Lapidarium
The Secret Lives of Stones
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
Inspired by the lapidaries of the ancient world, this book is a beautifully designed collection of true stories about sixty different stones that have influenced our shared history
The earliest scientists ground and processed minerals in a centuries-long quest for a mythic stone that would prolong human life. Michelangelo climbed mountains in Tuscany searching for the sugar-white marble that would yield his sculptures. Catherine the Great wore the wealth of Russia stitched in gemstones onto the front of her bodices.
Through the realms of art, myth, geology, philosophy and power, the story of humanity can be told through the minerals and materials that have allowed us to evolve and create. From the Taiwanese national treasure known as the Meat-Shaped Stone to Malta’s prehistoric “fat lady” temples carved in globigerina limestone to the amethyst crystals still believed to have healing powers, Lapidarium is a jewel box of sixty far-flung stones and the stories that accompany them. Together, they explore how human culture has formed stone, and the roles stone has played in forming human culture.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Judah (Frida Kahlo), senior art critic at the British newspaper The i, offers a beautifully illustrated collection of insightful essays that "explore how human culture has formed stone, and the roles stone has played in forming human culture." Judah digs into 60 types, describing, for example, how people in ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia turned alunite into alum, a compound used for tanning and textile production: "You could make a fortune from rock and old urine. You just needed the right rock. And the right recipe." Marble offers a look at "the Roman Empire in its pomp" as well as its decline, and diamonds are shrouded in tall tales: "As long as gemstones have been associated with magic, silver-tongued storytellers have attributed powers for both good and ill," Judah writes. Pink ancaster, a form of limestone, is the material used in Barbara Hepworth's 1934 sculpture Mother and Child, and haüyne, a rare mineral, "occurs in a zippy blue that declares modernity." Judah elegantly mixes archaeology, mythology, literature, and philosophy, building a solid case that "so much of what we think of as culture—our modes and places of worship, the tools we use, the materials in which we adorn ourselves, the stories we spin, our graven images—is formed by geology." This clever outing fascinates.
