Book of Minerals: Magnus, Albertus (1967)

Dorothy Wyckoff's English translation of the Book of Minerals, which Albertus Magnus wrote in the thirteenth century, published by the Clarendon Press, Oxford, in 1967. An introduction on Albert's life and the book's date comes first, followed by five books on stones, metals and minerals intermediate between them, and appendixes. Asbestos appears as 'Abeston' in the alphabetical list of precious stones. The text calls it iron-coloured, found mostly in Arabia, and hard to quench once kindled. The translator identifies it as amphibole or serpentine (chrysotile).