One of Italy's leading marble companies, Henraux, has been working the quarries of Cervaiole, Italy since a few years after the company was formed in 1821. But the quarries near the Tuscan town of Pietrasanta have been commercially exploited since 1568, and the quality of the marble is said to have impressed artist and sculptor Michelangelo on a 1518 expedition to the region. When Henraux started work on the quarries, excavation was much the same as in the time of Michelangelo. That meant finding the litocalsi (defects) in the mountain, and opening them up with metal and wooden wedges, levers, chisels and hammers. Added to that was animal and human muscle, plus gunpowder.
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