Philologie und Erkenntnis
Beitrage zu Begriff und Problemfruhneuzeitlicher >Philologie<
Herausgegeben von Ralph Hafner
Max Niemeyer VerlagTubingen 2001
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ere
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rk.
Orig
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spel
ling
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erve
dth
roug
hout
.Ja
cob
Bern
ays:
»Die
Gottc
sftlrc
htig
enbe
iJu
vcna
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Comm
enta
tione
sph
ilolog
aein
hono
rem
Theo
dori
Mom
mse
nisc
ripse
runt
amici
(Ber
lin,
1877
),pp
.563
-69,
repr
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71-8
0.1wi
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nyGr
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rosit
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prov
iding
thisr
eferen
ce.
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ologo
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riam
multi
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mquc
inve
terum
libris
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ition
emve
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58 Peter N. Miller
teenth and seventeenth centuries and often remains, as Bernays observed, thepoint of reference for modern scholarship inavariety of fields.3
Rigault, Selden, Aleandro, and their many friends had no >scholarly litera-ture< to fall back upon for answers to basic questions of dating, provenance, andstyle. They often had littlemore to work with than the ancient texts and objectsthemselves. >Comparison< helped them establish secure knowledge in this sea ofuncertainty. Laterin the century, the English antiquary, John Aubrey, wrote that»by comparing those that I have seen one with another, and reducing them to akind of Aequation« he was able »to make the stones give evidence for themselves^ This was especially necessary when dealing with antiquities that werenot discussed in books - such as Stonehenge. »This inquiry«, in Aubery's words,»I must confess is a groping in the dark [...] These antiquities are so exceedingold, that no books do reach them: so that there is no way to retrieve them but bycomparative antiquity, which I have writ upon the spot, from the monumentsthemselves, Historia quoque modo scripta bona est«.* Because of its open-endedness - what could not be compared with something else? - comparisonwas a perfect tool for an age whose horizons were constantly being expanded,outwards in space as well as backwards in time.5 For travellers to new worldswho described their encounter with the unfamiliar in familiar terms were also
demonstrating how inevitable wasthe recourse to comparison.6
3 The classic work on the subject is Arnaldo Momigliano: »Ancient History and the Antiquarian^ in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes XIII (1950), pp. 285-315;»L'eredita della filologia antica e il metodo storico«, in: Secondo Contribute alia Storiadegli Studi Classici, (Rome, I960), pp.463-80. More recently there has been an intensification of interest from scholars in different fields. See Ancient History and the Antiquarian:Essays in MemoryofArnaldo Momigliano, eds. M. H. Crawford andC. R. Ligota(London,1995); AnthonyGrafton: Defenders of theText: The Traditions of Scholarship in an Age ofScience 1450-1800 (Cambridge, MA, 1991); idem.: Joseph Scaliger. A Study in theHistory of Classical Scholarship, (Oxford, 1983, 1993), 2 vols; Bruno Neveu: Erudition etreligion aux XVIIC ct XVIIIe siecles (Paris, 1994); Francis Haskell: History and its Images:Art and the interpretation of the past (New Haven and London, 1993); Alain Schnapp: LaConquSte du passe\ Aux origines de I'archdologie, (Paris, 1993); Krzysztof Pomian:Collectionneurs, amateurs et curieux. Paris-Venise, XVT-XVIIf siecle, (Paris, 1987;StuartPigott: Ruins in a Landscape. Essays in Antiquarianism (Edinburgh, 1976); Cassiano dalPozzo. Atti del Seminario Internazionale di Studi. Napoli, 18-19 dicembre 1987, ed.Francesco Solinas, (Rome, 1987);and Ingo Herklotz: »Das Museo Cartaceo des Cassianodal Pozzound seine Stellungin der Antiquarischen Wissenschaft des 17.Jahrhunderts«, in:Documentary Culture. Florence and Rome from Grand-Duke Ferdinand I to PopeAlexander VII, eds. E. Cropper, G. Perini, F. Solinas (Bologna, 1992), pp.81-125.
4 Monumenta Britannica or a Miscellany of British Antiquities, 2 vols. (Knock-na-cre,Miltorne Port, 1980) I, p.32). (Monumenta Britannica, I, p. 25. For further discussion ofAubrey's useof comparison, see Michael Hunter: John Aubrey and the Realm of Learning(London, 1975), pp. 180-83.
5 For an examination of the role of the >tool-kit< see Howard L. Goodman and AnthonyGrafton: »Ricci, the Chinese, and the Toolkits of Textualists«, in: Asia Major, 3rd series,III,2 (1990), pp. 95-148.
6 See, for example, Anthony Pagden: European Encounters with the New World: FromRenaissance to Romanticism (New Haven and London, 1993); Stephen Greenblatt: Marvelous Possessions: the Wonder of the New World (Chicago, 1991) and ed.: New WorldEncounters (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London, 1993); Joan-Pau Rubiis: »HugoGrotius'sDissertation on the Origin of the American Peoples andthe Use of Comparative Methods«,
The Antiquary's Art ofComparison: Peiresc and Abraxas 59
Comparison was so central a feature in the intellectual culture of the time asto have been incorporated as the distinctive feature of the trulywise man. PierreCharron explained that the sage knew »to examine all things, to consider themindividually, and then to compare together all the laws and customs of the worldthat can be known, and to judge them in good faith and dispassionately, at thelevel of truth, reason and universal nature«.7 Its necessity was recognized byDescartes in his reformulation of contemporary practice as the fourteenth of hisRules for the Direction of the Mind. »A11 knowledge whatever«, he explained,results »froma comparison between two or more things. In fact, the businessofhuman reason consists almost entirely in preparing for this operation.^ Not bycoincidence, the contemporary skeptic seeking to overthrow this intellectualregime took as his target nothing less than the certainty of knowledge based oncomparison. Pierre Nicole, the famous Jansenist, entitled achapter of histreatiseOn Human Weakness, »The Difficulty of knowing things which one must judgeby comparison of likenesses«. It begins: »La d&ouverte du vrai dans la plupartdes choses depend de la comparaison des vraisemblances. Mais qu'y a-t-il deplus trompeur que cette comparaison?«.9
Comparison may have been ubiquitous, but calling attention to it has theadded benefit of clarifying two other aspects of seventeenth-century scholarlymethod. First, scholars regularly drew on visual, textual and material sourceswhen crafting their arguments.10 Because so much of the revival of interest inearly modern antiquaries has been led by art historians it is the use of imagesthat has attracted attention. I intend, rather, to focus on the notion of comparisonitself; how early seventeenth-century scholars understood it, and how they actually did it. Second, the importance of comparison reflects the importance attached to understanding other cultures. For while ancient Rome could be approached as a familiar, if long-lost, relative, the contemporary East and Westcould not. Here was where comparison showed its value.
in: Journal of the History of Ideas 52 (1991), pp. 221-44; idem: »New Worlds andRenaissance Ethnology«, in: History & Anthropology 6 (1993), pp. 157-97; idem:instructions for Travellers: Teaching the Eye to See«, in: History & Anthrolopology 9(1996). pp. 139-90.
