corundum, history, India.12, gems, Indian lapidary

Silva examines the trade in precious stones in sixteenth-century Lisbon, when Portuguese maritime expansion made the city a major European entrepôt for gems arriving from India and other parts of Asia. Drawing on contemporary documentary sources, he discusses the importation, valuation and sale of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, pearls and other precious materials, together with the merchants, jewelers and lapidaries involved in their distribution. The influx of eastern gems attracted foreign lapidaries to Lisbon and contributed to the development of a specialized gem and jewelry trade. The study also considers commercial practices, including the packaging and valuation of shipments and the role of foreign banking and mercantile houses, placing the gemstone trade within the broader economic consequences of Portuguese expansion in the Indian Ocean. Later work by Silva developed the subject in English as “The Portuguese Gem Trade in the Sixteenth Century” (Jewellery Studies, No. 6, 1993, pp. 19–28).