Emerald says: "§ 23.23(c) It is unfair or deceptive to use the word "laboratory-grown", "laboratory-created", "[manufacturer name]-created", or "synthetic" with the name of any natural stone to describe any industry product unless such industry product has essentially the same optical, physical, and chemical properties as the stone named." Emerald is regarded as the traditional birthstone for May as well as the traditional gemstone for the astrological signs of Cancer. One of the quainter anecdotes about emeralds was told by the 16th-century historian Brantôme, who referred to the many impressive emeralds the Spanish under Cortez had brought back to Europe from Latin
Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition is a 1955 book about the history of Christianity and homosexuality by the theologian Derrick Sherwin Bailey. The medieval historian John Boswell, writing in "Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality" (1980), described "Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition" as a "pioneering study" that almost all "modern historical research on gay people in the Christian West" has depended upon and was still the best work on its subject in print. However, he wrote that it, "suffers from an emphasis on negative sanctions which gives a wholly misleading picture of medieval