gems, jade, lapis nephriticus, Fischer-Book

An eighteenth-century study of lapis nephriticus (nephrite or “kidney stone”), so named for its traditional association with the treatment of kidney and urinary ailments. Lehmann and Krünitz examine the history, reported properties, and chemical characteristics of the material, placing traditional medicinal beliefs alongside contemporary mineralogical and chemical investigation. The paper is of particular importance to the early scientific history of nephrite, documenting the transition from its treatment as a medicinal lapidary substance to its investigation as a distinct mineral material.

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

From Schuh: Very scarce. Pedro Francisco Dávila, possessor of the largest collection of natural history specimens in Paris, and wishing to establish an institution in Spain to preserve it, approached King Carlos III of Spain. But political difficulties and a approaching war with England distracted the king, who declined the purchase. Because of debts incurred building the collection, creditors forced Dávila to put the accumulation up for auction in Paris. For this purpose, a detailed collection catalog was required. Dávila had already written many descriptions, but it was his introduction through Balthasar Sage to the young Romé de l'Isle that created this remarkable record of the collection. Romé de l'Isle took the existing material, added considerably to the mineralogical descriptions, and put the catalog into publishable form. In this task he was assisted by Abbé Duguat who helped with the mineralogical descriptions and Abbé Gua de Malves [1712-1786] who described the shells. Through their efforts, two volumes describing natural history specimens were produced, one of which was entirely devoted to minerals. In addition, a third volume written by Romé de l'Isle probably with assistance from Pierre Remy, describes the fossils, artwork and books. The Dávila catalog (as it has become known) describes 8,096 mineral specimens that encompass a large range of localities, including a suite of specimens from Potosí in Spanish America. In addition, the catalog lists 5,253 shells, 600 preserved animals, 101 plants, 3,915 fossils, 154 bezoars and calculi, and 402 books. Over 12,000 prints and engravings, 1,741 original artworks, 441 maps, as well as various scientific instruments and precious stones are also described. Thus Dávila's collection was certainly one of the largest ever formed, and a major auction event of the 18th century. The published catalog provides a detailed insight into his collection, his special tastes and preferences. The major value of the collection lay in its superb mineral specimens, many of which were finely crystallized examples. Romé de l'Isle fully described the many fine mineralogical specimens, which included examples of native silver from Norway, cassiterite from the Dutch East Indies, crocoite from Siberia, pyrite from Columbia, and calcite from Saxony, etc. Dávila had been a collector for over 20 years when his accumulation was auctioned. In that time, he or his agents had acquired specimens at other auctions, including those that liquidated the collections of Albertus Seba in 1752, the Abbé Joly de Fleury in 1755, Claude Geoffroy in 1753 and others. Dávila's catalog received wide distribution in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Basle. This helped push the total realized by Dávila to over 800,000 Spanish reales, more than enough to pay of his creditors, and to finance a second collection, which he immediately began to build. Within two or three years he had again amassed a sizable collection, specializing in minerals, and selected with more knowledge and experience than his first collection had been. Once again he dreamed of establishing the cabinet in Madrid. In October 1771 this became reality when King Carlos III agreed to take over his collections, with Dávila serving as director for life. This enormous collection eventually passed into the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid, where Dávila's specimens are still preserved today.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book, history of mineralogy

Believed to be a German translation of Samuel Chappuzeau’s Histoire des Joyaux et des principales richesses de l’Orient et de l’Occident from 1671. An eighteenth-century German article on precious stones and other valuable natural products associated with the East and West Indies. Published anonymously in the *Hamburgisches Magazin* in 1757, it discusses gemstones within the broader context of the natural riches and commodities of overseas regions. The work is of interest to the history of gemology as an example of the way information about precious stones, their sources and their economic importance was disseminated to German readers through mid-eighteenth-century periodical literature.

gems, jade, Fischer, Naldi

This French translation of Wallerius’s influential Mineralogia presents an early systematic classification of the mineral kingdom, dividing it into earths, stones, minerals, and concretions, followed by preparations made from mineral substances. Minerals are distinguished through their composition, form, colour, transparency, hardness, specific gravity, geological occurrence, and behaviour under heat or chemical treatment. The extensive treatment of stones includes nephrite, rock crystal, agate, chalcedony, onyx, opal, jasper, lapis lazuli, and numerous ornamental materials. Precious stones are discussed separately, including diamond, ruby, sapphire, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, amethyst, garnet, hyacinth, and aquamarine. Wallerius describes their varieties, crystal forms, relative hardness, colours, host rocks, geographical sources, and response to fire, while also addressing false or coloured crystals, methods of artificial staining, and means of distinguishing genuine stones. Although many identifications and mineral relationships are now obsolete, the work represents an important transition from traditional lapidary nomenclature toward the systematic classification of minerals by observable physical and chemical properties.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

A monumental French reference work edited principally by Denis Diderot and, for much of its early development, Jean le Rond d’Alembert. The Encyclopédie sought to assemble and critically organize contemporary knowledge of the sciences, arts, crafts and trades, combining theoretical articles with detailed descriptions and illustrations of practical processes. Of particular gemological interest are articles concerning precious stones, minerals, metals, jewelry, lapidary work and related terminology, while the plate volumes illustrate tools and techniques employed by jewelers, goldsmiths and other craftsmen. The work is an important source for understanding eighteenth-century European knowledge of gemstones and minerals and, especially, contemporary methods of cutting, polishing, setting and working precious materials.

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, jade, Fischer-Book, bibliography

An early bibliography of writings on gemstones, published as a contribution to Christian Gottlob Grundig’s Neue Versuche nützlicher Sammlungen zu der Natur- und Kunstgeschichte, sonderlich von Ober-Sachsen. Beyer surveys authors who had written about precious stones, providing a useful guide to the gemological and lapidary literature known in the eighteenth century. The work is of particular historical value as an early attempt to gather references on gemstones into a dedicated bibliographical compilation, and as a record of the sources available to German scholars before mineralogy and gemology developed into more formally organized scientific disciplines.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book, glyptic arts, glyptic, engraved gems, cameo

A lavishly illustrated catalogue of the collection of engraved gems formed by the Venetian artist, printmaker and collector Anton Maria Zanetti (1680–1767). Published in Venice in 1750, the work presents ancient and modern intaglios and cameos from Zanetti’s collection, with engraved illustrations based on drawings by Zanetti himself. Antonio Francesco Gori contributed the scholarly Latin descriptions and antiquarian commentary, while Girolamo Francesco Zanetti provided the Italian text. The entries discuss the subjects represented on the gems, including figures from classical mythology and history, inscriptions and questions of attribution. An important eighteenth-century work on glyptics, it also provides valuable documentation of a major Venetian collection of engraved gems.

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, jade, Mesoamerican jade, Guatemala jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mayan jade, Costa Rica, Fischer-Book

Barrère presents an early inventory of the plants, animals and minerals of Cayenne, the Rémire islands and mainland Guiana, recording Latin, French and Indigenous names alongside observations on their uses in medicine and the arts. The work brings together botanical and zoological descriptions with a much shorter account of mineral substances, including iron-bearing material, green jasper and clay. Its principal value lies in documenting the region’s natural productions and the terminology applied to them before the adoption of Linnaean nomenclature. For gemological research, the mineral notices require interpretation within eighteenth-century usage; the identification of a material as green jasper does not by itself establish that it was jade.