Corsi Collection of Decorative Stones

view of stone 765

Corsi 765, approx. 145 x 73 x 40 mm, © Oxford University Museum of Natural History

OUMNH Number: 765  
Name and quarry location: Sicilian jasper, diaspro di Castro Giovanni, from either Enna, Sicily, or more probably Monte di Castrogiovanni, near Bivona, Agrigento, Sicily, Italy  
Geological description: Silicified limestone/limestone conglomerate coloured black by included crystals of hematite. A large yellow goethitic pebble is prominent, and scattered mollusc shells are also evident. Matrix and fracture fills are chalcedony.  
Comments: This was perhaps from Enna, which was formerly called Castrogiovanni, a locality mentioned by various authors quoted in Montana (1998), although it is not a locality for jasper listed by Jervis (1881 & 1889) or by Tata (1772).  
References: Jervis (1881) 193-318; Jervis (1889) 449-482; Montana & Briuccia (1998) 33, 38; Price (2007) 246-247; Schmidt (2002); Tata (1772)  
Further information:
 


Corsi's classification: Class 14. Quartz and its varieties; Species 6. Jasper; ii. Italian jaspers  
Corsi's text: 189.18 Diaspro di Castro Giovanni... di Sicilia  

Full entry in English

Enter some search terms
Show results as:

search tips

Searches the database for all stone records containing the words you enter. To search for a text string, put it between quotation marks. To search for stone records that don't contain a word, put a minus sign in front of it.

For example, entering: granite "coarse-grained" -Egypt will find all the coarse-grained granites that do not come from Egypt.

Terms of three characters or less have not been indexed.