gems, corundum, Sri Lanka.12, garnet, zircon, spinel, tourmaline

An account by the Swedish naturalist Carl Peter Thunberg of the minerals and precious stones of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), based on observations made during his visit to the island in 1777. Thunberg describes a variety of mineral and gem materials and discusses their appearance, occurrence and local exploitation, providing an early European natural-history account of an island already renowned for its gemstones. The paper is particularly valuable as an eighteenth-century source for knowledge of Sri Lankan gem deposits and the terminology and identification of the stones then encountered there. It forms part of Thunberg’s broader documentation of the natural history of the countries he visited during his travels in Asia.