gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Ferrante Imperato’s Historia naturale is an encyclopedic natural history based substantially on the celebrated collection or cabinet of curiosities assembled by the Neapolitan apothecary and naturalist. The work treats minerals, rocks, metals, earths, plants, animals, fossils, and other natural substances, combining direct observation with information derived from classical and contemporary authorities. Its extensive mineralogical sections describe the appearance, properties, origins, varieties, and uses of numerous stones and minerals and make the book an important early contribution to European mineralogy and collecting. Of particular gemological interest are discussions of precious and ornamental stones, including the material on pp. 598–599, providing evidence for 17th-century identification, terminology, properties, and uses of gem materials.

Tavernier, India.12, Sri Lanka.12, Burma.12, Persia, history.1, corundum, quality.10, gems, jade, Fischer-Book, Indian lapidary

Samuel Chappuzeau’s The History of Jewels, and of the Principal Riches of the East and West is an early English-language work devoted to precious stones, pearls, and other valuable natural products. It discusses diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls, and other gems, including their geographical sources, qualities, sizes, values, trade, and notable specimens, while also treating other commodities regarded as riches of the East and West. Drawing upon contemporary travel and commercial literature, the book reflects European knowledge of the principal gem-producing regions and international gem trade during the 17th century. It is particularly valuable to historians of gemology for its descriptions of the characteristics and valuation of precious stones and for its evidence concerning the routes by which Asian and American luxury materials reached European markets.

corundum, Portugal, gems, global tavels, trade, Thailand.12

A seventeenth-century English translation of Fernão Mendes Pinto’s Peregrinação, first published in Portuguese in 1614, recounting the author’s extensive travels and adventures across Asia during the sixteenth century. The work describes voyages through India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, combining personal narrative with accounts of regional geography, peoples, customs, religions, trade, warfare, and natural products. Of particular interest to gemological history are Pinto’s observations on Asian commerce and luxury goods, including precious stones and other valuable commodities encountered in the trading networks of South and Southeast Asia.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

L’Histoire du grand Tamerlan is a French translation of the Arabic history of Timur (Tamerlane) by Aḥmad ibn ʿArabshāh, a 15th-century Syrian historian who experienced Timur’s conquest of Damascus and subsequently lived at the Timurid court in Samarkand. The work recounts Timur’s origins, military campaigns, conquests, court, character, and death, presenting a notably hostile counterpoint to the more celebratory Timurid chronicles. It contains descriptions of the wealth, tribute, spoils, luxury goods, and material culture associated with Timur’s campaigns and court. Of gemological interest are references to precious stones, jewelry, gold, and other valuable objects acquired as tribute or booty and circulated among the courts and trading centers of Central and Western Asia, providing useful historical context for the movement and prestige of gems in the late 14th and early 15th centuries.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Worm’s Museum Wormianum is an illustrated catalogue of the celebrated cabinet of curiosities assembled by the Danish physician and antiquarian Ole Worm. The collection encompasses minerals, stones, fossils, plants, animals, ethnographic objects, antiquities, and other natural and artificial curiosities, arranged as an attempt to describe and classify the natural world. Of gemological interest are its accounts of minerals, crystals, precious stones, and other lapidary materials, combining physical observations with contemporary ideas concerning their origins, properties, and uses. The work is an important record of seventeenth-century mineralogical knowledge and of the cabinet-of-curiosities tradition from which modern natural-history museums developed.

gems, jade, pyroxene jade, jadeite, fei cui, omphacite, kosmochlor, Mesoamerica, Guatemala

A major seventeenth-century compendium of the natural history and materia medica of New Spain, based principally on the investigations of Francisco Hernández and subsequently edited and augmented by members and associates of the Accademia dei Lincei. The work describes Mexican plants, animals, and minerals, combining Hernández’s observations and Indigenous knowledge with commentary by European naturalists. Of particular gemological interest are its accounts of Mexican minerals and stones, including their Indigenous names, physical characteristics, sources, and medicinal uses, making the work an important early source for European knowledge of the mineral resources and gemstone traditions of Mexico.

