Magic and Money PDF

Magic and Money in the Early Middle Ages
Author(s): Henry Maguire

Source: Speculum, Vol. 72, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 1037-1054
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of
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Magic and Money
in the Early Middle Ages
By Henry Maguire
In the Middle Ages, as today, the concept of magic meant different things to
different people.' Broadly speaking, it is possible to distinguish between two cate-
gories of definitions. To the first category, which may be called external, belong
the definitions of magic provided by modern anthropologists, who seek, probably
in vain, to find common denominators of "magic" in all human societies. The
second category, which may be called internal, is composed of the definitions
provided by individual societies or by groups within those societies. In this article
I shall be dealing with internal definitions, viewing the subject from the perspec-
tives of the authorities of the early Middle Ages, who understood magic to consist
in unsanctioned dealings with supernatural forces that stood outside of the official
practices of church and state. Such marginal activities were referred to by a num-
ber of words, such as magia and superstitio in Latin2 or gaysia and yoyczia in
Greek. The written sources do not enable us to define each of these terms with
much precision, except to say that in the early Middle Ages they all usually implied
an unsanctioned or illicit engagement with the immaterial world, frequently in-
volving the participation of demons.
In societies where everyone believed in the constant intervention of supernatural
powers, both good and evil, in day-to-day affairs, it was essential to provide some
controls on the access to and manipulation of those forces, just as today many
people feel that it is necessary to control access to such powerful tools as guns.
Equally, however, just as weapons now are restricted more severely by some ju-
risdictions than by others, so also in the Middle Ages dealings with the supernat-
ural were more or less tightly controlled; practices that in one place or time were
considered deviant or illegal (i.e., magical) were perfectly acceptable somewhere
else. For this reason it is difficult to characterize a particular practice, or a partic-
ular iconographic sign, as having a consistent connotation of "magic"; the defi-
nition of magic depended upon who was using the practice or sign and in what
circumstances. In the early Middle Ages, for example, from the reign of Constan-
tine the Great onwards, the sign of the Christogram, the monogram formed by
the first two letters of Christ's name, was widely adopted by the official art of
I thank Alan M. Stahl for his generously given advice in the preparation of this paper.
1 A good discussion of the definition of magic, especially as applied to the early Christian context,
can be found in David E. Aune, "Magic in Early Christianity," in Wolfgang Haase, ed., Aufstieg und
Niedergang der Romischen Welt, 2/23/2 (Berlin, 1980), pp. 1507-57, esp. pp. 1510-16, where there
are extensive references to earlier literature. See also Stanley Jeyaraja Tambiah, Magic, Science, Reli-
gion, and the Scope of Rationality (Cambridge, Eng., 1990).
2 On the definition of these terms, see the recent discussion by Richard Kieckhefer, "The Specific
Rationality of Medieval Magic," American Historical Review 99 (1994), 813-36, esp. pp. 815-17.
Speculum 72 (1997) 1037
1038 Magic and Money
church and state; it was displayed, for example, on the reverse of imperial coinage
(Fig. 1). But the same device also featured in unofficial rites and amulets, which
both the ecclesiastical and the lay authorities condemned as magic. From the
fourth century onward, Christograms, or variations of Christograms, can be found
accompanying magical spells on papyri.3 They also appear on gold lamellae, the
thin sheets of metal inscribed with occult texts that were rolled up to be worn as
phylacteries.4 The problem was stated succinctly by St. Augustine, when he
warned, "Evil spirits invent certain semblances of honor for themselves, that they
may in this way deceive those who follow Christ.... [T]hey,... who seduce
through amulets, through spells, and through the machinations of the enemy, may
mingle the name of Christ in their spells; because they are no longer able to seduce
Christians, they add some honey to their poison, so that what is bitter may lie
hidden in what is sweet, and may be drunk to ruin."5
Among the early fathers of the church, the fourth-century writer John Chry-
sostom was especially insistent in his condemnation of unofficial rituals, especially
those conducted by women in their homes. For example, he attacked nurses and
maids who made a mark with mud on a child's forehead while bathing it, in order
to avoid the dangers of the evil eye, fascination, and envy-that is, the damage
caused by demons, whether acting on their own or summoned by a jealous
neighbor.6 The bishop complained that by this action the women compromised
the sealing with the cross at the child's baptism, when the priest marked its fore-
head with consecrated oil. He said, in effect, that the marginal ritual carried out
by women at home subverted the official ceremony carried out by male clergy at
the church. The problem, therefore, was not so much what was done (i.e., the
bathing and the marking), but who was doing it and where.
The same point can be made with reference to other practices, such as the
wearing of bells. John Chrysostom attacked the women at home who tried to
protect a child from evil spirits by tying bells onto its hand.7 This apotropaic
practice receives some archaeological confirmation from the excavation of small
bells in early Christian houses and graves.8 At a later period, however, from the
3 For example, a column of Christograms flanks the text of a sixth-century papyrus amulet against
fever now preserved at Leiden: P. W. A. Th. Van der Laan, "Amulette chretienne contre la fievre,"
Papyrologica Lugduno-Batava 19 (1978), 96-102, no. 20, pl. 14. The Christogram also adds its
weight to a love charm in Strasbourg: K. Preisendanz et al., Papyri Graecae magicae: Die griechischen
Zauberpapyri, 2 vols. (Stuttgart, 1973-74), 2:138, no. 17a; translation in Hans Dieter Betz, ed., The
Greek Magical Papyri in Translation (Chicago, 1986), pp. 253-54.
4 For example, a lamella now in the Walters Art Gallery is inscribed with a charm intended to bring
victory in a lawsuit: R. Kotansky, "Magic in the Court of the Governor of Arabia," Zeitschrift fur
Papyrologie und Epigraphik 88 (1991), 41-60, pl. 1.
5 In Iohannis Evangelium tractatus CXXIV 7.6, ed. R. Willems (Turnhout, 1954), p. 70; cited by
Valerie I. J. Flint, The Rise of Magic in Early Medieval Europe (Princeton, N.J., 1991), p. 244.
6 In epistolam I ad Corinthios homilia XII 7, PG 61:106.
7 Ibid., col. 105.
8 For a bell found in a domestic context at Anemurium, see James Russell, "The Archaeological
Context of Magic in the Early Byzantine Period," in Henry Maguire, ed., Byzantine Magic (Washing-
ton, D.C., 1995), pp. 42-43, fig. 11. For Christian graves containing bells, see, for example, Anthony
McNicoll, Robert H. Smith, and Basil J. Hennessy, Pella in Jordan (Canberra, 1982), 1:87-101, no.
77, pl. 28d; Thomas Weber, "Ein friihchristliches Grab mit Glockenketten zu Gadara in der Syrischen
Dekapolis," Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzantinistik 42 (1992), 249-85, figs. 5-6.
Magic and Money 1039
tenth to the eleventh centuries, the popes in Rome wore such bells attached to the
hems of their vestments.9 Officially, these papal bells were a reference to the robe
of the high priest, as described in the Book of Exodus.10 But it was also an appro-
priation at the highest ecclesiastical level of a practice that, when it had occurred
in the domestic sphere, had been condemned by the early church fathers as magic.
Ottonian emperors also adopted this high priestly symbolism, proving once again
that what had been prohibited as magic when it was practiced privately might
become an open prerogative of the powerful."1
Bells and Christograms belong to a class of objects and signs that are of partic-
ular interest in the investigation of medieval magic because they had a propensity
to pass through the permeable membrane that separated unofficial from official
practices. To this class of objects also belong coins and medallions, which will
form the principal subject of this paper. In the early Middle Ages, as in the late
Roman period, coins had value not only in the physical world of human exchange
but also in the invisible world of spirits and demons. Their ability to act in both
places derived from the general medieval tendency to invest precious substances,
such as gold, silver, and gemstones, with value in both the earthly and the spiritual
realms. The supernatural potency of coins also reflected the special powers asso-
ciated with the emperor's portrait in the Middle Ages. When given as diplomatic
gifts, imperial portraits were not only marks of the donor's suzerainty over the
recipient and guarantees of the authenticity of any accompanying messages or
documents but also assurances of his aid.12 It is well known that in the late-antique
and early-medieval periods empresses, dependent rulers, and high court officials
wore portraits of the reigning emperor either woven into or sewn onto their gar-
ments or incorporated into their jewelry or regalia.13 Like the diplomatic gifts,
these images displayed upon the person were not only a sign of the emperor's
overlordship but also a conduit of his protection. Even as late as the thirteenth
century, we can find a Byzantine orator, Holobolos, characterizing the imperial
image as a kind of talisman, with the ability to avert evils of all kinds. Describing
a cloth embroidered with a representation of Michael VIII, a diplomatic gift pre-
sented by that emperor to the city of Genoa, Holobolos claims in his speech that
the Genoese ambassadors requested the portrait because, in their words, "the form
of the beloved [emperor], even in a picture, was a great remedy (pharmakon) to
those who love you. For even your image, if it is beside us, has many powers. It
will be a firm means of defense against our adversaries, an averter (apotropaion)
9 Percy Ernst Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen und Staatssymbolik, Schriften der Monumenta Ger-
maniae Historica 13/2 (Stuttgart, 1955), p. 555; Heinrich Fichtenau, Living in the Tenth Century:
Mentalities and Social Orders, trans. Patrick J. Geary (Chicago, 1991), p. 321.
10 Exod. 28.33-34, 39.22-26.
11 Schramm, Herrschaftszeichen, p. 557, fig. 83. There was also ambiguity concerning the use of
bells to drive away foul weather and to ensure good harvests, a practice that was at times accepted,
at others discouraged: see Flint, The Rise of Magic, pp. 189-90; Fichtenau, Living in the Tenth Cen-
tury, p. 321.
12 See the classic analysis by Andre Grabar, L'empereur dans l'art byzantin (Paris, 1936), p. 7.
13 Ibid., p. 6, n. 2; Jean Ebersolt, Les arts somptuaires de Byzance (Paris, 1923), esp. p. 137.
of every plot, a strong bulwark for your city and ours...."14 Even allowing for
the exaggerations of a Byzantine orator, this account of the autonomous potency
of the imperial image goes far beyond the expectations that people might have of
official portraits today. The oration hints that it is not only the emperor who has
the ability to defend but also his image, as if this piece of colored cloth had powers
in and of itself. In other words, the emperor's portrait is described as a kind of
miracle-working icon, like the image of the Virgin Hodegetria that was paraded
around the walls of Constantinople to defend the city from its enemies.
Such supernatural powers were enclosed and encapsulated in coins bearing rul-
ers' portraits, which could be carried or worn as amulets. Here again, with coins
as with other types of imperial portraits, there was a tendency to confuse the
medium with the message. That is, the real source of political and military power
was the reigning emperor, but the coins themselves came to be seen as powerful
in nonmonetary ways, so that it was no longer necessary to portray the current
ruler. As a consequence, people wore imitation coins on which the portrait of the
contemporary ruler had been replaced by a generic imperial portrait, and his name
by a formula designed to ensure protection or good luck. On some imitation coins
the effigy of the current emperor was replaced by an ancient ruler of special ho-
liness or power, such as Constantine or Alexander the Great. On these pseudo-
coins the connection with material commerce and mundane political authority
had been severed; instead, they entered into a commerce with the unseen world,
with saints and demons, and with the special influence of the dead.
Because coins were necessary objects, their use in day-to-day economic life could
not be banned. But their unofficial employment in dealings with unseen forces
was certainly a source of discomfort and sometimes a target of criticism by church
officials. Again, it is John Chrysostom who makes the most explicit castigation of
the use of coins as amulets, when he addressed Christian catechumens as follows:
"And what is one to say about those who use charms and amulets, and who bind
bronze coins of Alexander of Macedon around their heads and feet? Are these
our hopes, tell me, that after the cross and death of Our Lord, we should place
the hopes of our salvation on an image of a Greek king?"15 A fourth-century
amulet of the type condemned by John Chrysostom survives in the collection of
the Walters Art Gallery in Baltimore. It consists of an embossed circle of sheet
gold with an imitation coin at its center, showing a profile head of Alexander,
identified by the horns of Ammon (Fig. 2).16 It may be noted that Alexander the
Great had been dead for some seven hundred years at the time that John Chry-
sostom wrote. We shall encounter other evidence that old coins were seen by their
users as especially efficacious.
There is abundant archaeological evidence for the wearing of coins during the
14 Ed. M. Treu, Manuelis Holoboli orationes, 2 vols. in 1 (Potsdam, 1906-7), 1:46. The text is
discussed by Ruth Macrides, "The New Constantine and the New Constantinople-1261 ?" Byzantine
and Modern Greek Studies 6 (1980), 13-41, esp. pp. 34-35.
15 Ad illuminandos catechesis II 5, PG 49:240.
16 Jutta-Annette Bruhn, Coins and Costume in Late Antiquity (Washington, D.C., 1993), pp. 45-
46, no. 9.
late-antique period. Coins were either pierced with holes, so that they could be
hung from the body by means of a cord, or provided with suspension rings, or
set into more elaborate mounts as jewelry. Pierced coins have been discovered by
archaeologists in the excavation of houses and also in early Christian graves.17
Sometimes it is plain that the coin had a considerable antiquity at the time when
it was being worn, suggesting that its apotropaic value was increased by its age.
For example, at Anemurium in southern Turkey a pierced bronze coin of the
second-century emperor Marcus Aurelius was found on the floor of a house that
was abandoned in the second half of the seventh century.18 The practice of mount-
ing coins as jewelry, which dates back to the Hellenistic period, had become wide-
spread by the third century A.D.19 Jewelers sometimes placed the coins in settings
that also incorporated apotropaic signs, such as an eight-pointed star composed
of two interlaced squares.20 These devices indicate that the coins were worn not
only for their beauty, a motivation that cannot be denied,21 but also for their
inherent powers.
The clearest proof that coins were worn as amulets is provided by the pseu-
docoins and medallions that often took the place of real coins in numismatic
jewelry. These imitation pieces reproduced the salient features of coins but at the
same time introduced devices or inscriptions that made their supernatural force
more explicit. For example, a famous gold pectoral discovered in Egypt, and now
in Berlin, incorporates fourteen real gold coins of the sixth century on either side
of a large imitation medallion that displays on its obverse the profile bust of an
emperor wearing a military costume of a cuirass under a mantle (Fig. 4) and on
its reverse a seated personification of Constantinople. On each side the image is
surrounded by the following Greek inscription: "KY BOH®I TE (OPOYZA"
("LORD, PROTECT HER WHO WEARS [THIS PIECE]").22 We learn, then, that
the pectoral was worn by a woman and that its function was apotropaic. We also
17 For pierced coins in graves, see, for example, Pinhas Delougaz and Richard C. Haines, A Byzantine
Church at Khirbat al-Karak, University of Chicago Oriental Institute Publications 85 (Chicago, 1960),
pp. 51, 60, pl. 46; McNicoll, Pella in Jordan, 1:90, no. 87, pl. 28. For coins with suspension rings,
see, for example, Josef Engemann and Christoph B. Riiger, Spdtantike und friihes Mittelalter: Ausge-
wdhlte Denkmaler im Rheinischen Landesmuseum Bonn (Bonn, 1991), pp. 226-28, nos. 101-2.
18 Russell, "The Archaeological Context of Magic" (see above, n. 8), pp. 47-48.
19 On mounted coins, see the very useful catalogue by Cornelius C. Vermeule, "Numismatics in
Antiquity: The Preservation and Display of Coins in Ancient Greece and Rome," Schweizerische numis-
matische Rundschau 54 (1975), 5-32, and, more recently, Bruhn, Coins and Costume.
20 See, for example, a mounted medallion of Honorius in the Antiken-Sammlung of the Staatliche
Museen in Berlin and a necklace with three pendants containing coins of Otacilia Severa, Probus, and
Gordian III in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, both discussed by Bruhn, Coins and
Costume, pp. 14, 23, figs. 9, 16. On the apotropaic and cosmic significance of the interlaced squares,
see Andreas Schmidt-Colinet, "Deux carres entrelaces inscrits dans un cercle: De la signification d'un
ornement geometrique," in Annemarie Stauffer, ed., Textiles d'Egypte de la collection Bouvier (Fri-
bourg, 1991), pp. 21-34.
21 The article by Cornelius Vermeule, "Numismatics in Antiquity," p. 5, taking the modernist per-
spective of its time, sees the mounted coins of antiquity as "works of art or objects to be collected."
22 Kurt Weitzmann, Age of Spirituality: Late Antique and Early Christian Art, exhibition catalogue,
Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1979), pp. 319-21, no. 296; Catherine Metzger, "Les bijoux
monetaires dans l'antiquite tardive," Les dossiers de l'archeologie 40 (1980), 82-90, esp. p. 90.
see that in this case it was not considered necessary to identify the ruler depicted
in the central medallion; it was the evocation of a numismatic portrait that
worked, not a specific ruler.
Such imitation coins often took the form of thin circular sheets of gold bearing
an image pressed in relief. These "bracteates" were frequently given accompanying
inscriptions that were apotropaic or prophylactic in character. For example, a
late-sixth-century encolpion now in St. Petersburg, but found near Mersin in Ci-
licia, in southern Turkey, consists of a large pressed gold medallion hanging from
a necklace of twenty-one smaller stamped gold disks (Fig. 8).23 The large medallion
portrays an emperor flanked by personifications of the sun and the moon, while
each of the smaller "coins" portrays two frontal busts flanking a cross, with the
inscription "YFIA" ("HEALTH") beneath them. Another pressed gold medallion,
probably dating to the late fourth or the early fifth century and now in the Cabinet
des Medailles in Paris, was provided with a ring of small holes around its outer
rim, indicating that it was sewn onto a garment, rather than suspended from a
cord or necklace (Fig. 3).24 It shows the profile bust of an emperor surrounded by
a jeweled wreath containing six alternating oval and square frames in imitation
of jewels or cameos, which themselves contain small profile busts. Around the
central "coin" is the Greek inscription "EYTYXQE XPQ9" ("USE WITH GOOD
FORTUNE").
These pressed gold medallions with Greek legends were manufactured in the
eastern territories of the Byzantine Empire. They had western European equiva-
lents in the bracteates that were produced in considerable numbers in northern
Germany and western Scandinavia from the fifth to the seventh centuries. Many
of these pseudomedallions were decorated with busts copied from late Roman
coins, occasionally accompanied by inscriptions identifying them as specific em-
perors. For example, a bracteate from Hov, in Fosnes, in Norway, shows the
profile bust of a ruler wearing a mantle fastened by a fibula, or brooch, at the
shoulder, and surrounded by the inscription "DN CONSNS," which identifies the
portrait as the Emperor Constans (337-50; Fig. 5).25 Here again the coin copied
was considerably older than the imitation. On some bracteates, such as an example
from Lyngby in Denmark, the busts were accompanied by apotropaic motifs,
including swastikas and interlaced snakes (Fig. 6).26 Related in concept were the
23 Weitzmann, Age of Spirituality, pp. 72-74, no. 62.

