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.