Relics of Pagan Antiquity in Mediæval Settings

Relics of Pagan Antiquity in Medival Settings
Author(s): W. S. Heckscher
Source: Journal of the Warburg Institute, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Jan., 1938), pp. 204-220
Published by: The Warburg Institute
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RELICS OF PAGAN ANTIQUITY IN MEDIEVAL SETTINGS

By W. S. Heckscher
T hearemost
obvious
of relics
Antiquity
in mediaeval setting
the ancient
gems examples
and precious stones
which, of
in spite
of their pagan
carvings, were used by mediaeval craftsmen for the decoration of covers of

prayer-books, croziers, crosses, relic-shrines and other ecclesiastical objects;
not to mention the personal seals and signet-rings of the highest dignitaries
of the Church. Although the importance of the subject has frequently been
stressed,x it has remained a sort of 'no man's land' between the fields of
Classical Archaeology and Mediaeval History of Art. There exists, to my
knowledge, no serious attempt to interpret this significant chapter of mediaeval

aesthetics, which incidentally has some important bearing on the psychology
of mediaeval tolerance ; for in studying the use of ancient stones in mediaeval
jewellery it becomes apparent that orthodox Christianity and pagan Antiquity
lived here in peaceful symbiosis.

To relate this event to its general background it will be necessary first to
describe in what terms mediaeval Christianity conceived of its own relation
to antiquity and what general rules it consequently observed (if any) in the
treatment of pagan relics. Secondly, we shall examine the particular concepts of beauty, which dictated or permitted the mediaeval appreciation of
ancient gems. In the third place, we shall mention the elements of magic
and superstition which entered into this appreciation. And finally, we shall
give a number of detailed illustrations, which will show the process by which
individual remains of pagan antiquity were incorporated in Christian settings.
In dealing with the first three points it will be neither possible nor desirable to avoid reference to well-known facts and repetition of well-established
theories. My indebtedness to the schools of Warburg and Konrad Burdach

will be obvious-so much so, that it seems unnecessary to refer to them in
every single instance.
A clear-cut idea of Antiquity as a historical period of the past did not

The author is very much indebted to his
Princeton friends for helpful suggestionsespecially Professors Panofsky and Morey
Mediaeval Times," etc.). London, I86o,

pp. 30o-3o6, H. Schuermans, Intailles
antiques employles comme sceaux au Moyen Age,
and Dr. Hanns Swarzenski.
Bulletin des Commissions Royales d'Art et
1 The most important recent contribution

d'Archlologie XI, 1872, pp. 344-366. G.
is G. A. S. Snijder's brilliant article Antique
Demay, Des pierres gravies employdes dans les
and Mediaval Gems on Bookcovers at Utrecht,
sceaux du moyen dge, Paris 1877, Nos. I-309.
The Art Bulletin XIV, 1932, PP. 5-55.

F. de M6ly, Du role des pierres grave'es au
See also: Th. Wright, On Antiquarian
Moyen Age, Revue de l'Art Chritien IV, I893,
Excavations and Researches in the Middle Ages, pp. 14-24, 98-105, 191-203, E. Babelon,
Archaologia XXX, 1844, PP. 438-457, G. La gravure en pierres fines : Camies et intailles,
Zappert, Ueber Antiquitdtenfunde im Mittelalter,Paris 1894, chapters I, II, VII. Furtwaingler,
Sitzungsberichte der k. Akademie der Wissen- Die antiken Gemmen, 1900, III, p. 373 ff.,
schaften, hist. philos. Classe, IV, Vienna 185o, H. Leclercq, "Gemmes" (Cabrol-Leclercq's
pp. 752-798. Ch. Roach Smith, Collectanea Dictionnaire d'Archeologie Chritienne), 1924.
Antiqua IV, (London I86o ff.) pp. 65-79 andG. E. Pazaurek, Glas-und Gemmenschnitt im
VI, p. 200, C. W. King, Antique Gems, etc.,ersten Jahrtausend, Belvedere II, i, 1932, p. I2.
section II ("Use of Antique Gems in
204
RELICS OF PAGAN ANTIQUITY IN MEDIEVAL SETTINGS 205

exist in the Middle Ages. Mediaeval thinkers were convinced that they
themselves were still citizens of the empire which had been founded by
Augustus. Though they were eager to assimilate in their historical con-
structions all available accounts of events from the creation of the world
down to their own present, political history to them meant first of all Roma
post-Republican history. This helps to explain the relative ease with whi
they placed a Christian meaning upon pagan prophecies such as Virg
"Messianic Eclogue" or reconciled Christian ethics with that of the pagan

philosophers. Pre-Christian witnesses to the Christian faith could be endow
with an anima naturaliter Christiana: "Res ipsa, quae nunc religio Christia
nuncupatur erat apud antiquos, nec defecit ab initio generis humani, quous
Christus veniret in carnem. Unde vera religio, quae jam erat, coep
appellari Christiana."'
At first glance it might seem strange that there should be an admissio
of a fundamental union between Paganism and Christianity ; for it is generall
assumed that the sympathy with these ideas represents but a small unde
current of thought and was confined to a few 'mediaeval humanists' whos
endeavour it was to extol the values of the pagan era-values which cou
only be reached by the pathways of heresy. The idea of concordanc
however, was quite common and anything but heretical, as it went in th
wake of dogmatic tenets held by the Church. To show this, it will suffi
to refer to the mediaeval idea of a 'final realm' in which all earthly occurrenc
was thought to be consummated. This final realm, called the 'Fourt

Monarchy' in St. Jerome's Commentary on Daniel (ii, 37, and vii, 3 i
and depicted by St. Augustine as the 'City of God' on earth, was expecte
to last until the arrival of the Antichrist ; that is, until the end of the world
and up to the preliminaries of the Last Judgment. Politically speaking, th
Fourth Monarchy was supposed to be embodied in the Roman Empir

The Empire had been founded by Caesar Augustus, the prince who h
brought peace to the world in that he put an end to the civil wars. It w
Christ's birth that had simultaneously given spiritual peace to "all men o
good will" (Luke ii, I4). This formula, essentially Augustinian, still rin
m Beatrice's promise to Dante :
E sarai meco senza fine cive
Di quella Roma onde Christo i Romano.2
Even in the elaborate writings of the later Middle Ages all 'historic
constructions (by men like Otto of Freising) were meant to support the o
dominating idea of unity, the principium unitatis as it was called.

