Three Books on Gold

but in its very substance, as Albertus has revealed in his writings, and as is convinced by experience; and hence perhaps the Egyptian Hermes expressed gold by the name of sulfur. For I ask, what is of greater purity than gold? So that from this, that Roman prince feared that if it could be bent, as it had begun to be, and had persisted in withstanding the hammer, it would snatch the first place from gold and block the way for all metals in commerce. But its longevity is celebrated; yet let it occur to the mind that stones are more long-lived, and held in greater price, which neither feel the file, nor fire, nor contract any dross at all, nor stain those handling them with dirt, which cannot be avoided if you rub it for a long time. But gold is not fused from a foundation—are not stones fused? Is this not common to all metals? Which, since they were therefore received into the use of coinage so that they might be as securities in the exchange of things, and gold was formerly placed after copper and silver in this matter, it seems to detract from its grace and detract from its utility. For we know, as we indicated before, that it has been reported in the monuments of letters that copper was first coined at Rome under King Servius, and that the Roman people did not use even coined silver before the war of Pyrrhus, about six hundred years after the city was founded; since under the consul Fabius, a mark was put upon that metal, and soon also upon gold, [and] after more than sixty years had elapsed, the same people commanded the conquered Carthage, and other nations,