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Religious Uses: Pagan, Hebrew, and Christian: French

If we are to believe the following anecdote, the emerald disappeared at an earlier date: It is said that in 1809, during the French occupation of Spain, Marshal Junot visited this cathedral, and the emerald was pointed out to him as one of the chief glories of the shrine. As soon as the marshal's covetous glance rested upon the gem, he plucked it from its setting, remarking, coolly, to the astonished and horrified bystanders, "This belongs to me." Then, smiling and bowing, he left the cathedral with the emerald safely ensconced in his waistcoat pocket. Later, it was replaced by an imitation in glass. The famous collection of jewels gathered together in the treasury of the Santa Casa, at Loreto, Italy, was plundered during the French occupation in 1797, and all trace of most of the magnificent ornaments has been lost. These represented the gifts of many crowned heads and titled personages; among the former was the unfortunate Henrietta Maria, wife of Charles I, who donated a golden heart-shaped jewel with the words "Jesus Maria" incrusted in diamonds. This jewel is described as being "as big as both a man's hands, opened onto two leaves, on one of which was the figure of the Blessed Virgin and on the other a portrait of the queen herself. (Lassels, "The Voyage of Italy," Paris, 1670, Pt. II). Of the many rich vestments for decorating the statue of the Virgin in the sanctuary, the most splendid was the gift of the Infanta Isabel of Flanders, and was valued at 40,000 crowns. In a seventeenth-century account by an English traveller it is thus described: (Lassels, 1.c.). Its set thick with six rows of diamonds downe before, to the number of three thousand, and its all wrought over with a kinde of embroidery of little pearle set thick everywhere within the flowers with great round pearle, to the number twenty thousand pearles in all.

The same writer tells us the niche in which the statue was placed was bordered with a row of precious stones of great number, size, and value, the colors being so varied that this bordering formed "a rich Iris of several colors." There is also said to have been a great pearl, set in gold, and engraved with the image of the Virgin and Child. (Scotto, "Itinerario d Italia," Roma, 1747). It seems probable that this was a jewel made of a baroque pearl, or pearls, completed by enamelwork so as to represent the sacred figures. The pectoral cross worn in solemn processions by the prior of the monastery of San Lorenzo del Escorial was adorned with eight perfect emeralds, five diamonds, and five pearls. From it hung a splendid pear-shaped pearl, the gift of Philip II in 1595, and one of the finest of those acquired by this monarch. In 1740 the cross was valued at 50,000 crowns, Philip's great pearl not being included in this valuation (Jose Ignacio Miro, Estudio de las piedras preciosas," Madrid, 1870).