Perhaps the most elaborate description of a gemstone ever written was that by Petrus Arlensis, writing in 1610:

References to opal in literature around this period suggest that opal was well known in England. Perhaps the most notable references were those by William Shakespeare. In Twelfth Night, Act II, scene 4, the clown says to Duke Orsino:

This is an ingenious metaphor based on the knowledge of the change in colours and appearance of opal as it moved in relation to the incidental light. In Shakespeare's sonnet Lovers Complaint, (Stanza 31) we read:

Ben Jonson, the English dramatist, reintroduced the concept that there was a relationship between opal and sight in New Inn (1630):

Even John Milton, in Paradise Lost (1667), gets into the act, albeit somewhat obscurely:

And, somewhat later (1690), John Locke, an English philosopher, wrote, in his work entitled Essays Concerning Human Understanding:

There then seems to have been something of an hiatus in references to opal, at least in English literature, until the 19th century. John Ruskin, the English author and art critic, wrote, in his Modern Painters (1846):

George Meredith, another well known author and poet of this time, wrote in his novel Rhoda Fleming (1865):

While Bauer and Bouska (R1599) state that opal was mined from Roman times until 1923, there appear to be few references to this gemstone between Roman times and the Middle Ages. We cannot be certain, therefore, whether the stone was widely known in the intervening period.

By the 18th century the map of Europe was beginning to show the outlines of the European powers as we know them today. Poland had expanded in eastern Europe, and by the 16th century, if not earlier, had encompassed in its southern parts the locality of the opal mines. From the late Middle ages opal became widespread in Europe and many fine stones were produced from the Dubnik mines which were in the Hungarian Empire, and later in the Austrian Empire. The most famous, according to Kourimsky (R0531), was the stone called 'Trojan Fire', which belonged to the French Empress Josephine. However, this stone disappeared during the French revolution.

Bauer and Bouska also claim that the largest opal from Dubnik, found in 1775, weighed about 500 grams (2500 carats) and is now in the Museum of Sciences in Vienna. The opal mines area is now in the Republic of Slovakia.

The discovery of precious opal in Australia towards the end of the nineteenth century sounded the death knell of the Dubnik mines, although they did not finally close down until 1923. Opal from the Australian discoveries was taken overseas by T.C. Wollaston, to whom must go the credit of putting Australian opal onto the world market.

The most exciting discovery was the black opal from Lightning Ridge in 1903; it so surpassed opals from other sources in colour and beauty that it was some time before the overseas market would accept it as a natural stone. For some time it was claimed to be an artificial product, or artificially treated.