The historical collection of feldspars in the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales of Madrid. The case of "valencianite"
The Historical Collection of Feldspars at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC) began its formation with the founding and development of the Real Gabinete de Historia Natural (RGHN) in the mid-18th century, in the context of the Age of Enlightenment, at the dawn of the development of...
| Autores: | , , |
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| Tipo de recurso: | artículo |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) |
| Repositorio: | DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:dnet:digitalcsic_::023795557cea1d5517e0229d8275ce24 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/431418 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Adularia Age of Enlightenment Feldspars Labradorite “Valencianite” Feldespatos Ilustración Labradorita “Valencianita” |
| Sumario: | The Historical Collection of Feldspars at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC) began its formation with the founding and development of the Real Gabinete de Historia Natural (RGHN) in the mid-18th century, in the context of the Age of Enlightenment, at the dawn of the development of feldspar mineralogy and terminology. The collection grew and was later improved during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It currently consists of 324 mineral specimens, with feldspars being the main mineral phase. Thanks to the handwritten documents available in the Archivo Histórico MNCN, we can trace the history of the collection’s formation and its protagonists. Several historical specimens stand out in the collection, such as the Labrador Stone (labradorite), the adularia from the Alps, and the large potassium feldspar crystals and twins from Bustraviejo (Madrid). In addition, we document historical and mineralogical details of the “valencianite” specimens from the Valenciana mine, Guanajuato (Mexico), a mineral that has recently been proposed as a new mineral species in the group of potassium feldspars. |
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