gems, jade, Fischer-Book, bibliography, Mexico, Mesoamerica, Mayan, Aztec

Proja presents a critical and bibliographical study of Francisco Hernández’s Natural History of Mexico and of the complex history by which Hernández’s sixteenth-century investigations were edited by Nardo Antonio Recchi and subsequently published and augmented by members of the Accademia dei Lincei. He examines the surviving manuscripts, editions, editorial interventions, and circumstances surrounding the preparation of the celebrated 1651 Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae thesaurus, attempting to distinguish Hernández’s original material from the contributions of Recchi and the Lincean scholars. The study is valuable for establishing the textual history and transmission of one of the earliest major European scientific accounts of the natural products of New Spain. Of gemological relevance, Hernández’s work included Mexican minerals and stones alongside its much more extensive treatment of plants and animals; Proja’s bibliographical analysis therefore helps establish the provenance and authority of early European descriptions of indigenous Mexican mineral materials.

corundum, history.1, gems, glyptic, engraved gems

Sinkankas: This is King’s first book publication on a subject that he took up early in his career and pursued with single-minded persistence throughout his life. As a first effort, it leaves much to be desired, not because of a lack of information—which is still very useful—but because, as Vinet (1663) notes, it is very difficult to analyze. Faced with the wealth of data uncovered in his solitary studies at Cambridge, he crammed as much as he could into a single volume but failed to organize it well, resulting in a text that is often confusing to the reader. The introduction cites Goethe’s views on the usefulness of studying antique engraved gems and offers a short history of the glyptic art. Five engraved plates, praised by Vinet for their quality and fidelity to the originals, are inserted after the table of contents and explained in accompanying text, with many more single gems in wood engravings scattered throughout the book or used as head- or tailpieces. The first section of the text describes the materials of gems, including notes on minerals and rocks used and possible sources of rough, with some useful gemological information based on King’s research into Pliny’s Natural History and other ancient sources; it also includes remarks on pastes, gem impressions, and forms of gems. The second section explores art as displayed in gems, beginning with tests of antiquity and instruments used in engraving—helpful for determining age—and continues with essays on styles, symbolism, and subjects as assigned to various cultures over time. This section also contains diverse topics such as rings, “flexible glass,” names of artists, coin-dies, famous collections, and other fragments of knowledge that should have been better organized. The third section addresses the subjects depicted on gems, while the final section, another catch-all, considers the mystical virtues of gems and provides King’s English translation of Marbodeus’ celebrated poem on gemstones (pp. 391–417), along with a translation of parts of Orpheus’ poem on stones (pp. 420–426, passim), interspersed with descriptions of gemstones as given in Camillus Leonardus’ Speculum Lapidum (pp. 418–428, passim). The last part of this section includes a brief commentary on books concerning engraved gems, though it treats only a few of the most important; King would later publish a much larger bibliography in his Antique Gems and Rings. The appendix covers a variety of topics, including tools of the ancient engraver, the Sassanian alphabet, and notes on earlier statements in the text. The encyclopedic, albeit confused, nature of this work led A. Furtwängler (Die antiken Gemmen, vol. 3, p. 433) to be less than generous in his review, noting the “confusion” in this and subsequent works by King and suggesting that this initial treatise gave rise to all of King’s later books of the following decade, such as The Natural History, Ancient and Modern, of Precious Stones (1865), which developed from the gemstone section, and The Gnostics and Their Remains (1864, 1887), which stemmed from the mystical properties section. Furtwängler criticized the “dilettante” character of King’s works—crammed with unplanned information—but admitted that they still contain much that is worthwhile. Zazoff, in Gemmensammler, argues that Furtwängler went “too far” in his critique. Despite these adverse remarks, it remains true that King, more than anyone else, was the first English writer to assemble a major body of information on engraved gems in one place and was largely responsible for sparking interest in this branch of ancient art among readers in Britain and America.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Waitz’s Anthropologie der Naturvölker is an ambitious six-volume comparative study of the peoples and cultures of the world, combining physical anthropology, ethnography, linguistics, history, religion, and material culture. The series appeared between 1859 and 1872; after Waitz’s death in 1864 it was continued by Georg Gerland. Volumes 3–4, Die Amerikaner (1862–1864), are devoted to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, with Volume 4 treating Mexico, Central America, the Chibcha region, and Peru. Of particular relevance to gemological and jade studies are Waitz’s accounts of Aztec and other Mesoamerican material culture, including precious objects, ornaments, stoneworking, metals, and valued green stones, assembled from early Spanish chronicles and nineteenth-century archaeological and ethnographic scholarship. The work is useful for tracing how indigenous American uses of precious and ornamental materials were understood in European scholarship during the formative period of scientific anthropology and archaeology.

