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

Historia verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva España (The True History of the Conquest of New Spain) is a first-hand history of the sixteenth-century Spanish conquest of Mexico by the conquistador Bernal Díaz del Castillo. Del Castillo served under three of the leaders of the Spanish expeditions, most notably under Hernan Cortés in his 1521 conquest of the Aztec Empire and the capture of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan. Finished in 1568, del Castillo’s account was written to counter arguments made by writers such as Bartolome de las Casas that conquistadores, and the encomienda system they established, had caused untold suffering to the Indigenous people of the Americas (see RCIN 1022658). It also aimed to to correct what he perceived as errors in the biography of Cortés by Francisco Lopez de Gomara (which had been commissioned by Cortés's nephew) that overly praised his role in the conquest of Mexico. Instead, del Castillo recounted the conquest as a dramatic sequence of events and praised the 700 soldiers that formed the expedition, declaring that they had endured much suffering and hardship in acquiring Mexico for Spain, and that they had not received due recognition for their actions. However, he did not deny that many of these men, like himself, had travelled to Mexico in search of their fortunes, stating that they were disappointed on discovering that Tenochtitlan did not contain the riches that Cortés had promised. Although the book was read in scholarly circles in Spain and in its colonial possessions for several decades after its completion, it was not published until 1632. This copy of the work contains marginalia and several loose pages of notes to the text written by an eighteenth-century reader inserted throughout. There is a brief mention of chalchihuitl (fei cui) on p. 9.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

A substantial medico-chemical pharmacopoeia by Johann Daniel Mylius, presenting the preparation and use of remedies within the Paracelsian and early chemical-medical tradition. The work describes numerous medicines derived from plants, animals, metals, minerals, and other substances, together with methods of distillation, extraction, purification, and chemical preparation. Of particular gemological interest are preparations involving precious stones, minerals, and metals and their supposed medicinal virtues, illustrating the continued incorporation of gems into seventeenth-century pharmaceutical and alchemical practice.

gems, jade, jade trading, Central Asia, Hetian jade, nephrite, Fischer

Nicolas Trigault’s De Christiana expeditione apud Sinas is the influential Latin account of the Jesuit mission to China, based largely on the journals and papers of Matteo Ricci and first published at Augsburg in 1615. Trigault describes the establishment and progress of the mission, together with extensive observations on Ming China, including its geography, government, social hierarchy, religion, education, customs, cities, commerce, manufactures, and natural products. Of particular interest to historians of gemology and material culture are references to jade, precious stones, pearls, gold, silver, and other valued substances, as well as Chinese luxury goods and their uses and trade. The work played a major role in introducing European readers to contemporary China and remains an important early European source for Chinese material culture and natural resources during the late Ming period. The book recounts the establishment of the Jesuit mission in China in the late 1500s led by Matteo Ricci. When Ricci predicted a solar eclipse in 1592 with greater accuracy than the astronomers of the Chinese court, Emperor Wan-li invited Ricci to Beijing. In Beijing, Ricci translated Euclid and other works into Chinese, and created a map of the world in Chinese. There is a brief mention of jade trading in the kingdom of Cascar (northwest of Yarkand).

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

An early Spanish-language compendium of the natural history and materia medica of New Spain, based largely on the extensive investigations of Francisco Hernández and edited and published by Francisco Ximénez. Arranged in four books, it describes plants, animals, and other natural substances used medicinally by the Indigenous peoples of Mexico, giving native names, characteristics, preparations, and therapeutic properties. The work is an important early source for the transmission of Indigenous Mexican knowledge of natural materials into European medicine and natural history.

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

An astrological and medico-alchemical treatise examining the supposed correspondences between the seven classical planets, the seven metals, and seven selected precious stones. Petrus discusses the “sympathies” linking celestial bodies with terrestrial substances and the influences these relationships were believed to exert upon their properties and medicinal or occult virtues. Of particular gemological interest is its treatment of gemstones within the early seventeenth-century tradition of planetary lapidaries, in which particular stones were associated with planets and credited with therapeutic, protective, or talismanic powers.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

A major account of Inca history and culture by Garcilaso de la Vega, “El Inca,” the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Inca noblewoman. Published in two parts, the first in 1609 and the second posthumously in 1617, the work describes Inca origins, rulers, religion, government, customs, conquests, agriculture, architecture, and material culture, drawing upon Garcilaso’s childhood memories, Indigenous oral traditions, and Spanish chronicles. Of particular gemological interest are accounts of Inca gold and silver, precious and ornamental stones, jewelry, ritual objects, temple treasures, mining, and the symbolic and economic uses of valuable materials in the Andean world.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

A major natural-history compendium by Carolus Clusius (Charles de l’Écluse), devoted to exotic natural products reaching Europe from Asia, Africa, and the Americas. Arranged in ten books, it describes and illustrates unfamiliar plants, animals, shells, stones, and other natural substances, drawing upon specimens, travelers’ reports, correspondence, and earlier publications. Of particular gemological interest are discussions of precious and ornamental stones and other mineral substances, including their names, appearance, geographic origins, reputed properties, and uses. The work is an important early source for the transmission of knowledge about exotic gems and natural materials into European natural history during the Age of Exploration.

gems, jade, amber, ruby, sapphire, spinel, Burma, Myanmar, Möng Mit, Mongmit, early Chinese trade with Burma

Wang Shixing’s Guang Zhi Yi [廣志繹; Expanded Interpretations of the Gazetteers] is a geographical and ethnographic work based substantially on the author’s extensive travels as a Ming official. It records observations on different regions of China, their landscapes, populations, customs, products, commerce, agriculture, and natural resources, rather than relying solely on earlier geographical literature. Of particular interest to gemological and mineralogical history are its notices of regional products and valuable natural materials, including jade and other stones, and the commercial routes by which such materials circulated. Its observations provide useful evidence for the geography of resources and commodity trade in late Ming China. Volume 5 contains accounts of the Burmese invasions into Yunnan in the late 16th century and of Wang's advice for mobilizing troops and provisions to counter the invasion. Mention is also made of amber and gems in Mongmit and of a Ming delegation to the capital of the Toungoo dynasty (old Pegu). Prefaced in 1597. Wang Shixing was a military general whose troops were stationed in Lancang in southwestern Yunnan, near the Burmese border. His record is considered very reliable.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

An account of Lawrence Keymis’s 1596 expedition to Guiana, undertaken as a continuation of Walter Raleigh’s exploration of the region. Keymis describes the Atlantic and Guiana coasts, the Orinoco and neighboring rivers, Indigenous peoples and settlements, trade, geography, and the natural resources encountered or reported during the voyage. Particular attention is given to reports of gold and other mineral wealth, reflecting the English search for the legendary riches of Guiana and El Dorado and making the work an important early source for European perceptions of the mineral resources of northern South America.