Magical Treasure Hunting in Europe and North America: A History PDF
Preview Magical Treasure Hunting in Europe and North America: A History
Magical Treasure Hunting in Europe and North America PalgraveHistoricalStudiesinWitchcraftandMagic SeriesEditors:JonathanBarry,WillemdeBlécourtandOwenDavies Titlesinclude: EdwardBever THE REALITIES OF WITCHCRAFT AND POPULAR MAGIC IN EARLY MODERN EUROPE Culture,CognitionandEverydayLife AlisonButler VICTORIANOCCULTISMANDTHEMAKINGOFMODERNMAGIC InvokingTradition Dillinger,Johannes MAGICALTREASUREHUNTINGINEUROPEANDNORTHAMERICA AHistory JulianGoodare,LaurenMartinandJoyceMiller(editors) WITCHCRAFTANDBELIEFINEARLYMODERNSCOTLAND JonathanRoper(editor) CHARMS,CHARMERSANDCHARMING AlisonRowlands(editor) WITCHCRAFTANDMASCULINITIESINEARLYMODERNEUROPE RolfSchulte MANASWITCH MaleWitchesinCentralEurope LauraPatriciaStokes DEMONSOFURBANREFORM EarlyEuropeanWitchTrialsandCriminalJustice,1430–1530 Forthcoming: Barry,Jonathan WITCHCRAFTANDDEMONOLOGYINSOUTH-WESTENGLAND,1640–1800 PalgraveHistoricalStudiesinWitchcraftandMagic SeriesStandingOrderISBN978–1403–99566–7Hardback978–1403–99567–4 Paperback (outsideNorthAmericaonly) You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order. Please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to usattheaddressbelowwithyournameandaddress,thetitleoftheseriesand theISBNquotedabove. Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd, Houndmills, Basingstoke,HampshireRG216XS,England Magical Treasure Hunting in Europe and North America A History Johannes Dillinger SeniorLecturer,OxfordBrookesUniversity,UKandMainzUniversity,Germany ©JohannesDillinger2012 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012 978-0-230-00004-9 Allrightsreserved.Noreproduction,copyortransmissionofthis publicationmaybemadewithoutwrittenpermission. Noportionofthispublicationmaybereproduced,copiedortransmitted savewithwrittenpermissionorinaccordancewiththeprovisionsofthe Copyright,DesignsandPatentsAct1988,orunderthetermsofanylicence permittinglimitedcopyingissuedbytheCopyrightLicensingAgency, SaffronHouse,6-10KirbyStreet,LondonEC1N8TS. Anypersonwhodoesanyunauthorizedactinrelationtothispublication maybeliabletocriminalprosecutionandcivilclaimsfordamages. Theauthorhasassertedhisrighttobeidentified astheauthorofthisworkinaccordancewiththeCopyright, DesignsandPatentsAct1988. Firstpublished2012by PALGRAVEMACMILLAN PalgraveMacmillanintheUKisanimprintofMacmillanPublishersLimited, registeredinEngland,companynumber785998,ofHoundmills,Basingstoke, HampshireRG216XS. PalgraveMacmillanintheUSisadivisionofStMartin’sPressLLC, 175FifthAvenue,NewYork,NY10010. PalgraveMacmillanistheglobalacademicimprintoftheabovecompanies andhascompaniesandrepresentativesthroughouttheworld. Palgrave®andMacmillan®areregisteredtrademarksintheUnitedStates, theUnitedKingdom,Europeandothercountries. ISBN 978-1-349-27945-6 ISBN 978-0-230-35331-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9780230353312 Thisbookisprintedonpapersuitableforrecyclingandmadefromfully managedandsustainedforestsources.Logging,pulpingandmanufacturing processesareexpectedtoconformtotheenvironmentalregulationsofthe countryoforigin. AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Dillinger,Johannes. MagicaltreasurehuntinginEuropeandNorthAmerica:ahistory/ JohannesDillinger. p. cm. Includesindex. 1. Treasuretroves—Europe—History. 2. Treasuretroves—North America—History. I. Title. G525.D4782011 622(cid:2).19094—dc23 2011029565 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 Contents ListofIllustrations vi AbbreviationsandAcronyms vii Introduction:TreasuresandMagic 1 1 TheTreasureinLawandEarlyArchaeology 9 2 MedievalTreasureLore 28 3 TheMagicalTreasureandItsGuardians 53 4 TreasureHunters’Magic 85 5 TheAuthorities’AttitudeTowardsTreasureHunting 114 6 TheSocialBackgroundofTreasureHunters 147 7 TreasureHuntsintheNineteenthandTwentiethCenturies 175 8 TheSignificanceofTreasureHunting:PastandPresent 190 Conclusion 204 Notes 209 Sources 234 Index 246 v List of Illustrations 1 AVenetiansignsupposedtoindicateagoldmine,probably sixteenthcentury 82 2 Magicalcharactersusedtofindtreasuretrovesfrom ReginaldScot’sTheDiscoverieofWitchcraft 97 vi Abbreviations and Acronyms cf. seealso HRG A.ErlerandE.Kaufmann(1971–1998)(eds) HandwörterbuchzurdeutschenRechtsgeschichte,5vols. (Berlin:Schmidt) HDA H.Bächtold-StäubliandE.Hoffmann-Krayer(1987) (eds)HandwörterbuchdesdeutschenAberglaubens,10 vols.