It is in the light of this 'principium unitatis' that we must understand the
mediaeval attempts to restore Antiquity which go under the name of ren

vatio.A No doubt these attempts continue during the Renaissance and later
but the predominant attitude changes. Petrarch was perhaps the first to
1 St. Augustin, Retractiones, I, 13.
'Purgatorio, XXXII, I o101-02.
Konrad Burdach's comprehensive essay:
Die seelischen und geistigen Qyellen der Renais-
Historische Zeitschrift, vol.

a Cf. P. E. Schramm, Kaiser, Rom sancebewegung,
und
Renovatio. Leipzig I929, I, chapter IX, 149,
and 1934, PP- 477-521.
eo6 W. S. HECKSCHER
become aware of Antiquity as a 'lost paradi
became to him venerable (and therefore untou

was irrevocably detached from his own epoch
of an intervening 'middle' age; hence the m

a self-contained historical period, the produ
simply restored nor bluntly adapted, but may
emulated or even surpassed. 'Imitatio' rath
slogan of the Renaissance. But to the mediaeval

meant not so much a revival of a thing which
obstructions which impaired the maintenance o
To illustrate this point we may refer to a case
affords a good example of an unhampered use
of people who were convinced that Antiquity w
In i143 the City of Rome was overtaken b
primarily caused by the example of self-governe
-soon turned into something specifically 'Ro
as a first step, overthrew the aristocratic regi
master of the Capitol. The spokesmen of th

use of such literary paraphernalia as were h
and tradition. They adopted the title of Sacer

programme was founded on two main princip
with the Pope's earthly power, thus restoring
placed their hopes for a secular reform on those
of the fourth monarchy, the emperors of th

duty, they proclaimed, to bring about the nec
laboration with the Senate itself. The address
People implored the Emperor over and over
teeming with renovatio terminology.2
It seems quite possible that the famous p
aureae urbis Romae3 was composed in the cou

vours. It would certainly have been a valuable
in the hands of a legation to the court of the G
that, a means for propagandist dissemination o
The Graphia consists of three books. An intr
WNoe usque ad Romulum serves to prove the sacre
expressly to be written for the Graphia. The H

of the Mirabilia urbis Rome, which can be de
logue of pagin Rome, i.e. its walls, temples,

issued a few years before as the work of a pa
graphy, a Canon Benedictus in all probability
handbook of the imperial (Byzantine) court cer

de Cerimoniis. The Libellus, fantastic as it may
1For further details see:

in:
F.SS.
Gregorovius,
RR. Germanicarum, Be
Geschichte der Stadt Rom im332
Mittelalter,
Stuttgart
; epist. 214.
and Berlin, Igo6, chapter 3

IV,
p. 428
ff.,
and op. cit.,
Complete
edition
in Schramm,
The Cambridge Medieval
II, History,
iv, pp. 73-104- vol. V,
Cambridge 1929, pp. 369-70.
4lIbidem, II, 49.
2Cf. Monumenta Corbeiensia ed. Ph. Jaffd
RELICS OF PAGAN ANTIQUITY IN MEDIAEVAL SETTINGS 207
was to play an important part in the rites with which some 150 years la
Cola di Rienzo celebrated his coronation. In the twelfth century it failed
impress the German Emperors. Konrad III was never crowned, while Fred
Barbarossa declined the alliance repeatedly offered to him by the Sena
The Roman Senate and the composer of the Graphia treated Ro
renovatio as a matter of reality. There is another example similar in te

dency, which, perhaps, entails even more evidence of an intimate appr
toward Antiquity. One of the few secular buildings of mediaeval Ro
parts of which have remained unimpaired, is the enigmatic Casa dei Cr
scenti, a brick tower near Ponte Rotto (Pl. 28a). Half columns, embe
in its walls (columns that are obvious imitations of antique prototypes),
port some well-preserved specimens of antique friezes. The latter are s
on to the front and the sides of the building without any logical seque
An inscription in Leonine hexameters states that "Nicolaus, owner of t
house, was not incited by vain love of glory, when he built it, but that he d
it Romae veterem renovare decorem."' One could imagine, though this is me
an idle play of thought, that this man Nicolaus, who was neither cleric
nobleman, had some kind of connexion with the popular party. On
the councillors of the Senate, frequently mentioned in the documents

the party as a member of the delegations which voiced its programme
referred to as .Nicholaus socius noster.2
In their striving for renovatio these revolutionary governors of Rome li
to intersperse and embellish their system of political reform with exam
taken from Roman ideology. The man who built the brick tower
Ponte Rotto may have been incited by similar prospects and ideals.
Within this 'optimistic' group there must have prevailed a bound

belief in the possibilities of renewal, while of necessity their compass
regard to Antiquity, which they approached with a sense of intimacy,
comparatively narrow. In order to establish a criterion for these relati
judgments on 'intimacy' and 'smallness of scope' we must set in cont
to these politicians the attitude of a man whose outlook upon renovatio
tinged by religious eschatology. The greatest conceivable distance,
highest degree of resignation, and at the same time the most sweeping
round' view of what Roman and pagan Antiquity may have meant in
Middle Ages, is found in the often discussed Roma and Item de Roma of the c
Hildebert of Lavardin (died 1133) who was a pessimist in matters of renovati
This pessimism, no less than the pragmatic optimism of the politician
rooted in the principium unitatis. The eventual goal of the mediaeval str
for unity was peace: PAx. It had been brought into existence with
beginnings of the Romanum Imperium. It had been defined spiritually

1 Cf. Emma Amadei, Le Torri di Roma,
of an antique wall (dated 1157 ; cf. Gregorovius, op. cit., p. 364).
Rome, 1932, pp. I 13-Ix 8.
s Cf. the Senate's letters in Wibald'sS Cf. J. B. Haurdau, Les Milanges poitiques
d'Hildebert de Lavardin, Paris, 1882, No. xxxi,
Epistolarium (ed. Jaffd, Monumenta Corbeiensia, op. cit., p. 332 ff. and p. 480pp.
ff.)
6o-6i and 64-65; a reprint will be
found
Nos. 214 and 215 of II49, and 347
of in P. E. Schramm, op. cit., I, pp. 300304.
about i 5o, and the only senatorial inscription preserved which refers to the restoration
208
W.
St.
S.
HECKSCHER
Augustine
as
tranquillitas
summum
ordinis
bonum
(xx,
I3).
human weakness. The Fourth M

A metaphysical hope was superi
regno
Christi
crescente
regnum
and the same is proclaimed b

view of Rome's grandeur-pa
welfare of the cross (i.e. the app

puts it, can only be gained thr
jacent,
neforte
personified
dated
state,
diruta
meus
spem
Roma,
but
pulso.
ponat
in
representing
finds
consolation
Hildebert
makes
that Rome's monuments, symb

tion the irresistible decline of t
of which would provoke a desire

and statues, fallen to pieces and de
be regarded as specimens of 'Va

At the same time, the very g
impress
the
beholder
with
hi
be erected equal to the wall that

-aut restaurari sola ruina potes
been destroyed that it is impossib

upright, or to restore a portion t
Two
facts
emerge
from
this
la
(i) In quenching the last spa

renounces the actual restorati
conception of Roman grandeur

which he describes as impotent
reshape
(2)
It
them
is
in
the
their
vision
original
of
this
fo
or
feelings. In the very fragment

mentary state as such he does n
sance period came to admire rui
If we compare Hildebert's attit
we find that two seemingly co
parties. Both believed in the 'Fo
were directly linked with Anti
of distance towards Antiquity w
vatio. It is clear that the two id
proportion to one another : An
of grandeur which an intimate
Hildebert and other men of h
1
Ottonis
geschichtsphilosoph
Episc. Die
Frisingensis
Chronica
Ottos
duabus Weltanschauung
ciuitatibus, Liber
IV, ?
Hofineister, Mon.
Germ. SS. RR.
und Darstellungen
ausG
d
Historia
A.
IrI2,
p.
de
I9I.)
Heft 2 and
Fr
Cf. IV,
in general
J. 3),
Schm
statuary art of the Romans as pathetic reminders of distant grandeur,