24 Elisabeth Alfoldi-Rosenbaum, "A Gold 'Bracteate' in the Cabinet des Medailles in Paris," in Hagen
Keller and Nikolaus Staubach, eds., Iconologia sacra: Mythos, Bildkunst und Dichtung in der Reli-
gions- und Sozialgeschichte Alteuropas (Berlin, 1994), pp. 81-90, figs. 6-7.
25 Helmut Roth, Kunst der Volkerwanderungszeit (Frankfurt, 1979), p. 252, fig. 188a.
26 Ibid., p. 252, fig. 188b. On the apotropaic significance of interlaced snakes in early-medieval art,
see Ernst Kitzinger, "Interlace and Icons: Form and Function in Early Insular Art," in R. Michael
Spearman and John Higgitt, eds., The Age of Migrating Ideas: Early Medieval Art in Northern Britain
and Ireland (Edinburgh, 1993), pp. 3-15, esp. pp. 3-6; on the swastika see Henry Maguire, "Magic
and Geometry in Early Christian Floor Mosaics and Textiles," Jahrbuch der osterreichischen Byzanti-
nistik 44 (1994), 265-74, esp. pp. 266-67, 273.
small Lombard crosses cut from gold sheets and pierced for sewing, which were
impressed with the obverse and reverse sides of Byzantine coins.27
Imitation coins were not only incorporated into jewelry but also employed as
amuletic devices on helmets, where they protected the wearers in combat. An
early-sixth-century helmet found at Heraclea had a metal band around the rim
stamped with dies of different sizes imitating various fifth- and early-sixth-century
coins (Fig. 7).28 The images on the "coins" reproduce both obverse and reverse
types; that is to say, some of the coins depict portraits of emperors in military
costume, while others show such motifs as a seated personification of Constan-
tinople or a victory holding a large cross. None of these coin types, however, is
accompanied by an inscription naming the emperor. Instead the legends are all
apotropaic: "KYPIE XPISTE BOH®I" ("HELP, 0 LORD CHRIST"); "XAPIS
YFIA" ("GRACE, HEALTH"); "YFIEN (OPI" ("WEAR IN HEALTH"),
"XPISTE BOH®I" ("HELP, 0 LORD"), and "YFIA" ("HEALTH"). It is obvious
then, that the owner of this helmet did not wear the "coins" for any politica
symbolism; he simply wanted to return from the battlefield safe and sound.
Just as imitations of coins, such as the pressed gold medallion in the Cabine
des Medailles, were sometimes sewn onto costumes, so also reproductions of coin
were woven into early-medieval textiles as part of their decoration.29 Here, to
the imitation coins with their portraits were not simply statements of imperi
authority but also had an apotropaic function. An amuletic significance is strongly
suggested by a set of silk ornaments from a single tunic, now divided betwee
museums in New Haven, Lyons, and Berlin, which evoke the iconographic rep
ertoire of numismatic jewelry.30 The decoration of this tunic originally include
circular ornaments containing small imitation coins at their centers, each "coin
consisting of a crowned frontal bust surrounded by a beaded border (Fig. 9). Th
type of the crown, with triangular projections, was associated on Byzantine coin
with female members of the imperial house.31 The sleeve bands of the same tunic
portray the earth surrounded by the oceans, the earth personified by four repeate
busts of a crowned woman holding up a fold of cloth in front of her chest, an
the ocean shown by means of fishes and water plants in the border (Fig. 10).
A similar association of motifs can be found on a pressed gold medallion of the
27 Miinzen in Brauch und Aberglauben, exhibition catalogue, Germanisches Nationalmuseum,

