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A Chaplet of Pearls: Pliny

Caligula wore slippers made of pearls; and Nero formed of them sceptres for the characters on the stage, and couches for his amours. The mystery that hung over the origin of the pearl doubtless added to its estimation. Pliny says it was produced by the dews of heaven falling into the open shell at the breeding-time. The quality varied with the amount of dew received, being lustrous if that was pure, dull if it were foul; cloudy weather spoilt the colour, lightning stopped the growth, but thunder made the shell-fish miscarry, and eject hollow husks, called bubbles (physemata). The same writer twits the ladies for their passionate fondness for pearl earrings. He relates that the shoal of pearl-oysters had a king, distinguished by his age and size, exactly as bees have a queen, wonderfully expert in keeping his subjects out of harm's way; but if the divers once succeeded in catching him, the next, straying about blindly, fell an easy prey. Though defended by a bodyguard of sharks, and dwelling amongst the rocks of the abyss, they cannot be preserved from ladies' ears.

Mandeville, whose ideas on precious stones are partly taken from Pliny, alluding to the diamond, says, "For right as the fine pearl congeals and grows great by the dew of Heaven, right so doth the true diamond; and right as the pearl by its own nature takes roundness, so the diamond by virtue of God takes squareness."