Il lapis specularis

“Lapis duritia marmoris, candidus atque translucens.”

So Pliny the Elder in his Natural History describes the lapis specularis: a stone “with the hardness of marble, white and transparent”, in reality a secondary gypsum, easy to work in flat sheets.

The Romans made extensive use as an effective and cheaper alternative to glass; an important mining district there was also “in Bononiensis Italiae parte breves”, not far from Bologna.

In the last decade there have been identified in the surrounding of Monte Mauro several quarries where it was practiced the extraction of lapis specularis during the Roman period: those in the Vena del Gesso of Romagna are the first ever discovered in Italy.

Big crystal of lapis specularis (ca. 70 cm) found in the “Vena del Gesso Romagnola” and stored at the “Museo Civico di Scienze Naturali” in Faenza.

www.lapisspecularis.it

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Soprintendenza Archeologia Emilia-Romagna

Parco Regionale della Vena del Gesso Romagnola

Federazione Speleologica Regionale dell'Emilia-Romagna

Speleo GAM Mezzano