Niirnberg, ed. Hermann Maue and Ludwig Veit (Mainz am Rhein, 1982), pp. 70, 142, no. 25
Wilfried Menghin, Gotische und langobardische Funde aus Italien im Germanischen Nationalmuseum,
Nirnberg (Nuremberg, 1983), p. 46, no. 24, pl. 8 (cross from Novara impressed with coin types o
Justin II [565-78]), and no. 25, pl. 9 (cross from Beneventum, with the impression of a solidus of Leo
III [717-41]).
28 Elica Maneva, "Casque a fermoir d'Heraclee," Archaeologia lugoslavica 24 (1987), 101-11, pls.
3-4.
29 On textiles imitating jewelry, see Bruhn, Coins and Costume, pp. 33-34.
30 Otto von Falke, Kunstgeschichte der Seidenweberei (Berlin, 1913), p. 57, fig. 75; Adele C
Weibel, Two Thousand Years of Textiles (New York, 1952), pp. 92-93, no. 56, pl. 56; Mar
Martiniani-Reber, Lyon, musee historique des tissus: Soieries sassanides, coptes et byzantines, Ve
siecles (Paris, 1986), pp. 63-64, no. 33.
31 Alfred R. Bellinger and Philip Grierson, Catalogue of the Byzantine Coins in the Dumbarton
Collection, 3 vols. (Washington, D.C., 1966-73), 2/1:84, table 9, and 3/1:130, table 13.
late sixth or early seventh century now preserved in the Virginia Museum of Fine
Arts at Richmond (Fig. 11).32 This pendant displays at its center a bust of the
personified earth, holding a cloth filled with fruits before her and surrounded by
a ring of twelve smaller circles, eight of which contain profile heads, while the
others contain crosses. Thus, like the silk tunic ornaments, the golden pendant
combines imitation coins with a personification of the fruitful earth, and with the
same purpose, namely, to ensure good luck and prosperity.
In the later centuries of Byzantium numismatic jewelry disappeared, but the
apotropaic force of coins was not forgotten. A text written in the twelfth century
provides interesting evidence of the Byzantines' continuing fascination with the
special power of old coins. This is a letter written by Michael Italikos, a teacher
of rhetoric, philosophy, and medicine in Constantinople, to accompany the gift of
a coin that he was giving to the aktouarios, an official whose precise duties are
obscure but who may have been the Byzantine equivalent of the United States
surgeon general.33 In his letter Michael Italikos claimed that the coin was that of
Constantine the Great. He also stated that the piece was mounted to be worn as
a pectoral and that it bore on one side the imprint of Constantine, "the most
imperial, the most pious, and the best of emperors," together with his mother
Helena, while the other side had an image of Christ, in "Roman" guise. The design
of the piece also incorporated a cross, and its surrounding inscription was in Latin
characters. Michael Italikos further described the coin as "an imperial nomisma
invested with an ineffable force," which was effective against "all evils" but par-
ticularly against diseases. He specified that the power came not simply from the
cross but from the coin itself. However, he was careful to explain that this power
was not of a magical nature: "You will not only have this piece as a phylactery
against the ill effects of nature, in that it bears the imprint of the victory-bringing
cross, but there is an ineffable power peculiar to this object, which is not contrived
from some magical art, such as the Chaldaeans and the Assyrian theurgists often
perform, but [it comes] from some divine power that has perhaps been injected
into it by the instruments of the metalworkers." Although it may be doubted
whether the coin seen by Italikos really showed Constantine and Helena, it was
clearly ancient. It is a matter of speculation to which emperor the coin actually
belonged. A possible candidate would be Theodosius II, some of whose gold solidi
show on the reverse the two emperors Theodosius II and Valentinian III sitting
side by side, each holding a cross-scepter (interpreted by Michael Italikos as "Con-
stantine" and "Helena"), and on the obverse the helmeted bust of Theodosius II
32 Christine Kondoleon, "A Gold Pendant in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts," Dumbarton Oaks
Papers 41 (1987), 307-16; Anna Gonosova and Christine Kondoleon, Art of Late Rome and Byzan-
tium in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts (Richmond, Va., 1994), pp. 109-11.
33 Ed. Paul Gautier, Michel Italikos, lettres et discours (Paris, 1972), pp. 208-10. The passage is
discussed by V. Laurent, "Numismatique et folklore dans la tradition byzantine," Cronica numismatica
si arheologica 119-20 (1940), 3-16, esp. pp. 10-12, and by Tommaso Bertele , "Costantino il Grande
e S. Elena su alcune monete bizantine," Numismatica 14 (1948), 91-106, esp. pp. 91-92. I am in-
debted to Philip Grierson for the latter reference.
in military costume (interpreted as "Christ" in "Roman" guise; Fig. 12).34 Another

