Georgius Agricola is considered the 'father of mineralogy'. Nicolas Steno founded the stratigraphy (the study of rock layers (strata) and layering (stratification)), the geology characterizes the rocks in each layer and the mineralogy characterizes the minerals in each rock. The chemical elements were discovered in identified minerals and with the help of the identified elements the mineral crystal structure could be described. One milestone was the discovery of the geometrical law of crystallization by René Just Haüy, a further development of the work by Nicolas Steno and Jean-Baptiste L. Romé de l'Isle (the characterisation of a crystalline mineral needs knowledge on crystallography). Important contributions came from some Saxon "Bergraths"/ Freiberg Mining Academy: Johann F. Henckel, Abraham Gottlob Werner and his students (August Breithaupt, Robert Jameson, José Bonifácio de Andrada and others). Other milestones were the notion that metals are elements too (Antoine Lavoisier) and the periodic table of the elements by Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeleev. The overview of the organic bonds by Kekulé was necessary to understand the silicates, first refinements described by Bragg and Machatschki; and it was only possibly to understand a crystal structure with Dalton's atomic theory, the notion of atomic orbital and Goldschmidt's explanations. Specific gravity, streak (streak color and mineral hardness) and X-ray powder diffraction are quite specific for a Nickel-Strunz identifier (updated 9th ed.). Nowadays, non-destructive electron microprobe analysis is used to get the empirical formula of a mineral. Finally, the International Zeolite Association (IZA) took care of the zeolite frameworks (part of molecular sieves and/or molecular cages).

There are only a few thousand mineral species and 83 geochemically stable chemical elements combine to form them (84 elements, if plutonium and the Atomic Age are included). The mineral evolution in the geologic time context were discussed and summarised by Arkadii G. Zhabin (and subsequent Russian workers), Robert M. Hazen, William A. Deer, Robert A. Howie and Jack Zussman.