corundum, Thailand.12, gems

A French translation of Fernão Mendes Pinto’s celebrated account of his travels and adventures in Asia during the sixteenth century. Pinto describes journeys through India, Southeast Asia, China, and Japan, combining observations of peoples, cities, religions, warfare, navigation, commerce, and natural products with accounts of his extraordinary personal experiences. Of particular gemological interest are references to precious stones, pearls, gold, jewelry, and the trade in luxury materials throughout Asian commercial networks, providing an important early European perspective on the wealth and gem trade of the East. Early mention of gems in Thailand; quoted by Gühler (1947)

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

A firsthand account of the 1639 expedition down the Amazon River by the Jesuit Cristóbal de Acuña, providing one of the earliest detailed European descriptions of the river and its surrounding lands. Acuña records the geography, tributaries, Indigenous peoples, settlements, customs, trade, natural products, and resources encountered along the route. Of particular gemological interest are reports of gold, silver, and precious stones said to occur in the Amazonian interior, reflecting early colonial interest in the mineral wealth of the region and the continuing search for rich sources of precious materials in South America.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book, early gemology, early mineralogy, early lapidaries

Schuh: Very scarce. Compendium of all the author ever discovered or read about the subject of mineralogy. It was published posthumously from notes he left by his Order at Lyon six years after his death. Printed in a double column format in a relatively small type-size, the work is a vast storehouse of all things mineralogical, including new ideas, restatements of earlier authors, observations and superstitious belief. The uncritical selection of material led Webster in his Metallographia (London, 1671, p. 29) to criticize the author as too digressive and as mixing tares with the wheat. Partington thinks the use of the term ‘Mineralogia’ in the title is the first modern usage of the word… The work opens by listing the evils and benefits of mineralogy. Mining is considered dangerous because of the lurking underground spirits…the author notes that the study of mineralogy helps one to understand the bible. It provides medicines and money, ornaments for religious purposes, tools used in agriculture, industry, painting, music and alchemy. Cesi then answers the question he posed earlier and declares mineralogy to be a true philosophy, worthy of careful study… The numerous citations to earlier authors provide evidence of Cesi’s wide reading. Commonly, many authors are referenced on single points. For example, in describing the generation of minerals he closely follows Aristotle but also cites Theophrastus, Avicenna, Albertus Magnus, Agricola, Gregorius Reisch, Pliny, Boodt, Francis Rueus, Marbode, the Bible, and numerous church fathers. The author is uncritical of the views he presents, and accepts the authority of the ancient and medieval authors as his own. He believes that the Sun, Moon and stars influence the subterranean world of minerals and metals, and that gems have miraculous curative powers. He includes a chapter on the magnet… Cesi divides his work into five sections: the first treats mineralogy proper, the second the economic and commercial aspects, for example colors and pigments, the third, lapidifying juices of the earth that congeal into minerals, the fourth gems and the fifth metals. At the conclusion is a long and thankfully comprehensive index. Much insight about ancient philosophy and its affect in the 17th century can be gained from studying Cesi’s Mineralogia.”–Schuh, Mineralogy & Crystallography: A Biobibliography, 1469 to 1920, pp. 358-59.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

A collection of medical observations, unusual cures, natural phenomena, and marvels compiled by Joachim Camerarius the Younger, arranged in “centuries,” or groups of one hundred accounts. Drawing upon medical experience, correspondence, earlier authorities, and reports of remarkable occurrences, the work ranges across medicine, pharmacology, natural history, and the mirabilia tradition. Of particular gemological interest are discussions of stones, minerals, and other unusual natural substances, including their supposed medicinal and occult properties, reflecting the close relationship between medicine, natural history, and lapidary lore in the seventeenth century.