Figure 1 - uploaded by Michael S. Krzemnicki
Content may be subject to copyright.
Details of two engravings, published by Gerhard Altzenbach (left, British Museum, Q5.375, 1664) and from Jacobus Harrewijn (right, 1711), both representing the treasury of Aachen Cathedral. A stylized Talisman of Charlemagne appears in the center, as number 15 (left engraving) and number 11 (right engraving). Represented on the right engraving: (4) a piece of the rope with which Jesus was bound, (5) a piece of the Holy Cross, (6) a statue of the Virgin Mary, (10) a portrait of the Virgin Mary according to St. Lucas, (11) hairs of the Virgin Mary, (12) the right arm of Charlemagne, (16) St. Charlemagne's bust, (17) his hunting horn and sword, and (18) relics of the sanctuary.
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... of the chain we know today, the reliquary depicted on this painting is connected to several elements, including two ovals adorned with gems and a cloak clasp, a clothing fastener commonly used in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in place of buttons. These elements are most certainly the fruits of the artist's imagination, since no other representation or description of the talisman reports that it was modified to be worn as a cloak clasp, and since the present-day regular chain appears in the previous seventeenth and eighteenth centuries engravings (again, see figure 1). Guériot, 1933), though the sale did not go through (Maison, 1991). ...
Context 2
... absorption spectrum of the glass cabochon showed characteristic absorption bands (542, 597, and 644 nm) of divalent cobalt Co 2+ ( Lima et al., 2012) and a transmission domain at 480 nm, which explains the cabochon's blue color ( figure 10). As cobalt is a very strong chromophore and the cabochon's color is not very saturated, it is not surprising that the Co concentration was below the detection limit of XRF while the chemical composition was 81 wt.% SiO 2 , 10 wt.% PbO, 7 wt.% ...
Similar publications
Gemological characterization of minerals allows the evaluation of natural, synthetic, organic and artificial gems
in relation to their gemological quality, including description of characteristics regarding their density, hardness, color
and chemical composition. Tourmaline is a mineral that can be used as a gemstone and occurs in all colors. Dep...
Citations
... Gemologists have studied the gemological characteristics of emeralds of different origin, describing how they appear under conventional gemological instruments [6][7][8][9], as well as the inclusions of emeralds, including two-and three-phase fluid inclusions as well as solid inclusions [7,10]. Inclusions are an important basis for indicating geological origin, and research on emerald origin and its metallogenic geology is plentiful [11][12][13]. ...
Ethiopia has been gaining attention in recent years as an emerging source of high-quality emerald. Ethiopian emerald samples with different colors ranging from dark green to light green were selected to study the gemological properties, chemical composition, and spectral characteristics. The Ethiopian emeralds were examined using conventional gemological instruments, including X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, LA-ICP-MS, UV/Vis/NIR, infrared spectrometry, and Raman spectrometry, providing a wealth of data and research information related to Ethiopian emeralds. The EDXRF results show that the chemical composition of Ethiopian emeralds is distinctly regional compared to emeralds of Colombian origin, being low in Cr, low in V, and high in Fe. LA-ICP-MS results demonstrate consistent results for Cr (734.34 to 1644.3 ppmw), V (89.61 to 106.61 ppmw), and Fe (4468.04 to 5022.3 ppmw) based on the chemical composition analysis by EDXRF. In addition, the LA-ICP-MS assay revealed that the combination of alkali metals (Li, Na, K, Rb, and Cs) and some trace elements (Sc, V, Cr, and Fe) could distinguish the Ethiopian emeralds from those from other regions. The Ethiopian emerald had absorption of Fe2+, Cr3+, V3+, and Fe3+, and the typical absorption intensity of Fe2+ (around 850 nm) was higher than that of Fe3+ (around 371 nm) in the UV/Vis/NIR spectra. The infrared spectrum of samples indicated that the absorption of type II H2O was higher than type I H2O in the emeralds from Ethiopia, which is consistent with the high content of alkali metals detected by LA-ICP-MS that would lead to an increase in the content of type II H2O. The Raman spectra showed absorption at 410 cm−1, 569 cm−1, 687 cm−1, 995 cm−1, and 1067 cm−1, with an emerald species recognition pattern. The gas–liquid two-phase inclusions of the emerald in this area were mainly CO2 and H2O, and the samples contained typical dark inclusions of magnesium-rich biotite sheets that revealed the tectonic-magmatic-related geological environment in this region.
... For these reasons, several studies have been conducted in collaboration with the world's most well-known-international gemological institutes. Among all of these studies, we can cite the example of the characterization study of the Talisman of Charlemagne, for which Panczer and co-authors (2019) [31] identified all the gemstones set (nine lateral stones, eight pearls, and one central stone for each talisman side, plus nine lateral stones and eight pearls set on the talisman's border) and hypothesized a Sri Lankan (Ceylon historical mines) origin for the huge sapphire set on the backside of the talisman, due to scientific gemological analyses. Another one is the study of the Iron Crown, kept at the altar of the Teodolinda Chapel in the Cathedral of Monza (Italy). ...
