August 2011 update !

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  It is not certain but for sure it was in the early years of the 15th century that this carbonatic rock was sawed and used for the first time as decorative pattern for tables or columns for the inside of elegant houses. Telling the truth Cosimo of the Medici family was the first one to make his workers officially use this rock for the preparation and decoration of the surfaces of the tables that are now exposed at the Opificio Museum, in Florence. The surfaces were created as a combination of many slices of this rock so that to create images or patterns. This Opificio was a special laboratory where incredible masterpieces were created for centuries from whatever stone or rock, only for the Medici family ! The tradition to search and cut this rock did not disappear and survived all along the centuries up to our times !

  The name "pietra paesina" means "landscape rock" since after it has been sawn and levigated, it shows incredible colors and landascapes that are quite often different from eye to eye since everyone sees what he wants to see ! ... lakes, mountains, canyon, skies, ..... from a geological point of view this rock is a carbonatic rock belonging to the alberese family, formed during the cretaceo period. It is made by calcite, iron and manganese oxides with a lot of thin fractures and with a lot of colors: yellow, brown, grey, light green, all due to the mixing of variable amounts of oxides contained inside the rock. The fractures and the changes of the color are mainly due to the mechanical movments that the rocks have suffered for thousands of years and the colors have been given by the passage of the water along ringing the oxides along the fractures created by such mechanical movements. An incredible story that comes even more incredible after the rock is cut and lucidated so that to show its incredible landascapes.

    Again this is a real unique chance to get real nice specimens that are the same that during the 15th century, during the Reinassance, Cosimo de Medici was looking so that Opifico could create the unique masterpieces !

    These slices are from thii winter findings ! the colors are peculiar and real attractive, fashinating ! the more the colors protrude from the margins the older and greater is the rock with more evident "landscapes" and thus more valuable !

These are the latest findings, there are a variable set of landscapes and colors ... the typical colors of the carbonatic rock rich of Fe, Mn, Mg that create the tonalities of the images that our brain catch.

Email to order
ItalianMinerals@libero.it

PAE10-01 Quite large paesina slice with interesting panorama and nice variety of colors. 17,5x6 cm. - € 23

PAE10-03 Great landscape, may be it recalls the desertic areas of USA .... real nice and showy ! 20.7x5.8 cm -  € 35

PAE10-05 The brown colors dominate this paesina that shows profiles of rocky canyons and elevations. 13x5.3 cm - € 20

PAE10-07 There are a lot of colors in this slice: light blue, beige, brown, green ! It looks like a storm is moving from the right side of the slice towards the rocky peaks ! 13x4.7 cm - € 16

PAE10-09 A nice landscape of mountains, rich of brown colors and a sort of "vegetation" in their lower part .. but these are dendritis ! 12.5x3.6 cm - € 15

PAE10-14 The color of the mountains is somehow light, as if there is some fog. Nice landscape and skyline. Brown, beige and green colors. 12x5 cm - € 15

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