December 11, 2024
The Art of Discovery in Renaissance Europe
Professor Anthony Grafton
Henry Putnam University Professor
of History at Princeton University, and Director of the Program in
European Cultural Studies
Anthony Grafton and Nancy Beck, introducer
Minutes of the 13th Meeting of the 83rd Year
President George Bustin called the meeting to order; Joan Fleming led the invocation. One hundred twenty-five members and guests attended the meeting.
Members introduced their guests. Frank Pizzi: John McCaskie (applying for membership); Joan Fleming: Rush Rehm, John Fleming; Susan Chermak: Allan Silverman; David Scott: Carol Anderson, and Steve Lin.
Professor Grafton was introduced by Nancy Beck, who noted that he has taught at Princeton University for fifty years, during which he has published more than a dozen books and innumerable articles. His recent publication, in collaboration with Maren Elisabeth Schwab, is entitled, The Art of Discovery: Digging into the Past in Renaissance Europe, on which Grafton’s talk is based.
Grafton began by introducing his audience to a new genre of historians—what he called “quirky” antiquarians. These were people who worked with physical evidence rather than written evidence from the past. Up until then, history had been a matter of studying what was known of political history, shifting alliances among nations and the like. The antiquarian approach to history took hold in the later medieval period, especially in Italy, where an abundance of physical objects, remains of the past, could be found. Early on, coins were popular evidence from the past; they told a good deal about Roman history, and they could be traded with other antiquarians, who then became friends with each other. In addition to coins, antiquarians studied inscriptions, and now history could become quite personal: one inscription was an epitaph for someone’s wife, which (translated from the Latin) read, “I wish you were still alive.”
Antiquarians also studied, and recorded, structures such as the Porta Borsari in
Verona. But one problem for antiquarians was that because there was no written guidance, they could not really be sure what they were studying. Nero’s so-called Golden House was in this category. It was known that Nero had built himself a magnificent palace, but its appearance was unknown until excavation revealed that another building had been superimposed on the original. Eventually, the palace’s magnificence was revealed as excavators unearthed splendid arches and lofty rooms with walls on which pictures were inscribed.
One of the most intriguing discoveries was made in 1485, with the recovery of a sarcophagus on the Appian Way. It was the sarcophagus of a young Roman woman, her body “perfectly preserved.” There were different accounts of what she looked like: was she a young woman or just a child? a male or a female? Her preservation was no doubt because she had been covered with embalming oil. But because she was found on the Appian Way, where Cicero had had a home, there was wild speculation as to her identity: could she have been Cicero’s daughter?
Eventually, she was removed and transported to Rome, but as people began to reverence her body as though she were a Christian martyr, the Pope was indignant. He was not going to permit people to worship a pagan person and he had the body hidden or destroyed, or both.
This was a period when Christians reverenced saints and martyrs as having miraculous powers. Examples are St. Ambrose, who was buried between Gervasius and Pertasias, both of whom had been martyred for not giving up their faith; and Santa Francesca Romana, a saintly nun whose body, like that of the girl found on the Appian Way, was found after many years to be uncorrupted. Miracles associated with such corpses were frequent, and more than one whose coffin was opened was found to exude a sweet and inexplicable fragrance. We speak even today of “the odor of sanctity,” without realizing that this was its origin.
A 15th-century antiquarian, Hieronymus Munzer, who was constantly on the lookout for relics, sacred or otherwise, saw what was reputed to be the preserved skull of Mary Magdalene. There was great excitement among antiquarians and religious people in general when such a discovery was made.
Grafton closed by suggesting that today, the sense of awe that medieval and Renaissance Christians felt at such discoveries has now been transferred to our fascination with artifacts we find in museums.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Fleming
Members introduced their guests. Frank Pizzi: John McCaskie (applying for membership); Joan Fleming: Rush Rehm, John Fleming; Susan Chermak: Allan Silverman; David Scott: Carol Anderson, and Steve Lin.
Professor Grafton was introduced by Nancy Beck, who noted that he has taught at Princeton University for fifty years, during which he has published more than a dozen books and innumerable articles. His recent publication, in collaboration with Maren Elisabeth Schwab, is entitled, The Art of Discovery: Digging into the Past in Renaissance Europe, on which Grafton’s talk is based.
Grafton began by introducing his audience to a new genre of historians—what he called “quirky” antiquarians. These were people who worked with physical evidence rather than written evidence from the past. Up until then, history had been a matter of studying what was known of political history, shifting alliances among nations and the like. The antiquarian approach to history took hold in the later medieval period, especially in Italy, where an abundance of physical objects, remains of the past, could be found. Early on, coins were popular evidence from the past; they told a good deal about Roman history, and they could be traded with other antiquarians, who then became friends with each other. In addition to coins, antiquarians studied inscriptions, and now history could become quite personal: one inscription was an epitaph for someone’s wife, which (translated from the Latin) read, “I wish you were still alive.”
Antiquarians also studied, and recorded, structures such as the Porta Borsari in
Verona. But one problem for antiquarians was that because there was no written guidance, they could not really be sure what they were studying. Nero’s so-called Golden House was in this category. It was known that Nero had built himself a magnificent palace, but its appearance was unknown until excavation revealed that another building had been superimposed on the original. Eventually, the palace’s magnificence was revealed as excavators unearthed splendid arches and lofty rooms with walls on which pictures were inscribed.
One of the most intriguing discoveries was made in 1485, with the recovery of a sarcophagus on the Appian Way. It was the sarcophagus of a young Roman woman, her body “perfectly preserved.” There were different accounts of what she looked like: was she a young woman or just a child? a male or a female? Her preservation was no doubt because she had been covered with embalming oil. But because she was found on the Appian Way, where Cicero had had a home, there was wild speculation as to her identity: could she have been Cicero’s daughter?
Eventually, she was removed and transported to Rome, but as people began to reverence her body as though she were a Christian martyr, the Pope was indignant. He was not going to permit people to worship a pagan person and he had the body hidden or destroyed, or both.
This was a period when Christians reverenced saints and martyrs as having miraculous powers. Examples are St. Ambrose, who was buried between Gervasius and Pertasias, both of whom had been martyred for not giving up their faith; and Santa Francesca Romana, a saintly nun whose body, like that of the girl found on the Appian Way, was found after many years to be uncorrupted. Miracles associated with such corpses were frequent, and more than one whose coffin was opened was found to exude a sweet and inexplicable fragrance. We speak even today of “the odor of sanctity,” without realizing that this was its origin.
A 15th-century antiquarian, Hieronymus Munzer, who was constantly on the lookout for relics, sacred or otherwise, saw what was reputed to be the preserved skull of Mary Magdalene. There was great excitement among antiquarians and religious people in general when such a discovery was made.
Grafton closed by suggesting that today, the sense of awe that medieval and Renaissance Christians felt at such discoveries has now been transferred to our fascination with artifacts we find in museums.
Respectfully submitted,
Joan Fleming