Graphia and the documents issued by the popular party treated the availa
remains as useful specimens-intact and dainty, as were the friezes employ
in Nicolaus' brick tower.'
The mediaeval 'humanists,' because they lamented the fall of Rome, have
often enough been hailed as predecessors of the Renaissance. This is misleading. For it was only with the dawn of new historical theories, when the
scholastic thought began to fade, that the idea of distance could become fata
to that of continuity. The new nostalgia was no longer dependent upon th
belief in a pre-ordained eschatology, but was nourished by the emotion of
historical sentiment, under the spell of which the fall of great cities began
to assume the glamour of an individual destiny.
No trace of this 'individualism' of fate is found in the mediaeval conception of the goddess Fortuna who bridges the gulf between the permanent
order of the eternal world and the changing order of the temporal.2 She
was supposed to serve as a 'lever' of God's secret intentions and so wa
held responsible for all features of earthly debility, which she imparted a
a blind but righteous instrument of divine Providence. Whatever seemed
to be caused by 'chance,' all kinds of catastrophies that occurred in the human
province as well as in that of inanimate things, were held to be the work of

Fortuna, who by turning her wheel dispensed good and evil to those in th
sphere of her competence. Fortuna's destructive effects bore the distinct
character of punishment.
The 'classical' description in twelfth-century literature of Fortuna's
domain is that of Alanus of Lille in his Anticlaudianus.3 Fortuna's territory

convincing so, perhaps, by A. Ilg, who
1 Among the twelfth century men who most
on
was the last editor of Heraclius (in:

the one hand deplored the fall of Roman
fir Kunstgeschichte, IV, Vienna,

institutions, and in particular the declineQyellenschriften
of
the skill of artists, and who on the other hand

1873). Once one has seen, however, the
way in which the renovatio-movement had

boldly claimed that these lost and impaired
brought about and fostered in the
things could be regained and reinstalled been
by
twelfth century there can be little doubt as
the one 'qui tenet ingenii claves virtute potenti,'
to the actual date of this treatise. Cf.
we may count 'Heraclius,' an author who
P. E. Schramm, op. cit., II, pp. 148-150

uses this phrase in his versified handbook
'On the colours and arts ofthe Romans.' Both (where

the
linguistic parallels to Hildebert's Roma
author's name and the title--de coloribus et
as well as to the Mirabilia are drawn).
artibus Romanorum-are missing in the earliest
Schramm's argument in this matter has been
overlooked entirely by authors who subseknown manuscript (Valenciennes, No. x45).

Unfortunately this ms. has not been consulted
quently dealt with the treatise.
by the various editors of the treatise (Raspe, 2Speaking of God's providence, Boethius
Merrifield and Ilg). A. Giry, who com- says (Cons. Philos., IV, 6 :) "Fato (i.e.
mented upon the ms. (Notice sur un traiti duFortuna) vero haec ipsa quae disposuit
Moyen Age, Bibliothique de l'Icole des hautes

multipliciter ac temporaliter administrat."
Itudes, 35 ieme fascicule, Paris, 1878, pp. 20o9The same idea in Dante (Div. Comm., Inferno
27) says that the 'Heraclius' there is attached

VII, 67 ff.).
to Hildebert's poem on the Arab king Evax ; 3 ? VIII, i. Ed. Migne, Patr. Lat. 210,
this must be a confusion with another author,
col. 557-560. Cf. Howard R. Patch, The77w
presumably Marbod of Rennes. The treatise
Goddess Fortuna in Mediaval Literature, 1927,
had previously been described, and still is,
p. 126 ff.
as a work dating from the tenth century;
210o W. S. HECKSCHER
reflects the ambiguous character of its mistr

at its boundary. The pleasing song of the nig
ominous call of the owl which foretells disaster. Fruitful trees are
intermingled with the barren. Large trees are contrasted with sm
stream of sweetness is endangered by the bitterness of an infernal str

Fortuna's mansion stands upon a rock, and its construction reveals the
ambiguity of appearance : while one portion of her palace, radiant wit
splendour of silver, gems and gold, crowns the summit of the rock, the o
consisting of squalid material (vili materie), is about to tumble down the sl
in ruins.1
In fictitious descriptions of palaces, such as Ovid's Regia Solis2 or the

domicile of Venus in Claudianus' De Nuptiis Honorii et Mariae,3 precious
materials played an important part as embodiments of majestic power.
Alanus added boldly the image of contrast. The baseness of the material
and the dilapidated state in Fortuna's palace indicate that, in a mortal
being, the possession of wealth and. power can at any moment change
into destitution and want. Yet this very antithesis makes it clear that to
Alanus and his readers gold and silver and gems, though precarious possessions, represented an adequate symbol of power and glory. Under the
temporary reign of Fortuna they appear as the 'opposite' of ruins.
We shall see that this seemingly trivial formula supplies a clue for dis-
covering some of the reasons why the mediaeval interest in relics of the Antique
was so strongly specialized on gems and stones. What the mediaeval mind
chiefly sought in the remains of the past was-in contra-distinction to modern

romanticism-the permanent form, the opposite of the ruin.
II
The flawless appearance of ancient stones, their transparency, their stern
resistance to corrosion or patina, which secures the permanence of the

shape once assigned to them, fully responded to mediaeval ideas of the
beautiful. In the mediaeval conception of hierarchies of perfection a com-
plete thing automatically ranks above an incomplete one. To a modern

spectator a structure fallen to pieces may reveal a tragic contrast or an
idyllic union between the efforts of man and the impersonal forces of nature.
The mediaeval view will not allow of such pleasant mingling of opposites. It
conceives the universe as a static order in which each thing is well established
and ranked, according to the divine plan. Such a system rejects anything
that has forsaken the form originally assigned to it. A palace, to the mediaeval
mind, is beautiful as a palace ; as a ruin it ceases to be so. The various

1Anticlaudianus, VIII (ed. Migne, CCX,
col. 559) : "Pars in monte tumet, pars altera
pars illa fatiscit hiatu Hic est Fortunae sua
mansio."
vallis in imo Subsidet, et casum tanquam
2 Metam., II. (Cf. R. Ortiz, Fortuna
labilis. Bucarest 1927, pp. 36-7).

