A lapidary (lapidarist, Latin: lapidarius) is an artist or artisan who forms stone, minerals, or gemstones into decorative items such as cabochons, engraved gems, including cameos, and faceted designs. The primary techniques employed are cutting, grinding, and polishing. Carving is an important, but specialised technique.
Hardstone carving is the term used in art history for objects produced by the specialised carving techniques, and the techniques themselves. Diamond cutters are generally not referred to as lapidaries, due to the specialized techniques which are required to work diamond. In modern contexts "gemcutter" typically refers to people who specialize in cutting diamonds, but in older historical contexts it refers to artists producing engraved gems such as jade carvings and the like. By extension the term "lapidary" has sometimes been applied to collectors of and dealer in gems, or to anyone who is knowledgeable in precious stones.
The earliest known lapidary work likely occurred during the Stone Age. As people created tools from stone, they inevitably realized that some geological materials were harder than others. The next earliest documented examples of what one may consider to be "lapidary arts" came in the form of drilling stone and rock. The earliest known examples of drilling date back approximately one million years ago. The early Egyptians subsequently developed techniques for cutting and polishing stones as hard as quartz, such as amethyst.
A lapidary is a text, often a whole book, giving "information about the properties and virtues of precious and semi-precious stones", that is to say a work on gemology. Lapidaries were very popular in the Middle Ages, when belief in the inherent power of gems for various purposes was widely held, and among the wealthy collecting jewels was often an obsession, as well as a popular way to store and transport capital.
The medieval world had little systematic geological knowledge, and found it difficult to distinguish between many stones with similar colours, or the same stone found in a variety of colours. Lapidaries are often found in conjunction with herbals, and as part of larger encyclopedic works. Belief in the powers of particular types of jewel to achieve effects such as protecting the wearer against diseases or other kinds of harm was strong in the Middle Ages, and explaining these formed much of the material in lapidaries. In the Middle Ages, scholars often distinguish "three different kinds of lapidaries: 1. the scientific lapidary 2. the magical or astrological lapidary and 3. the Christian symbolic lapidary", although contemporary readers would have regarded both the first two categories as representing scientific treatments.
Lapidary may mean:
El canto y llore esa noche
Amargamente.
Fue tu voz recordé
Que me dijo negaras.
Aquí estoy, ya me ves
Vulnerable como siempre.
Si soy piedra o papel, ya no importa.
Duele mas saber/ que por vos yo me moría
De volar a caer/ hay un paso nada más.
Y quebrado me quede,/ observando que los pies
Que Šl lavo, están aquí,/ para seguir.
Si quieres venir, lo puedes hacer.
La sangre aun esta tibia.
La piedra serás donde construiré.
Y el mundo sabrá de mi vida