stes of Roman times still extant
are with difficulty distinguished from the real gem, so much harder
and lustrous are they than modern glass. The ancient Phoenician
remains found in the island of Sardinia by Cavalier Cara in 1856 show
fine color in their enamels and glass-works. The green pigment brought
home from the ruins of Thebes by Mr. Wilkinson was shown by Dr. Ure
to consist of blue glass in powder, with yellow ochre and colorless
glass. From Greek inscriptions dating from the period of the
Peloponnesian war we learn that there were signets of colored glass
among the gems in the treasury of the Parthenon.

Of all the emerald imitations that have descended to us from
antiquity, none are more remarkable, none more interesting to the
antiquary and historian, than the famous Sacro Catino of the cathedral
of Genoa. This celebrated relic is a glass dish or patera fourteen
inches in width, five inches in depth and of the richest transparent
green color, though disfigured by several flaws. It was bestowed upon
the republic of Genoa by the Crusaders after the capture of Caesarea
in 1101, and was regarded as an equivalent for a large sum of money
due from the Christian army. It was traditionally believed to have
been presented to King Solomon by the queen of Sheba, and afterward
preserved in the Temple, and some accounts relate that it was used by
Christ at the institution of the Lord's Supper. The Genoese received
it with so much veneration and faith that twelve nobles were appointed
to guard it, and it was exhibited but once a year, when a priest held
it up in his hand to the view of the passing throng. The state in
1319, in a time of pressing need, pawned the holy relic for twelve
hundred marks of gold (two hundred thousand dollars), and redeemed
it with a promptness which proved its belief in the reality of the
material as well as in its sanctity. And it is also related that the
Jews, during a period of fifty years, lent the republic four million
francs, holding the sacred relic as a pledge of security. Seven
hundred years passed away, when Napoleon came, and as he swept down
over Italy, gathering her art-treasures, he ordered the "Holy
Grail" to be conveyed to Paris. It was deposited in the Cabinet of
Antiquities in the Imperial Library, and the mineralogists quickly
discovered it to be glass. It is due to the memory of Condamine to
state that he was the first to doubt the material of the Sacro Catino,
for, when exam