possibility would be a solidus of Justinian II's second reign, showing on one side
Justinian II and his son Tiberius holding a cross between them, and the unusual
short-haired bust of Christ of the "Syrian" type on the other (Fig. 13).35 But what-
ever coin was sent by Michael Italikos to the aktouarios, he clearly believed it to
have prophylactic powers, which he was, however, careful to distinguish from
magic.36
The use of coins for amuletic purposes was still a sensitive subject in the me-
dieval centuries of Byzantium, just as it had been in the time of John Chrysostom.
While Michael Italikos, as we have seen, tried to distance his own interest in the
powers of coins from magic, another Byzantine intellectual, Michael Psellos, at-
tempted to associate a similar interest on the part of one of his opponents with a
reprehensible involvement with the occult. In the mid-eleventh century Psellos
wrote a denunciation of Michael Keroularios, the patriarch of Constantinople,
who was on trial for his supposed misdeeds. In the course of his denunciation
Psellos describes a church official whose tastes ran from the exotic to the bizarre.
Psellos paints a vivid picture of the patriarch rising in the morning to greet a whole
crowd of charlatans and conjurers who come to his residence: "From the break
of day, one after another they knocked at the gate of his courtyard and entered
successively within his quarters: the dyer, the rug merchant, the perfume maker,
the maker of mechanical toys, the man who can easily make the millstone turn, ...
the goldsmith, the expert in precious stones. One after another they came to show
him their specialty: one, a cup of precious transparent glass; ... another, a shell,
or a little coin (assarion), or even a silver blackbird or a golden warbler emitting
their own songs by means of mechanical breath; another, a round pomander stud-
ded with gold; another, a diamond, a ruby, or a carbuncle; another, pearls....
And these curiosities charmed him, some by their beauty, others by their form,
others by their mechanism. After these people some astrologers and soothsayers
arrived.... ."37
Throughout this passage Psellos implies that Keroularios's interest in these ob-
jects is unhealthy. Perfumes, for example, were known to be connected with the
practice of magic,38 as were the properties of gemstones.39 Transparent cups and
bowls could play a role in the practice of lecanomancy, that is, the forecasting of
34 Philip Grierson and Melinda Mays, Catalogue of Late Roman Coins in the Dumbarton Oaks
Collection and in the Whittemore Collection (Washington, D.C., 1992), pl. 14, nos. 374-76.
35 Grierson, Catalogue of Byzantine Coins, 2/2:649-50, pl. 43.2. This solution was suggested to me
by Philip Grierson.
36 See the remarks of John Duffy, "Reactions of Two Byzantine Intellectuals to the Theory and
Practice of Magic: Michael Psellos and Michael Italikos," in Byzantine Magic (see above, n. 8), pp.
83-97, esp. pp. 91-95.
37 Oratio forensis I, lines 2642-58, ed. George T. Dennis (Stuttgart and Leipzig, 1994), pp. 96-97;
French translation in Joseph Bidez, Catalogue des manuscrits alchimiques grecs (Brussels, 1928), 6:77.
38 Duffy, "Reactions of Two Byzantine Intellectuals," esp. pp. 85, 89-90.
39 Ibid., p. 85; R. P. H. Greenfield, Traditions of Belief in Late Byzantine Demonology (Amsterdam,
1988), pp. 283-85.
the future from vessels filled with liquids of various kinds,40 while causing mill-
stones to revolve of their own accord (and in a reverse direction) was another
magical trick.41 The suspicious nature of the patriarch's interests is confirmed by
Psellos when he proceeds to introduce a second group of visitors at Keroularios's
doors, who are outright astrologers and diviners. Psellos scores a further point off
Keroularios by going on to claim that the patriarch was not even learned in his
occult interests; that is, he did not consult ancient authors, such as Porphyry on
the Chaldaean oracles, but instead patronized unlettered foreign charlatans from
Illyria and Persia. We see from this passage that even in the mind of a highly
sophisticated Byzantine such as Psellos, the ideas of beauty, curiosity, artifice, and
the occult were connected. It is in this context, then, of exotica and magic that
Psellos introduces the "little coin" as one of the objects brought to the patriarch
for his attention.
The letter of Michael Italikos and the denunciation of Psellos bear witness to
the fascination exerted by coins at the highest levels of Byzantine society. But
humbler people, also, could capture a coin's special powers, as is demonstrated
by a circular amulet, cast in lead, which shows on one side a motif of seven
radiating serpents and on the other a standing emperor dressed in a crown and a
loros, a portrait type appearing on Byzantine coins from the eleventh century
onwards (Fig. 14).42 The beaded border around the amulet increases the resem-
blance to coins. This amulet belongs to a group of such circular pendants, loosely
dated from the tenth to the twelfth centuries, all of which show the motif of a
face surrounded by radiating serpents. Most of these pendants are inscribed with
essentially the same formula, which indicates clearly that they were devices to
ensure the health of the womb. The usual form of the formula reads in its entirety:
"'YaCrpa gLtsLavTrl LtavotiCVrl dOS 6Op91t sit6scat Kai d( 6SpaKov cupifrlsc Kcal
dO)S gov ppuax& alt ai OSd apviov KOrgou" ("Womb, black, blackening, as a snake
you coil and as a serpent you hiss and as a lion you roar, and as a lamb, go to
sleep!").43
Another case in which a coin type may have been cast in a protective role is
provided by the seals of an official named Staurakios, who probably lived in the
tenth century.44 These lead seals, which reproduce with striking accuracy late Ro-
40 A. Delatte, Anecdota Atheniensia, 1: Textes grecs inedits relatifs a l'histoire des religions (Liege,
1927), pp. 469, 480, 494-95, 504, 588, 594-96; Greenfield, Traditions of Belief in Late Byzantine
Demonology, pp. 294-97; Henry Maguire, "'Feathers Signify Power': The Iconography of Byzantine
Ceramics from Serres," Oi Serres kai e perioche tous (Serres, forthcoming).
41 Aron Gurevich, Medieval Popular Culture: Problems of Belief and Perception, trans. Janos M.
Bak and Paul A. Hollingsworth (Cambridge, Eng., 1990), p. 89.
42 Jeffrey Spier, "Medieval Byzantine Amulets and Their Tradition," Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes 56 (1993), 25-62, esp. p. 55, no. 30, pl. 2e. For numismatic parallels see, for
example, Philip Grierson, Catalogue of Byzantine Coins, 3/2, pls. 57.3 (Romanos III), 62.2 (Michael
VI), 63.1 (Constantine X), and 69.2-5 (Nikephoros III).
43 Spier, "Byzantine Amulets," pp. 27-33.
44 Gustave Schlumberger, Sigillographie de l'empire byzantin (Paris, 1884), p. 451, no. 12; A. V.
Bank, Byzantine Art in the Collections of the USSR (Leningrad, 1966), p. 363, nos. 178-79; Cyril
Mango, "Storia dell'arte, Seminario 3," in Andre Guillou, ed., La civilta bizantina dal IX all'XI secolo
(Bari, 1978), p. 282, fig. 56; Valentina Sandrovskaja, "Die byzantinischen Bleisiegel als Kunstwerke,"
man coins of the tetrarchic period, have been seen by modern scholars as evidence
of the antiquarian interests of the so-called Macedonian Renaissance.45 But, in
addition, the seal impressions bear witness to a medieval faith in the amuletic
powers of ancient coins. In fact, they bring us close to the mentality revealed in
the accusation by Psellos, in which beauty and curiosity were associated with
hidden power. The seal, which survives in several impressions, bears on its reverse
an inscription reading: "OoT6c6KS p3oi0cs[] CtaupaKIct B[acntlKtc] [Xpoc0o]cyna-
[06aptp] iti cT[Ov] UKItaK[ov] Kcai lti 'T[0v] pappa[pov]" ("O Mother of God, help
Staurakios the Imperial Protospatharios, Manager of the Emperor's Household,
and Head of the Department [?] of the Barbarians"; Fig. 16). The legend tells us,
then, that Staurakios was a high official in the court hierarchy, although he is
otherwise unknown. His tastes are revealed by the obverse of the seal, which
depicts the bust of a man in antique costume facing to the right (Fig. 17). This
portrait was copied closely from an early-fourth-century coin such as the follis of
Maximian issued by Constantius I and Galerius at Ticinum in 305-6 (Fig. 18).46
The Byzantine artist copied both the general form of the bust on the Roman coin
and its details; he showed the wreath with its ties at the back, the V-shaped draping
of the mantle at the neck, the olive sprig held in the emperor's right hand, the staff
or mappa held in the left hand, and even the pointed chin and the geometric cut
of the hair and beard.
This careful reproduction of an antique coin makes an interesting contrast with
other seals belonging to the same official. For example, on the seal illustrated in
Fig. 15, we find on the reverse the same name and the same titles encircling a
monogrammatic cross forming the words "KYPIE BOH®EI TQO ZQ AOYAQ"
("LORD, HELP YOUR SERVANT"). The image on the obverse, however, is not
the ancient numismatic portrait, but an eagle killing a snake.47 This latter motif
was invested with a wide range of meanings in antiquity and the Middle Ages,
both religious and political. In private contexts, however, it was amuletic; already
in the first century A.D. the Roman author Pliny spoke of the supposed apotropaic
powers of gems engraved with eagles.48 Another of the seals of Staurakios depicts
on its obverse a griffin attacking a four-footed animal, another apotropaic sign
(Fig. 19).49 We see, then, that Staurakios employed a range of legends and motifs
on his seals to ensure his personal safety: invocations to Christ and the Virgin,
animal combats, and an ancient coin.
While the medieval amulets and seals that reproduce coins are relatively rare,
imitation coins appear on a number of Byzantine boxes decorated with carved
plaques of ivory and bone, which usually, but not always, depict profane sub-
in Arne Effenberger, ed., Metallkunst von der Spitantike bis zum ausgehenden Mittelalter (Berlin,
1982), p. 54, fig. 11; Kollekcija Muzeja Rank v Ermitaze (St. Petersburg, 1994), p. 183, no. 273, fig.
1 on p. 196.
45 Mango, "Storia dell'arte," p. 282.