corundum, ruby, sapphire, Sri Lanka.12, heat treatments.6, gems, pearl, pearls, Ceylon

Tennent presents a comprehensive account of Ceylon (Sri Lanka), treating its physical geography, geology, natural history, history, antiquities, population, economy, and commerce. Based on his years in the colonial administration and extensive documentary research, the work contains substantial information on the island’s natural resources and traditional industries. Of particular gemological importance are descriptions of Ceylon’s celebrated precious stones—including sapphire, ruby and other corundum, cat’s-eye, spinel, garnet, zircon, and tourmaline—their occurrence, recovery from gem-bearing gravels, and aspects of the contemporary gem trade. Tennent also discusses pearls and the historically important pearl fisheries of the Gulf of Mannar, including the pearl oyster, fishing operations, and organization of the fisheries. The work is an important mid-nineteenth-century source for the history of Sri Lankan gemstones, gem mining, and pearl production.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Peschel presents a comprehensive history of the European age of geographical discovery, tracing the expansion of geographical knowledge from medieval exploration through the Portuguese voyages around Africa, Columbus and the discovery of the Americas, and subsequent Spanish and Portuguese exploration of the New World and Asia. Drawing critically on early travel narratives, chronicles, maps, and archival sources, he examines the motives, routes, achievements, and consequences of the principal voyages and the changing European conception of world geography. Of relevance to gemological history are discussions of the search for valuable commodities—including gold, pearls, precious stones, and other luxury products—which provided powerful incentives for exploration and shaped early European accounts of Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The work is particularly useful for placing early reports of gem resources and trade within the broader economic and geographical context of the Age of Discovery.

gems, jade, Mesoamerican jade, Guatemala jade, jadeite, fei cui, Mayan jade, Costa Rica, Fischer-Book

Squier presents an extensive geographical, historical, political, and economic survey of Central America, principally Guatemala, Honduras, San Salvador, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, drawing on his diplomatic service, travels, earlier publications, and contemporary documentary sources. He describes the region’s physical geography, population, indigenous peoples, antiquities, agriculture, commerce, transportation, and natural resources, with particular attention to routes proposed for inter-oceanic communication. Of gemological and mineralogical interest are his accounts of mines and mineral resources and his descriptions of pre-Columbian artifacts and indigenous materials, including objects fashioned from valued green stones. The volume provides an important mid-nineteenth-century synthesis of contemporary knowledge of Central America and is useful for tracing early reports of its mineral resources and archaeological stone objects.

corundum, history.1, quality.10, India.12, Sri Lanka.12, Burma.12, geology.11, gems, Indian lapidary

