gems, peridot, beryl, emerald, Red Sea, Egypt, Zabargad Island

Peridot is the name for gem olivine, an iron-magnesium silicate ([Mg,Fe]₂SiO₄) in solid solution series with end members forsterite (Mg₂SiO₄) and fayalite (Fe₂SiO₄) (see: W. Simmons, p. 12 in this volume). Its color, density, and refractive index are related to the relative proportions of magnesium-rich forsterite and iron-rich fayalite. High-quality gem peridot is transparent with a green to yellowish-green color, but it can be translucent and with increasing Fe-content it tends toward a more brownish color. Measuring 6.5–7 on the Mohs hardness scale, peridot is easily abraded and is susceptible to etching by body oils. A selected bibliography of literature on peridot and its sources is given by J. Shigley in this volume (p. 120) and a world map of gem peridot localities is shown on p. 66.

gems, history of gemology, Venice, Renaissance, culture, history of jewelry, history of gems, corundum, ruby, history.1, carbuncle, balas ruby

In Private Lives in Renaissance Venice, Patricia Fortini Brown argues that material culture served as a means by “which Venetians attempted to define and defend family identity and social rank.” Her seminal study examines a wide variety of objects, including furniture, tapestries, glassware, and, of course, portraits. According to Fortini Brown, items in the latter category served as “an important emblem of an aristocratic lifestyle.” This interpretation clearly applies to Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of a Lady as Lucretia (fig. 11a) and Paolo Veronese’s Portrait of Jacob König (fig. 11b). However, the two portraits share more than the early modern goal of defining an elite public identity. Rather, jewelry and gems figure prominently in both images. As is common in such portraits, the combination of gem and gesture mediates between viewer and object. In both portraits, the sitter draws the viewer’s attention to a precious object. Lucretia’s upturned palm and fingers point to a beautiful jeweled pendant that spills down over her corseted bodice, while König leans toward the viewer to display the massive emerald in his right hand. Yet a fundamental difference exists in the objects of display in these two images. The gems in Lucretia’s pendant play a supporting role as part of a larger gold setting. In Veronese’s portrait of König, the emphasis remains squarely on the emerald. While it might be tempting to attribute these representational decisions solely to the necessities of gender conventions, a larger issue informs this comparison. As will be demonstrated, in the sixteenth century jewelry featuring elaborate decorative settings such as Lucretia’s pendant would come to be matched by a newfound fascination with the natural stone itself.

gems, jade, Mughal jade carving nephrite, China, beryl, emerald, spinel, ruby, gold jewelry, Indian lapidary

Throughout its history, India has produced countless types of jewelry as a huge country with an almost unmanageable number of peoples and tribes. The precious ones were not only intended to decorate or provide information about the social rank of the wearer, they also served as magical protection and were indispensable in some religious ceremonies. Many pieces of jewelry also had a symbolic meaning and can be associated with ancient Indian myths due to their materiality. The publication ranges from magnificent pieces from princely treasuries to precious jade objects to the highly elaborately decorated jewelry of the Rabari people with gold granules.

gems, corundum, history.1, beryl, emerald, diamond, Garcia de Orta, Goa, Portuguese Goa, Precious Stones, Lapidary Medicine, Asia, Sixteenth Century, history of Gemology, Indian lapidary

Somewhere in the city of Goa, on the west coast of India, on an unspecified day in the middle of the sixteenth century, two Europeans are involved in a learned conversation about elephants and ivory. One of them is Garcia de Orta, a renowned Portuguese physician trained at Alcala de Henares and Salamanca, and a longtime resident of the capital city of the Portuguese Estado da Índia, where he has been practicing medicine for many years; the other is Ruano, also a graduate from the same Spanish universities, and recently arrived in India on board of the Portuguese annual fleet from Lisbon for purposes of trade. The lively discussion is taking place at Orta’s residence, just before the evening meal, when both physicians are interrupted by a woman servant, who enters to announce the arrival of a visitor well-known to the master of the house: “Andrea from Milan, the lapidary, has just arrived”, and wishes to speak to Orta, concerning the sale of some precious stones. Apparently, the Portuguese physician is in the possession of two emeralds, a large one and a smaller but clearer one, and the Italian gem-trader has found a possible buyer for both gems. Garcia de Orta salutes the visitor and declares he is willing to sell both emeralds. This curious episode, one of the many that can be found in the pages of the Colóquios dos simples e drogas medicinais da Índia, published in Goa in 1563, raises several interesting questions, namely: the large network of informers that Orta brings into play throughout his learned colloquies; the methodology he uses to build a veritable encyclopedia of Asian natural history; the discreet but persistent involvement of the Portuguese naturalist in matters of merchandise; and also his attitude towards precious stones and the so-called lapidary medicine.

gems, archaeology, archaeogemology, ancient trade, commerce, mining, Rome, Roman era

