"The shortest definition of pearls we can give you is the following," write curator Hubert Bari and chemical engineer David Lam, "the pearl is a concentration composed of calcium carbonate, organic material and water, formed by a mollusk with a shell." This dictionary definition is just the tip of the iceberg-sized wealth of information that the co-authors dish out in "Pearls," which will be released in September by the Italian publisher Skira to accompany an exhibition of the same name, that was held at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar from January to June 5th, 2010.

Far from an ordinary catalogue, "Pearls" seeks to educate its reader on not only the beauty of the pearls and jewelry featured in the exhibition, but also on the scientific processes at work in pearl creation, on artificial cultivation, as well as on the dying craft of diving for pearls.The authors make an effort to include every aspect of a pearl’s journey, from its creation inside of a mollusk to the moment it enters the highly competitive jewelry marketplace.

The reader soon learns that most pearls are formed as a defensive reaction upon being attacked or injured, and that pearls can take many forms — blister or free, round or baroque, natural or cultivated. Discussion of cultivation, which takes place either in factories or ocean farms, is concentrated in the latter half of the book. It is a business that has boomed because, as the popularity of pearls have grown, the supply of mollusks in areas known for their pearls has greatly diminished.

"Pearls" informs of the many dangers encountered by pearl divers (exploding eardrums, infections, blindness, and shark bites, amongst others). It dispels the myths about Cleopatra drinking a pearl dissolved in vinegar (the authors inform us that this is a physical impossibility, as they have tried this experiment themselves to no success). And refutes that the pain caused by a baroque pearl is why mollusks rotate it smooth ("the rounder the pearl," they write, "the less physiologically uncomfortable it is").

"Pearls" cannot be discussed without mentioning its accompanying photography. Exquisite photographs document each shell and variety of pearl displayed in the museum’s show. Photos also chronicle the commercial process, from pearl diving or man-made cultivation to the sorting and stringing of pearls. And of course, the final product: gleaming pearl turban ornaments worn by the Mughal maharajahs of India, the pale pink Caribbean pearls owned by the British royal family, and even the infamous Mikimoto pearl necklace that Joe DiMaggio gave to Marilyn Monroe.