3 Ed. Th. Birt, Monum. Germ. Auct. Antidomus, pars altera vili Materie dejectaquiss., X, Berlin, 1892, pp. 128-29.
lapsura minatur. Fulgurat argento, gemmis

scintillat, et auro Resplendet pars una
jacet; pars ista superbit Culmine sublimi,
RELICS OF PAGAN ANTIQUITY IN MEDIZEVAL SETTINGS 211
stages of decay can only mean a diminishing and slackening of a once
flawless form ; but never can they lead up into another stage of existence in
which the object concerned might claim a new significance and a beauty
of its own. To my knowledge there is in mediaeval literature no collective
noun which has the range of our term 'ruin'.
In the Distinctiones Dictionum, the etymological and moralistic dictionary
which Alanus of Lille wrote in the second half of the twelfth century,1 we
find under frangere in the first place: proprie dividere signat humiliare unde
Prudentius in Psychomachia : frangit Deus omne superbum. And St. Thomas,
in his famous definition of the beautiful postulates that there be: primo
quidem integritas sive perfectio ; quae enim diminuta sunt, hoc ipso turpa sunt -"in
the first place integrity or perfection : things impaired are ugly for that very
reason."
It is interesting to illustrate these statements by mediaeval representations
of architectural destruction. They exemplify the limitations and 'short

comings' to which in the Middle Ages the faculty of visualizing (and thus
portraying) ruins was doomed. In fact, the only way by which ruins
could be rendered was that of showing the actual occurrence offrangere, th

breaking asunder of a whole into various pieces ; pieces which in their turn
formed intact units in themselves. Our P1. 28d shows, for example, the
Fall of Babylon as represented in a Beatus manuscript of the Cathedral of
Burgo de Osma, dating from the end of the eleventh century.3' In the uppe
half of the miniature we see people tumbling down and in their fall hanging
on to such entire units as columns and arches. The actual outlines of those
scattered pieces could be rejoined as if they were pieces of a jig-saw puzz

In an English thirteenth century miniature of a falling city (Pl. 28b), th
steeple of the central tower looks as if it were a lid turning on hinges.'
In a good many cases, even this limited mode of rendering destruction
seems to have been of so little interest that the mediaeval artist preferred
rely on the spectator's knowledge to 'decipher' the representation as one
decay or destruction. A rather characteristic example of an artist's shunni
what to us would seem the crucial point, is the illustration in the Bambe
Apocalypse (P1. 28c) of the Fall of Babylon (cecidit cecidit Babylon magna !
At the right of the city we see the mourning fishermen, merchants and
kings. From above the angel is coming down and a hand holding
thunderbolt appears from the clouds. The city of Babylon, shown in t

usual way as an abbreviated conglomeration of buildings, enclosed in a wa
one gate standing wide open, is turned upside down, but otherwise qu
intact. The open gate, we may assume, means 'empty', 'depopulated';
this is stressed by the people to the left, who have fled from the city. But no
reason for 'overturning' the city can be found in the actual text. The art
probably associated, by way of concordance, the passage from Isaiah (xiii,
2 Ed. Migne, Patr. Lat. 210, col. 798. fol. 7 (cf. M. R. James, The Trinity College
2 Summa Theol., I, q. 39, a. 8.
Apocalypse, London 190gog9, pp. 27 and 30).
' See T. Rojo, El 'Beato' de la Catedral 'de

See H. W61fflin, Die Bamberger Apo-
Osma, Art Studies, 1931, p. 146, fig. i8.

kalypse : eine Reichenauer Handschrift vom Jahre
1ooo,
' Trinity College, Cambridge R. x6.
2, 1918, p. 30.
212
W.
S.
HECKSCHER
19): "et erit Babylon,

With the help of this
was
sign.
found.
sicut s
literary
Destruction
wa
Integrity or perfection was

beautiful. The second is the w
which St. Thomas defines as
demand
is
colour
of the
are regarded as beautif

Middle Ages signifies f
"clarity,
that
for
for
on
claritas
that
unde
account
all
but there is no reason to doubt

visual configurations of trans
This metaphysical connotati

in the vision of the 'New Jer
belonging to God is literally e
claritatem Dei : et lumen eius
sicut crystallum."3
The
same
apocalyptic
vision
shaped candelabra in mediaeva

adorned with gems and prec
of Clairvaux) give a brighter l
Saint
Bernard,
of
whom
tradit
1 "Nam ad pulchritudinem
tria
"mystica seu moralis applicatio" of the twelfth
untur. Primo quidem
century (attributed to
integritas
Marbod of Rennes)
s
fectio
quae
which deals
'moraliter' with the twelve
enim
diminuta
sunt,
stones "in fundamento

coelestis civitatis s
turpa sunt. Et precious
debita
proportio
positis" (ed. Migne,
CLXXI, col. 1771-74).
sonantia. Et iterum
claritas:
und
habent colorem nitidum,

In Rabanus Maurus' De
pulchra
Universis (seventh
es
tur" (S. Theol., loc.
cit.).
chapter) Lib.
XVIi, there is a comprehensive
2 Alanus' Dictiones have under 'claritas':
proprie dicitur Dirvina natura.
list of instances in both the Old and the New

Testaments that account for the biblical
of the employment of precious

a Revelation xxi, Io and II : "And justification
the
angel carried me away in the spirit to a great

stones (ed. Migne, Patr. Lat., 111, col. 463)
and high mountain, and shewed me For

thatthe tradition preceding and following
Rabanus, see the comprehensive survey in
great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending
out of heaven from God and she had the
R. M. Garrett, Precious Stones in Old English
Literature, Minchner Beitr. zur Roman. and

Clarity of God : and her light was like unto
Engl. Philologie, XLVII, 19o9.
a stone most precious, even like a jasper
stone, clear as crystal." Vss. 12 to 22 ibd., 'Apologia de vita et moribus religiosorum (ed.
S. Patris Bernardi . . . Opera. Tomus, IV,

which go back to Isaiah liv, I1 et seq.,
Parisiis, 1667, p. 137) chapter XI : "Ponunhave probably drawn the number twelve
tur dehinc in ecclesia gemmatae non coronae,
from the symbolism of the twelve precious
sed rotae, circumseptae lampadibus, sed non
stones in the vestis sancta Aaron (Exodus
minus fulgentes insertis lapidibus; cernimus
xxviii, 21) (cf. Alfred Doren, Wunschrdume
et pro candelabris arbores quasdam erectas,
und Wunschzeiten, in: Vortrdge der Bibl. War-
multo aeris pondere, miro artificis opere

burg, 1924-25, note 2o ; for another instance
of the influence of the robe of Aaron, this time
fabricatas, nec magis coruscantes superpositis
lucernis, quam suis gemmis." For the
in the secular sphere, see P. E. Schramm,
of the candelabra cf. J. Sauer,
op. cit., II, p. 95). This traditional schemesymbolism
is
reflected also in the mediaeval treatises on the
Symbolik des Kirchengebdudes, 1902, p. 182 ff.
virtues of precious stones; so e.g., in theFor the number twelve ibid., pp. 66-7.
28
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use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Osma (p. 211)

the inventor of "roguish melodies and worldly songs,"' wrote in I 125 his famous
letter to Guillaume, abbot of Reims,2 in which he inveighed against the

improper sumptuousness in the churches of the orders and monasteries.
"Dicite, pauperes, in Sancto quid facit aurum ?" he exclaimed, referring to a
saying of the Stoic Persius, as if he wanted to abash the clerics by quoting a
pagan authority. As a critic, St. Bernard is a valuable witness, for his very
objections reveal his sensibility to the oblectamenta corporea, through which the
beautiful is conveyed to the beholder. Two sensory qualities in particular

attract his attention: the tactu placentia and the pulchre lucentia. They are
characteristic of precious stones, which St. Bernard quotes as his chief
examples.
III
Before illustrating in detail the insertion of antique gems in ecclesiast

