The Tradition of Diamond Engagement Rings in Europe

It was thousands of years ago that the mighty Roman Empire dominated the landscape from Great Britain in the west all the way to Persia in the east, including the beautiful snow capped mountains of Bulgaria where today there is fantastic skiing and snowboarding plus exceedingly luxurious accommodation. They controlled all of the Middle East and North Africa including Egypt which had itself been a dominating power for centuries. The Romans were instrumental in the advent of many new technologies from aqueducts to acoustics. And they introduced a good number of traditions that have lasted over the centuries, maybe the most universal being the idea of a ring to signify a betrothal. They called it a truth ring and it was given as a sign that a promise of marriage would be fulfilled, and they even initiated the idea of engraving the ring with a significant message of commitment. Like we still do, they placed it on the third finger of the left hand, an idea they borrowed from the Egyptians whom they had conquered.

That culture had determined that this particular finger was directly connected to the heart which they believed to be the centre of affectionate love. We can wonder how the ancient Romans enjoyed the beautiful snow in the mountains of Bulgaria where they must have built their usual grand villas during their occupation of that region of their empire. We know that they did not have snowboards but they were very inventive and may have come up with the means to traverse deep snow more easily. They also didn't have diamond engagement rings which were actually first introduced by the Austrian Archduke Maximilian in 1477 who presented his fiancé, Mary of Burgundy with a ring set with raw, unpolished diamonds. At that time and for centuries after it was only the rich aristocrats who could afford to take part in this tradition. The pearl shaped diamond, also called the tear drop, which was the first asymmetrical stone, was originally cut in the 15th century by a Flemish gemmologist.

This was made possible by the integration of two of his inventions, an original kind of polishing wheel and the perfect alignment of the facets which jointly caused the greatest possible reflection and refraction to be given off by the diamonds. Supposedly the marquise diamond was first cut for the French King Louis XIV who wanted a gem to exactly duplicate the smile of the woman he loved, Marquise de Pompadour. Its elongated shape bestows the fingers a longer, thinner appearance and it can actually make the diamond appear a little larger. Then, at the beginning of the twentieth century, Tiffany's jewellers in New York City launched the solitary diamond ring which has now become the standard by which all others are measured. All of these unique cuts of diamonds sparkle like freshly fallen snow on which you can ski or snowboard in the mountains of Bulgaria where you can book a beautiful penthouse apartment overlooking the exquisite scenery.