7 »[...] d'examiner toutes choses, considerer apart et puis comparer ensemble toutes les loixet coutumes deTunivers que luyviennent enconoissance, et les juger [...] debonne foy etsans passion, au niveau de la veritd, de la raison et nature universelle« (Pierre Charron: Dela Sagesse, II. 8, p. 500).
8 »Omnem omnino cognitionem, quae non habetur per simplicem & purum unius rei solita-riae intuitum, haberi per comparationem duorum aut plurium inter se. Et quidem tola fererationis humanae industria in hac operatione praeparanda consistit« (Regulae ad directio-nem ingcnii, Oeuvres de Descartes, ed. Charles Adam and Paul Tannery, 12 vols. (Paris,1986), X, p. 440).
9 Pierre Nicole: Essaisde morale,(Paris, 1715),I, p. 30.10 For the generally received view that more rigorous comparative methods were a feature of
later seventeenth-century antiquarian culture see Blandine Barret-Kriegel: Jean Mabillon(Paris, 1988); Michael Hunter: »The Royal Society and theOrigins of British archaeology«,in: Antiquity 65 (1971), p. 113; and Pomian: Collectionneurs, amateurs et curieux, p. 112,80.
60 Peter N. Miller
If comparison was the tool wielded by these »more discerning philologists«,a close look at one of the most famous of them in action offers the prospect of amore precise appreciation of its use. Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637), close friend of Aleandro, Rigault, and Selden,was called by Pierre Bayle,some fifty-odd years after his death, the »procureur-gene>al« of the Republic ofLetters and by Arnaldo Momigliano, three hundred years later, »that archetype ofall antiquarians«." Few of the epoch's learned discussions or discoveries escapemention in his correspondence or notes. In what follows, I shall explore one ofthe less important, but typical, scholarly projects that left its trail in his papers,the study of the Abraxas gem, in order to show the richness of the antiquaries'artof comparison.
i. Learning to compare: Peiresc's training as an antiquary
Born nearToulon into an aristocratic, parlementary family, educatedat Avignonby the Jesuits and buried in Aix in the Church of the Dominicans, Peiresc owedhis European fame to thenetwork of friendships he forged with leading scholarsduring his trips to Italy (1600-02), the Netherlands and England (1606), andduring his residence in Paris in the entourage of the Keeper of the Seals, Guil-laume du Vair (1616-1623).12 Across the vast range of his interests, from metrology to natural history, to astronomy, Peiresc used comparison to establishmore certain knowledge.
While still a young man, Peiresc identified an unknown food served him byDu Vair as flamingo's tongue by comparing what he saw on the plate and whathe tasted, with what he knew from Martial's verse: »My ruddy wing gives me aname, but my tongue is a treat to epicures«.13 Later, he sought to establish themeaning of long-forgotten ancient weights and measures - one of his four greatprojects - by acquiring the objects and comparing them with one another and
1' Arnaldo Momigliano: The Classical Foundations of Modern Historiography (Berkeley andLos Angeles, 1990), p. 54. The first pages of chapter three, »The Rise of Antiquarian Re-search« (pp.54-57) are devoted to Peiresc.
12 Still thebest biography is Pierre Gassendi: Viri Illustris Nicolai-Claudii Fabricii de Peiresc[...] Vita, (Paris, 1641) (henceforth Peiresc); translated byWilliam Rand as The Mirrour ofTrue Nobility and Gentility (London, 1657) (henceforth Mirrour). Modern works on Peirescinclude Cecilia Rizza: Peiresc e Pltalia (Turin, 1965); Sydney Aufrcre: La Momie et latempfite. N.-C. F. de Peiresc et la »curiositd egyptienne« en Provence au ddbut du XVHCsiecle (Avignon, 1990); Peiresc. Lettres a Claude Saumaise et a son entourage, ed. AgnesBresson (Florence, 1992); and David Jaffd: »Peircsc - Wissenschaftlichcr Betrieb ineinemRaritaten-Kabinett«, in: Macrocosmos in Microcosmo, ed. Andreas Grote, (Opladen, 1994),pp. 301-22.
13 »Dat mihi pinna rubcns nomen, / sed lingua gulosis nostra sapit«; Epigrams, tr. and ed.D. R. Shacklcton Bailey, 3 vols. (Cambridge, MA, and London, 1993), XIII. 71, III,pp. 200-1). See Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1611, p. 152. (All references to this work will includethe year exceptthose which referto the non-annalistic >book 6<.)
