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Historical Note

Prologue

Part 1

Topaz: a Perfect Sunshine Stone

1

Hammers rang on anvils, and sparks sprayed from the forges…

2

It was seven months since I had set foot in…

3

As I grew older, I used to slip away whenever…

4

Six weeks later I was standing in the steerage house…

5

For the moment, I was content to obey my mother.

Part 2

Scythian Emerald: a Courtesan among Stones

6

A month later I stepped up on to the great…

7

I went home euphoric. The smell of Ippolita was still…

8

We walked swiftly back up from the fish market, with…

Part 3

Chrysoprase: the Lantern in the Darkness

9

On a grey, drizzling morning towards the end of January…

10

Day by day, I watched in impatience as Cellini worked.

11

Next afternoon I set out with Cellini down the Via…

12

‘Are you completely and utterly out of your mind?’

13

I lay that night in my bed at the inn…

14

As I came away from the Palazzo del Bene it…

Part 4

The Golconda Diamond: a Thorn in the Heart

15

Light fell slantwise from the plain glass windows of the…

16

There was dinner, most days, in the Palazzo del Bene.

17

For two days we wound up the valley of the…

18

That very night we rode from Florence, west into the…

Part 5

Ruby of Serendip: a Stone to Heat the Blood

19

The next day Renzo da Ceri was seen in his…

20

It was easy going at first. The current did not…

21

I would have been dead already, if it had not…

22

Still the Sack continued, and the soldiers grew all the…

23

I grabbed her hand, wiping it clean, weeping, touching her…

24

I let Hannah step out of the storeroom first. When…

Acknowledgements

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