corundum, history.1, properties.3, gems, Arabic mineralogy, early lapidaries

Wiedemann discusses Arabic determinations of specific gravity, drawing attention to measurements made by medieval Islamic scholars and comparing their results with modern values. He describes the methods used for determining the specific gravities of various substances, including minerals and precious stones, and demonstrates the considerable accuracy achieved by Arabic investigators. The paper is of particular interest to the history of gemology because specific gravity was employed to distinguish and characterize gemstones and other mineral substances, illustrating the sophistication of quantitative physical measurements in medieval Islamic science.

corundum, Burma.12, jade, jadeite, fei cui, gems

Mason and Theobald present an extensive natural history of Burma, with accounts of the peoples, fauna, flora, and mineral resources of Tenasserim, Pegu, and other parts of the country. Of particular gemological interest are the sections dealing with Burmese minerals and precious stones, including ruby, sapphire, spinel, jade, amber, and other materials, with notes on their occurrence, localities, mining, trade, and indigenous names and uses. The work brings together observations accumulated during the nineteenth century and provides valuable contemporary evidence on Burma’s mineral resources and gem-producing regions. Its descriptions of precious stones and their sources make it an important early reference for the history of Burmese gemology and mining.

corundum, ruby, sapphire, history.1, India.12, gems, Indian lapidary

Sinkankas: Richard von Garbe’s complete work is reproduced in facsimile, including the original title page, and centers on his discovery and translation of a significant Sanskrit treatise on minerals by the Kashmiri physician Narahari. Despite the general absence of Sanskrit monographs on minerals, Garbe uncovered Narahari’s work, a section of the larger encyclopedic text King of Dictionaries, written between 1235 and 1250 AD. The translated extracts are organized into three categories: metals, non-metals, and precious stones, the last of which spans pages 70 to 91 in the German edition. This section includes discussions on the nine classical gemstones of Indian tradition—ruby, pearl, coral, emerald, topaz, diamond, sapphire, hyacinth, and cat’s-eye—as well as other stones like rock crystal, sunstone, moonstone, lapis lazuli, and turquoise. Each entry provides Indian synonyms, medicinal uses, and notes on color and quality, along with astrological associations. Garbe relied extensively on Tagore’s Mani Mala, though he acknowledged its shortcomings and urged cautious use. His translation remains a valuable contribution to early Indian gemological literature and a crucial supplement to Tagore’s work.

gems, turquoise, Iran, Persia, Nishapur

Houtum-Schindler supplements Emil Tietze’s earlier survey of the mineral resources of Persia with observations gathered largely from his own travels, first treating individual mineral products and then giving a more detailed geological account of the country west of Zendjan. He records occurrences and, where available, mining methods, production, prices, trade, and local uses of alum, lead, borax, iron ores, edible and refractory clays, gold, gypsum, coal, kaolin, copper, magnesia, manganese, marble, naphtha, porphyry, mercury, rock salt, turquoise, silver, surmeh, and emery. Of particular gemological importance is his account of turquoise. In Kerman Province he notes several occurrences in northwest–southeast-trending volcanic ranges, including abandoned mines near Mo Aspan and Shehr-i Babek and recently discovered pale turquoise veins on the Cheheltan Mountains. At Nishapur he states that turquoise occurs in an iron-rich clay silicate containing microscopic grains of free quartz; the host rock changes from pale yellow near the surface to dark brown or blackish with depth. In 1876, 266 shafts were operating there, and production remained substantial: according to a Meshed turquoise merchant, material worth 240,000 marks annually went to Russia, 80,000 marks to Tehran, and another 80,000 marks was sold in Meshed, with additional exports to Constantinople, Baghdad, and the Persian Gulf. Houtum-Schindler also describes important gold occurrences, distinguishing gold-bearing iron-rich limestone at Kavend from barren quartz veins and documenting ancient workings and auriferous alluvium. His account west of Zendjan examines the relationships among limestones, green schists, granites, gneisses, volcanic rocks, conglomerates, gypsum, and mineralized veins, with observations on gold, silver, copper, lead, iron, alum, kaolin, mercury, and other resources. The paper combines economic mineralogy with field geology and provides unusually detailed evidence for the location, condition, exploitation, and commerce of Persian mineral deposits in the late nineteenth century.