46 J. P. C. Kent, Roman Coins (London, 1978), p. 325, no. 597, pl. 154.
47 Schlumberger, Sigillographie de l'empire byzantin, p. 449, no. 3.
48 Naturalis historia 37.124.
49 Schlumberger, Sigillographie de l'empire byzantin, p. 448, no. 2.
jects.50 These "rosette caskets," which are generally dated to the tenth and eleventh
centuries, feature border strips in which circles containing profile heads alternate
with rosettes. Two features suggest that the circles with heads were intended to
represent coins, rather than gems or cameos. First, the form of the heads can be
associated with specific fourth-century issues. On the finest of the surviving boxes,
the tenth-century Veroli Casket in the Victoria and Albert Museum of London,
there are twenty-two virtually identical profile heads on the lid, alternating with
rosettes in the circles of the border (Fig. 20).51 The heads are all shown with their
faces turned upwards and with caplike hair bound by a jeweled diadem that ex-
tends slightly at the back of the neck. The same features can be matched on certain
coins and medallions of Constantine the Great, some of which were minted in
Constantinople after it had been selected as the site of the new imperial capital
(Fig. 21).52 In all likelihood a piece of this type provided the original model for
the ivory carvers, just as a tetrarchic coin served as a model for the creator of the
seal used by Staurakios.53
There is a second reason for believing that the medallion heads on the boxes
were intended to represent coins: in all probability many of these boxes were
themselves used for holding money, and therefore coins would have been an ap-
propriate decoration for them. On two of the surviving boxes the carver actually
portrayed a personification of Ploutos, or Wealth, holding a bag of coins (Figs.
29 and 31).54 Moreover, several of the boxes were given locks; there would have
been no point in providing locks unless the contents of the boxes were not only
valuable but small, and thus relatively inconvenient to count. A lock would not
prevent a determined thief from stealing the whole box, but it could still protect
against petty pilferage of small objects, a theft that might pass unnoticed by the
owner if the contents were of a similar size and shape, such as coins. It may be
noted that on some of the boxes the mechanical protection provided by the locking
mechanism was reinforced by means of appropriate designs, such as carvings of
weapon-wielding warriors (Fig. 22)55 or of snakes set beneath or beside the lock
50 On these boxes, see, in general, Anthony Cutler, "On Byzantine Boxes," Journal of the Walters
Art Gallery 42-43 (1984-85), 32-60.
51 Adolph Goldschmidt and Kurt Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen des X.-XIII.
Jahrhunderts, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1930-34), 1:30-32, no. 21, pl. 9a.
52 C. H. V. Sutherland and R. A. G. Carson, The Roman Imperial Coinage (London, 1966), 7:569,
no. 2, pl. 18.
53 On the other hand, the flesh-colored profile heads in medallions on a Byzantine glass bowl in
Venice may imitate ancient cameos: see Anthony Cutler, "The Mythological Bowl in the Treasury of
San Marco at Venice," in Dickran K. Kouymjian, ed., Near Eastern Numismatics, Iconography, Epig-
raphy and History: Studies in Honor of George C. Miles (Beirut, 1974), pp. 235-54, esp. p. 241.
54 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, 1:49-50, no. 68, pl. 49c
(Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg), 50, no. 69, pl. 50e (Landesmuseum, Darmstadt). See also An-
thony Cutler, The Hand of the Master: Craftsmanship, Ivory, and Society in Byzantium (Princeton,
N.J., 1994), p. 242.
55 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, 1:34, no. 27, pl. 14d (Mu-
seo Archeologico, Cividale), 39-40, no. 41, pl. 23e (Mus6e de Cluny, Paris), 41-42, no. 48, pl. 27b
(Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg).
plate (Fig. 23).56 Such motifs joined the reproductions of ancient coins in protect-
ing and assuring the wealth that was contained inside the boxes.
This use of non-Christian motifs was balanced in some cases by a more pious
message, which sought to tie prosperity to the practice of Christian virtue. Several
of the rosette caskets are decorated with carvings of the story of Adam and Eve,
including their creation, their temptation and fall, their expulsion from Paradise,
and their consequent grief and labor.57 At first sight, it is hard to see why such
subjects should have been particularly favored for the decoration of these boxes,
which were plainly manufactured for secular use. The key is provided by the two
caskets already mentioned, which depict the personification of wealth. One of
these boxes is now in the Landesmuseum at Darmstadt. It begins its telling of the
Genesis story on the back of the casket, with carvings showing Adam and Eve in
Paradise, their temptation and their fall (Fig. 24), and God accusing Adam in the
garden (Fig. 25). The left end of the casket depicts an angel expelling the guilty
pair from Paradise (Fig. 26). The plaques on the front of the box show them sitting
and weeping with their hands held against their heads (Fig. 27) and, afterwards,
Adam working at tilling the ground (Fig. 27), reaping the harvest, and carrying it
home (Fig. 28). The right end of the box has three plaques, two on either side of
the original lock plate, and one beneath it (Fig. 29). The flanking plaques show
an unusual scene of Adam and Eve working together in a forge, with Eve pumping
a pair of bellows and Adam working at an anvil; the appearance of this subject
here increases the likelihood that the objects originally contained in this box were
made of metal. Beneath the lock, in the position occupied by the protective snakes
on other caskets, sits the man labeled "O HAOYTOS," or "WEALTH," with his
bag of money.58
A similar selection of subjects is found on a box preserved in the Hermitage
Museum at St. Petersburg, some of whose plaques are now lost. On the lid we
find the creation of Adam and Eve, while their fall and Adam's labor in the fields
are depicted on the front. The right end once more shows Adam and Eve working
together in the forge (Fig. 30), while the left end depicts the personification of
wealth, again sitting beneath the lock plate and holding a large sack of coins (Fig.
31). This time the lock was flanked by the lamenting figures of Adam and Eve,
who sit naked and holding the palms of their hands against their faces. There is
no doubt that the weeping pair always occupied this position beside the lock on
56 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, 1:44-45, no. 57, pl. 38e
(Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York); Kurt Weitzmann, Catalogue of the Byzantine and Early
Mediaeval Antiquities in the Dumbarton Oaks Collection, 3: Ivories and Steatites (Washington, D.C.,
1972), pp. 49-55, no. 23, pls. 26 and 28d.
57 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, pp. 48-55, nos. 67-93,
pls. 47-55. For a discussion of the narrative strategies employed in the cycles on the boxes, see Areti
Papanastasiou, "Adam and Eve on Middle Byzantine Ivory Boxes," Abstracts of Papers: Eighteenth
Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, 9-11 October 1992, University of Illinois at Urbana-Cham-
paign (Urbana, Ill., 1992), pp. 94-95.
58 Goldschmidt and Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen Elfenbeinskulpturen, 1:50, no. 69, pl. 50.
the box in the Hermitage, because the frame of the left-hand plaque, showing Eve,
makes a jog to accommodate the plate (Fig. 31).59
At first sight this association of Wealth with his bag of money and Adam and
Eve's grief seems puzzling, but it is a typical example of the antithetical, contrary
thinking characteristic of medieval Christianity. Just as the emperor who is humble
will be powerful, so, too, the private citizen who grieves for his or her faults will
be wealthy. The principle had been clearly stated by Byzantine writers who wrote
commentaries on the Book of Genesis, as may be seen from a passage by the sixth-
century author Procopius of Gaza. Procopius explains the seventeenth verse of the
third chapter of Genesis, which gives God's words to Adam after the Fall ("Because
you hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and you ate from the tree from which
I enjoined you not to eat, cursed will be the earth in all your labors"). Referring
to the misfortunes suffered by farmers, Procopius comments, "And this is the
marvel of it. For God, having created the fruits, did not bless them, as he blessed
some of the animals, and man himself. For knowing the forthcoming sin [of man],
he kept the possibility of punishment through them [i.e., through the fruits]. For
when they are sinning, the fruits dry up, but when they are atoning for their
trespasses through their remorse, the fruits are abundant."60 There was, then, an
equation, in which grief and repentance were balanced by an assurance of plenty.
This is the message of the antithetical scenes of grieving and productivity upon
the caskets. The scenes of Adam and Eve on the sides and lids of these boxes,
therefore, had the same purpose as the reproductions of ancient coins in the mar-
gins of other rosette caskets, namely, the protection of wealth. There was, how-
ever, a difference in the means to that end, for whereas the Genesis scenes called
for a penance that was truly Christian, the medallion heads invoked the magical
properties of ancient coins, which were marginal in more senses than one.
In general, coins and their imitations did not find their way into the official art
of the Byzantine church.61 We discover them only in secular contexts, in the cor-
respondence and personal seals of officials, on amulets, and on boxes intended
for private use. In western Europe, however, the situation was different, for coins
and imitation coins were incorporated into sacred metalwork and into the deco-
ration of luxurious ecclesiastical manuscripts, especially during the Carolingian
and Ottonian periods. Among the objects from the church treasuries may be noted
the reliquary of St. Andrew's sandal in Trier, a late-tenth-century work that in-
corporated an older, probably Anglo-Saxon, brooch framing a gold solidus of
59 Ibid., pp. 49-50, no. 68, pls. 48-49.