The Antiquary'sArt ofComparison: Peiresc and Abraxas 61
with the often conflicting textual sources.14 He was able to establish that a toothsent to him byThomas d'Arcos from Tunis had not, in fact, belonged to agiantbut an elephantafter comparing it with the cast of a tooth that he had taken froman elephant passing through Toulon en route to Paris whose shape exactlymatched the one that came from Tunis.15 Peiresc collected astronomical tablesprepared by Kepler and Galileo so that »by comparing of them, the Hypothesesmight be perfected«.'6 He believed that the study ofgeography could not proceedfrom words alone; visual supplement by way of maps was necessary forconserving the »memoire Iocale«.17 Responding to the efforts of William Camden's English friends to find Welsh origins for Provencal place-names, Peirescfound more plausible explanations bycarefully examining the lay of the land andcomparing topography with toponyms.'8 Plants newly-come from Canada andthe Indies could be named, Peiresc wrote, »by comparison with other plants«."Peiresc's efforts on behalf of the Paris Polyglot Bible - acomparative project ifever there was one - were justified entirely in terms of comparison.20 The mostelaborate exampleof Peiresc putting comparison at the centre of his intellectualpractice is his effort to organise eclipseobservations across the Mediterranean soas to compare their results, calculate longitudes, and make more accurate maps.21
Peiresc's description of his regular practice of comparison verged closest onthe theoretical in a letter he wrote to a Capucin missionary in Egypt,P. Agathange de Vendome. After thanking him for a manuscript of the Evangelists in Arabic and Coptic, Peiresc declared that he had found in the prefatorynotice on the time and place of the texts »de tres belles choses aremarquer pourla vray synchronisme«.22 What is »synchronism«? This was aterm of art used byPeiresc's friend John Selden to mean strict adherence to the requirements ofchronology and context when framing an historical argument. Selden advancedthis claim most decisively in his Historie of Tithes, a book whose publicationPeiresc had anxiously awaited - and which hemust surely have possessed.23
14 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1632, p. 83; Peiresc to Dupuy, 31 January 1633, Lettres de Peiresc,ed.Tamizeyde Larroque, 7 vols. (Paris, 1888-98), II, p.428.
15 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1631, p. 60.16 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1610, p. 145.17 Peiresc to Holstenius, 30 December 1627, Lettres de Peiresc, V, p. 260.18 Peiresc to P. Anastase de Nantes, 27 December 1636, Correspondence de Peiresc avec
plusieurs Missionaires et Religieux de I'ordre des Capucins, ed. P. Apollinaire deValence(Paris, 1892), pp. 283-5.
19 Peiresc to Baron d*Alegre, 22 June 1630, Lettres de Peiresc, VII, p. 21.20 Peiresc to Dupuy, 23 May 1631, Lettres de Peiresc, II, p. 231; 10 January 1633, II, pp 409-
10.
21 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1600, p. 146; year 1612, p. 156; year 1628, p. 26; year 1635p. 132.
22 Peiresc to P. Agathange de Venddme, 10 August 1635, Correspondance de Peiresc avecplusieurs [...] Capucins, p. 162.
23 Peiresc to William Camden, 4 March 1618, Lettres de Peiresc, VII, p. 773. For furtherdiscussion, see D. R.Woolf: The Idea of History in Early Stuart England. Erudition, Ideology and »The Light of Truth« from the Accession of James to the Civil War (Toronto,1990), pp. 213-34; Paul Christianson: Discourse on History, Law and Governance in thePublic Career of John Selden 1610-1635 (Toronto, 1996).
62Peter N. Miller
When reproached by a visitor for devoting so much time and effort to obscure matters, Peiresc responded by explaining that even a broken fragmentcould help make sense of the past, and then, by »producing divers Monumentsof antiquity, he demonstrated the same; so as bythis means to clear up most ofthe obscure passages in Authors, and such places, as were by no other meansintelligible«.24 Gassendi decribed Peiresc's practice upon coming across anunusual object: »he consulted with his Books, compared it with the like thing,and called to mind what ever he had observed, that might give light thereunto;and by all possible Art, he enquired into the capacity, weight, or shapethereof«.25
How did Peiresc come to this way of thinking? Because books 1-5 of Gas-sendi's very reliable biography are strictly chronological we can follow thedevelopment of Peiresc as ascholar. At the age of fifteen hediscovered agoldencoin of Arcadius on the family property in Belgentier. His uncle rewarded hisinterest with books and other ancient coins. »And from this time forwards«,Gassendi wrote, »hismostcurious mindbegan to burn like fire in awood for hebegan eagerly to seek out, and collect all the ancient Coines which he couldcome by being eagerly bent to read and Interpret their Inscriptions, upon whichoccasion also hebegan to seek outall kind of Inscriptions, whether belonging tosepulchers or others, and studiously toobserve them«.26
Peiresc's fascination with artifacts and recognition of their historical valuegrew with time. In his appreciation of Peiresc's habits of mind, Gassendi attributed to him the view »that many things omitted by our Historians« could besupplied from »Charters, Letters, Seals, Coates of Arms, Inscriptions, Coins«, allof which »were incorrupted witnesses of antiquity«.27 The accounts of »ourhistorians« were, however, to be supplemented by other perspectives. Peiresc'sinterest in acquiring Arabic historians writing about events also described byEuropeans followed from the belief »that, at least, by comparing both together, amore probable narration might be framed«.28 Peiresc pursued this same activityaway from home, too. When travelling, he carried ancient coins to help himlearn to identify sculptures, »searching out the Age of every one, and for themost part discerning the hand of the Workman for his Acuteness was such thathe could discern in a moment what was truly ancient, and what only by imita-
24 Gassendi: Mirrour, bk. 6, pp. 204-5.25 Gassendi: Mirrour, bk. 6, pp.206-7.26 Gassendi: Mirrour, Year 1595, p. 13; later, hecollected Imperial Roman coins and matched
the portraits to the catalogue of legislation that he compiled to assist his legal studies(Mirrour, Year 1597, p. 16 and bk. 6, p.201).
27 Gassendi: Mirrour, bk. 6, p. 203. On the seventeenth-century use of charters as historicalsources see H. A.Cronne: »The study and use of charters by English scholars in the seventeenth century: Sir Henry Spelman and Sir William Dugdale«, in: English HistoricalScholarship in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Arecord ofthe papers delivered ata Conference arranged by the Dugdale Society to commemorate the tercentenary of thepublication of Dugdale's »Antiquitics of Warwickshire«, ed. Levi Fox (Oxford, 1956),pp. 73-92.
