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DIAMOND.
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85
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smith,
having perceived that the art of diamond-cutting was still in its
infancy, and deriving rules for it from mathematical and optical
principles, he arranged the inclination of the facets so as to produce
the wonderful effects of light which are so much admired in the
brilliant, and to which it has scarcely been possible to add anything
from his time to our days.
A
book entitled ' The Wonders of the East Indies ' attributes to Berqueen
not only the perfecting, but the invention of diamond-cutting. This we
have already proved untrue ; let it be sufficient for the Bruges
goldsmith to claim the merit of having—if we may so express it—given
to the diamond its true light.
Roberto
di Berqueen, his nephew, relates that Charles the Bold gave him five
thousand ducats as a reward for cutting three very large diamonds, of
which hereafter we shall relate the history. The disciples of this
celebrated engraver went to Paris and Antwerp, but for want of rough
material their art languished. And thus it went on until Cardinal
Mazarin gave it new impetus, and protected it, so that in 1'aris
diamonds were cut for all the courts of Europe. He entrusted to his
engravers the twelve largest diamonds of the crown of France, that they
might be newly cut, and thus have their lustre increased ; therefore
these were called the twelve Mazarins.
About
this time some Italian artists, who were very clever engravers, tried
to cut the diamond. The hardness of this stone was conquered by art
and perseverance. Giacomo da Trezezo, a Milanese, was the first to win
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