60 Commentarii in Genesim 3.17, PG 87/1:213B-C.
61 A possible exception might be the circular icons that were depicted in the marginal Psalters, whose
resemblance to coins has been stressed by Marc Shell, Art and Money (Chicago, 1995), pp. 12-14.
Imitation coins should be distinguished from masks, which appear with some frequency in Byzantine
religious art, usually as fictive relief sculptures on painted buildings or as embossed decorations on the
armor of warrior-saints. Here, too, the force of the motif may have been apotropaic. See Doula Mou-
riki, "The Mask Motif in the Wall Paintings of Mistra," Deltion tes Christianikes Archaiologikes
Hetaireias 10 (1980-81), 307-38. For profile heads in fictive relief sculpture, see also St. M. Pele-
kanidis, Oi Thesauroi tou Agiou Orous (Athens, 1975), 2, figs. 333 and 336 (Esphigmenou, MS 14,
fols. 136v and 294v). I thank Dr. Nancy Sevcenko for these references.
Justinian I.62 Another Western product of the late ninth or early tenth century, the
cover of a Gospel book from Morienval now in the cathedral of Noyon, was
originally decorated with gold coins of Charlemagne and Lothar I, in a compo-
sition that also included ivory plaques depicting the Traditio legis and the symbols
of the four evangelists.63
In the West coins also appeared in painted form, adorning the inside pages of
manuscripts. The school of illuminators associated with the Monastery of St. Mar-
tin at Tours at the middle of the ninth century showed a particular fondness for
ornaments that imitated precious coins. In the Tours manuscripts the "coins" ap-
pear in various contexts, suggesting differing shades of significance. For example,
a Gospel book now in Berlin, which was made at Tours between 844 and 851,
features small golden circles enclosing profile heads, both with and without in-
scriptions. The first page of St. Matthew's Gospel frames the opening of the text
with four such circles, two of which contain inscriptions identifying the "coins"
as those of King David, "DAVID REX IMPERATOR AG" and "DAVID IMPERA-
TOR AGUSTUS +" (Fig. 32).64 The coins thus refer to the first words of the
Gospel: "The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David...." An-
other Gospel book from Tours containing imitation money is the Lothar Gospels,
made for Emperor Lothar between 849 and 851. In this manuscript the first page
of St. John's Gospel, starting with the words "In principio erat verbum ... .," is
decorated with four small circles, two of which contain Christograms (Fig. 33).65
These "coins" can be seen both as references to Christ the Logos and as imitations
of the coins of mid-fourth-century Roman emperors, which, as shown above,
featured large Christograms on their reverse sides (Fig. 1). In a third Tours manu-
script, the Bible made at the behest of the abbot of St. Martin, Count Vivian, for
presentation to Charles the Bald, the "coins" assume a political significance. On
the opening two folios of the manuscript there is a long poem, which, among
other statements, compares Charles to the Old Testament King David and con-
cludes with wishes for his "prosperity without end."66 This poem is accompanied,
on the reverse of the first folio, by two medallion portraits set one above the other,
the upper one inscribed "DAVID REX IMPERATOR" and the lower one "KA-
ROLUS REX FRANCO[RUM]" (Fig. 34).67
62 Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen, Die Goldschmiedearbeiten der Trierer Egbertwerkstatt, Tri-