28 Gassendi: Mirrour, bk. 6, p. 203.
The Antiquary's Art ofComparison: Peiresc and Abraxas 63
tion«. Already the arch connoisseur, Pereisc claimed to know coins »as men arewont to know the Lion by his claw«.29
As a teenager studying in Avignon, Peiresc first came into contact with theworks of Hubert Goltzius (1526-1583).30 Goltzius had set out in 1563 to reconstruct the history of the Roman emperors »from ancient coins«. He offered aclassic justification of their historical value as both a more contemporary andmore trustworthy type of evidence than that provided by historians who generally lived later than the events they described and whose works depended onunreliable human transmission in order to reach their audience.31 In the prefaceto a reconstruction of Roman festivals and triumphs, Goltzius insisted upon theutility for the modern historian of ancient objects and images whose textualdescriptions had not survived.32 »There is nothing whatever memorable«,Goltzius declared, »that is not expressed in coins, and other ancient monuments,andset beforethe eyes to be seenas if in a painted pictures33
Goltzius's lesson was reinforced through Peiresc's friendship with the antiquary and numismatist Pierre-Antoine Rascas de Bagarris (1562-1613), whowas later called to Paris by Henri IV as the first keeper of the royal collection.Both Gassendi, and surviving correspondence, paint the picture of a relationshipbetween teacherand student that evolved into one between colleagues.34 Bagar-ris's view of the historical value of coins and medals is set forth in La Necessitede I'usage des medailles dans les monoyes (1611), originally delivered as anaddress before the king." As Goltzius before him had suggested, Bagarris ar-
29 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1600, p. 32, 34. For comparison and connoisseurship, see CarloGinzburg: »Morelli, Freud andSherlock Holmes: Clues andScientificMethod«, in: HistoryWorkshop 9 (1980), pp.5-36 esp.15-23; for the affinity between the practice of theantiquary, the connoisseur, and the inter-disciplinary cultural historian see Ginzburg:»Vetoes and Compatibilities^ in: The Art Bulletin 77 (1995), pp. 534-36. Determiningauthenticity was an important issue in the earlymodern scholarly world and was directlyrelated to the practice of comparison. On this see Anthony Grafton: Forgers and Critics:Creativity andDuplicity in Western Scholarship (Princeton, 1990).
30 Gassendi: Peiresc, year 1598, p. 18.31 Hubertus Goltzius: C. Iulius Caesar sive Historiae Imperatorum Caesarumque Romanorum
ex antiquis numismatibus restitutae (Bruges, 1563), sigs. C2v-C3r. This is the argumentthat Momigliano singled out in his 1950 article as the core of the antiquaries' historicalideology.
32 Hubertus Goltzius, Fasti magistratuum et triumphorum romanorum ab urbe condita adAugustiobitum(Bruges, 1566), sig.C4f.
33 Goltzius: Fasti, sigs. C4r"v: »Nihil est usquam memorabile, quod non in numismatibus,aliisque antiquitalis monumentis exprimatur, & tanquam in tabula picta spectandumproponatur.«
34 Gassendi: Mirrour, pp. 16-17. Fourteen letters from Bagarris to Peiresc were published byTamizey de Larroque as fascicle XII of his LesCorrespondants de Peiresc, 2 vols. (Geneva,1972, rpt.), II, pp. 749-862.
35 The oration wasdelivered in 1608. According to Tamizeyde Larroque (LesCorrespondantsde Peiresc, I, p. 765nl) the copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, is a unicum. Fordiscussion see Thierry Sarmant: Le Cabinet des Mddailles de la Bibliotheque Nationale1661-1848 (Paris, 1994), pp. 11-12; Mark Jones: »ProofStones of History: the Status ofMedals as Historical Evidence in Seventeenth-century France«, in: Medals and Coins fromBud6 to Mommscn, eds. M. H. Crawford, C. R. Ligota and J. B. Trapp (London, 1990),pp. 53-55.
64
Pet
erN
.M
ille
r
gued
thatc
oinsw
ereles
same
nable
tofor
gery
beca
uset
heir
shee
rnum
berm
ade
itea
syto
spot
tampe
ring.3
6Co
insoff
ered
histor
icale
viden
cesim
ilar
to»th
atwh
ichis
repr
esen
tedin
book
sby
disco
urse
s«.
As»a
bridg
ed«
histor
ies,t
hey
spok
e»as
much
throu
ghpo
rtrait
urea
sthr
ough
writ
ings
"Ba
garri
s'sdi
scus
sion
ofco
ins
and
meda
lsfoc
used
onthe
irut
ility
asdo
cum
ents
ofpu
blic
histo
ry,a
ndth
eva
lue
ofim
ages
asev
iden
ce.B
uthe
also
knew
agr
eatd
eal
abou
teng
rave
dge
msan
dam
asse
dan
exten
sive
colle
ction
.Unli
keco
ins
and
med
als,
whi
chw
ere
publ
icdo
cum
ents,
gem
ssh
edlig
hton
the
histo
ryof
priva
telif
e.M
oreo
ver,
beca
uset
hey
lacke
dbo
thth
eof
ficia
lcha
racte
rofc
oins
and
their
intri
nsic
chro
nolo
gica
lord
erin
g,ge
ms
forc
edth
eco
llect
orto
deve
lop
ane
wta
xono
my.
Baga
rris'
sge
ms
were
orga
nise
dun
der
the
follo
wing
head
ings
:an
cient
relig
ious
ritua
ls(in
cludi
ngas
trolo
gica
lim
ager
y),m
ythol
ogica
lfig
ures
and
hero
es,p
oliti
call
eade
rs,his
torica
leve
nts,
impo
rtant
famili
es,i
nven
tors
ofar
ts,pr
inces
ses
and
famou
swo
men,
lawgiv
ers,
philo
soph
ers
and
poets
,leg
alcu
stoms
,the
hier
oglyp
hsof
ancie
ntpe
oples
,and
early
Chris
tian
mater
ial.38
Ifco
ins
offe
red
ano
n-lit
erar
ype
rspe
ctiv
eon
anci
entp
oliti
cs,g
ems
offe
red
acce
ssto
cultu
re.T
heor
gani
zatio
nof
Baga
rris'
sco
llecti
onre
sem
bles
the
class
ifica
tion
sche
mesu
gges
tedby
Justu
sLi
psiu
sin
afra
gmen
ton
»how
tore
adan
cient
histo
-ria
ns«
pres
erve
din
Peire
sc's
pape
rstha
tis
ash
orter
and
rear
rang
edve
rsio
nof
them
esde
altw
ithin
aw
ell-k
now
nse
t-pie
ceby
Lips
ius
onhi
storic
alm
etho
din
ale
tter
addr
esse
dto
Nich
olas
Hac
quev
illiu
s.39
Baga
rris'
sge
ms
also
fell
into
Lip
sius'
four
categ
ories
ofm
emor
abilia
,ritu
alia,
polit
icoan
deth
ica.
