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Flavus or blavus: a difficulty in understanding early descriptions of minerals

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 March 2018

C. E. N. Bromehead
C. E. N. Bromehead*
Affiliation:
Geological Survey of Great Britain
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Extract

While studying some of the early works on minerals I came across an obvious difficulty: several minerals, amongst which lapis-lazuli is the most startling, are described in Latin as flavus, yellow or flaxen-coloured, not blue. This error has been copied into a book in English. The solution is less obvious than the difficulty, and it may therefore be worth while to put it on record for other workers on similar lines.

Type
Research Article
Information
Mineralogical magazine and journal of the Mineralogical Society , Volume 28 , Issue 197 , June 1947 , pp. 104 - 107
Copyright
Copyright © The Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 1947

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