Home1778 Edition

CAMAIEU

Volume 3 · 90 words · 1778 Edition

or Camayeu, a stone whereon are found various figures and representations of landscapes, formed by a kind of lusus nature, so as to exhibit pictures without painting. The word comes from camehnia, a name the orientals give to the onyx, when they find, in preparing it, another colour; as who should say, a second stone. The Latins call it camænus; the Italians, camæo. It is of these cameaux that Pliny is to be understood, when he speaks of the manifold picture of gems, and the partly-coloured spots of precious stones.