objects, we may mention two forms of mediaeval preoccupation with preci
stones, which have an indirect bearing upon our problem : the accumulati
of gems in treasuries, and their magical use as amulets.3
The economist who would want to give a strictly utilitarian reason fo
the mediaeval accumulation of treasures might find himself in grave difficul
An extremely rare and well-shaped stone which travellers to distant regio
had procured at great pains and expense4 might prove for all practical p
poses about as 'useful' as some exceptionally rare, exotic animal which ha
been transferred with very great care to Europe, where it was condemned
live artificially in a zoo. The comparison, far-fetched though it may sou
is actually borrowed from an historical account; for it is recorded that K
Theodoric, after having his midday rest, used to visit "either his treasurie
his stables." 6 The alternative sounds funny only as long as one assum
that his stables contained just a few horses or cows, but there c
be no doubt that all sorts of rare and precious breeds were kept in them
that the pleasure and pride he felt in looking at these more or less fabulo
specimens could be justly considered by him as equivalent to the enjoym
he derived from the jewels in his treasury. A sense of power and glory
conveyed to the possessor of these useless and-literally-far-fetched thing
and the Church, as the chosen administrator of marvels in this world a
the next, naturally vied with the secular potentates in the ambition to displa
magischen
x "Quoniam audivimus, a primis fere
Heil-und Schutzmittel aus der unbelebten
adolescentiae rudimentis cantiunculas mimiNatur. Eine Geschichte des Amulettwesens, 1927,

cas et urbanos modulos ficticasse." (Berenpp. 208-91.
gar; ed. Migne, CLXXVIII, col. 1857.)4 For mediaeval trade in precious stones, cf.
Sugerius' Liber de rebus in administratione sua
2Apologia ad Guillelmum, abbatem S. Theoderici, cap. 12 (ed. von Schlosser gestis,
in: chapter XXXI, ed. Schlosser, op. cit.,
p. 273. See also the illustrated catalogue of
Quellenbuch zur Kunstgeschichte des abendMatthew of Paris: Liber additamentorum ;
liindischen Mittelalters (Eitelberger-Ilg, Quellenms. Brit. Mus. Cotton, Nero DI (cf. C. C.
schriften .. . . N.F., No. xxxv), Vienna, 1896,
Oman, The Jewels of St. Albans Abbey, The
p. 266 ff.
Magazine LVII, 1930, pp. 81-82).
3Cf. Joan Evans, Magical Jewels ofBurlington
the
5 Sidon.
Middle Ages and the Renaissance, Oxford, 1922,
Apollinaris, Epist. I, 2 (ed.
Monum. Germ., 1887).

pp. 72 ff. G. F. Kunz, The Magic of Jewels
and Charms, 1915. S. Seligmann, Die
214 W. S. HECKSCHER
her 'Majesty' in a glamorous fashio

catalogue of the Cathedral of Main
an enormous wooden crucifix "cuius
reciosissimis . . . dicebatur autem

abere."l
Of course it would be senseless to belittle the economic importance of

these treasures. But shrewd economists have long recognized that at the
root of many a standard of economic values lies a magical atavism, a superstition, which happens to be calculable in economic terms because in a given
state of society it is in common to the majority of human beings. Of that
nature is the love of precious stones, and to account for it by economic arguments alone is to put the cart before the horse. The accumulation of treasures,
to be sure, is too amorphous a pleasure to reveal any direct affinity with

aesthetic categories. But in dealing with the mediaeval aesthetics of precious
stones one must not forget this magical root from which Beauty and Utility
grew as separate stems, though they frequently intertwine.
The use of amulets brings us one step nearer to our problem. For here
it is not only the stone by itself but the sign engraved on it, which is supposed
to have magical power. These signs are of purely pagan origin, but the
mediaeval practitioners, who believed in their virtue, were able to blend their
superstition with truly Christian sentiments. A characteristic text-book of

this kind is preserved in the British Museum.' Most of its prescriptionsthey generally begin with quando invenitur-are meant to serve as medical
charms, or else they promise to endow the owner of the amulet with superhuman virtues and powers. Number 9, for instance, says : "There is also
another stone on which is seen the figure of Mercury having wings on his
right hand and in his left hand a staff around which is coiled a serpent;
whoever owns it will be so rich in wisdom and grace that nobody shall be able
to resist him." Then the language becomes Christian: "gratus erit Deo
et omni populo", but it ends quite medically "perpetua gaudebit sanitate."

The use of an ancient image might at any moment turn from magical
practice into an act of reverence. An interesting example from ancient
history is the change of symbols on the seal of Augustus., He first used the
design of the sphinx, then a portrait of Alexander the Great, and finally his
xxxviii, p. 297. The word 'venter' in this
English tradition, cf. Paul Studer and Joan

Evans, Anglo-Norman Lapidaries, Paris, I924
a popular mediaeval story in which a
Serjeantson, English Mediaval Lapidaries, i933
1 Ed. Schlosser, Qellenbuch, op. cit., No.
connection reminds me strangely enough of
c. vii; and Joan Evans and Mary S.
soldier by the name of Severus discovers a (Early English Text Society, No. 90o).
hidden treasure in a field near Via Salaria
For the French tradition: L. Pannier,
Les Lapidaires franfais, Bibliothique de I'icole
while ploughing with a cow. He immediately
kills the animal and fills its belly withdes
thehautes Itudes. Sciences hist. et philol.
spoil "which God had made known to 52,
himI882. Furthermore R. Creutz, Hilde-
secretly . . . and what was left over

hevon Bingen und Marbod von Rennes iber
gard
took to Rome and gave it to his emperor."

die Heilkraft der Edelsteine, Studien zur Geschichte
(Vita S. Fortunati, ed. Acta SS., I, 73a.) des Benediktinerordens 49, pp. 291-307.
*MS. Harl. 8o. Ed. Th. Wright in
3 Suetonius Aug., chapter 50 and Pliny,
Archaeologia, XXX, I844. Of course, many
Nat. Hist., XXXVII, ? 9 ff
other specimens could be quoted. For the
own portrait. In the first two stages, he still felt the need of invoki
power superior to himself, and the engraving of the Sphinx might be
pared-mutatis mutandis-to the figure of Mercury in our mediaeval tr
Both are mythical signs endowed with magical powers. These po
assumed a personal form in the figure of Alexander the Great so tha

abstract belief in the superhuman became tinged with a sense of hist
reverence. This union of reverence and magic is at the root of th

of Imperial Succession which prevailed throughout the Middle Age
after. From Byzantium it came down to the Carolingian rulers,
adopted classical intagli as their seals., The ancient gem becam
credential which both signified and secured the regalis potestas.'

