Etymology

Today it means: A roughly 12cm square-topped, dark, fine-grained, paving stone with a tapered base, endemic to Rome (first used in the 17th century to pave St. Peter’s Square—whence it received its name—later becoming iconic throughout Rome and further afield in Italy), which was traditionally (albeit not exclusively) quarried from the mafic, alkaline, ultrapotassic leucitite Pleistocene-age lavas erupted by the Alban Hills volcano just outside of the city, although modern replacement stones are often made of similar, yet more readily-available, cheaper basalt, imported from China. Full definition →