Itha
s,of
cour
se,b
een
know
nfor
som
etim
eth
atth
eor
gani
satio
nalp
rincip
lesof
late
sixtee
nth-
cent
ury
syllo
gae
ofin
scrip
tions
serv
edas
the
prot
otyp
efor
ava
riety
ofta
xono
mic
sche
mes
,inc
ludi
ngco
llect
ions
and
com
mon
-pla
cebo
oks.4
0In
Mar
chof
1603
Baga
rris
sent
Jose
phSc
alig
er,i
nLe
iden
,ske
tche
sof
thirt
y-six
ofhi
sfa
vour
itege
ms
for
Scal
iger
'sde
lect
atio
n.In
abr
avur
are
spon
seth
atBa
garri
sdes
crib
edto
Peire
scas
»plu
stost
unco
mmen
taire
oudis
cour
squ
emi
s-
36Pi
erre
-Ant
oine
deRa
scas
deBa
garri
s:La
Nece
ssitd
deI'u
sage
des
med
aille
sda
nsles
mon
oyes
(Par
is,16
11),
p.7.
37Ra
scas
deBa
garr
is:N
eces
sitd,
p.12
.38
Curio
sitez
pour
laco
nfirm
ation
etI'o
rnem
entd
eI'h
istoi
re,t
antG
recq
ue&
Roma
ine,q
uede
sBa
rbar
es&
Got
hs,c
onsis
tans
enan
cienn
esM
onno
yes,
Med
aille
s,&
pierre
spr
ecieu
ses,
tantg
ravie
sen
crcu
x,qu
etail
ldese
nba
sreli
ef(A
ix,n
.d.),
pp.2
9-35
.39
»Quo
modo
legen
diau
ctores
«,in:
Via
acmc
thodu
sleg
endi
cum
fructu
histon
am.J
.Lips
ioau
ctB
NM
S.Du
puy
488,
fols.
104r
-106
v;for
comp
ariso
nse
eJu
stiLi
psii
Epist
olar
um(A
ntwer
p,16
18),
Cent.
Ill,no
.Ixi,
pp.4
51-5
7.1tha
nkAn
thony
Graft
onfor
thisr
eferen
ce.
See
also
Graf
ton:
»The
new
scien
cean
dth
etra
ditio
nsof
hum
anism
«,in:
The
Cam
brid
geCo
mpan
ionto
Rena
issan
ceHu
manis
m,ed
.Jill
Kray
e(Ca
mbrid
ge,1
996)
,pp.
219-
20.
40Se
cG.
B.de
Ross
i:»D
elle
sillo
giep
igra
fiche
dello
Smez
ioe
del
Panv
inio
«,in:
Anna
lide
ll'Ins
titut
odi
corri
spon
denz
aar
cheo
logica
,54
(186
2),p
p.22
1-44
;Ida
Calab
iLim
entan
i:»N
ote
sucl
assif
icaz
ione
edin
dici
epig
rafic
ida
lloSm
ezio
alM
orce
lli:
antic
hita
,re
tonc
a,cr
itica«
,in:
Epigr
aphic
a49
(197
7),p
p.17
7-20
2;An
nBl
air:»
Huma
nistI
deas
inNa
tural
Philo
soph
y:Th
eCo
mmon
place
Book
«,in:
Jour
nal
ofthe
Histo
ryof
Ideas
53(1
992)
,pp
.541
-51;
Antho
nyGr
afton
:Co
mmerc
ewi
ththe
Clas
sics:
Ancie
ntBo
oks
and
Ren
aiss
ance
Rea
ders
(Ann
Arb
or,
1997
).
The
Ant
iqua
ry's
Art
ofC
ompa
rison
:Pe
iresc
andA
brax
as6
5
sive«
,Sc
alig
erga
vea
rem
arka
ble
dem
onstr
atio
nof
conn
oiss
eurs
hip.
41In
tere
stin
gly,
Baga
rris
obse
rved
toPe
iresc
that
heth
ough
tSc
alig
erha
ddi
fficu
ltyin
anal
ysin
gw
hath
eto
okto
beea
rlyCh
ristia
nge
ms
beca
use
his
relig
ion
mad
eit
diffi
cult
toap
prec
iate
the
cont
inui
tybe
twee
nCh
ristia
nan
dpa
gan
imag
ery.4
2A
copy
ofSc
alig
er's
disc
ours
ewa
sse
ntby
Baga
rris
toPe
iresc
for
hisj
udge
men
t.If
Pei
resc
lear
ned
muc
hab
outb
eing
anan
tiqua
ryfr
omBa
garr
is,
hele
arne
dfro
mSc
alig
erho
wph
ilolo
gyla
yth
efo
unda
tion
for
cultu
ral
histor
y.43
Thei
rpe
rson
alre
latio
nshi
pbe
gan
inPa
dua
in16
02.
Peire
scha
ppen
edto
bein
the
hom
eof
the
just
-dec
ease
dG
ian-
Vinc
enzo
Pine
lliw
hen
ale
tter
ofSc
alig
er's
arri
ved
whi
chhe
took
itup
onhi
mse
lfto
answ
er.T
heir
exch
ange
ofle
tters
was
espe
cial
lypr
ized
byPe
iresc
,who
struc
kthe
pose
ofho
nore
dcl
ient
,and
they
had
aw
arm
,ifr
athe
rbiza
rre,
mee
ting
inLe
iden
in16
06.44
Itw
asno
neot
her
than
Scal
iger
,acc
ordi
ngto
Gas
send
i,w
hopr
ovid
edPe
ires
cw
ith
ale
tter
ofi
ntro
duct
ion
toA
brah
amG
orla
eus
(154
9-16
09),
the
fam
edge
mco
llect
orin
Del
ft,th
ough
surv
ivin
gm
inut
esof
ale
tter
ofF
ebru
ary
1606
,pr
ece
ding
his
trip
toth
eLo
wCo
untri
es,s
how
Peire
scal
read
ym
akin
gco
ntac
twith
the
olde
rm
an.