The inheritance of power-a relatively simple process within the se
realm-was bound to become a more involved procedure within the do
of the Church. The Church admitted by implication the power of

charms and amulets; for before inserting ancient gems m ecclesia
objects, she found it advisable to exorcise the evil forces residing in
An example of a benedictio which is meant expressis verbis to be used f

exorcism of pagan gems is preserved in a thirteenth-century text.s But th
this is only a single instance, we may be certain that all the ancient
which we find on Christian objects of cult, have undergone some for
sanctification. Perhaps it is not too daring to suppose that the dn
which expressed itself in this procedure, evolved from a state of fear

of reverence-that reverence which St. Paul expressed in the words "o
creatura Dei bona est et nihil rejiciendum quod cum gratiarum a
percipitur ; sanctificatur enim per verbum Dei et orationem". '

So far from destroying the pagan charm the Church absorbed its p
into her own, and sometimes even superimposed upon an ancient ima
new type of magical function. An example of such 'added magic' is fo
in a Roman agate cameo of the first century A.D., now preserved

Cabinet des M6dailles.5 It shows a laurel-crowned Jupiter holdin
1Cf. P. E. Schramm, Die deutschen Kaiser
hos lapides consecrare et sanctificare digneris
per sanctificationem et invocationem nominis

und Kenige in Bildern ihrer Zeit ( Verffentlichungen
tui, ut sint sanctificati et consecrati, et
der Forschungsinstitute an der Universitdt Leipzig.
recipiant
effectum virtutum quas eis te
Die Entwicklung des menschlichen Bildnisses,
I)
Leipzig, I928, i, p. 23.
dedisse sapientiam experientia comprobavit ;

ut quicumque illos super se portaverit,
s Posse, Die Siegel der deutschen Kaiser,
virtutem tuam per illos sibi adesse sentiat,
Igog, Schramm, op. cit., I, pp. 64, 157
("Zur Frage der Wiederverwendung ererbter donaque gratiae tuae et tutelam virtutis
Siegel").
1 Pitra, Spicilegium Solesmense, 1865, III,
accipere mereatur. Per J.C.F.T. in quo
omnis sanctificatio consistit. Qui tecum

vivit et regnat, Deus, per omnia ss. Amen."
p. 337: "Deus, omnipotens Pater, qui

Other instances will be found in Th. Wright,
etiam per quasdam insensibiles creaturas
virtutem tuam omnibus ostendisti, qui Moysi

Archeologia XXX, p. 439 if'I ad Timotheum, IV, 4.
5 Cf. E. Babelon, Cat. des Camdes antiques,
dotalia Rationale judicii, xii lapidibus
etc.
pretiosis adornari praecepisti, nec non
etd( la Bibl. Nat., Paris, 1897, No. i ; for
the inscriptions and their interpretation, p. 3.
Ioanni evangelistae coelestem civitatem
The cameo formerly adorned the reliquary
Jerusalem virtutibus eosdem lapides significantibus construendum aeternaliter ostendisti,shrine of the 'Chemise de la Vierge.'
majestatem tuam humiliter deprecamur, ut
famulo tuo inter caetera vestimenta sacer-
216
W.
S.
HECKSCHER
thunderbolt and leaning upon

given in 1367 by Charles V to t
that
Jupiter's
image
was
taken
lo
Evangelist. The two fourteenth

first glance only to express ver
the figure. The one is taken a
(iv, 30), which describes the sa
"Jesus
autem
beginning
of
transiens
the
per
Gospel
of
Both phrases are known, howev

Any catalogue of a collection of
this., The words from St. Luke
dangers of travels while the in
surnamed
"the
son
of
thunde
safeguard against demons and

a new power as a magical char
adaptation.'
IV
In the actual process of adaptation we may distinguish two forms of
reverence which at first glance seem to contradict each other :
(I) The careful preservation of the ancient relic in a setting which
leaves it completely intact.

(2) The adjusting of the relic to the new setting by changing its form or
its function, or both.
We shall see that both forms merge into each other by imperceptible
degrees.
Of the first, the most impressive example is tlie famous 'eagle vase' of
Sugerius, abbott of St. Denis, which is now preserved in the Louvre (P1. 29a).
It is inscribed around the lip with a dedication of Sugerius to his church,
and there can be no doubt that it was made under his supervision.3 The
wings, claws, neck and head, of gilded silver, enshrine the antique (in this
case probably Egyptian) core which is treated as a delicate treasure. We
may take this as a typical instance of a purely 'additive' procedure which
clearly expresses the reverence for the antique unit by leaving it intact;
adaptavimus is the term used by Suger himself, while the creative act proper
is described by him as a transposition ('transferre') of the amphora "in

1 Cf e.g. Dalton, Cat. of Finger Rings,
London, 1912, p. I40. C. W. King, Arch.
Journal XXVI, p. 231.
SSometimes a whole species of pagan
relics received a new glamour from becoming
associated with a biblical name. Beautiful
F. de Mdly, Vases de Cana, in Monuments Piot,
X, 19go4; Delbrtick, Antike Porphyrwerke,
1932, pp. 30-2; A. de Longpirier, Vase
Arabo-Sicilien, Revue Archlologique, 1865, pp.
356-67.
3 Cf. Joan Evans, Die Adlervase des Sugerius,
jugs of late Roman origin became known

as
Pantheon,
X, 1932, pp. 221-223 and R.
"vases of Cana," Arabo-Sicilian vases and
Delbriick, op. cit., p. 203 (who dates the core
ancient jewels as 'Opera Salomonis.' Cf. in the second century A.D.).
Ar;
V7.
,?a
?Ir
4A
1A
JAI
-~i
a-"Eagle
Vase"
(P. 217)
b
of
30
rr
-~P-Y?
I:
~:s::
~~
~-~
4~
L~
c-;
~""
,,
~
~a
L ~
:?;
,:,:,
~
-~~
~
~~---~
"c"
-~i~-_?--_-~
-~"~s~
~~e?
~3~3W~~
P-
~":"; ?~Sp~i~k~j~l~~
b~;~6%;~
a
,--?-?
MF
Sk
a-"Second Mathilda Cross." Essen, Cathedral (p. 217)
aquilae formam".L Needless to say the eagle, thus superimposed upon
antique relic, is meant as a symbol of Christ.
We reproduce in Pl. 29b a portable altar of Rhenish origin, whi
preserved in the British Museum.' Irrelevant as it may seem next to Su

elaborate piece of goldsmith's work (it is nothing but a square slab of m
with a cover of gilt copper over a wooden frame), it expresses fundam
the same attitude : a faultless polished piece of colourful material, pe
brought home from a pilgrimage over the Alps, answering to the post
of 'Clarity', 'Integrity' and 'Consonance', has been mounted in an e
astical setting, in accordance with the principles of the honestum and dec
These cases of deliberate and careful 'juxtaposition' or 'insertio

sometimes found within a very complex pattern. The so-called 'se
Mathilda cross' of the cathedral of Essen shows on the left (Pl. 3oa, b
enamel figure of the Sun, lamenting over the death of Christ, and nex
a translucent antique gem with the nude figure of a youth. On the rig
the figure of the Moon, also lamenting, and next to it again an antique
All these figures face the bronze sculpture of the crucified Christ.s
The attention paid to these inserted gems was so great' that we find
reproduced in a Carolingian miniature painting as parts of the decor
of a highly stylized piece of architecture. The arch over St. Marc

'Ada'-manuscript of Treves' has a set of antique intagli which are ren
quite realistically (P1. 30c). Each specimen is distinguished from the o
in colour as well as design.

