Ye Olde Diamonde

Diamonde comes from Inde and some from Arabie; that which cometh from Inde is clipped males, ye other female. The male is brown appon light shininge, ye female is whit and beutifull of coulor like Cristall. Thes diamonds is very pretious to thee and of great hardnesse, for they will grave in Iron or steele, taking no harme. If a man werre it, it strengthen him and kepith him from dreming in his sleep, from faintnes and from poyson, from wroth and chiding. It sendeth and helpeth men to great worth. It defendeth a man from his enemies, and keepeth a man in good estate when he findeth him; it comforte a man witt, and support him of ritches. And though a man do fall downe from a cart or a wale he shall not break any of his bones if the stone be on him... It destroyth Lechery; and he shall not lightly be acombred so yt he feare god. And it will keepe the seede of a mans body within a womans body, so yt the children's limmes shall not be wrong ne crooked. And it must be sett in the mettle and bore of a mans left halfe".

Anglo-Norman document, the "Sloane Lapidary" (1243).


"To win them, temples have been profaned, palaces looted, thrones torn to fragments, princes tortured, women strangled, guests poisoned by their hosts, and slaves disembowelled. Some have fallen on battlefields, to be picked up by ignorant freebooters, and sold for a few silver coins. Others have been cast into ditches by thieves or swallowed by guards, or sunk in shipwrecks, or broken into powder in moments of frenzy. No strain of fancy in an Arabian tale has outstripped the marvels of fact in the diamond's history."

Gardner Williams (General Manager of de Beers ca.1890's)


"They resist blows to such an extent that the hammer rebounds and the very anvil splits asunder, but this invincible element which defies Natures two most violent forces, iron and fire, can be broken by ram's blood. But it must be steeped in blood that is fresh and warm and even so, many blows are needed."

Pliny the Elder ca. 1 century AD