'The competent mineralogist should possess a profound perception of the complexity of natural materials, he/she should have the necessary knowledge of the ancient and recent geological and physicochemical processes acting on them and on the artifacts produced by human activities, and he/she should master most of the methods and techniques useful for investigating our common heritage.

The chapters contributed to this book recognize the important and diverse contributions of mineralogy to the valorization, characterization, interpretation and conservation of cultural heritage. The book focuses on examples of materials and methodological issues rather than technical/analytical details. The authors have attempted to deal with the cultural heritage materials in chronological order of their technological developments, to relate them to past human activities, and to highlight unresolved problems in need of investigation.'