When these intagli were not placed in a setting, but used individua
seals and finger-rings, it was often necessary to alter them slightly or to
them a Christian inscription. The simplest case-and a very frequent

is the re-christening of Caracalla's portrait as St. Peter. The Cabin
Midailles has one of these gems on which the profile of the Roman em
appears with the inscription : IIETPOE and with the symbol of the cr
(P1. 31b). A more drastic transformation is seen in a consular diptyc
about 480 A.D. (Prague, Library of the 'Metropolitancapitel', P1. 3x
1 Cf. Lecoy de la Marche, Oeuvres compl.
de
of material.
The literature listed on p. 204
Sug., p. 2o8; Chapter XXXIV.
must be consulted throughout for additional

s Portable altars are comparativelyevidence.
rare; A comprehensive Catalogue raisonnd
tabula is the most common denotation for
of incorporated gems, of which Professor
them. And in almost any case it is a slab
of
Snijder's
article contains an excellent sample,
is urgently needed.
precious material, marble, porphyry, serpen-
tine, or even crystal, that forms their core.

5 MS. from St. Maximin in Treves, beginning of the ninth century; Treves, Stadtbibliothek,
No. 22; cf. Hanns Swarzenski,
the material of the core (cf. J. Braun,
Der
Sometimes the altars were named after
christliche Altar in seiner geschichtlichen

EntVorgotische
Miniaturen, 1927, No. 9.
6 Cf.
E. Babelon, Le Cabinet des Antiques d la
wicklung, 1924, I, p. 492, 2, and for
the
various precious materials employed, Bibl.

p. 430).
Nat., Paris, 1887, p. 138 ; C. W. King,
3The cross can be dated around I000ooo;
the crucified Christ in the second half of
the eleventh century; cf. K. WilhelmKistner, Das Miinster in Essen, 1929.
On the Use of Antique Gems, op. cit., p. 121.
7Cf. R. Delbrack, Die Consulardiptychen,

op. cit., I, pp. 170-71, fig. I and 2. A. Goldschmidt (Elfenbein-Skulpturen, II, No. i95)
4 The few examples which we quote in thisdates the alterations in the eleventh century.
article can give no idea of the actual wealth

15
ea8 W. S. HECKSCHER
order to make the consul look like St. Peter, t

a key, the mappa became a scroll, and the con
towers were added-probably to signify the Ch
Often a simple inscription or a mere associat
whole pagan scene into a biblical event. An
and Poseidon, with a tree standing between the
to the inscription, as a representation of A
words narrating the Fall of Man were added to

Leda with the swan--one of the favourite themes of the minor arts in
Antiquity-appears on an ecclesiastical seal attached to a chart dated
I 189.2 The inscription of the words (+SIGILL MAGIST ANDREE ARCHID

SUESSIOU7.) indicates that this was the personal seal of the archdeacon.
Many other instances of the use of this image-among them one on the
shrine of'the Three Kings at Cologne-have been recorded.3 We know that
the clerics, i.e. the literati of this time, were familiar with the classical story.'
So there can be no doubt that they understood the scene. It is not impossible that they placed upon it an Interpretatio Christiana. In the 'spiritual
sense' of the exegetical writers, who admitted Danaei as a symbol of the
immaculate conception, the union of Leda with the swan might well be
interpreted as a scene foreshadowing the union of the Virgin with the Holy
Ghost. There is a somewhat remote passage in the writings of Valentius
the Gnostic "who," according to C. W. King,5 "in his application of the

Greek Mythology to the support of his own system of Christianity, expands
this very fable, as one of those foreshadowing the descent of the Saviour."'
1 Cf. E. Babelon, Cat. des Camies, op. cit.,a twelfth century "Carmen de Leda," which
No. 27; according to Babelon the inten-shows its author to be a thoroughly welltional alterations of this gem as well asinformed man.
the inscription in Hebrew, are the work of 5 On the Use of Antique Gems, op. cit., pp.
the Renaissance. F. de Ml1y (Du r6le des124-7.
pierres gravies, op. cit., p. Ioo) mentions-- 6There were strong objections to the
without further reference-"Alpheus and
use of mythological subjects throughout the
Arethusa as Adam and Eve." G. Rodenwaldt
Middle Ages. Clement of Alexandria e.g.,
(Archdologischer Anzeiger. Beiblatt zum Jahrbuch
inveighed against those who had their signet
des Archiologischen Instituts, III-IV, 1933,

rings engraved with the image of Leda with
p. 402 ff.) suggested that an interpretatio
the Swan (Cohortatio C. 4); the seventh
christiana might account for the fact that century
some
Synod of Milan launched an inter-
of the Parthenon metopes were spared when

dict against figurative decorations ofepiscopal
the Parthenon was turned into a church.
finger-rings (cf. Archeologia, XXXVI, p. 397) ;
The Christians, then, would have taken
and even Boethius, whose library was

Athena for the Archangel Gabriel and adecorated 'with ivory and crystal' (Con-
seated figure for that of the Virgin in the solatio, I, v), shows a certain aversion to the
avaritia of those who collect gold and gems
(cf. his description of the blissful aboriginal
2 S. Reinach, Lidda sur un sceau ecdclsiastique,
state of mankind : ibid. II, v (versifiRevue Archdologique, VI, 1918, p. 219 (with
catio). We can only hint, however, at these
illustr.).
instances, as the problems connected with
3 C. W. King, On the Use of Antique Gems,
the animosity against precious stones and
op. cit., p. 124, note 7. Ch. Roach Smith,
pagan intagli would exceed the limits of our
Collectanea antiqua, IV, 1857, No. 8 (illustr.
study. Cf. C. Babington's article "Rings"
plate xix).
scene of the Annunciation.
4 Cf. e.g. W. Meyer, who published in:
Zeitschriftf. deutsches Altertum, 50, pp. 289-292
in: Smith and Cheetham, A Dictionary of
Christian Antiquities, 1893.
~"?r'~-
1"
a,: 3?-?
m
~--Dm
b-Ancient gem. Paris,
,,
Cab. des Med. (p. 217)
----
i??;?~-i-a_?:~
ni_~ _-~-
~ar ~i~e~
~1
~C~B';
.i
Fo
s-"
~L
~_\?.-R
~"":
~i~-~
--?
R~
~~
01A A......
;j
: :
P~
.....
......
.ia4~
a-King David holding the Virgin.

Fourteenth
c-Consular
diptych
d
Century. Basle, Historisches Museum
(p. 219)
A.D.) Prague
(p. 217)
a
The desire to express in visible form the prophetic idea of 'adumbra
the foreshadowing of Christ in pre-Christian figures-may in some

have been the motive which prompted the adaptation of ancient gem
a gilded statuette of King David, which shows him holding a small fi
of the Virgin,' two ancient cameos have been inserted (P1. 31a). Th
an antique sardonyx which, strangely enough, represented originally
head of Medusa'-has been used for the head of David.3 The other, the
figure of a lion, has been placed under the feet of the Virgin. King David,
as the ancestor of Christ, foreshadows the coming of the Saviour. He
carries the figure of the Virgin because, as a member of the Old Covenant,
he brings forth and supports the New. But the old order not only announces
the new one, it also opposes it and is overcome by it. This vanquished part
of the past is symbolized in the lion under the feet of the Virgin : "Super
aspidem et basiliscum ambulabis, et conculcabis leonem et draconem."
These words of the Psalm (xc, 13) have often been quoted to illustrate the
victory of Christianity over Paganism. The triumphant Church forces the
pagan powers to submit to the new glory. Roman temples are transformed
into Christian churches. Columns of pagan origin are made to support the
roof under which the Christian god is worshipped. No doubt, the Christian
adaptation of ancient cameos and intagli was also carried out in this spirit.4
Yet a very different lesson might be drawn from the statuette of King David
and the Virgin Mary. An antique cameo was used not only for the vanquished lion, but also for the head of the King. The force which overcame
and destroyed the old glamour was also the force which preserved it.
There is actual evidence that both forces could be combined in the
activities of one person. The same Sugerius of Saint Denis who had taken
such pains to preserve the intactness of the ancient stone of his 'eagle vas
has left a record of a monumental project of 'adaptation by destraction'. I
his Liber de Consecratione which describes the various stages in the reconstru
tion of his church,5 he relates how, being in need of building material,

