In Heaven and on Earth: Church Treasure in Late Medieval Bohemia
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In Heaven and on Earth: Church Treasure in Late Medieval Bohemia by Kateřina Horníčková Submitted to Central European University Department of Medieval Studies in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisor: Gerhard Jaritz Budapest, Hungary 2009 CEU eTD Collection - i- Table of content Acknowledgements.................................................................................................................................. iv Plates on CD ROM ................................................................................................................................... v Maps.................................................................................................................................................... vii Abbreviations......................................................................................................................................... viii Foreword ................................................................................................................................................... 1 Part I – Treasures of churches in prospective ............................................................................... 3 I. The Medieval Treasure as a Research Subject ...................................................................................... 3 1. The Treasure in Medieval Culture .................................................................................................... 3 2. The Treasury, the Church and the Public.......................................................................................... 7 2.1 Definition and Function of Church Treasury.............................................................................. 7 2.2 Content of Church Treasury...................................................................................................... 10 3. Research in treasures....................................................................................................................... 15 3. 1. Scholarship and selected literature.......................................................................................... 15 3. 2 Bohemian sources for medieval treasuries .............................................................................. 21 II. Administration and Manipulation of Church Treasury in Bohemia................................................... 32 1. Keeping, manipulating, and inventoring the treasury..................................................................... 32 2. Theft and Loss of Objects ............................................................................................................... 39 III. The Church Treasury in Bohemian religious practice ...................................................................... 45 1. Treasury in Liturgy ......................................................................................................................... 45 2. The Eucharist cult and treasuries .................................................................................................... 49 3. Holy Relics in Treasuries and Devotion ......................................................................................... 55 Part II – The Historical Narratives of Treasure........................................................................... 62 IV. The Birth of a Tradition: Treasuries under the Přemyslids .............................................................. 62 1. Donations by the Přemyslid princes and kings ............................................................................... 62 2. New Intensity, New Media: the Piety of the last Přemyslid queens............................................... 67 V. The Politics of Treasure ..................................................................................................................... 73 1. The Hidden Treasure: From intellectual concept to the implementation of policy ........................ 73 2. Treasures on Heaven and Earth ...................................................................................................... 82 2.1 The “True Treasures”: Karlštejn............................................................................................... 84 2.2 “Totus honor ecclesiae nostrae…”:The Treasury of St. Vitus in Prague ................................. 89 2.3. Treasures on Earth ................................................................................................................... 98 CEU eTD Collection 2.4 Going public: Relics displays ................................................................................................. 118 VI. Reformation of the Treasury........................................................................................................... 133 1. The Cult under Critique ............................................................................................................... 133 1.1 Against “human inventions”................................................................................................... 133 - ii- 1.2 The “chasuble dispute”: The Hussites’ position on garments ................................................ 144 2. Treasuries in Confrontation .......................................................................................................... 153 2.1 Treasuries in Hussite iconoclasm............................................................................................ 153 2.2 Memory, Politics and the Holy Relics: Catholic Tactics amidst the Hussite Reformation .... 161 3. Confessionalising the Objects: Church Treasuries around 1500 .................................................. 170 3.1 The Utraquist Treasury ........................................................................................................... 170 3.2 Catholic Treasure amidst the Reformation ............................................................................. 184 VII. Conclusions ................................................................................................................................... 191 VIII. Appendices................................................................................................................................... 199 Appendix I: Aspects of Medieval Treasuries in Bohemia and Moravia........................................... 199 Appendix II: Late Medieval inventories: Their catalogue and editions............................................ 206 Appendix III: The treasury of the Bethlehem Chapel in the sixteenth century ................................ 255 Appendix IV: Church treasuries in the Visitation Protocol of 1379 - 1380 ..................................... 257 IX. Bibliography ................................................................................................................................... 258 Sources.......................................................................................................................................... 258 Secondary literature ...................................................................................................................... 268 CEU eTD Collection - iii- Acknowledgements In my work I could rely on many helpful advices. What follows is a list of people who did not spare their time and read parts of my work, consulted with me or adviced on particular points. Among them my supervisor Prof. Gerhard Jaritz (CEU Budapest), and tireless reader of my English Prof. Alice Choyke (CEU Budapest) should be named first for their immense help throughout the writing. I am thankful for valuable help particularily to dr. Karel Otavský (Catholic faculty, Charles University, Prague), prof. Jozsef Laszlovsky, prof. Gabor Klaniczay, prof. Bela Zsolt Szakacs (all CEU Budapest), David Mengel (Xavier University, Cincinnati, Ohio), and dr. Michal Šroněk (Institute of art history, Academy of Sciences, Prague). I am thankful also to many colleagues from various Czech archives, who help with finding the sources, who often were difficult to identify. My sincere thanks, however, go to my parents and, particularly, to my little son Jeroným – without their patience and support I would not be able to finish this work. CEU eTD Collection - iv- Plates on CD ROM 1) St. Vitus inventory of 1355 (APH, KA box 260/1-7, text-fiche inv.no. 5187) 2) St. Wenceslaus’ inventory, Olomouc, 1430 (AO, box MCO A III d 2) 3) Inventory of Chrudim, 1465(?) (Liber contractuum I of 1439) 4) Christ on a donkey, Victoria and Albert Museum, London 5) Vir Dolorum of Baltimore, before 1350 (The Walters Art Gallery, inv. no. 57.700) 6) Communion of children, Jena codex, ar. 1500 (Library of the National Museum) 7) Rokycana adoring the Host on the altar, and the Utraquist communion, Aeneas Silvio Piccolomini (ed. Mikuláš Konáč of Hodiškov), Historia bohemica (MS Strahov, inv. č. DR IV 10) 8) Reliquary head of St. Adalbert in the St. Vitus’ treasury donated under the Jagiellonians 9) Relic of Christ’s white dress (tunica alba in quo fuit illusus) from the St. Vitus’ treasury depicted on a votive panel of Jan of Vartemberk, Master of Litomeřice altarpiece, before 1508 10) Consecration of St. Vitus altar, Legend of St. Wenceslaus in Matthias Hutsky, The Life and Martyrdom of St. Wenceslaus, prince of Bohemia 11) St. Wenceslaus accepts the relic of St. Vitus in Matthias Hutsky, The Life and Martyrdom of St. Wenceslaus, prince of Bohemia 12) Pasionale of Abbess Cunigonde, Arma Christi, 1313-1321 (NK MS XIV A 17, fol. 10r) 13) (a) reliquary