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Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond

Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Page of 377 Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Text size:minus plus Restore normal size   Mail page  Print this page
66
NATURAL HISTORY OF PRECIOUS STONES, &c.
cannot avoid observing that his spiteful Fate was not to be appeased by his death, but followed him beyond the grave : for she caused to be inscribed upon his monument in Nancy cathedral this most horrific specimen of Dog-Latin ever excogitated by monkish muse :
" Te piguit pacis, teduitque quietis in vita Hie jaces, Carole ! jamque quiesce tibi."
THE SANCY.
The story, perpetually retailed, that the Diamond just described, and the first specimen of the art invented by Berquem, has come down to our times under the name of the almost equally famous " Sancy Diamond," is a mere fable resting upon a basis of mistakes and confusion. Robert de Berquem, a descendant of the Duke's jeweller, and who would naturally have made the most of such a tradition had it been current in his own times, tells us distinctly the true origin of the " Sancy " in his ' Merveilles des Indes' (published 1669), in these words :—"La Royne d'Angleterre d'à present a celuy que diffunct M. de Sancy apporta de son ambassade de Levant, qui est en forme d'amande, taillé à facettes des deux costées : parfaitement blanc et net; et qui pèse cinquante-quatre carats." Now the measurement of the noted Burgundian stone, as given in Fugger's fac-simile of it, namely, five-eighths of an inch square at the base (or girdle) would, according to Barbot's scale for estimating the weights of Diamonds by their dimensions, produce a weight of only twenty-eight carats, supposing the pattern to be a perfect brilliant. Although a few more carats must be allowed in this case for an extremely elevated apex in place of table, yet even this addition will be far from adequate to bring up the sum
Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond Page of 377 Ch. 2: Adamas, Diamond
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