corundum, history.1, gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Sinkankas: Very early, and important treatise on gemstones, gold & silver, but with by far most space devoted to gemstones. The first chapter attempts to reconcile differing views of various writers, as cited by Berquen, on the origin of gemstones and precious metals, with following chapters taking up the principal gemstones, and some minor ones, as diamond, sapphire, topaz, ruby, spinel, emerald, amethyst, aquamarine, hyacinth, opal, chrysolite, iris, vermeille, garnets, carnelian, turquoise, quartz varieties, pearl, coral and amber, and lastly, a chapter on gold and silver. Little rhyme or reason is apparent in the way the material is presented, and occasionally some strange pairs appear as amethyst and aquamarine being discussed together in the same chapter. Despite claims to expertise, Berquen appears to have taken most of his information from the sources cited in the text and little can be identified that was not already general knowledge at the time. Berquen appeared to be most familiar with diamonds and pearls, but increasingly unfamiliar with the uncommon or rare gemstones, whose descriptions, one suspects, were mere paraphrases of other text excerpts. A footnote to the table of contents mentions only the table of precious metal finenesses as being appended to the text and nothing about the poem which comes immediately after, nor the advice to apprentices. Sabin 4957 cites the work for its material on the West Indies but actually there is very little information on same in this first edition. Another issue of this edition is described in JCB 2, 51–52; see also Brunet, 6, 262.