ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the early seventeenth-century material and artistic exchanges between Florence and Goa. Payments, contracts, cargo lists, and epistolary evidence cast light on the precious stones imported; on the Florentine artworks exported; on the artists involved; on how the Paolsanti family orchestrated the trade of pietre dure; and, finally, on the role played by the Medici. In 1608, the Grand Duke waited impatiently to obtain permission for his agents to sail from Lisbon to India and begin their assigned mission: securing enough pietre dure for the Cappella dei Principi. In the early modern period, India was the only area where diamonds were mined. Paolsanti managed to import them to Florence and, further developing the network established by his uncle, bring diamonds to Venice, as several documents in the family papers demonstrate. Scholars have assumed that the pietre dure panels of Shah Jahan’s Throne were imported from Florence.