Itw
asth
epl
easu
rehe
had
expe
rien
ced
atse
eing
the
Dac
tylio
-th
eca,
and
Gor
laeu
s'pu
blis
hed
invi
tatio
nto
hisr
eade
rsto
supp
lyhi
mw
ith
fur
ther
info
rmat
ion
that
had
enco
urag
edhi
mto
write
.45
Thi
sst
udy
oft
heim
ages
onan
cien
trin
gsan
dse
als
cont
ains
astr
ongl
ypr
ogra
mm
atic
asse
rtion
ofth
eva
lue
ofco
mpa
rison
.Th
ism
akes
itan
impo
rtant
sour
cefo
run
ders
tand
ing
the
con
cept
ualf
ound
atio
nsof
Peire
sc's
own
study
ofan
cient
mat
eria
lrem
ains
.»Th
us«,
Gor
laeu
sw
rote
,»no
tonl
yw
illw
em
ostd
ilige
ntly
com
pare
our
antiq
uitie
sw
ithhi
story
,co
ins
with
rings
and
rings
with
gem
sbu
tin
divi
dual
item
sw
ithon
ean
othe
r...w
ew
illt
akec
are
that
from
this
dilig
entc
ompa
riso
nof
two
thin
gs,r
ings
and
coin
s,a
third
isbo
rn,t
hefu
lllig
htof
histo
ry«.
46
41Sc
alig
er:
Opu
scul
ava
riaan
tehac
non
edita
(Par
is,16
10),
pp.5
74-8
2.Th
issa
me
letter
surv
ives
ina
late
rm
anus
crip
tcop
yin
the
Bibl
ioth
eque
Mej
anes
wit
hPe
iresc
give
nas
the
adre
ssee
(Aix
-en-
Prov
ence
,Bib
lioth
eque
Mcj
anes
,MS.
212
(103
0)p.
46).
42».
..il
ddto
rque
am
onad
vis,
mai
sce
laje
Icdo
nne
aux
fond
emcn
sde
sare
ligio
nqu
in'
advo
uent
pas
I'ant
iqui
tdde
sim
ages
«(B
agar
risto
Peire
sc,M
arch
1603
,Les
Corr
espo
nda
nts
deP
eire
sc,f
asc.
XII
,p.4
9).
43Fo
rthi
slar
geth
eme
see
Graf
ton:
Jose
phSc
alig
er,v
ol.I
,ch.
7:»F
rom
philo
logy
tocu
ltura
lhi
story
«.Fo
rPe
iresc
'sre
latio
nshi
pto
Scal
iger
see
this
auth
or's
»An
Antiq
uary
Betw
een
Philo
logy
and
Histo
ry:
Peire
scan
dth
eSa
marit
ans«
,in:
Histo
ryan
dth
eDi
scip
lines
:Th
eRe
-org
aniza
tion
ofKn
owled
gein
Early
Mod
ern
Euro
pe,e
d.Do
nald
R.Kc
lley
(Roc
heste
r,N
Yan
dL
ondo
n,19
97),
pp.
163-
84.
44G
asse
ndi
reco
unts
thee
xtra
ordi
nary
tale
ofho
wPe
iresc
visi
ted
the
grea
tman
indi
sgui
se,
bear
ing
alet
terof
reco
mm
enda
tion
from
Peire
sc.A
fter
alo
ngco
nver
satio
nan
dm
uch
exam
inat
ion
ofbo
oks
Peire
scas
ked
for
pen
and
pape
rto
take
som
eno
tes.
Onc
ehe
bega
nto
write
Scali
ger
reco
gnise
dth
eha
ndwr
iting
and
the
ruse
was
enjo
yed
hear
tily
byth
embo
th(M
irro
ur,
year
1606
,p.
102)
.45
Peire
scto
Gor
laeu
s,15
Febr
uary
1606
,Car
pent
ras,
Bibl
ioth
eque
Ingu
imbe
rtine
,M
S.18
09fo
l.4
51
r.46
»Ibi
nam
que
non
antiq
uita
tesm
odo
cum
histo
riano
stra,
num
ismat
acu
man
nulis
,ann
ulos
cum
gem
mis,
sed
&sin
gula
inter
sedi
ligen
tissim
eco
nfer
emus
.Cum
cnim
nuda
ere
rum
haru
mco
nsid
erat
ionc
spe
rse,
veln
ihil
quib
usda
m,v
elpa
rum
adpl
enio
rum
auth
orum
utri-
usqu
clin
guae
intel
lectu
mco
nfer
revid
eant
ur,o
pcra
mda
bim
usut
exha
cdu
arum
reru
m,nu
mm
orum
annu
loru
mqu
e,di
ligen
tico
mpa
ratio
nete
rtiu
mqu
idna
scat
urHI
STOR
1ARU
MLU
Xpl
ena.«
»Abr
aham
usG
orla
eus
Cand
ido
Dac
tylio
thec
aeSu
aeLe
ctori«
,Abr
aham
Gorla
eus:
66 Peter N. Miller
The Roman antiquary Lelio Pasqualini was another older scholar - Peiresccalled him the unquestionably the prince of Italian antiquaries^7 - with whomhe studied images and who influenced the younger man's practice. It was hewho had reminded Peiresc, in a letter of 1608, that »there is a very great difference between learning something from writers or seeing the thing itself«, andthat long-running disputes among the »grammarians« could swiftly be resolvedby an antiquary examining a few artifacts.41 Chief among the objects they discussed were those with images requiring analysis, such as found on coins orgems.49 A long discussion of Charlemagne's appearance involving comparisonof coins, manuscript paintings and mosaics shows how seriously Peiresc wasengaged in this particular practiceand also the extent of his interest in medievalhistory, unusual among his contemporaries.50 To Pasqualini, he wrote that hewished to obtain medals of the early French rulers (Merovingian and Carolin-gian) but especially »those others which the antiquaries call Gothic«. He wasmost attracted to those »of such poor workmanship« that they could only beidentified after comparison with other, similar pieces.51 Peiresc, like othercon-
Dactyliothecaseu annulorumsigillarium quorum apud priscostarnGraecos quam Romanosusus (Antwerp, 1601),sigs. *2v-*3r. For further information on Gorlaeus see Archaologieder Antike. Aus den Bestanden der Herzog August Bibliothck 1500-1700. Wiesbaden,1994. This same image of >the light of history< is also used by Gassendi to describe thepurpose of antiquarian research in his dedication of the Vita Peireskii to Louis de Valois:»Similis enim crepusculo vespertino est rerum fama, quae initio clarissima, ita paulatimevanescit, ut abeat tandem in tenebras; opusque adeo historia est, quae facis instar illamproducat« (sig. *3r).
