that the blue stone was shipped to ancient customers out of the port of Chalcedon.
The Romans prized chalcedony for seals, while the Victorians used it for cameos.
The stones most commonly used in commesso are agates, quartzes, chalcedonies, jaspers, granites, porphyries, petrified woods, and lapis lazuli.
Extravagant and painstaking, pietre dure creations were inextricably linked to the privileged few of the Royal Courts and the aristocracy.
Originally built by the Grand Duke to house administrative offices, the Uffizi has the honor of being the first museum open to the public (by appointment) beginning in 1591.
The practice of pietre dure has nearly disappeared, one reason being its exorbitant cost.
 opaque: pietre dura
Opaque chalcedonies are one of the stones favored for use in commesso di pietra dure, the "the joining together of hard stone" or hard stone inlay (sometimes inaccurately called "florentine mosaic"), without the use of grout.
An art form developed in the late 16th century at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure -- now the National Museum in Florence, Italy -- it is a process whereby 'pictures' are created using thin, cut-to-shape pieces of brightly colored, semiprecious stones. Commesso pictures, which range from emblematic and floral subjects to landscapes, are used mainly for tabletops and small wall panels.

example of pietre dure
photo: inlay.com

While the tradition of marble craftsmanship and archaeological passion for semi-precious stones was heavily influenced by the beautiful "opus sectile" craft evidenced in Roman and Early Christian art, it was at the Uffizi Palace of the Medici-Court in 16th century Florence, under the patronage of Ferdinando I de Medici -- a great aficionado of the arts -- that the craftsmanship of pietre dure acquired its imaginative complexities.
The use of stone facing in monumental architecture stands for wealth, power, and permanence.
In the architectural sense, the term "cladding" refers to a decorative protective stone facing.
In the eighteenth century, some people believed a person seeing nocturnal phantoms took in disease or evil humors through their eyes, but that the alkaline content of a chalcedony amulet would remove or counteract them.
In some New Testament translations, chalcedony is listed as a foundation stone of the New Jerusalem.
jewels of europe
Also a favored architectural facing material, chalcedony has been extensively used in the interiors of many of Europe's architectural "jewels." One such jewel is the Usimbardi Chapel, built 1602-07 in Florence, Italy.

interior, usimbardi chapel; florence, italy

Sitting within the church of Santa Trinita, renowned Florentine painter, architect, and poet Ludovico Cardi (1559-1613) -- known as Cigoli -- decorated the pilaster strips of the chapel with agate, chalcedony, jasper and lapis lazuli inlays or "cladding" -- to what is described as "breathtaking effect."
Another treasure is in Prague where the Chapel of St. Wenceslas (pronounced "Ven'-tse-slas"), built in the 1400's completely inside the St. Vitus Cathedral and considered to be the one of the most important monuments of Czech art, has walls of large paintings interspersed with stones of carnelian, amethyst, chalcedony and chrysoprase.
The fascinating story behind the creation of this awesome structure began more than a thousand years ago...
st. vitus cathedral and st. wenceslas chapel
Spiritual symbol of the Czech state, St. Vitus Cathedral (Katedrála sv. Vita in Czech) is dedicated to St. Vitus, allegedly an Italian martyr put to death by the Emperor Diocletian in 304 or 305 AD. The cathedral is the repository of the Bohemian (Czech) crown jewels and underground tombs of Bohemian (Czech) kings; it is also the place in which Bohemian kings and queens were traditionally crowned. The magnificent gothic cathedral was founded in the late 9th century by Jan Lucembursky (John of Luxembourg) and his sons Karel and Jan Jindrich (Charles and John Henry).

interior wall, st. wenceslas's chapel

Situated on the site of a tenth century Romanesque rotunda where Prince Vaclav I, the "good King Wenceslas" of the well-known Christmas carol, dedicated a chapel to St. Vitus in 925, the present cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete after its construction started in 1344.

Designed by medieval architect Mathias Arras (d. 1352), his work was continued by architect Peter Parler (d. 1399) who also built the St. Wenceslas Chapel, decorated with frescos and semi-precious stones. The final stage of construction was completed only in the period between 1873 and 1929.

The facing of the walls which consist of precious stones, and the wall paintings of the Passion cycle are parts of the original 14th-century decoration of the chapel. Scenes from the life of St. Wenceslas which form another decorative band are attributed to the workshop of the Master of the Litomerice Altar. It is the door in the south-western corner of this chapel that leads to the Crown Chamber in which the Bohemian coronation jewels are kept.

St. Wenceslas's Chapel is the cultural center of the St. Vitus Cathedral. Its magnificent decoration and very different architecture emphasize the chapel as the central point of the cathedral housing the tomb of the most important Bohemian (Czech) patron saint.

St. Wenceslas, Prince Vaclav I was a ruling Duke of Bohemia in the 10th century who became the patron saint of Prague and Bohemia. Born in 902 to Duke Wratislaw, a Christian, and Dragomir, a pagan, he succeeded to the title at the age of twenty, after having been educated mainly by his grandmother Ludmilla, a devout Christian.

Believing his people needed closer contact with the Christian world, Wenceslas allied Bohemia with the German Empire, whose king, Henry the Fowler, he recognized as his overlord -- but more importantly as the successor of Charlemagne. This brought him the hostility of a number of leading non-Christians in his own land, who gathered around Wenceslas' brother, Boleslav, leading to his assassination in 929 at the hands of his brother's followers as he attended Mass.

As the story is told, in a fit of remorse, Boleslav tried to make amends by having his brother's remains transferred to a tomb in the Prague church of St. Vitus (pre-cathedral), where they became a center of pilgrimage. Honored as a saint from at least 985, shortly afterwards his head appeared on the country's currency