Cipollino
Cipollino is the name for carbonate natural stone with a characteristic streaky, wavy texture .
Definition of terms
The main feature of individual types of marble and limestone are the characteristic ribbon and wave-like structures caused by embedded minerals , mainly in shades of green. In this case one speaks of Cipollin marble. The Russian petrographer Franz Loewinson-Lessing describes this group of rocks in his petrographic lexicon of 1893 as follows: "Cipollin - limestones that are often rich in layers of mica and talc , often with a slate structure approaching limestone mica slate."
In the context of modern petrographic nomenclature, the term is viewed as out of date, although it occurs sporadically in geoscientific parlance. In this sense, a metacarbonate rock rich in chlorite or other leaf silicates is called cipollin.
Etymology, name variants
The term is derived from the Italian word cipolla for onion (Latin cēpă ). What is meant is a certain appearance of those decorative rocks that can be referred to as onion marble, as they have similarities with the layer structure of an onion. The use of this term is very old and still widespread today, although it does not correspond to any petrographic nomenclature. In ancient times , there were no scientific or geological distinguishing features as we understand it today. For this reason, classifications were mainly made according to optical characteristics. Because of its apt demarcation from other decorative stones, it is used in many languages.
Based on the Italian word cipollino, there are equivalents in other languages, e.g. E.g .: French: cipolin , Spanish: cipolino , English: cipolino , Polish: cipolino , Russian: чиполино
The spelling Ci pp olino can occasionally be found in the modern international natural stone trade .
The term found its way into scientific literature through Alexandre Brongniart (1813) and Louis Cordier (1868).
history
According to the available sources, the oldest and therefore name-defining use seems to be the marble carysticum. It is a marble from the southern tip of the Greek island of Evia . The ancient mining sites are to the northeast, above the city of Karystos , on the foothills of the Ochi Mountains, further about 10 km northwest of Karystos near the city of Marmari (Marmarion) and near the city of Styra . The most sought-after pieces in antiquity are said to have come from Mamarion. Roman clients had this unusually beautiful marble transported to Italy in order to use it for decorative purposes, i.e. columns, floors and wall cladding, in a representative manner in Rome (e.g. Roman Forum ). A particularly outstanding application example are the columns of the temple of Antoninus and Faustina . You can find it, famous for its applications in Rome, as a decorative stone in other places of the Roman Empire. The white-light-gray-greenish banding, with wave structures with a partially onion-skinned pattern, is the reason for its geologically unspecific name. As a result, this name was carried over to other, visually similar structured and mostly green-tinted rocks.
Material examples
- Verde Cipollino ( Stouraitikon , Green of Styra )
A marble from Evia near the city of Styra.
- Application examples: Vienna (Austria), facade cladding from Loos-Haus , Michaelerplatz 3
- Dresden (Germany), Catholic Court Church , baptismal font
- Cipollino Versilia
A light green marble with a fine, dark stripe structure. The mining site is near Stazzema in the Apuan Alps .
- Cipollino Apuano
A marble with a strong, dark green, thin stripe structure that alternates with white calcite and gives an attractive image. The calcite occurs partly in the form of a knot. The mining site is near Stazzema in the Apuan Alps.
- Grand Antique de Cipolin ( Grand Antique de Saillon / Marbre cipolin de Saillon )
A marble from the Swiss canton of Valais . The former mining site is located above the town of Saillon . The name suggests a very old application, but this is not the case. Because of the great visual resemblance to the antique marble from Karystos, the mining company chose a promotional name in the 19th century. Around 1900 this material was considered the most expensive natural stone. The very unfavorable mining conditions caused a high price and were also one of the reasons that the quarry came to a standstill after the First World War . Later there was only sporadic extraction work.
- Application examples: Vevey (Switzerland): some shop cladding in the old town
-
Bern (Switzerland): architectural parts in the Federal Palace
-
Paris (France): pillars in the main foyer of the Opéra Garnier
- Saillon (Switzerland): altar of the church
- Aachen , Aachen Cathedral : marble slab cladding in an octagon, early 20th century
- Cipollino Verde Mandolato
With this name an exclusive decorative stone from the French Pyrenees was traded in Italy. In France it is known by its native name Campan Vert . The dismantling has been suspended for a long time. This is not a striped material. The structure is knot-like and somewhat elongated (directional structure).
- Application example: Montreux (Switzerland): Casino from the Palace Hotel as part of the exterior cladding
- Verde Luana
Lively banded silicate marble from the Apuan Alps near Vagli di Sopra.
Occasionally, different colored natural stones are associated with the term Cipollino because of their structure-like characteristics.
- Cipollino Dorato
A natural stone with a structure similar to that of Cipollino Apuano but without shades of green. Instead, the ribbons and veins are a strong golden yellow color. The mining is carried out in the Italian region of Cuneo .
- Cipollino S or Cipollino Zebra
A natural stone from the Czech Republic, which was temporarily available under this term in trade before 1945. The mining took place in the Jeseníky Mountains near Bad Lindewiese .
- Cipollino Rosso
This decorative stone was extracted in ancient times in quarries in the Turkish region of Muğla .
- Cipollino Nero
This decorative stone comes from the time of Roman exploration and stone extraction on the Greek island of Evia, and is found here and there in ancient Roman buildings. Its structure corresponds to that of Verde Cipollino , but it has only black, gray and whitish colors.
Petrography, mineralogical composition
From a petrographic point of view, the term (green) Cipollino mainly means two rock groups.
Some types of cipollino are also classified as silicate marble .
In both cases, calcite is the main component. The green coloring components differ from variety to variety and can be serpentine minerals , diopside , chlorite , amphibole or fuchsite . Quartz
is often found as a further accessory mineral component .
The formation of greenish band-shaped structures in limestone can be explained by contact metamorphosis or the regulation of foreign minerals and in other cases also by metasomatic processes. In cipollines of other colors, mainly iron compounds (yellow, red) and graphite (black) determine the color.
The transition between limestones and metamorphic rocks such as marbles is fluid in the case of the Cipolline. Since the term is traditionally outdated, it cannot be clearly defined in terms of petrography. The use of this designation does not follow a uniform definition and has been subject to various influences in the history of use of decorative stones in question.
literature
- Reinhard J. Blum: Lithurgics or minerals and types of rock according to their application in economic, artistic and technical terms, dealt with systematically. Stuttgart (E. Schweizerbart's publishing house) 1840.
- Douglas Fettes, Jacqueline Desmons (Eds.): Metamorphic Rocks. A Classification and Glossary of Terms . Cambridge, 2007, ISBN 978-0-521-86810-5 .
- Richard G. Lepsius: Greek marble studies. [O. O.] 1890.
- F. Loewinson-Lessing: Petrographic Lexicon, Repertory of Petrographic Terms and Names. Jurjew [Dorpat] 1893.
- Friedrich Müller : INSK compact. Ulm (Ebner Verlag) 2002.
- Monica T. Price: Decorative stone, the complete sourcebook. London (Thames & Hudson) 2007, ISBN 978-0-500-51341-5 .
- Friedrich Teller: The geological structure of the island of Evia. In: Geological Studies in the Coastal Countries of the Greek Archipelago. Vienna 1880.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Douglas Fettes, Jacqueline Desmons (Ed.) 2007, p. 139.
- ↑ Douglas Fettes, Jacqueline Desmons (Ed.) 2007, p. 50
- ^ Charles d'Orbigny: Description of the roches composant l'écorce terrestre et des terrains cristallins constituant le sol primitif. Paris 1868, p. 287