in : The Ill. London .News, Nov. 2I,
I The statuette, with the exception of(reprod.
the
1936). Another specimen in a processional

crown and the pedestal, dates from the second
third of the fourteenth century and was

cross in Essen Cathedral (early eleventh
century reprod. K. Wilhelm-Kastner, Das
probably made in Vienna. Cf. R. F.
Burckhardt, Die Kunstdenkmaler des KantonsMiInster in Essen, op. cit., fig. 48). A peculiar
Bdsel, vol. II (in: Die Kunstdenkmaler der

example will be found as the only figurative
decoration in the centre of the so-called
Schweiz, IV) Basle, 1933, No. I9.
'Heinrichskreuz' which dates from the

2This is by no means the only instance of
of the eleventh century (R. F.
the employment of a medusa-like head inbeginning
a
Christian work of art. There is one, e.g.,Burckardt, Die Kunstdenkmdler, op. cit., No. 2,
on the shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne
fig. 19).
(cf. J. Braun, Die Monographie des Dreik6ni-3 The association of David who kills
Goliath with Perseus who kills Medusa, is
genschreins, Kunstwissenschaftliches Jahrbuch der
Gdrresgesellschaft, 1928, pl. xi) ; another on
not uncommon. Cf. Snijder, op. cit., p. 12.
the shrine of the 'Chemise de la Vierge' at * Cf. Giovanni Marangoni's important
Chartres (cf. F. de M61y, Le Trisor de Chartres,

treatise: Delle cose gentilesche e profane
1886, pp. 38, 19 and 121 and E. Babelontrasportate ad uso e adornamento delle chiese.
op. cit., p. 86 ; illustr. plate xvi, fig. 164). Rome,

A
1744.
crown, erroneously taken for that of Richard 5 Ed. J. von Schlosser, Quellenbuch, op. cit.,
of Cornwall, has a beautiful Medusa cameop. 283 if.
220
W.
S.
HECKSCHER
remembered
in
the
the
'palace'
beautiful
of
colum
Diocletian.
procedure of shipping these pi

made him renounce his scheme
out
his
plan,
it
would
undoub
characteristic act of reverence.

by breaking up columns from
impaired recklessly the beauty
sidered the columns as units, be
of the place as a whole, which t
ranged for him under the categ
lessness.
It should be remembered that

modern mind as far as painting
the destruction of those more r
speak, the original piece.
One
of
the
few
exceptions
is
the
restore an ancient text, withou

fortunate, under these circums
Sugerius'
procedure
in
the
lig
Stavelot had rebuilt the monast

Manegold of Paderborn how he
porch, next to his own name,
'Scito te ipsum'."' A Greek quot
of Apollo to the monastery of
columns which Sugerius propose
the
Church
of
pictorial,
in
St.
Denis.
The
the insertion of pagan relics in

a much wider question : the for
and
1
the
pattern
of
Epistola,
Jaff6
Delphic
Maxims
No. (The
167 (anno
I 49)
; ed
Illinois,
Bibliotheca
RR. 1929),
Germ.,whic
op.
to our
passage.
Cf. E. G.refer
Wilkins'
comprehe
in:
p. 287.
study on
the
afterlife
of
yv&Oe
ac

Relics of Pagan Antiquity in Mediæval Settings

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Relics of Pagan Antiquity in Medival Settings

RELICS OF PAGAN ANTIQUITY IN MEDIEVAL SETTINGS

carvings, were used by mediaeval craftsmen for the decoration of covers of

Classical Archaeology and Mediaeval History of Art. There exists, to my

knowledge, no serious attempt to interpret this significant chapter of mediaeval

lived here in peaceful symbiosis.

theories. My indebtedness to the schools of Warburg and Konrad Burdach

A clear-cut idea of Antiquity as a historical period of the past did not

Mediaeval Times," etc.). London, I86o,

antiques employles comme sceaux au Moyen Age,

and Dr. Hanns Swarzenski.

Bulletin des Commissions Royales d'Art et

1 The most important recent contribution

The Art Bulletin XIV, 1932, PP. 5-55.

section II ("Use of Antique Gems in

RELICS OF PAGAN ANTIQUITY IN MEDIEVAL SETTINGS 205

they placed a Christian meaning upon pagan prophecies such as Virg

"Messianic Eclogue" or reconciled Christian ethics with that of the pagan

At first glance it might seem strange that there should be an admissio

of a fundamental union between Paganism and Christianity ; for it is generall

was thought to be consummated. This final realm, called the 'Fourt

and up to the preliminaries of the Last Judgment. Politically speaking, th

Fourth Monarchy was supposed to be embodied in the Roman Empir

Di quella Roma onde Christo i Romano.2

dominating idea of unity, the principium unitatis as it was called.

mediaeval attempts to restore Antiquity which go under the name of ren

Konrad Burdach's comprehensive essay:

Die seelischen und geistigen Qyellen der Renais-

Historische Zeitschrift, vol.

become aware of Antiquity as a 'lost paradi

became to him venerable (and therefore untou

of an intervening 'middle' age; hence the m

simply restored nor bluntly adapted, but may

emulated or even surpassed. 'Imitatio' rath

slogan of the Renaissance. But to the mediaeval

In i143 the City of Rome was overtaken b

primarily caused by the example of self-governe

-soon turned into something specifically 'Ro

as a first step, overthrew the aristocratic regi

master of the Capitol. The spokesmen of th

and tradition. They adopted the title of Sacer

placed their hopes for a secular reform on those

of the fourth monarchy, the emperors of th

People implored the Emperor over and over

teeming with renovatio terminology.2

It seems quite possible that the famous p

aureae urbis Romae3 was composed in the cou

WNoe usque ad Romulum serves to prove the sacre

expressly to be written for the Graphia. The H

logue of pagin Rome, i.e. its walls, temples,

handbook of the imperial (Byzantine) court cer

1For further details see:

and Berlin, Igo6, chapter 3

RELICS OF PAGAN ANTIQUITY IN MEDIAEVAL SETTINGS 207

The Roman Senate and the composer of the Graphia treated Ro

renovatio as a matter of reality. There is another example similar in te

nobleman, had some kind of connexion with the popular party. On

the councillors of the Senate, frequently mentioned in the documents

In their striving for renovatio these revolutionary governors of Rome li

to intersperse and embellish their system of political reform with exam

Within this 'optimistic' group there must have prevailed a bound

tinged by religious eschatology. The greatest conceivable distance,

beginnings of the Romanum Imperium. It had been defined spiritually

human weakness. The Fourth M