Compiled by Andrew Wilson, with assistance from Dragana Mladenović, Kristina Glicksman, and Mariana Egri, this extensive bibliography brings together scholarship on ancient mining and metallurgy, complementing Wilson’s bibliography of Indo-Roman trade and providing a broad reference resource for the extractive industries that supplied ancient commerce. It covers general studies of mining, mining technology and administration, and individual commodities including gold, silver, lead, copper, iron, tin, and stone, with geographically organized sections on Italy, Gaul, Germany and Austria, the Iberian Peninsula, Britain, North Africa, the Balkans, Dacia, Greece, Asia Minor, the Near East, and Egypt. Particularly extensive coverage is devoted to Roman mining in Spain and Portugal, including gold mining, Rio Tinto, Las Médulas, drainage and hydraulic technology, metallurgy, administration, and the organization of mining districts. Of particular gemological interest are references to Roman and Byzantine emerald mining in Egypt and amethyst mining at Wadi el-Hudi, while the broader bibliography documents the mining, processing, administration, and distribution of mineral resources throughout the ancient Mediterranean world. Together with the Indo-Roman trade bibliography, it provides a substantial guide to literature concerning both the extraction of mineral resources and their movement through ancient regional and long-distance trading networks.

gems, beryl, emerald, Brazil, inclusions

In 2006, emeralds were discovered in the Fazenda Bonfim region of northeastern Brazil. Emerald mineralization occurs in association with small recrystallized pegmatitic bodies hosted by metamorphosed ultramafic rocks within the Santa Mônica Shear Zone. Prospecting and exploration have been conducted in a few small pits and tunnels, yielding emerald crystals with transparent areas typically ranging between 2 and 5 mm. Polished samples usually display a saturated bluish green color with a medium-light to medium tone. The most common internal features are partially healed fissures with two-phase (liquid–gas) fluid inclusions and a variety of fine, parallel-oriented growth tubes. The emeralds contain moderate amounts of the chromophore elements Cr and Fe, along with traces of V; they also show relatively high K and low Li contents. FTIR spectroscopic features are consistent with alkali-bearing emeralds that contain significant CO₂ and a small amount of deuterated water. Emeralds from Fazenda Bonfim can be distinguished from those of other schist- and pegmatite-related commercial deposits.

gems, beryl, emerald, India, Indian lapidary, Arthasastra, asmagarbha, marakata, masaragalva, ratnasastra, tark?yaratna, gemology

The present paper offers a complete inventory of authoritative passages in Sanskrit and Prakrit texts on gemmology and Sanskrit lexicons where emerald is dealt with. Fresh light is thrown on the hotly debated issue whether the description of beryl in the Arthaśāstra II, 11, 30 contains an indirect reference to emerald. The Sanskrit names of emerald are analysed and commented on. Texts revealing the history of emerald and its origin are put to the test, and the evident mistakes prevalent in the special literature are corrected. Finally, a peculiar belief on the magic power of emerald is analysed within a wider context.

gems, beryl, emerald, jade, malachite

Today, green creeps into all parts of human activity. It has become obvious, the color of hope, the one that will save the world. But what about the first civilizations? History shows that the color green has unleashed passions as much as aroused rejection. But it is first of all a concept shared by a community of individuals within the same society, at a given time. This concept materializes in particular in the arts and it is this artistic production that the TreM.a-Musée des Arts anciens wanted to dissect through the prism of stones: emerald, the most feminine of them, but also others less prestigious such as malachite, jade, serpentine, peridot... Each of them challenged the know-how of artisan jewelers and jewelers, served power, helped to get in touch with the gods, enhanced the beauty of women. The exhibition invites you to discover these green stones and their uses from Prehistory to the present day. A walk through time and space with beauty and inventiveness as the only guides. These two qualities, universal and timeless, imply a careful choice of stones and a great mastery of techniques. They cannot be appreciated without knowing the geographical origin of the materials, their mineralogical presentation, the extraction methods... so many elements discussed in the rooms.

gems, beryl, emerald, Colombia, beryl, Mughals, Ottomans, South America

Among the magnificent gems and jewels left behind by the great Islamic empires, emeralds stand out for their size and prominence. For the Mughals, Ottomans, and Safavids green was—as it remains for all Muslims—the color of Paradise, reserved for the Prophet Muhammad and his descendants. Tapping a wide range of sources, Kris Lane traces the complex web of global trading networks that funneled emeralds from backland South America to populous Asian capitals between the sixteenth and the eighteenth centuries. Lane reveals the bloody conquest wars and forced labor regimes that accompanied their production. It is a story of trade, but also of transformations—how members of profoundly different societies at opposite ends of the globe assigned value to a few thousand pounds of imperfectly shiny green rocks.

corundum, history.1, quality.10, gems, Indian lapidary

Unfortunately, despite literary and pictorial evidence that the Mughals possessed and wore large numbers of priceless jewels, very little has survived today. Despite a few recent exhibitions and publications, the subject is still very largely unexplored and the publication of the substantial holdings in the Nasser D. Khalili Collection is therefore an event of some significance. Prominent among these is a spinel ruby engraved with the names and titles of the Emperors Jahangir and Shah Jahan; as well as two carved emeralds of notable size and colour, also from the period of Shah Jahan or perhaps the early years of his son’s reign. These pieces are presented alongside a large number of 18th and 19thcentury enamelled and jewelled objects, and a wide range of items of personal jewellery that includes South Indian gold pieces of exotic form and excellent workmanship as well as turban ornaments and other pieces of Mughal design. The detailed catalogue entries are accompanied by several essays exploring various aspects of Mughal precious objects and the materials they used.