gems, jade, Fischer-Book, tourmaline

A substantial eighteenth-century treatise devoted specifically to gemstones by the German physician and mineralogist Urban Friedrich Benedict Brückmann. The work surveys precious and ornamental stones and discusses their names, varieties and distinguishing characteristics, drawing together contemporary mineralogical knowledge and earlier gemological literature. The 1773 edition is the second, substantially revised and enlarged edition, expanding the original 1757 work from 143 to 415 pages. Particularly valuable is an appendix on the obscure gemstone names used by earlier writers, effectively providing a glossary of historical gemological and mineralogical terminology. It is an important source for European gemstone knowledge and nomenclature in the period immediately preceding the development of modern systematic mineralogy.

corundum, Thailand.12, gems

A historical and natural account of the Kingdom of Siam by François-Henri Turpin, compiled from earlier European sources rather than from personal travel in the country. The work describes Siam’s geography, government, religion, customs, commerce and natural products, drawing particularly upon seventeenth-century French accounts produced during the reign of Louis XIV and King Narai. Of interest to gemological research are its notices of the mineral and commercial resources of Siam, including precious materials and luxury goods traded in the kingdom. The book provides a useful eighteenth-century synthesis of European knowledge of Siam, although its statements should be treated as derivative rather than eyewitness observations.

gems, mineralogy, Naldi

A systematic survey of the mineral kingdom intended to arrange minerals in what Bomare regarded as the most natural order and to describe their physical properties and practical uses. The work treats earths, salts, stones, ores, metals, waters, and related mineral substances, with attention to color, transparency, hardness, fracture, crystallization, fusibility, occurrence, and uses. Gemologically important material is included under precious and ornamental stones, including quartz, crystal, chalcedony, jasper, ruby and other “Oriental” stones, together with discussion of crystal form and mineral nomenclature. The two volumes are supplemented by an alphabetical subject index, a nomenclatural dictionary, and folding synoptic tables intended to clarify the proposed classification. It is representative of mid-eighteenth-century mineralogy at the transition from descriptive natural history toward more systematic chemical and crystallographic classification.

gems, minerals, mineral collecting, mineralogy, history of gemology

The Spectacle de la Nature (1732–1750) by the Abbé Antoine Noël Pluche. In eight volumes, the Abbé discussed current issues in natural philosophy, such as Newtonianism, the origin of fossils, artisan techniques, natural history, machines, gardening or insect collection in a polite conversation format. It was translated into English (1735), Dutch (1737), Italian (1737), German (1746) and Spanish (1753). But the four Spanish editions were very different from their European counterparts. In Spain, it was delivered in 16 carefully printed and extensively commented volumes. In Pluche’s original, there was a concern for the young gentleman’s education, new pedagogical methods and an enthusiastic defence of experimental knowledge. However, Le Spectacle in Spain was conceived as a useful tool for modernizing the country, it served political and propagandist goals, defended Spanish culture and science (in particular with respect to American flora, fauna and geography) and the Jesuit contribution to science and aimed to harmonize experimental knowledge and scholastic tradition.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Dezallier d’Argenville’s L’histoire naturelle éclaircie… l’oryctologie (1755) is an important mid-eighteenth-century treatise on what would later develop into mineralogy and geology. The work systematically describes and classifies earths, stones, metals, minerals, and other substances then grouped under the broad category of “fossils,” presenting parallel Latin and French terminology and discussing the principal earlier literature on the subject. Of particular gemological interest are its descriptions and classification of precious and ornamental stones, including diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, topazes, garnets, opals, agates, jaspers, rock crystal, and other lapidary materials, with attention to their physical appearance, varieties, localities, and contemporary nomenclature. The volume is also notable for its engraved plates, drawn by Hyacinthe Collin de Vermont and engraved by Pierre Quentin Chedel, illustrating minerals, crystals, fossils, and related natural-history specimens. It provides a valuable picture of European mineralogical and gemological knowledge immediately before the major advances in chemical mineralogy and crystallography of the later eighteenth century.

gems, jade, nephrite, medicinal use, Fischer-Other

A systematic account of medicinal substances by the English botanist and apothecary John Hill, covering materials derived from the vegetable, animal and mineral kingdoms. Hill describes individual substances, their sources, physical characteristics, preparation and supposed medicinal properties and uses. Of gemological interest is the section on mineral substances, which includes precious stones and other minerals employed medicinally, reflecting the persistence in eighteenth-century European pharmacology of therapeutic uses traditionally attributed to gems. The work is useful for tracing the transition from older lapidary and pharmacological traditions toward increasingly empirical descriptions of natural substances.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book, bibliography

