A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE SPANISH MINERALOGY.

Contributions before XVIII century.

The knowledge of the Spanish mineralogy is very related, as in all Europe, to the development of the mining in Spain and in Spanish America. Besides some primitive deposits of flint and semi-precious minerals (variscite), as Can Tintorer, near Barcelona city, we can talk about a systematic mining in the Iberian peninsula from the roman empire occupation, although, probably, some sites were previously well known, as in example the mountain of salt of Cardona (Barcelona).

Plinius, in his Natural History, translated to the Spanish by the licenciado Huerta, describe some mineral species belonging to the Peninsula. His references, in any case, are strictly of historical interest.

Seems to be clear that romans exploited the quicksilver deposit of Almadén, especially extracting the cinnabar as a pigment, because the "bermellón" (red colour) was very appreciated to dye the roman capes.

Also the Arabian people, during the centuries they remain in Spain exploded some deposits; then it’s not especially rare that in some Arabian collections of curiosities appear samples of Spanish origin.

The Spanish Lapidaries.

In Spain as in the rest of Europe, in the Renaissance, some lapidaries were edited. These lapidaries usually repeated, one to other, the same knowledge , but they furnished, every one of them, some particularities that make them interesting. The most well known are the Alfonso X El Sabio lapidary and the book of Gaspar de Morales, De las virtudes y propiedades maravillosas de las piedras preciosas (About the virtues and wonderful proprieties of precious rocks). The book, consisting in three volumes, was edited in 1598 and there is a modern edition of this book, dated in Madrid in 1977. To these books we can add for its historical interest, a Catalan anonymous lapidary, of the XV century edited, in recent years, by Dolphin Book (Oxford, 1977)

The discovery of America

At the same time some of the regents and governors of the Spanish America were, really the first chronicler and naturalists in these lands. It was the case of Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, governor of Cartagena de Indias and Santo Domingo, who was named Cronista de las Indias, (Chronicler of Indies) by the king. Fernández de Oviedo compiled an Encyclopaedia of twenty one volumes about the natural history and the Ethnology of America, which first part was published in Spain in 1535. A detailed description of the trees, plants and pastures supposed him the title of Primer Naturalista del Nuevo Mundo (First Naturalist of the New World). Similar paper was assumed some missionaries of America.

Until de XVII century the most of the references about the mineral curiosities of Spain were furnished by geographers and travellers, which imaginatively described the wonders, more than the realities. May be the exception was don Francisco Ortíz who in the century, and in spite of the social debacle and the cultural weakness, made a very detailed study of the Almadén mine.

The reign of Carlos III

It was precisely in the Real Laboratorio de Segóvia, where the first public lessons of mineralogy were given. They were initiated by Herrgen, author of a transcendent essay: Materiales para la geografía mineralogica de España y sus provincias de América (Some materials for the mineralogical geography of Spain and its American provinces), Published in the Anales de Historia Natural, in 1799.

The mentioned background supposed the initial impulse for a serious knowledge of the Spanish mineralogy, tanks, specially to the task developed by the Escuela de Minas de Madrid,

Mineralogical expedition of Heuland brothers to Chili and Peru. (1795 - 1800).

At the end of the XIX, the Bourbon dynasty intent mitigate the progressive isolation of the colonies from the metropolis. A deficient and corrupt administration in the Virreinato de Perú, of which depended, more or less, all the territories of South America belonging to Spain, origin a very important decline of the economy at the same time that the productivity indexes of mining descended in an alarming way. This fact plus the interest for science research exhibit by the Bourbons, originate a series of expeditions to the different American colonies. So, in the historical documents its clear the poverty and deterioration of the samples in the collections of the Gabinete de Historia Natural. The samples had been collected and elected, in the larger part, by William Bowles, one of the beginners of the Spanish mineralogy. He go across the Peninsula, with official support, and he describes the physical geography and the natural wealth. Bowles had preference by samples very rich in metal, which were considered by Clavijo, the Museum director, as few adequate to be showed in the exhibit cases of the institution.

Clavijo, in 1793, writes to the Duque de Alcúdia asking for some help to form an expedition to recollect natural samples, underlying that it was necessary to find a person to this porpoise. At this time was in Spain the german Christian Heuland, who had sold a mineralogical collection to the king of Spain, the collection belonging to his uncle Jakob Forster. Heuland, knowing the intention to do the expedition, sent a report to the Duque de Alcúdia, exposing their knowledge and competence and a catalogue of the minerals sold.