Edited by R.H. Major for the Hakluyt Society, this volume brings together four fifteenth-century narratives describing travel in India and other parts of Asia: the journeys of the Persian ambassador ʿAbd al-Razzāq, the Venetian traveller Niccolò de’ Conti, the Russian merchant Afanasy Nikitin, and the Genoese merchant Hieronimo di Santo Stefano. Their accounts provide contemporary information on Indian Ocean trade, ports, cities, political courts, customs, commodities, and the wealth of South and Central Asia. Of particular gemological importance are descriptions of diamonds, rubies, pearls, and other precious stones, their sources and markets, and the prominent role of gems and jewelry in Asian courts and long-distance commerce. The accounts of Vijayanagara and the trading networks linking India with Persia, Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean are especially valuable for reconstructing the fifteenth-century gem trade. Major’s edition made these early travel narratives readily accessible in English and remains an important source for the history of Asian commerce and precious stones.

gems, jade, Fischer-Book

Compiled by Francis L. Hawks from the journals and official records of Commodore Matthew C. Perry and his officers, this volume presents the narrative of the United States naval expedition to Japan in 1852–1854 that resulted in the Convention of Kanagawa and the opening of Japanese ports to American vessels (at gunpoint; so much for the 'rule of law'). It describes the expedition’s voyages through the China Seas and Japan, diplomatic negotiations, geography, natural history, commerce, customs, industries, and material culture, with numerous illustrations and maps. Of mineralogical and gemological interest are observations on Japanese mineral resources, manufactured objects, ornaments, and the stones and other natural materials employed in decorative and practical arts. The work is also valuable for its detailed contemporary documentation of Japanese crafts and commodities immediately before the rapid expansion of Western contact during the Meiji era.

corundum, history.1, gems

Sinkankas: The translation is generally conceded to be superior to Holland’s and is further enriched by abundant, discerning, and helpful footnotes. This edition was kept in print in various bindings as late as 1893, with full sets dated from 1856 to 1893. Primarily of interest to the gemologist are pages 305–85 and 386–468, which treat building stones and gemstones, respectively, in the sixth volume (Books XXXVI and XXXVII). The first book deals with building stones and other matters, sometimes classed with gemstones, while gemstones proper are fully treated in the last book, the contents of which are analyzed and explained in detail by Sidney Henry Ball in his A Roman Book on Precious Stones (1950), which see. However, Ball’s work is based on the Holland translation rather than the present one, and the reader desiring to explore more fully the material presented in Pliny’s gemological dissertations should compare both. Here, as in his other books, Pliny accumulated all he could find about the nature, sources, attributes, and uses of gemstones, with data and tales ranging from fabulous anecdotes and superstitions to the cold, hard facts of science. It is also here that one finds the curious names for many gemstones, borrowed more or less from earlier writers and repeated by writers after Pliny well into the seventeenth century. The legacy of such names in the post-Plinian lapidaries is usefully discussed by Frank Dawson Adams in his Birth and Development of the Geological Sciences (1938, pp. 143ff), who also attempts to group and correlate the names with known gemstones or other mineral and non-mineral substances classed as gemstones by earlier writers. The problem of such identification is also addressed by Dorothy Wyckoff in her Albertus Magnus: Book of Minerals (1967, esp. pp. 286–92), which see. Neither Philemon Holland nor John Bostock and Henry Thomas Riley were trained in the earth sciences, and for this reason the interpretations of gemstones and minerals provided by them should be compared to those of Ball, Adams, and Wyckoff, all trained in the earth sciences. See also the commentaries in Rackham’s edition of Pliny in a later English translation below.

corundum, Thailand.12, gems

Pallegoix’s Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam is a wide-ranging account of Siam by the French missionary Jean-Baptiste Pallegoix, covering its geography, population, government, religion, customs, commerce, agriculture, and natural products. Drawing on his long residence in the country and knowledge of the Thai language, Pallegoix provides one of the more substantial European descriptions of mid-nineteenth-century Siam. Of particular gemological interest, pp. 117–121 treat the kingdom’s mineral resources and precious stones, including accounts of gemstones obtained in Siam and the localities or regions associated with them. These passages are useful early evidence for European knowledge of the Siamese gem trade and mineral resources before the major development of the ruby and sapphire deposits of eastern Siam later in the nineteenth century.