Milestones

Neolithic Age, and after it

Neolithic Age (new stone era) beginning about 10,200 years ago: flint tools (diagenesis of marine microfossils, microcristalline opal and chalcedony), jade tools (usually nephrite, jadeitite or jadeite-jade is less common), kaolin earth (adobe bricks made by drying of clay), copper, gold, silver and rocksalt. Locally, beads of turquoise and lazurite are found. Göbekli Tepe, Anatolia, dating back to the 10th–8th millennium BC. Note: nephrite is a microcristalline variety of tremolite (ferro-actinolite–tremolite solid solution series); white nephrite is almost pure tremolite and iron gives nephrite its green colour. Bronze Age, Near East (3600–1200 BC), Europe (3600–600 BC), Indian Subcontinent (3300–1200 BC). Chalcolithic Age (copper age) beginning about 7,000 years ago: copper, gold, silver, mercury. In the early Bronze Age, lead was used with antimony and arsenic. The use of meteoric iron–nickel alloy has been traced as far back as 3500 BC. Iron Age, Ancient Near East (1300–600 BC), India (1200–200 BC), Europe (1200 BC – 400 AD). Illustration, Torah (in Hebrew), Septuagint (translation in Ancient Greek), Vulgate (translation in Latin), Douay–Rheims Bible (translation in English), Book of Numbers 31:22: Gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, and lead, and tin (Latin: "aurum et argentum et aes et ferrum et stagnum et plumbum"). Book of Exodus 28:16–20 cites following decorative stones (list of precious stones in the Bible): (the "breastplate" or "rational" of the Jewish High Priest) It shall be foursquare and doubled: it shall be the measure of a span both in length and in breadth. And thou shalt set in it four rows of stones: in the first row shall be a sardius stone, and a topaz, and an emerald (Latin: "primo versu erit lapis sardius et topazius et zmaragdus"): In the second a carbuncle, a sapphire and a jasper (Latin: "in secundo carbunculus sapphyrus et iaspis"). In the third a ligurius, an agate, and an amethyst (Latin: "in tertio ligyrius achates et amethistus"): In the fourth a chrysolite, an onyx, and a beryl (Latin: "in quarto chrysolitus onychinus et berillus"). They shall be set in gold by their rows. Book of Revelation 21:19–20: And the foundations of the wall of the city were adorned with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper: the second, sapphire: the third, a chalcedony: the fourth, an emerald: The fifth, sardonyx: the sixth, sardius: the seventh, chrysolite: the eighth, beryl: the ninth, a topaz: the tenth, a chrysoprasus: the eleventh, a jacinth: the twelfth, an amethyst (Latin: "primum iaspis secundus sapphyrus tertius carcedonius quartus zmaragdus quintus sardonix sextus sardinus septimus chrysolitus octavus berillus nonus topazius decimus chrysoprassus undecimus hyacinthus duodecimus amethistus"). Suggested combined translation: a red aggregate of microgranular speckled ferruginous "chalcedony" ("from" Heybeliada?, Prince Islands, Chalcedon, Constantinople's sphere of influence) (iaspis, jasper; it means "spotted or speckled stone"); corundum, var. sapphire; "chalcedony", var. onyx; beryl, var. emerald ("from" Mons Smaragdus?, Wadi El Gamal National Park); "chalcedony", var. agate (sardonyx, "from" river "Achates" (river Dirillo), Sicily); "chalcedony", var. sard (sardius; "from" Sardis, Asia Minor); topaz (chrysolite; "from" Topazon Island?, Seven Sisters, Gulf of Tadjoura); beryl, var. aquamarine; olive greenish yellow fosterite, var. peridot (topaz "from" Topazios (Zabargad Island), Red Sea); "chalcedony", var. chrysoprase ("from" Liguria, Italy); red pyrope (carbuncle, jacinth, hyacinth; a garnet, almandine-pyrope series); quartz, var. amethyst. Note: the fosterite–fayalite solid solution series is called olivine.Albert Huntington Chester (1896) A Dictionary of the Names of Minerals: Including their History and Etymology; reprinted by Classic Reprint Series, Forgotten Books, 2015 Illustration, Ancient Egypt. Ancient Egyptian funerary practices: a natural material found in Wadi Natrun is used (a mixture of natron and rocksalt (?)). The iconic gold burial mask of Tutankhamun, has inlays of turquoise, lapis lazuli, carnelian and coloured glass. Eye shadow (kohl) using black galena, green malachite, stibnite, lead or coal, for instance.Mineralienatlas – Stibnit Illustration, Persian Empire (728–330 BC period) and Babylonian Empire: blue (lapis lazuli) glazed bricks, for instance (Ishtar Gate, Pergamon Museum).

Greco-Roman and Byzantine period, mainly Greco-Roman period: De Anima Libri III of Aristotle (4th century BC). Description of mercury (metal). Theophrastus (c. 371 – c. 287 BC) Googlebooks – Theophrastus On Stones Illustration: amber (lyncurion of Theophrastus), chrysocolla, agate, cinnabar, orpiment, realgar. First brass (calamine plus copper process) appears in the middle of first century BC in the Roman Imperium, zircon and tourmalines are not found on ancient art works. The oldest known pills were made of the zinc carbonates hydrozincite (described 1853) and smithsonite (described 1832). Calamine is a historic name for an ore of zinc (hemimorphite (IMA1962 s.p.) and smithsonite). De architectura (about 15 BC) of Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, Libri X, vol. VII, Caput 8. Note: description of natural mercury from the Cilbian fields near the former Greek city of Ephesus. Book V: Minerals, description of melanterite (50 AD) and chalcanthite (70 AD). Naturalis Historia [The Natural History]: (77 AD) of Gaius Plinius Secundus (Pliny the Elder, 23 AD – 25 August 79 AD). Volumes: liber xxxv (alumen); liber xxxvi (limestone); liber xxxvii [Book XXXVII – The Natural History of Precious Stones] (augites). Illustration: turquoise (callais of Pliny), tourmaline, almandine (corruption of alabandicus of Pliny), moroxite (apatite var.), limestone (calcite), magnetite, emery (corundum, hematite and magnetite), atramentum sutorium (goslarite, melanterite), misy from Cyprus (copiapite, hydroniumjarosite, jarosite, natrojarosite). Note: alabandicus of Pliny is a garnet worked at Alabanda (Αλαβάνδα, an ancient city of Caria, Anatolia). Pliny the Younger (61 – c. 113 AD), Epistulae (Letters): description of calcite and beryl.Mineralienatlas – CalciteMineralienatlas – Beryl Damigeron de Lapidibus, "Orphei Lithica" (c. IV AD) [translated to Latin by Eugenius Abel, 1881]. Note: describes curing of ailments by 30 stones. Isidore of Seville (c. 600 AD) Etymologiae. Turkish traveller Muḥammad Abū'l-Qāsim Ibn Ḥawqal: Ibn Hawqal (977 AD) "The Face of the Earth".Peridot from St. John's / Zabargad Island Abū al-Rayhān Muhammad ibn Ahmad al-Bīrūnī (973–1048): Al-Biruni (1000) The Book Most Comprehensive in Knowledge On Precious Stones. He considers "zarnarrud" (emerald) and "zabarjad" (peridot) the same mineral. Uzbek (Persian) scholar and physician, Avicenna (about 980 – June 1037). He wrote almost 450 treatises on a wide range of subjects, of which around 240 have survived. Illustration, elements known to the ancients (about 1000 AD, timeline of chemical elements discoveries): carbon, sulfur, iron, arsenic, antimony, zinc, copper, lead, silver, tin, gold, mercury. Marbode (1100).

