Volume 12 2016

Ars Judaica Volume 12 2016 The Fleuron Crown from Neumarkt in Silesia (´Sroda ´Sl˛aska): Christian Material Culture in a Jewish Context Ido Noy In 1988, a treasure was discovered during the demolition included gold and silver coins and some unique gold of a building at 14 Daszyń skiego St. in the heart of what jewelry: two rings, two pairs of earrings, a brooch, a had been the medieval Jewish quarter of S´ roda S´ laska˛ bracelet, and various other objects (fig. 1).1 in Poland (medieval Neumarkt in Silesia). The trove Fig. 1. The treasure of Neumarkt, found in the Jewish quarter, mid-14th century. The National Museum in Wrocław Ars Judaica 2016 In my research for this article I was fortunate to have the advice of several Goldschatz von Neumarkt in Schlesien (S´ roda S´ laska),”˛ in King John leading scholars: Prof. Shalom Sabar, Prof. Elisheva Baumgarten, and Dr Sarit of Luxembourg (1296–1346) and the Art of His Era: Proceedings of the Shalev-Eyni, and I am deeply indebted to all of them. Special thanks also to International Conference, Prague 1996, ed. Klára Benesovská (Prague, Dr Vladimir Levin and the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University 1998), 190–91. One silver ring was decorated with a crescent moon of Jerusalem for providing me with unlimited access to the archives and for and a star, a symbol appearing on other rings found in Jewish contexts, supporting this research. implying a Jewish owner. A similar ring made of gold-plated silver with enamel was part of the Erfurt treasure trove (TLDA, inv. 5071/98): Maria 1 The 1988 treasure contained 3924 silver coins and 39 gold coins Stürzebecher, “Der Schatzfund aus der Michaelisstraße in Erfurt,” in Die from the first half of the fourteenth century: see Jerzy Pietrusiński, mittelalterliche jüdische Kultur in Erfurt, 1: Der Schatzfund: Archäologie, “Herrscherschmuck aus der Schatzkammer der Luxemburger im Kunstgeschichte, Siedlungsgeschichte, ed. Sven Ostritz (Weimar, 2010), 23 Ido Noy The most elaborate piece in the collection is a massive who died in 1348,6 but no record has survived to prove or gold crown intended for a woman, which dates to the disprove this notion. first quarter of the fourteenth century. It is decorated The Neumarkt treasure is not unique. Over the past with more than a hundred precious stones, including two centuries, several other treasure troves have been tourmalines, pearls, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds of found in areas associated with medieval Jewish habitation. different sizes and shapes (fig. 2).2 The round circlet of They often contain a mix of identifiable Jewish and the crown consists of ten plates, connected by high Christian artifacts, suggesting that they belonged to Jewish hinges. Atop every hinge is a vinelike ornament called a pawnbrokers. Moreover, their composition implies that fleuron,3 consisting of clusters of grapes and vine leaves. these pawnbrokers preserved little distinction between Every panel is topped by a small heraldic eagle holding a items taken as security for loans and their own private gold ring set with turquoise in its beak. This find recalls property.7 The discovery of these treasures raises questions a cache of silver coins uncovered three years earlier in a regarding Jewish use of pawned objects, especially secular neighboring building, which was also determined to have objects that have little connection to Jewish or Christian been hidden in the mid-fourteenth century. This dating liturgical practice and that do not bear explicit Jewish or suggests a connection with the anti-Jewish violence in Christian religious iconography or inscriptions. Were the Neumarkt in 1362 and that the hiding and abandonment Jews of the time aware of the true meaning of these objects? of these objects can be attributed to their owners meeting Were they able to understand the original context in with catastrophe.4 which they were used by Christians? Finally, did the Jews Regarding the original owner of the gold jewelry consider them as belonging to their own cultural milieu? found in the trove, researchers have suggested that some Study of the material culture of the time demonstrates of these jewels were given to a Jew named Muscho son that Jews were exposed to crowns such as the one described of Merklin as security for a loan made in 1348 to the above and were well aware of their symbolic meaning, Bohemian Charles IV, the son of John of Luxemburg. As especially with regard to the insignias of nobility and part of the agreement, the king granted Muscho and his royalty. Furthermore, some Jews utilized such crowns to family special permission to live in the city for several define their social status. In the first part of this article years.5 If this was indeed the case, this crown might have I discuss the socio-economic role of fleuron crowns in originally been owned by a member of the royal family, Christian society as symbols of royalty and nobility. I perhaps Blanche de Valois of Sicily, Charles