Violane and Braunite

Saint Marcel, Aosta - 4x3x3 cm

Violano is a very rare variety of diopside rich of manganese which can be found just in one locality all over the world: the Praborna Mine near Saint Marcel, a small village in the Aosta Valley, in the north of Italy. Generally, it appears in compact masses and exhibits an intense violet color, as to be also appreciated in jewelery (where it was seldom cut as a cabochon). Very rarely, it can be also found in a micro-crystal form. For this reason, I believe the miniature you're watching in the photo is probably the rarest specimen within the whole collection! Here the violano is present in several macroscopic crystals, visible to the naked eye, and associated to Braunite (another rare mineral of manganese, here even in a micro-crystal form). I've had the opportunity to visit many collections of Alpine minerals, even just in the Aosta Valley, but I've never seen a violano specimen like this! ...Never! The miniature belonged to Nazzareno Fiocca, a famous collector of the Valley, who gave it to me at the beginning of the 90's, just out of friendship! Some year later Nazzareno died by cancer and I love this specimen in a very special way. In the last picture you can also note the old label from Nazzareno, who used to label his specimens by stickers at the plexiglass base.