during the Middle Ages and the modern period. It was quarried primarily in central England, northern Spain, and the French Alps, and traded over long distances. In 1550, religious sculptures were banned in England (see Reformation iconoclasm), leading to the large-scale export of alabaster figures to France.

Some sulfates were known to alchemists. The vitriol salts, from the Latin vitreolum, glassy, were so-called because they were some of the first transparent crystals known. Green vitriol