Since antiquity, emeralds have been considered the most precious gemstones. The first mines established for their extraction were Cleopatra's mines in ancient Egypt. "The green of the emerald is the most beautiful of all," wrote Pliny the Elder 2,000 years ago.
 This monograph answers all important questions about emeralds.

 Contents:
 Beryl and emerald: Words from India. A brief history of the words. The first pair of glasses – an emerald? (Christa Behmenburg)/Emerald: mineralogically speaking, a beryl. Composition, structure, crystal forms, the "green beryl," trapiche emeralds. The beryl family (Rupert Hochleitner)/The origin of emeralds. On a difficult, much-discussed topic (Dietmar Schwarz, Gaston Giuliani, Günter Grundmann, and Maximilian Glas)/The world's emerald deposits. A lexical overview of known emerald locations and deposits (Günter Grundmann)/Colombia – the world's No. 1. History and locations of the famous and beautiful emerald finds from the Cordillera Oriental, western and eastern regions (Dietmar Schwarz, Gaston Giuliani)/"I never believed it was actually possible." Interview with emerald mine owner Marcus Budil from Munich (Maximilian Glas)/Brazil: Minas Gerais, Bahia, Ceará, Goiás and Tocantis (Dietmar Schwarz and Gaston Giuliani)/Production volumes and market values. On the sense and nonsense of official statistics (Dietmar Schwarz)/Africa: Egypt, Nigeria, Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Madagascar (Jan Kanis and Dietmar Schwarz)/Asia: Pakistan, Afghanistan and India. On the "Old Mine Emeralds" (Dietmar Schwarz and Gaston Giuliani)/Emerald gemology (Dietmar Schwarz)/Green is not just green. Or is it? Fundamentals for defining emerald color (Dietmar Schwarz and Karl Schmetzer)/Emerald treatments. What they do, how to recognize them (Lore Kiefert)/Laboratory-grown emeralds Synthetic emeralds for over 100 years / What is the price of emeralds? (Marisa Zachovay)
 A well-preserved antique copy. Published: 2001