corundum, history.1, Burma.12, India.12, Sri Lanka.12, Asia, Thailand.12, gems, Gasparo Balbi

An important early account of Burma by the Venetian jeweller Gasparo Balbi, who travelled east from Aleppo beginning in 1579 and reached Pegu in 1583. Balbi describes his route through the eastern Mediterranean, Persian Gulf, India and Southeast Asia, but the greatest value of the narrative lies in his observations on Pegu and the Burmese court. As a jeweller, he is of particular gemological interest: he carried emeralds from Venice and presented them to the King of Pegu during a formal audience, describing the elaborate court ceremonial surrounding the gift. He also records the extraordinary royal wealth of Pegu in gold, silver and jewels, together with its temples, gilded monuments, commerce, customs and political life. Purchas elsewhere summarizes Balbi as regarding the king of Pegu as among the richest rulers in the world in gold, silver and jewels. Although Balbi gives less direct information on Burmese ruby mining than some near-contemporary travellers, his account is especially valuable as the observations of a professional jeweller visiting the region at the height of the sixteenth-century Pegu trade, and as one of the earliest European firsthand descriptions of the Burmese court and its use of precious stones. He brought emeralds from Venice to trade for rubies, but also mentioned a good trade was bringing enamel bracelets in Saint Thomas for sale in Pegu.