Featured Application: Based on the data and analytical methodologies reported here, this review can be used as a reference for Green Stones identification and characterization protocols. Moreover , due to the multidisciplinary approach discussed, it can also be considered as an example useful for similar applications.
Abstract: The present review aims to discuss the importance of a multidisciplinary approach in cultural heritage and archaeometry investigations. The analytical methods used to identify and characterize "Green Stones" are discussed as an example. In the present paper, the term Green Stones is applied but not limited to jade materials, which have considerable importance in cultural heritage studies. In fact, archaeological samples made in Green Stones have been discovered worldwide, with many dating back to the Neolithic Age. Moreover, these materials represent an interesting analytical challenge, starting with their nomenclature and, in most cases, the nature of their poly-crystalline samples and their heterogeneity. Indeed, after a brief introduction about the advantages of the non-destructive analytical techniques commonly used for gemstones and cultural heritage samples analyses, the limits of the same have been discussed on the basis of Green Stones applicability. Finally, a multidisciplinary methodology for Green Stones identification and full characterization , which considers materials' heterogeneity and information, has been proposed and based on different references.
... However, over the past decade the development of portable and compact spectroscopic equipment has made on-site analysis possible for historical jewels, avoiding the need to transport these delicate objects to laboratories (e.g. Reiche et al. 2004;Farges et al. 2015;Panczer et al. 2019). The resulting analyses are not as complete as those that could be obtained in a laboratory or on unset stones, but by combining the instrument data with historical information it is sometimes possible to propose geographical origins for the gems. ...
... This study shows the value of portable Raman spectroscopy for identifying set gemstones and previously misidentified (or imitation) gems in historical jewels, as also demonstrated for the 11th-century Heinrich's Cross reliquary from the treasury of Basel cathedral (Reiche et al. 2004), the 13th-century head reliquary of St Eustace from the same treasury (Joyner et al. 2006), the 13th-century Chiaravalle Cross (Di Martino et al. 2019) and an 18th-century Slovenian baroque chalice (Jeršek & Kramar 2014). The on-site collection of Raman data in combination with portable EDXRF spectroscopy further enabled confident determination of the provenance of certain gemstones in the 9th-century Talisman of Charlemagne reliquary (Panczer et al. 2019) and the 17th-century Grand Sapphire of Louis XIV (Farges et al. 2015). ...
The book of hours examined for this study is an illuminated Renaissance masterpiece: a small prayer book bound in enamelled gold and gemstones that was bought in 1538 by King Francis I of France as a probable gift for his niece. In 2018, it was acquired by the Louvre Museum (Paris, France) from S. J. Phillips Ltd in London, and its nearly complete history is documented here.
A first gemmological analysis of the stones adorning the book was conducted on site at the Louvre in 2020. The gems consist of carnelian (two intaglios and eight cameos), rubies (27 polished pieces),
turquoise (24 cabochons) and rhodolite (one faceted stone in the book’s clasp that has been described as tourmaline since 1942). We suggest that most of the rubies were mined from the Mogok area of
Burma (now Myanmar). Based on historical considerations, the turquoise could have originated from Persia or possibly Uzbekistan, and the carnelian from either India or Saxony. The faceted rhodolite
could have originated from India or Sri Lanka, and was most likely added to the clasp in more recent times, possibly between 1842 and 1884.
... Samples from Madagascar showed the highest concentrations of potassium (up to 3150 ppmw, with 1389 ppmw average and 1090 ppmw median values) and the concentrations of emeralds from Afghanistan varied from low (107 ppmw) to high (1540 ppmw). In Figure 3, a 7 Li vs. 39 K binary plot of the studied samples is presented. Samples with low lithium ( 7 Li < 200 ppmw) can be separated from those with medium to high lithium ( 7 Li > 250 ppmw). ...
... Binary plot of 7 Li vs.39 K. ...
The present study applied LA–ICP-MS on gem-quality emeralds from the most important
sources (Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Russia, Zambia and Zimbabwe). It revealed that emeralds from Afghanistan, Brazil, Colombia and Madagascar have a relatively lower lithium content (7Li < 200 ppmw) compared to emeralds from other places (7Li > 250 ppmw). Alkali element contents as well as scandium, manganese, cobalt, nickel, zinc and gallium can further help us in obtaining accurate origin information for these emeralds. UV-Vis spectroscopy can aid in the separation of emeralds from Colombia and Afghanistan from these obtained from the other sources as the latter present pronounced iron-related bands. Intense Type-II water vibrations are observed in the infrared spectra of emeralds from Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as in some samples from Afghanistan and Ethiopia, which contain higher alkali contents. A band at 2818 cm-1,
supposedly attributed to chlorine, was observed only in emeralds from Colombia and Afghanistan. Samples with medium to high alkalis from Ethiopia, Madagascar, Zambia and Zimbabwe can also be separated from the others by Raman spectroscopy based on the lower or equal relative intensity of the Type I water band at around 3608 cm-1 compared to the Type II water band at around 3598 cm-1 band (with some samples from Afghanistan, Brazil and Russia presenting equal relative intensities).