(Berlin:DeGruyter1927–1942,reprintedBerlin: DeGruyter) HHSTAW HessischesHauptstaatsarchivWiesbaden HSTAD HessischesStaatsarchivDarmstadt HSTAST HauptstaatsarchivStuttgart GLAK GenerallandesarchivKarlsruhe LASH LandesarchivSchleswig-Holstein,Schleswig LHAKO LandeshauptarchivKoblenz TNA TheNationalArchivesofLondon STAA StaatsarchivAugsburg STAW StaatsarchivWertheim TLAI TirolerLandesarchivInnsbruck n.d. dateofpublicationnotgiven n.p. nopagenumbers n.p.p. placeofpublicationnotgiven n.n. nameofpublishernotgiven p. page pp. pages vol. volume vii Introduction: Treasures and Magic If we pursue and bring to good passe this labour, it shall live upon our tombes (so that wee bury no treasure with us, and therefore be digg’dupagaine). (WilliamRowley:ASearchforMoney,1609) Treasures were magical. Until the nineteenth century, buried treasures wereshroudedwithintricatewebsofnarratives.Mostofthesenarratives had magical elements. Vestiges of that treasure magic have survived. In the summer of 2009, while I worked on this book, the spectacular discovery of an Anglo-Saxon treasure in Staffordshire made headlines. Metal detector enthusiast Terry Herbert, who had searched for treasure troves in vain for years, unearthed about 1500 gold and silver objects dating back to the seventh century. In an interview, Herbert told the press: IhavethisphrasethatIsaysometimes–‘spiritsofyesteryeartakeme where the coins appear’ – but on that day I changed coins to gold. [...] I don’t know why I said it that day, but I think somebody was listening and directed me to it. [...] I was going to bed and in my sleepIwasseeinggolditems.1 Herbert’s half-joking remarks bear witness to old ideas of magical trea- surehunting.ItwascommonknowledgeinOldEuropeanculture,that is,thecultureofBritainandtheContinentbeforetheonsetoftheIndus- trialRevolutionthatspiritsguardedtreasuresandsometimesgavetheir riches to men. Some treasure seekers had visions in their dreams that helpedthemtofindwhattheywerelookingfor.Otherstriedtodivine 1 2 MagicalTreasureHunting where treasures were buried. All these beliefs and practices belonged to the large and complex field of magical treasure hunting. It is the purposeofthisbooktoexamineanddiscussthemagicoftreasurehunt- ing in Britain, Europe and North America from the Middle Ages to the twentiethcentury. Before we begin our discussion of the magic of treasure hunting, we needtodefinetheterms‘treasure’and‘magic’. The English word ‘treasure’ and its equivalents (Latin thesaurus, French trésor, GermanSchatz ) have a variety of meanings or, rather, they have been used as metaphors so extensively that they no longer signifyanythingspecific.‘Treasure’doesnotnecessarilyrefertoamate- rialobjectoranobjectivequality.‘Treasure’isatermofendearmentas well as a word used for the financial resources of a country. It would be foolish to base bibliographical work on the use of the word ‘trea- sure’.Inbooktitles,‘treasure’anditsequivalentsfromotherlanguages may refer to a meditation or sermon (e.g. John White’s ‘The Gospel Treasure...’), historical documents (e.g. Ghislain Brunel’s ‘Trésor des ChartesdesRoisdeFrance’),philosophicalmaxims(e.g.WilliamPyke’s Conduct and Duty, a Treasure-Book...), poems (e.g. Hugh MacDiarmid’s Golden Treasury of Scottish Poetry) or entertaining and uplifting stories (e.g. Johann Peter Hebbel’s Schatzkästlein des rheinischen Hausfreundes – ‘Small Treasure Chest of the Good Friend from the Rhineland’). The Latin thesaurus is most often used in the titles of dictionaries. Any- thing–andevenanyone–regardedasvaluableordearmaybecalleda ‘treasure’. Definitions of treasure and treasure trove used in the early modern periodmightbemorehelpfultodefinetreasure.Chambers’Cyclopaedia, published in 1728 and thus one of the oldest encyclopedias, defined treasurematter-of-factlyasa‘storeofmoneyinreserve’.TheCyclopaedia distinguishedtreasurefromtreasuretrove,whichwas‘anyMoney,Gold, Silver,Plate,orBullion,...foundinanyPlace,andnoneknowstowhom it belongs’. The Cyclopaedia gave a short survey of treasure trove in BritishandContinentalEuropeanlaw.2 TheEncyclopédieofDiderotandd’Alembert,akeyworkoftheEnlight- enment,seemstohaveechoedChamberswhenitgaveitsdefinitionof treasureas‘unamasderichessesmisesenreserve’.Themagicoftreasure hunting played no role in the Encyclopédie’s article on treasures, but it referred briefly to treasure hunting as just another form of ceremonial magic.3 AlittlemoretalkativewastheencyclopediapublishedbytheGerman Zedlerbetween1734and1751.Zedler’s64-volumeUniversal-Lexiconwas
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