erer Zeitschrift, Beiheft zum 36. Jahrgang (Trier, 1973), esp. p. 26, fig. 5; Miinzen in Brauch und
Aberglauben (above, n. 27), p. 125, fig. 31.
63 Frauke Steenbock, Der kirchliche Prachteinband im friihen Mittelalter (Berlin, 1965), pp. 114-
15, no. 37, pl. 55; Miinzen in Brauch und Aberglauben (above, n. 27), pp. 124-25, fig. 30.
64 Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, MS theol. lat. fol. 733, fol. 23v; Wilhelm K6hler, Die karolingischen
Miniaturen, 1: Die Schule von Tours (Berlin, 1930), p. 403, pl. 96c. The other two "coins" on this
page are without inscriptions. Similar circular ornaments containing profiles decorate the title page
before St. Mark's Gospel but here also without inscriptions; ibid., pl. 96d (fol. 80r).
65 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 266, fol. 172r; K6hler, Die karolingischen Mini-
aturen, p. 405, pl. 103b.
66 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 1, fols. lr-2v; text in MGH Poet 3:243-48.
67 K6hler, Die karolingischen Miniaturen, 1:397, fig. 77a; see Herbert L. Kessler, "A Lay Abbot as
Patron: Count Vivian and the First Bible of Charles the Bald," in Committenti e produzione artistico-
letteraria nell'alto medioevo occidentale, Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto
Medioevo 39 (Spoleto, 1992), pp. 647-79, esp. p. 663, fig. 22.
The most richly moneyed of the manuscripts from Tours is a sacramentary made
in 844-45 and now in the municipal library at Autun. This manuscript, which
was produced for Abbot Raganaldus of Marmoutier, is studded with gold and
silver circles containing both profile and frontal heads. Some of the heads are
unidentified, but many are accompanied by legends. From the inscriptions we
discover that the "coins" portray personages as diverse as the four evangelists, the
apostles Peter and Paul, the saints Cosmas and Damian, and the prophets Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel, as well as personifications of the sun, the moon,
and the winds.68 Clearly in this manuscript the imitation coins have been largely
Christianized, but that does not necessarily mean that they have lost their apotro-
paic force. In this regard, the Bamberg Bible, another manuscript from Tours, is
interesting. On folio 7 verso is a full-page illumination depicting scenes from the
Book of Genesis, which were originally surrounded by fourteen circular orna-
ments, evidently containing heads (Fig. 35).69 But at some point nine of these
circles were carefully snipped out from the border, an operation that would have
made little sense unless these "coins" were being taken for use as amulets.70
The practice of decorating religious manuscripts with imitation coins was re-
vived in the Ottonian period by artists who were influenced by the Carolingian
books from Tours.71 A well-known example is the title page to Matthew's Gospel
in the Ste.-Chapelle Gospels, a manuscript painted by the Gregory Master, perhaps
in 984. The illuminated border framing the letters on this page contains four
golden "coins" with profile busts, two of which bear the legends "OTTO IM-
PERATOR AUGUSTUS ROMANORUM" and "OTTO IUNIOR IMPERATOR
AUGUST(U)S," respectively, and two the same inscription, "HEINRIC
FRANCORUM" (Fig. 36).72 As in the case of the Vivian Bible, the coi
evidently bear a political meaning. The precise identifications of the ruler
ever, have been debated; according to one suggestion, "Heinricus rex Fr
may refer to Henry the Quarreler, duke of Bavaria, a pretender to the th
was supported by Archbishop Egbert of Trier, the patron of the man
artist.73
While these coins depict contemporary rulers, another Ottonian b
Golden Gospels now in Nuremberg, reproduces the money of long-d
68 Autun, Bibliotheque municipale, MS 19bis; K6hler, Die karolingischen Miniaturen

pls. 61-68. I am grateful to Cynthia Hahn for bringing this manuscript to my attention.
69 Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek, MS bibl. 1 [A.I.5], fol. 7v; K6hler, Die karolingischen Mini
389-91, pl. 56a.
70 The explanation cannot be simple censorship, since five of the heads were allowed to remain. On
the phenomenon of books themselves being treated as amulets, see Jean Vezin, "Les livres utilises
comme amulettes et comme reliques," in Peter Ganz, ed., Das Buch als magisches und als Reprdsen-
tationsobjekt (Wiesbaden, 1992), pp. 101-15.
71 See Miinzen in Brauch und Aberglauben, pp. 146-49, figs. 4, 39-40.
72 Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 8851, fol. 16r. The page is reproduced in color
in Henry Mayr-Harting, Ottonian Book Illumination, 2 vols. (London, 1991), 2, pl. 17.
73 Carl Nordenfalk, "The Chronology of the Registrum Master," in Artur Rosenauer and Gerold
Weber, eds., Kunsthistorische Forschungen: Otto Pdcht zu seinem 70. Geburtstag (Salzburg, 1972),
pp. 62-76, esp. pp. 66-67; see also, however, Percy Ernst Schramm, Die deutschen Kaiser und Konige
in Bildern ihrer Zeit, 751-1190, 2nd ed. (Munich, 1983), pp. 198, 215, pl. 121.
1. Christogram. Bronze coin of Constantius II from mint of
Trier (reverse). London, British Museum. (See n. 76 for
illustration credits.)
2. Gold pseudomedallion of Alexander the Great. Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery.
_ . '1
-
i wl,
^ X .~~~~~~~~~
£
I \
3. Gold pseudomedallion in a wreath: obverse (left);

reverse (right). Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France,
Cabinet des Medailles.
4 (top). Gold pectoral with coins and pseudom
Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kult
Antikensammlung.
5 (left). Gold bracteate from Hov with portrai

Trondheim, Norwegian University of Science
Technology, Museum of Natural History and
6 (right). Gold bracteate from Lyngby. Copenh

Nationalmuseet.
I -.- ' .
` .0,· -el
Ik.''^^^
C;
U
0
0
a)
cn
-oZ
x
0
U
0
4-o
m
a,
0
-
a,
-w a0
1<
4-o
it...... ilw -,w

m
u
0
ar
4-
0
m
0
-0
r.
z
1-2
4-
u
IT
8. Gold encolpion composed of pseudocoins and pseudo-
medallion. St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum.
9 (top). Silk ornament from a tunic. New Haven, Yale University Art
Gallery.
10 (bottom). Silk sleeve band from the same tunic with personifications of
the earth surrounded by the ocean.
11. Earth surrounded by pseudocoins and crosses. Pressed gold medallion.
Richmond, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
12. Gold coin of Theodosius II 13. Gold coin of the second reign of
from mint at Constantinople. Justinian II from mint at
Obverse (left): Theodosius II; Constantinople. Obverse (left): Christ;
reverse (right): Theodosius II and reverse (right): Justinian II and
Valentinian III. Washington, Tiberius. Washington, D.C.,
D.C., Dumbarton Oaks. Dumbarton Oaks.
14. Lead amulet: radiating serpents and an emperor.
15. Lead seal of Staurakios: eagle and snake; monogrammatic cross.
16 (top) and 17 (bottom). Lead seal of Staurakios: inscription on
reverse (top); imitation coin on obverse (bottom). St. Petersburg,
Hermitage Museum.
18. Billon coin of Maximian, issued by Constantius I and Galerius at Ticinum.
19. Lead seal of Staurakios: griffin and prey; monogrammatic cross.
20 (above). Lid of the Veroli Casket: border of coins. London,
Victoria and Albert Museum.
t- :":. . 47;^ , 21 (left). Gold coin of Constantine from mint of

Constantinople (obverse). Washington, D.C.,
Dumbarton Oaks.
22 (right). Left end of a rosette casket:

lock defended by warriors. Paris,
Musee de Cluny.
t, , . :-·s si·
i: 4 :1!
..... f -x
SJ C
.:# ' '""' '-" -
9.-^, / «f^ ^ ^ *
· ?i' .':' " .,,,

