A few years ago, we talked about the Habsburg takeover of Tuscany, and the resulting disappearance of the Florentine diamond:
Anna Maria Luisa, was responsible for the Medici "family pact. It ensured that all the Medicean art and treasures collected over nearly three centuries of political ascendancy remained in Florence. Cynthia Miller Lawrence, an American art-historian, argues that Anna Maria Luisa thus provided for Tuscany's future economy through tourism. Sixteen years after her death, the Uffizi Gallery, built by Cosimo the Great, the founder of the Grand Duchy, was made open to public viewing.
"It is known that the new Grand Duke did not respect this 'family pact' signed in Vienna on October 1737 - three months after Gian Gastone's death and confirmed in her will on April 5, 1739 -. As soon as he was in possession of the property, while Anna Maria Luisa was still alive, and not very discreetly, he began to sell large parts of it. When Maria Theresa became Empress* of Austria, she had a large part of the donation transported to Vienna, including the Florentino, the famous Medici diamond, which was considered the largest in the world at the time. This diamond later mysteriously disappeared and was never heard of again."
* We talked about the inaccuracy of this title; this book was obviously written by an Italian.
I was recently told by a professor that the diamond has now surfaced! You can read about it here. Basically, it was sent for safekeeping to Canada during WWI, it was placed in a bank vault, and everyone was sworn not to reveal its location until 100 years after the death of Charles I. He died in 1922, the diamond surfaced again in 2022, and its location became public knowledge just this month!
Diamonds are forever! Also, the three FS biographies I've read since we last talked about this all point out that FS also took over the (considerable) Medici debts along with the Medici property, which he had to pay and did pay, and that the story of him heartlessly selling heirlooms came largerly from Florentine nobles who had bet on Don Carlos succeeding and having ingratiated themselves with the Spaniards now were miffed that Team Lorraine took over (literally in some cases, since FS brought in various of his Lorraine nobles who themselves had to leave because Stanislaw Lescynsky took over Lorraine.
I'm very pleased about this! Thank you for following up! :D Wow, that is a very large and very intensely-colored diamond! (137 carats means that it's three times the weight of the Hope Diamond! Also rather more intensely colored, though yellow diamonds in general are rather less rare than blue diamonds. But I imagine that an intensely colored diamond of this size of any color is extraordinarily rare...)
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timeasmymeasure
The Florentine diamond
Date: 2025-11-20 02:42 pm (UTC)Anna Maria Luisa, was responsible for the Medici "family pact. It ensured that all the Medicean art and treasures collected over nearly three centuries of political ascendancy remained in Florence. Cynthia Miller Lawrence, an American art-historian, argues that Anna Maria Luisa thus provided for Tuscany's future economy through tourism. Sixteen years after her death, the Uffizi Gallery, built by Cosimo the Great, the founder of the Grand Duchy, was made open to public viewing.
"It is known that the new Grand Duke did not respect this 'family pact' signed in Vienna on October 1737 - three months after Gian Gastone's death and confirmed in her will on April 5, 1739 -. As soon as he was in possession of the property, while Anna Maria Luisa was still alive, and not very discreetly, he began to sell large parts of it. When Maria Theresa became Empress* of Austria, she had a large part of the donation transported to Vienna, including the Florentino, the famous Medici diamond, which was considered the largest in the world at the time. This diamond later mysteriously disappeared and was never heard of again."
* We talked about the inaccuracy of this title; this book was obviously written by an Italian.
I was recently told by a professor that the diamond has now surfaced! You can read about it here. Basically, it was sent for safekeeping to Canada during WWI, it was placed in a bank vault, and everyone was sworn not to reveal its location until 100 years after the death of Charles I. He died in 1922, the diamond surfaced again in 2022, and its location became public knowledge just this month!
Re: The Florentine diamond
Date: 2025-11-20 03:05 pm (UTC)Re: The Florentine diamond
Date: 2025-11-20 05:58 pm (UTC)I'm very pleased about this! Thank you for following up! :D Wow, that is a very large and very intensely-colored diamond! (137 carats means that it's three times the weight of the Hope Diamond! Also rather more intensely colored, though yellow diamonds in general are rather less rare than blue diamonds. But I imagine that an intensely colored diamond of this size of any color is extraordinarily rare...)