A major eighteenth-century German biographical and bibliographical reference work compiled by Christian Gottlieb Jöcher. The Allgemeines Gelehrten-Lexicon provides alphabetically arranged accounts of scholars and writers, giving biographical information together with lists or notices of their published works. Published at Leipzig in four volumes between 1750 and 1751, it covers authors from antiquity through Jöcher’s own time and became an important reference source for European intellectual and publishing history. For research into the history of gemology and mineralogy, it is particularly useful for identifying early authors, variant names, biographical details and bibliographical information concerning works cited in older scientific and lapidary literature.

gems, gemology, history of gemology, early lapidaries, glyptic, engraved gems, ruby, diamond, emerald, agate, topaz, sapphire, spinel, cameos, intaglios, rings

Sinkankas: The collection of Jean, chevalier De La Roque (1661–1745). Pp. 109–147: “Pierreries, Agates, Pierres gravées … [etc.].” Includes diamonds, rubies, emeralds, oriental topaz, sapphire, oriental amethyst, turquoise, balas ruby, hyacinth, and others, not to mention the engraved gems (cameos, intaglios, mounted in rings, and loose). Mentioned by Mariette, Traité des pierres gravées, I, 458.

gems, history of gemology, turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian, jasper, jade

Precious stones: These are those which are made valuable not only due to their rarity and beauty but also because nature has adorned them with a special light and radiance, making them, in a sense, noble—so that they sparkle like the finest stars and have always maintained a higher status than gold or silver. There are two types of precious stones: transparent and opaque. The transparent ones include amethyst, beryl, carbuncle, chrysolite, diamond, hyacinth, ruby, sapphire, and emerald. Among the opaque ones, though some are semi-transparent, are agate, carnelian, chalcedony, jasper, the so-called cat’s eye, lapis lazuli, nephrite, and gallstone, malachite and schreckstein, onyx, opal, turquoise, etc. These precious stones, especially the transparent ones, originate from water or moisture impregnated with mountain salt, which allows them to grow and develop into crystals. It is impossible for something to be transparent that has not first been in liquid form. Dense substances such as silver and lead, when dissolved in separating water or other acidic liquids, can easily grow into transparent crystals. Similarly, one often finds completely clear water droplets inside the most beautifully grown crystals, and in the hardest stones in India, the finest gemstones. Moreover, that there is some mountain salt mixed in is evident from the geometric shape of the precious stones, which are clearly recognizable as having the same structure as salt and saltpeter, as the mined crystals and diamonds, which differ only in hardness, grow entirely angular, often even with veins and such deposits, so that one can clearly see how the salty components have been layered on top of each other. Their charming colors come from a delicate metallic sulfur, similar to metals found in mines: for example, carbuncle, ruby, garnet, and amethyst from a gold-sulfur; sapphire from the tincture of silver; emerald and chrysolite from the greenish-sulfuric nature of copper; topaz and hyacinth from the sulfurous substance of iron, etc. However, this sulfur in precious stones is very volatile, so much so that the colors resulting from it can easily disappear and evaporate in the fire. But since these gemstones, when broken, are often irregular, or unclean and blotchy, even the most beautiful and purest stones do not shine as brightly as when they are cut, whereby the multiple facets reflect and play the light that falls on the foil or diamond ink all the more toward the eye. Therefore, those skilled in this art are called gem cutters, and they practice a free craft; however, they have been regulated by a noble order in Nuremberg for more than 100 years.

gems, Gourjon, mineralogy, history of mineralogy, chemistry, orpiment

Pott’s Exercitationes chymicae is a collection of previously issued chemical dissertations, revised and enlarged with additional notes, experiments, and discussion. It treats the sulphurs of metals; orpiment; the selective dissolution of substances; terra foliata tartari; and preparations involving the acids of vitriol and nitre with spirit of wine. Of particular gemological and mineralogical interest is the dissertation on orpiment (auripigmentum), in which Pott discusses its names, occurrence, physical appearance, composition, preparation, reactions, and distinction from related arsenical sulphides. He describes natural orpiment as a mineral composed of arsenic and sulphur and notes that material could be fraudulently substituted for native cinnabar; he also reviews chemical and alchemical treatments involving orpiment, while critically testing claims made by earlier authors. The work is representative of early eighteenth-century experimental chemistry, combining mineralogical description with laboratory operations such as sublimation, solution, precipitation, distillation, and fixation.