; *str. ..r... -..x. ..P c . . 7/ '....
"T" .-. *-.- ' :.'~-y...... -a.et
...,__s !'. i~~~~~~~~~.j
L^ ^ :-^=3^~~~~~~~~~~~~.ii~i
D O
i X;
cu -I: ^ CZ
U) . = X
(A,3 = O.
Ce I% U) . C4-
CZ -o -5 U4
4CA
6·ebQ° TO
Ct E
a
W, uw tCZ-
%4- r~
-1 = U
cl:) CZv
24-26. Rosette casket: temptation and fall of Adam and Eve (back, top); God
accusing Adam in the garden (back, middle); Adam and Eve expelled from
Paradise (left end, bottom). Darmstadt, Landesmuseum.
27-29. Rosette casket: Adam and Eve weeping (front, top); Adam works the earth
and brings in the harvest (front, middle); Wealth flanked by Adam and Eve
working in a forge (right end, bottom). Darmstadt, Landesmuseum.
30 (top) and 31 (bottom). Rosette casket: Adam and Eve work in a forge (right end);
Wealth flanked by Adam and Eve weeping (left end). St. Petersburg, Hermitage Museum.
-*
32. First page of St. Matthew's Gospel, with imitation coins of David. Berlin,
Staatsbibliothek, MS theol. lat. fol. 733, fol. 23v.
: NP
p. K:":i"
-ERN N''2
VCR1BUo RA
RAT
V.. R. u-o ~;
CT UE RBU )
( KXT Ap" o
oc) ('eCT o S
U e.I.
·. ,r,:,,,~,,~,,~;,,, ~ _,, .......... , ,...e.....,. ";:' ':,',";'"';~',~;~,' "','"".; ........
33. First page of St. John's Gospel, with imitation coins. Lothar Gospels,
Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 266, fol. 172r.
s
1.
...
A *
M1
34. Dedicatory poem with imitation coins of David and Charles the Bald. Vivian Bible,
Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 1, fol. Iv.
,,
» s9- L* ,/ II-,
t .i~B t! ; "
«&
Ct K
A_ MD.
_ A
A
* Wk~ -
36. Title page of St. Matthew's Gospel, with imitation coins of Otto and Henry. St. Chapelle
Gospels, Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, MS lat. 8851, fol. 16r.
kL n ,,#:,C!H,
..:: i ' ,Rt ' ' ' .7I..
L. AL.ir
y S'i:*;Si': - t¢': .'l:·
r:Q'''t 11 z 77 ii t : ?
37.
Gos
fourth-century emperors. This manuscript was produced in the scriptorium at

Echternach between around 1025 and 1040. It prefaces the Gospel of St. Luke
with three magnificent introductory pages, each of which frames the text with a
rectangular border containing four golden circles with profile heads. On the first
of the pages, the "coins" occupy the corners of the frame, while on the two sub-
sequent pages they mark the centers of each of its sides. The heads on the first
two pages are uninscribed, but on the third page, which contains the opening
words of the Gospel itself, the heads at the top and the bottom of the frame are
surrounded by the inscription "Kt2NC®ANOIN," while that on the right is la-
beled "KQNCeANTIVC" (the left-hand coin has lost its legend; Fig. 37).74 The
use of this somewhat garbled Greek to evoke the names of Constantine and Con-
stantius in a Latin manuscript brings to mind the fascination of the Byzantine
writer Michael Italikos with the Latin characters surrounding his supposed coin
of Constantine and Helena. The mysterious writing, whether it was Latin to a
Byzantine or Greek to a Westerner, served to enhance the object's exotic qualities
in the eye of the beholder.
In the preceding pages we have seen that during the late-antique period coins and
imitation coins were frequently invested with extramonetary powers, which en-
abled them to confer protection upon their owners or wearers by supernatural
means. The use of coins in this fashion was condemned by the church father John
Chrysostom but still survived into the Middle Ages in the secular arts of Byzan-
tium. However, texts of the eleventh and twelfth centuries demonstrate that the
amuletic use of coins continued to cause a certain unease to the Byzantines. In the
West, on the other hand, imitation coins were accepted more readily into the
religious art of the Carolingians and the Ottonians, particularly into the decora-
tion of biblical and liturgical manuscripts. Although the coins in the manuscripts
were sometimes Christianized by inscriptions identifying them as portraits of var-
ious biblical figures, it is plain that their ancestry lay in the secular use of ancient
coins as amulets. It may be significant that the Monastery of St. Martin at Tours
was governed by lay abbots when imitation coins first appeared in its manuscripts.
These abbots had formerly been high officials at court, and they continued to
maintain their secular interests and activities outside of the monastery during their
periods of office. Adalhard, who was abbot from 834 until 843, had been the
seneschal of Louis the Pious, and Vivian, who held the post at Tours from 843
until his death on the battlefield in 851, had been a chamberlain of Charles the
Bald.75
While the numismatic ornaments in the Carolingian and Ottonian manuscripts
74 Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, MS 156142/KG 1138, fols. 79r, 79v, 80r; Peter
Metz, Das Goldene Evangelienbuch von Echternach im Germanischen National-Museum zu Niirnberg
(Munich, 1956), pp. 67, 110, n. 92, pls. 72-74.
75 K6hler, Die karolingischen Miniaturen, 1:21-28.
may well have retained their amuletic force, if we follow the definition given at
the beginning of this paper, they cannot properly be described as magic. Since
these books were being commissioned and used by people of high status, whose
rank enabled them, in effect, to define what magic was, their decoration was
perfectly orthodox. Like the bells on the costumes of the popes and the Ottonian
rulers, these Roman coins had become honored prerogatives of authority.76
76 Credits for the illustrations in this article are as follows: British Museum: 1; Walters Art Gallery:
2; Bibliotheque nationale de France: 3, 33, 34, 36; Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Preussischer Kultur-
besitz (photograph by Isolde Luckert): 4; Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Museum
of Natural History and Technology: 5; Nationalmuseet, Copenhagen: 6; Elica Maneva, "Casque a
fermoir d'Heraclee," Archaeologia lugoslavica 24 (1987), 101-11, fig. 3: 7; A. V. Bank, Byzantine
Art in the Collections of the USSR (Leningrad, 1966): 8 (pl. 102), 16 (pl. 179); Yale University Art
Gallery: 9, 10; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Adolph D. and Wilkins C. Williams Fund (photo-
graph by Ron Jennings): 11; Dumbarton Oaks, Trustees for Harvard University: 12, 13, 21, 23, 30,
31; Jeffrey Spier, "Medieval Byzantine Magical Amulets and Their Tradition," Journal of the Warburg
and Courtauld Institutes 56 (1993), pl. 2e (private collection): 14; Gustave Schlumberger, Sigillogra-
phie de l'empire byzantin (Paris, 1884): 15 (no. 449), 19 (no. 448); Kollekcija Museja Rank v Ermitaze
(St. Petersburg, 1994), p. 196, fig. 1: 17; J. P. C. Kent, Roman Coins (London, 1978), pl. 154, no. 597:
18; Victoria and Albert Museum: 20; Reunion des Musees Nationaux: 22; Giraudon/Art Resource,
New York: 24-29; Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, Preussischer Kulturbesitz: 32; Staatsbibliothek Bamberg:
35; Peter Metz, Das Goldene Evangelienbuch von Echternach im Germanischen National-Museum
zu Niirnberg (Munich, 1956), pl. 74: 37.
Henry Maguire is Professor of Art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

Champaign, IL 61820.

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Magic and Money in the Early Middle Ages

Author(s): Henry Maguire

Speculum 72 (1997) 1037

23 Weitzmann, Age of Spirituality, pp. 72-74, no. 62.

27 Miinzen in Brauch und Aberglauben, exhibition catalogue, Germanisches Nationalmuseum,

in military costume (interpreted as "Christ" in "Roman" guise; Fig. 12).34 Another

59 Ibid., pp. 49-50, no. 68, pls. 48-49.

62 Hiltrud Westermann-Angerhausen, Die Goldschmiedearbeiten der Trierer Egbertwerkstatt, Tri-

68 Autun, Bibliotheque municipale, MS 19bis; K6hler, Die karolingischen Miniaturen

2. Gold pseudomedallion of Alexander the Great. Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery.

3. Gold pseudomedallion in a wreath: obverse (left);

5 (left). Gold bracteate from Hov with portrai

6 (right). Gold bracteate from Lyngby. Copenh

it...... ilw -,w

15. Lead seal of Staurakios: eagle and snake; monogrammatic cross.

19. Lead seal of Staurakios: griffin and prey; monogrammatic cross.

t- :":. . 47;^ , 21 (left). Gold coin of Constantine from mint of

22 (right). Left end of a rosette casket:

.:# ' '""' '-" -

· ?i' .':' " .,,,

·. ,r,:,,,~,,~,,~;,,, ~ _,, .......... , ,...e.....,. ";:' ':,',";'"';~',~;~,' "','"".; ........

y S'i:*;Si': - t¢': .'l:·

fourth-century emperors. This manuscript was produced in the scriptorium at

Henry Maguire is Professor of Art at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign,

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