On Stones (Theophrastus), the first mineralogical treatise
Sobre las piedras (Teofrasto), primer tratado de mineralogía
- Date
- c. 315 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Athens, Attica, Greece
- Credited to
- Theophrastus of Eresus
- Field
- Cosmos & Earth
What was discovered
Theophrastus, Aristotle's successor at the Lyceum, classified stones, metals and earths by observable properties such as hardness, fusibility and behaviour in fire, and recorded where they came from. It is the oldest surviving mineralogical treatise.
The date is that of Theophrastus's tenure at the head of the Lyceum (c. 322-287 BC); the work cannot be dated more precisely.
What it led to
- main source of the mineral books of Pliny the Elder
- a model for descriptive mineralogy until Agricola