47 »Simulque ectypos duos Roma ad me missos a R. D. Lelio Pasqualino inter rei antiquariaein Italia peritos facile principe [...].« (Peiresc to Camden, 2 May 1608, Bodleian LibraryMS. Selden Supra 108, fol. 1970.
41 »Insomma se per poter trattar delle cose antiche bastasse lostudio, sarebbe pazzia, non checosa superflua il radunar tante cose et spendere tanti denari in anticaglie, ma e troppo grandifferenza dall'imparare una cosa dalli scritori o veder la cosa stessa: vegga V. S. percortesia quantaquestione 6 fra gramatici nostri circa la forma del Tripode d'Apollo; et conmeno di due quelli se ne da sentenza finale dalli antiquari;« (Pasqualini to Peiresc, 3 June1608, Carp. Bibl. Inguimb. MS. 1831, fol. 60").
49 David Jafft: »Aspects ofGem Collecting in theEarly Seventeenth Century: Nicolas-ClaudePeiresc and Lelio Pasqualini«, in: Burlington Magazine 135 (1993), pp. 103-20 is the besttreatment of their intellectual relationship.
50 Peiresc to Pasqualini, 2 November 1608, Aix Bibl. Mejanes, MS. 209 (1027), pp. 86-98.The discussion of Charlemagne is found in this copy and the autograph draft on which it isbased (Carp. Bibl. Inguimb. MS. 1809, fols. 300r-305v; it follows the end of the letter andwas marked by Peiresc for insertion in the body of the text) but not in the letter as sent(Montpellier, Bibl. de I'Ecole de Mddecine, MS. H. 271 vol. I, fol. 7V; was it simply forgotten or a Peireskean afterthought?). See also Peiresc's letters to Aleandro of 5 September1617(Correspondance de Peiresc & Aleandro, eds. Jean-Francois Lhote and Danielle Joyal,2 vols (Clermont-Ferrand, 1995), I, p. 132) and 6 February 1625 (Vatican City, BibliotccaApostolicaVaticana, MS. Barb.-Lat. 6504, fol. 189"). On Peiresc's >medievalism< see JeanSchopfer: »Documents relatifs a Tart au moyen fige contenus dans les manuscrits deN. C. Fabri de Peiresc a la bibliotheque de la ville de Carpentras«, in: Bulletinarcheologique du comit6 des travaux historiques et scientiflques 20 (1899), pp. 330-95;Edward S. Peck: Peiresc Manuscripts Aiding the Reconstruction of Lost Medieval Monuments, Unpubd. Ph.D,(Harvard University, 1964).
51 Peiresc to Pasqualini, 2November 1608, »In scambio di che hodapregaro V. S. M. III." dimandarine de gli impronti di tutte le monete 6 medaglie d'oro et d'argento che potranno
The Antiquary's Art ofComparison: Peiresc and Abraxas 67
noisseurs, seems to have adapted the practice of Apelles, who collected a bevyof beauties in order to combine their best parts to make the »perfect« woman,except that he sought misshapen examples to explain other wretched ones. Thus,in a letter to Peter-Paul Rubens two decades later, Peiresc explained that he wasparticularly interested in those medals »of that sort which the antiquaries callGothic, which are ordinarily ofsuch poor workmanship that it is necessary to seethem sometimes more than 5 or 6 times in order to understand the intention ofthe artist«.i2
Where no texts survived knowledge could only be made by comparing objects with other objects. And this meant that the purpose of collecting wasstretched from the beautiful or wondrous to the historically valuable thoughpossibly ugly. This helps to explain why Momigliano's »Age ofthe Antiquaries«was also the great age of collecting. The larger the collection the greater thenumber of objects that could be compared and, therefore, the more certain theresulting conclusions.53
The most acute problem involving comparison was also raised in the Peiresc-Pasqualini correspondence. »Since the material of antiquity is so vast andvague«, Peiresc wrote, »to treat it in an orderly way one would need to encompass an infinite number ofthings for which, perhaps, public and domestic occupations would not allow time, apart from many other impediments.«54 This waswork with no obvious end; as a contemporary theorist of philology - and acquaintance ofPeiresc - put it: »The task is one of immense, infinite and most
ritrovarsi in man sua, 6 delli suoi amici battutte a'tempi delli nostri Re Francesci dellaprima et seconda Famiglia, et non solo di quelle, ma ancora di certe altre che gli Antiquariisogliono chiamare Gothiche delle quali havendone io radunato piu di docento fra oro,argento, et rame, ho comminciato di cavarne qualche costrutto, ma non hardisco palesiarlo,Ch'io non ne habbia messo insieme maggior quantita, per maggior confirmatione del mioconcetto. Massime sendo alle per lo piu di sigoffa maestria che niente apieno difficilmentevi si pu6 riconoscervi niente a pieno senza haverne tre 6 quatro simili con le istesseimpronte et inscrittioni« (Montpellier, Bibliotheque de I'Ecole de Midecine, MS. H. 271vol.l, fol. 5"). Peiresc was using this term as early as 1602. In aletter to Marcus Welser, forexample, Peiresc explained that because his Phoenician coins were of»si goffa maestria peril piu bisogna indovinare, il che non so ne posso farc« (Peiresc to Welser, 31 January 1602,B N. Nouvelles acquisitions francaises, MS. 5172, fol. 21r).
52 »[ ]di quella natura che gli antiquarii chiamano Gothiche, le quali sono ordinariamente diassai goffa maestria, in maniera che bisogna vederne talvolta piu di 5o 6 per sorte perriconoscere I'intentione dello scoltore« (Peiresc to Rubens, 26 November 1621, CodexDiplomaticus Rubenianus. Correspondance de Rubens et documents epistolaires concer-nant sa vie etses oeuvres, ed. Charles Ruelens and Max Rooses, 6 vols. (Antwerp 1887-1909) H, p. 295 (henceforth Rubens Correspondance). Charles Patin: Histoire desmddai'lles'ou introduction ala connaissance de cette science (Paris, 1695, p. 111) noted that»Ce mot Gothique est assez commun chez les Curieux, et e'est ainsi qu'on appelle tout cequi paralt ancien et mal fait« (quoted in Pomian: Collectionneurs, amateurs et curieux,p. 326 note 212.