IV’s first wife, then focus on the various ways in which fleuron crowns 221, no. 8. Another ring, made of gold, was found in Colmar (Paris, Moses, “Neumarkt,” in Germania Judaica, 2/2: Von 1238 bis zur Mitte des Musée national du Moyen Âge, inv. Cl 20670): see Le Trésor de Colmar 14. Jahrhunderts, ed. Zvi Avneri (Tübingen, 1968), 578; Klaus Heller, (The Treasure of Colmar) [catalogue, Unterlinden Museum], curator “Neumarkt,” in Germania Judaica, 3/2: 1350–1519, eds. Arye Maimon, Catherine Leroy (Paris and Colmar, 1999), 43, no. 2; a third one, also of Mordechai Breuer, and Yacov Guggenheim (Tübingen, 1995), 948–49. gold, was found in the Jewish quarter of Regensburg: Silvia Codreanu- 5 See Otto Meinardus, Das Neumarkter Rechtsbuch und andere Neumarkter Windauer and Ole Harck, “Ein jüdischer Goldring aus Regensburg,” Rechtsquellen (Breslau, 1906), 237–38, no. 31; Moses “Neumarkt,” 578. Archäologische Korrespondenzblatt 29 (1999): 583–91. This iconography See also Rainer Sachs, “Der Schatzfund von Neumarkt/Schlesien,” is also found on Jewish seals: see Daniel M. Friedenberg, Medieval Jewish Schlesien: Kunst, Wissenschaft, Volkskunde 36 (1991): 71–75; Pietrusiński, Seals from Europe (Detroit, 1987): for seals from Switzerland see 159–60, “Herrscherschmuck,” 198–99. no. 75; for many from Regensburg, 192–94, 198–99, 200–201, nos. 88– 6 Sachs, “Der Schatzfund von Neumarkt / Schlesien,” 73–74. For more 89, 95–96, 98–99; for another from France, 100–101, no. 39. possible identifications, see Pietrusiński, “Herrscherschmuck,” 199–200. 2 Wrocław, The National Museum, inv. nos. V-2333, 2611, 2612. 7 On the methodological problem facing the identification of these 3 For the term fleuron crown, see Ronald W. Lightbown,Mediaeval treasures as Jewish, see Michael Toch, “Medieval Treasure Troves and European Jewellery: With a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria & Jews,” in In Laudem Hierosolymitani: Studies in Crusades and Medieval Albert Museum (London, 1992), 121. On the origin of fleuron crowns, Culture in Honour of Benjamin Z. Kedar, eds. Iris Shagrir, Ronnie see below, n. 8. Ellenblum, and Jonathan Riley-Smith (Aldershot, 2007), 273–96. Ars Judaica 2016 4 For the history of the Jewish community in Neumarkt, see Leopold 8 Lightbown, Mediaeval European Jewellery, 121–22. 24 The Fleuron Crown from Neumarkt in Silesia (´Sroda ´Sl˛aska): Christian Material Culture in a Jewish Context could have been adopted in Jewish iconography and his model also helps explain the role of fashion as a means how they were interpreted in view of the contemporary of publicly manifesting social status, power, and prestige European context, as well as in light of Jewish tradition. in earlier periods.9 Georg Simmel’s theory on fashion also I conclude by dealing with the appearance of fleuron proves useful. In his perspective, never-ending changes crowns in a Jewish context against the background of the in taste enable social relationships, allowing individuals socio-economic changes in Europe in the thirteenth and to integrate by imitating the aesthetic demand of the fourteenth centuries. collective. At the same time, fashion serves the opposite function of excluding the undesirable.10 The role of fashion as a mechanism for regulating medieval social The Mobility of Fleuron Crowns and of Social status is suggested by sumptuary laws intended to prevent Status the access of lower social classes to elite fashion.11 Since the dawn of history crowns have been used to The trickle-down of imperial and royal fashion to symbolize supreme authority. The history of fleuron crowns the nonroyal elite and lower nobility must also be seen as a particular European type goes back to the last quarter in light of changes in the concept of European nobility of the first millennium, when Carolingian and Ottonian that occurred in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. emperors employed them as symbols of sovereignty. By the As well as depending on birthright and genealogy, to be third quarter of the tenth century, fleuron crowns had been noble meant acquiring a unique set of virtues, including adopted by kings as well. In the second half of the twelfth acting with loyalty, philanthropy, courage, courtesy, century, both male and female members of the nobility and moderation. Two common terms are found in the brandished fleuron crowns to convey social status, military contemporary literature to designate nobility: adel rank, and political power.8 The public wearing of crowns described nobility in the sense of noble birth as well as of different quality and ornateness conveyed hierarchical excellence, and edel described nobility acquired through status that was recognizable to all strata of society. virtue, which had no legal title to prove its validity.12 This One might use Thorstein Veblen’s term “conspicuous innovative terminology was used by the alleged Jewish consumption” to describe this socio-economic phenomenon.

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