Gempedia: A Comprehensive Glossary for Gemstones and Gemmology

Por A. Galopim de Carvalho

Gempedia: A Comprehensive Glossary for Gemstones and Gemmology By Rui Galopim de Carvalho, 2024. AIGS – Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences Co. Ltd, Bangkok, Thailand, https://shop.gem-a.com/product/gempedia-by-ruigalopim-de-carvalho, 719 pages, ISBN 978-9727809172. GBP50.00 softcover.

 

When I was asked to review Gempedia, I was very pleased to do so. When I received the book, however, I wasn’t sure what I had gotten myself into: 718 pages, with an average of 10 items on each page. What a task! I started checking every word, but soon realised that it would take me at least half a year to go through this enormous work. So I scanned through it, and spot-checked entries here and there, and am quite impressed. The book starts with a foreword by Gem-A’s CEO Alan Hart, who describes how the idea of Gempedia was born. This is followed by an introduction by the author himself, dealing with the story of the book, the sources he used, and explanations of the content and the possible flaws one may encounter. 

 

He also mentions his special interest in some subjects that may have gotten more attention than others, and requests that readers contact him if they find a mistake or missing terms. The introduction ends with a huge list of acknowledgments of people who provided assistance and/or inspiration. After this, the glossary goes straight to the letter A. As I was scanning through the book, I thought of many terms and checked to see if they were included—and they all were. Sometimes they were a little bit hidden, and sometimes the descriptions were a bit too short or too long, but they were there. I then consulted a diamond reference book (Herbert Tillander’s Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewellery Gempedia: A Comprehensive Glossary for Gemstones and Gemmology By Rui Galopim de Carvalho, 2024. AIGS – Asian Institute of Gemological Sciences Co. Ltd, Bangkok, Thailand, https://shop.gem-a.com/product/gempedia-by-ruigalopim-de-carvalho), which has a useful glossary for diamonds at the end, and compared it with the contents of Gempedia. Approximately two-thirds of the terms in Tillander’s glossary were present. 

 

What was missing were some weights or a few old descriptions of cuts or weights. I then checked Gempedia for various terms found in a gemmological journal, and could not find any important ones missing. All of the gem materials I checked for in Gempedia are listed, including rare and newer ones such as johachidolite and johnkoivulaite, and many misnomers are explained. Several famous gems and pearls are listed. Pearls have an exceptionally large coverage, including known species of shells and the pearls they produce. Historic places and jewellery pieces are covered, as are important mining areas, instruments commonly used in gemmology, major laboratories, treatment methods and their detection, and some cutting and trading centres, as well as old and new cutting styles. In summary, there is not much that is not covered! 

 

Of course, there are some typos or spelling errors, and some terms are missing. After all, it is a glossary and not an encyclopedia. (Gemmology probably should have its own encyclopedia, but that cannot be done in one volume, and probably not in a lifetime.) Since further editions of Gempedia are planned, this reviewer strongly recommends that anyone who notices an error report it to the author, as requested in the book’s introduction. Since the first printing of the book, a list of errata has already been issued, and can be downloaded from https://ruigalopim.com. 

 

A minor point of criticism I have heard from others (and noticed myself) is an inconsistency in choice of entities and places that are included. Some laboratories are listed, while others are not, although they have similar importance in the industry. The same applies to cutting and trading centres. As for the listing of famous gems, this also needs more attention in the future, as some are not mentioned. In summary, the advantages of having such an important compilation of accurately defined gemmological information by far outweigh the few missing terms. As such, this book should be included in any gemmological library and be readily available to every gemmologist in a gem lab. For the author, updating this book will probably continue throughout his lifetime, yielding many editions, as changes in gemmology are never-ending, with new mines found, new treatments encountered and new methods of detection developed. Please carry on!

Dr Lore Kiefert fga Dr Lore Kiefert Gemmology Consulting Heidelberg, Germany