Once Clavijo received this information, he give his consent to Heuland designation. Then he charged Heuland the collection of samples and a mineralogical history of the Americas, in order to complement the works of Francisco Hernández in Nueva España and of Francisco Molina about Chili.

The expedition represented an important growing of the collections in the Museum, and a compilation of precious information about the mining districts in the colonies.

The mining research in Spain in the XIX century.

The Escuela de Minas de Madrid, and also the other institutions teaching mining, mineralogy and chemical, stabilised deep relations with similar schools in Europe. The Spanish schools contracted, as teachers, and in similar way to the precedent century, some of the most relevant personalities of the European mineralogy, being impulsed, at the same time the studies and prospections in new mining zones.

The major importance given to the reset of menas originate the discovery of the lead deposit in Gador (Almería province) in 1825, the deposit of Sierra Almagrera in 1833 and the silver deposit of Hiendelaencina in 1840.

At half century Breithaupt (father and son), were distinguished for its description of minerals and the paragenesis in the deposits of Hiendelaencina and Barranco Jaroso, giving to the knowledge some new mineral species and varieties which received the name, some of them, from the local villages and toponymes, so, the important impulse received by the study of the mineralogy made possible de discovering and description of the thenardite, by Casaseca; zaratite and morenosite, by Casares; jarosite, by Reichter and güejarite and aerinite by Rammelsberg.

Expedition of 1862 - 1866. The Comisión Científica del Pacífico.

Promoted by the queen Isabel II, it was the last of the great scientific expeditions promoted for Spanish monarchs. The boats must reach several ports. From Pernambuco (Brazil) they must arrive to Río de la Plata, to pass the Cabo de Hornos and arrive to Chile, Peru, Mexico and Alta California. In despite of being commanded for a team of important naturalists, the conditions of decadence of the Spanish monarchy and the political and financial problems, plus the tropical illnesses, filled if difficulties the expedition (some of the members died). But it represented a total amount of more than 82.000 samples of plants, animals and geological specimens. Most of the mining zones visited and studied for the expeditionary are, even today, classical and important deposits for the history of the mineralogy: Chuquicamata, Chañarcillo, the metallic Peruvian deposits, etc.

The first serious systematisation of the Spanish mineralogy: Salvador Calderón (1910).

Calderón could compilate the information from his own studies about Spanish minerals and deposits, adding historical notes, new species and new deposits, because in these years, the works of the institutions related to the mining and mineralogy (Escuela de Minas de Madrid, Real Sociedad Española de Historia Natural...) represented an encouragement to the knowledge of the mineralogy of the country.

It is obvious that Calderón created a model for the works of regional mineralogy. The edition the Calderon’s work influenced the most of the modern works of this branch of the mineralogy in Spain. That was evident in another classical work of Spanish mineralogy: Els Minerals de Catalunya (Barcelona 1920), by Llorenç Tomàs this work even being no so important as the Calderon’s book, is an important and valuable contribution to the mineralogy of this country in the North West of Spain.

After the Spanish civil war, the studies of mineralogy and crystallography, decayed in an alarming way, being recuperated, very slowly its old level and in a very recent years the Spanish mineralogy recuperate and produce works of a certain importance about new deposits and minerals.

In the last years appear some monographs working on regional mineralogy of different areas of Spain and Spanish America. So its interesting to consult Introducción a los minerales de España, de E. Galán y S. Mirete (Madrid 1979), an intent of recover the Calderon’s information, adding the modern data; Depósitos minerales de España (Madrid 1983) by F. Vázquez Guzmán, works about the most important Spanish mining areas; Minas y minerales de Iberoamérica (Madrid 1992), by B. Calvo y J. González, shows very good general vision about the mining an the minerals of Latin America (including Brazil).

About most concrete areas we must note: Los minerales y la minería de la Sierra Albarrana y su entorno. Madrid 1991, by B. Calvo and others, detailing the knowledge about an historical area for the Spanish mining; Los minerales de Aragón (Zaragoza 1988) by M. Calvo and others; Minerales de las comunidades autónomas del País Vasco y Navarra (Vitoria 1993), by M. Calvo and others, published by the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Álava; Guia de minerales del País Vasco (Vitoria 1991) by A. Franco; Els minerals de Catalunya (Barcelona 1990), by J.M. Mata, compilating a very precise information about a big amount of mines and quarries, and finally, Minerales de la región de Murcia (La Unión 1996) by M. Muelas and other authors, a very recent work resulting from a very serious study of the mining and the mineralogy of the area.