gems, early lapidaries, early gemology, early mineralogy

A Greek poem about stones, which is now at last published in a recension based on the best manuscripts, has long raised great doubts as to which author and period it should be attributed. That Orpheus was the author of our poem—no one now believes this after the excellent studies of Thomas Tyrwhitt. Indeed, Gesner claimed that both Proclus and Stobaeus had attributed the Lithica to Orpheus and often cited it in their works; but Tyrwhitt, referring to the Fabrician index of authors cited by Proclus, showed that Proclus never once mentions the Lithica, a point confirmed by Lobeck after repeated readings of Proclus’s commentaries (Aglaophamus vol. I, p. 377). As for Stobaeus, Tyrwhitt also rightly observed that the passages from the Lithica cited in his name were in fact added much later by Conrad Gesner, and today this is no longer in doubt. Since we do not know when the Greek compiler of the prose epitome of the Lithica lived, and since the author of the Compendium of Rhetoric (last edited by Walz in the sixth volume of Rhetores Graeci) did not flourish before the 15th century, we can name no one before John Tzetzes who attributed the Lithica to Orpheus. Yet Tyrwhitt rightly argued that a writer who assigned astrological, magical, epodic, and hymnic works all to one and the same poet—and who also frequently cited under Orpheus’s name the poem “On the Sacred Laws” by Maximus—was completely lacking in critical judgment. Once we recognize Tzetzes’s ignorance, Tyrwhitt’s suspicion seems unnecessary: that Tzetzes may have come across a book containing all these poems (Lithica, Dodecaeterides, Georgica) together, and, seeing the Epitymnidia—which, being inscribed to Musaeus, seemed attributable by convention to Orpheus—occupying first place, rashly and carelessly assumed that all the poems in the volume were by Orpheus. Slightly more plausible is Lobeck’s view (expressed in Aglaophamus II) that Tzetzes had heard of the Orphic poem On the Use of Stones, which is also mentioned by Suidas, and for that reason attributed the Lithica, included in the same volume as the Argonautica, to Orpheus. But however the matter stands, it is certain that there is nothing in the whole poem that tastes of the muse of that ancient Orpheus. Therefore, setting aside the fancies of Tzetzes and his pre-Tyrwhitt editors, let us proceed to determine more accurately the date of the anonymous author. In this effort, we will follow Tyrwhitt and begin with verses 67–74 of the Lithica, in which it is beyond doubt that the persecution of magical arts and their practitioners is being described. In the year 357, the first law of Constantius appeared: “He shall be punished with death who refuses obedience to our commands”—that is, “Chaldeans and Magi and others whom the common people call sorcerers because of the magnitude of their crimes.” A few years later (in 371), under Valens, the Christian rage against magicians flared even more violently. According to Ammianus Marcellinus (XXIX), their homes were marked, and often…

gems, Ceylon, Sri Lanka, colored stones, pearls, diamonds

A broad descriptive account of Ceylon, treating its geography, people, customs, history, and natural productions. Of gemological interest, the book includes chapters devoted to colored gemstones, pearls, and diamonds. Sachot discusses Ceylon’s mineral riches and the precious stones for which the island was long celebrated, while his treatment of the pearl fisheries describes the important banks off the northwest coast near Condatchy (Kondachchi), including the seasonal gathering of divers, merchants, and traders and the recovery and marketing of the pearls.

gems, Burma, Myanmar

A comprehensive two-volume official gazetteer of British Burma compiled under the authority of the colonial government, with Horace Ralph Spearman responsible for its preparation. Volume 1 provides a general history and description of the country, including geography, population, administration, commerce, agriculture, natural resources and social conditions; Volume 2 is arranged as a geographical gazetteer of towns, villages, districts and other localities. For gemological and mineralogical research, the work is useful for references to local mineral resources, mining and trade within nineteenth-century Burma, although it predates the British annexation of Upper Burma and therefore does not provide the later detailed treatment of Mogok and other Upper Burmese gem districts. It is an important primary source for the geography, economy and natural resources of British-controlled Burma in the late nineteenth century.

gems, turquoise, turquoise identification

A microscopic study by Hugo Bücking of turquoise from several localities, including Sinai, Nishapur, Steine in Silesia and Oelsnitz in Saxony. Bücking examined thin sections under the microscope and showed that turquoise, although macroscopically apparently amorphous, consists of extremely fine doubly refracting particles or short fibrous aggregates. He compares the microscopic structure of specimens from the different sources and also records changes in color produced by heating. The paper is an important early contribution to the petrographic and gemological study of turquoise, demonstrating that microscopic examination could reveal an internal structure not evident from ordinary visual inspection.

corundum, Australia.12, gems

An official geological report by Charles Smith Wilkinson on the mineral resources of New South Wales, containing observations made during his surveys of the colony’s mining districts. Of particular gemological interest are his notices of zircon and sapphire in the Oberon district, including the occurrence at Native Dog Creek, where sapphire was found in association with alluvial gold workings. This represents the earliest recorded discovery of sapphire in the Oberon area; later work established that sapphires and zircons are widespread in the district’s alluvial deposits. The accompanying map helps document the location of the mineral occurrences and early mining activity.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

A practical and scholarly travel handbook to Egypt published by Karl Baedeker, combining route information with historical, archaeological, geographical and natural-historical descriptions. Volume 1, Unter-Aegypten bis zum Fayûm und die Sinai-Halbinsel, covers Lower Egypt, Cairo, the Nile Delta, the Fayum, Suez and the Sinai Peninsula, with detailed accounts of monuments, ancient sites, roads, accommodations and local conditions. Of particular gemological interest is the section on Sinai, which discusses the region’s ancient Egyptian mining districts and turquoise localities. The work is useful as a late nineteenth-century synthesis of contemporary European knowledge of Egypt and Sinai and as a record of the archaeological and mineral-producing sites accessible to travelers at the time.