Albertus Magnus (Albert the Great, 1193/1206 – 15 November 1280). Isolation of arsenic. Prior to the Spanish conquest (1492): Pre-Columbian Americans used platinum. Ancestral Puebloans (Anasazi) traded with turquoise. Illustration: Realgar from Arabic "rahj al-gahr" (powder of the mine). Salammoniac (άλς άμμωυιακός: sals ammonikos, salt of Ammon), for rocksalt mined by Amun's Temple, Egypt. Trabzonite (IMA1983-071a) for Trabzon, Turkey (Τραπεζοῦς: Trapezous, Trebizond). There are three large peridots probably from the 12th century in the Shrine of the Three Magi in Cologne Cathedral, they were believed to be emeralds. Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom: the Black Prince's Ruby (a spinel) was given in 1367 to its namesake, Edward of Woodstock (the "Black Prince").

After the fall of Constantinople (after 1453)

Leonardi (1502) "Speculum lapidum". Theophrast von Hohenheim (Paracelsus, 1493–1541), Swiss-born physician: description of bismuth and naming of zinc (1526). Calbus Freibergius (Latin for Ulrich Rülein von Calw, 1527) Ein nützlich Bergbüchlin, Erffurd: Johan Loersfelt. Note: description of bismuth. Georgius Agricola (Latin for Georg Bauer, 24 March 1494 – 21 November 1555), he is "father of mineralogy". Bermannus sive de re metallica (1530) [Bermannus; or a dialogue about the nature of metals]. Notes: based on "Ein nützlich Bergbüchlin", mention of fluorite. De Ortu & Causis Subterraneorum (1546), liber v. Note: description of talc. De natura fossilium (1546) [On the Nature of Rocks], liber x. Note: mention of alabandite (alabandicus lapis). De re metallica (1556) [On Metals], liber xii. Note: description of salammoniac. Illustration: borax (chrysocolla of Agricola), marcasite (lebererz of Agricola), lazurite (sapphis of Agricola), wolframite (hübnerite–ferberite series), orpiment. Alchemist Alexander von Suchten (about 1520 – 1575)Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts De Secretis Antimonij liber vnus, Straßburg (1570); Zween Tractat, Vom Antimonio, Mömpelgard (1604); Antimonii Mysteria Gemina, Leipzig (1604) Alchemist Johann Thölde (about 1565 – about 1614). He is probably one of the authors behind the pseudonym Basilius Valentinus and so he published about antimony. He published works by Alexander von Suchten and he published under his own name too, so his literature isn't clear.Mindat.org – ValentiniteVerzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts Alchemist