53 Momigliano: »Ancient History and the Antiquarian«, p. 68.54 »Imperoche e si ampia c vagga la materia dell'antiquita, che per trattarla con ordine,
bisognerebbe abbracciare infinite cose insieme di che non le darebbono forse il temponeccssario le sue occupationi publiche, e domestiche, oltre molte altre impediments(Peiresc to Pasqualini, 20 December 1609, Montpellier, Bibl. de I'Ecole de M6dectneMS. H. 271 vol. I, fol. 130-
08 Peter N. Miller
uncertain labour, and one needs more than an Ariadne's thread to emerge fromit«.»
This particular problem was a concern of another of Peiresc's early teachers,the Vicentine emigre" legal scholar and Aristotelian philosopher, Giulio Pace.56Peiresc was his student at Montpellier in 1603, lived in his household, and became a lifelong friend of both Pace and his son.57 The question which Paceanalyzed was strikingly similar to that articulated by Peiresc: if Roman law wasto be understood as a product of historical circumstances, as the French schoolof interpretation taught, would adjudication be held hostage to the endless pursuit of an ever-thickening historical context?
In Dejuris methodo, an inaugural lecture delivered at Heidelberg in 1585,Pace sought to reconcile historical research with thedemands of present-day use,and more specifically,the mos Gallicus with the status of Roman Law as the lawof the land.58 It could not be denied that there were difficulties with the text ofthe Corpus Juris as it had been transmitted, and Pace offered three general explanations. First, the laws were fixed in antiquity and in an age of great discoveries - rerum novarum inventio - their application became increasingly peril-
55 »Res est immensi, infmiti et incertissimi operis, opusque est filo plusquam Ariadnaeo, ademergendum« (Alexandre Fichet: Arcana Studiorum, quoted in Helmut Zedelmaier:Bibliotheca Universalis und Bibliotheca Selecta. Das Problem der Ordnung des gelehrtenWissens in der fruhen Neuzeit (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna, 1992), pp. 295-96 note 900).Fichet actually knew Peiresc, havingtaught philosophy at Aix-en-Provence. He dedicatedto him avolume of spiritual treatises. Theoriginal dedicatory letter was soembarrassing toPeiresc that he had it omitted from later copies, though Gassendi reproduces it in part:»Your Table, your House, your Study, are a Starry firmament of all wits, wherein theHeavenly Constellations, the Stars of all Learning and learned men do briefly shine; so thatall things therein are not guilt with Gold or Silver, but shine as Stars: the Desks are filledwith Stars, where theBooks stand likeConstellations; andyourself sittingin the midst,andembracing all, give light to all, add grace to all, bestow lifeasit were, and eternity upon all;so that to youall well-writ Books throughout theWorld, asthesacred fires of good minds,dostrive to mount as to their heaven, to receive light from you, and shine again upon you,&c.« (Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1627, p. 24). Two letters from Fichet to Peiresc are found inB. N. MS. Fonds francais9540, fols. 153r, 154r.
56 For biographical information see: M. Revillout: »Le jurisconsulte Jules Pacius de Berigaavant son dtablissementa Montpellier 1550-1602«, in: Academie des sciences et lettres deMontpellier. Mlmoires de la section des lettres, 7 (1886), pp. 251-78; F. Lampertico:»Materiali per servire aliavita di Giulio Pace giureconsulto et filosofo«, in: Atti del RealeIstituto vcneto di scicnze, lettere ed arti, ser.VI, 4 (1885-86); A. Franceschini: Giulio Paceda Beriga e la giurisprudenza dei suoi tempi. Memorie del RealeIstituto venetodi scienze,lettere ed arti, 27, 2 (Venice, 1903) and Alfred Dufour: »Jules Pacius de Beriga (1550-1635) et son De Juris Methodo (1597)«, in: Geneve et l'ltalie, ed. Luc Monnier (Geneva,1969), pp. 113^7.
57 Peiresc later tried to obtain for Pace ateaching position at the University in Aix and Pacededicated his Institutionum imperialium analysis (1605) to the youngPeiresc.
58 This approach is often seen as areflection of Pace's study with Jacopo Zabarella in Padua.See Cesare Vasoli: »GiuIio Pace e la diffusione europea di alcuni temi aristotelicipadovani«, in: Aristotelismo veneto e scienza moderna, ed. Luigi Olivieri, 2 vols (Padua,1983), II, pp. 1009-34, and Helmut Coing: »Zum Einfluss der Philosophie des Aristotelesauf die Entwicklung des romischcn Rechts«, in: Zeitschrift der Savigny-Stiftung furRechtsgeschichte, Rom. Abt. 69 (1952), pp. 24-59.
The Antiquary's ArtofComparison: Peiresc andAbraxas 69
ous.59 Second, the fact that all things in the world were in a constant state of flux- rerum mutatio - made it difficult to work with a fixed canon.60 Finally, thesimple fact of >normal< historical change - circumstantiarum varietas - riskedturning Roman Law into one great anachronism.61 The only way to deal with theproblem of historical change, Pace thought, was to seek out the original intent ofa law. If the same purpose were served by its modern application, even underunanticipated conditions, the law could be used according to the rule ubi eademratio, idem jus. Establishing clear intent, however, required detailed philologicalresearch into the usage of the time. This required the broad erudition that ledPace to appropriate for legal scholars the title of »polymathes«.62
Peiresc's interest in antiquities began and advanced in step with his legalstudies and the relationship between antiquarian and legal scholarship was aclose one.63 Peiresc felt constrained to justify to his father andunclethe utilityofantiquities for his legal studies, and Gassendi thought the »confession« worthconserving:
And that he likewise knew, that the study of antiquities was not unuseful towards theknowledge of the Lawes, seeing without that, most places of the Digests and the Codescould not be understood; and that they themselves might find so much by experience,seeing for example sake Interpreters knew not what tomake of those Viriolas exSmargadisoften mention'd by Ulpianus and Paulus which himselfcould understand, by meanes ofsome which hehad gotatRome outof certain Ruines, and which hewould send to them: Athing which had not been seen now for many Ages together.64
According to Gassendi, Peiresc believed that there were many passages in Roman legal texts that could no longer beunderstood without the help that antiquitiesoffered, such as weights, measures, jewlery, and clothing.65
Letters writtento his family from Montpellier show that Peiresc found Pace'smethod congenial. In a letter of late October 1602 to his uncle, the lawyer,whose seat in the parlement he was to occupy for the rest of his life, Peiresc
59 All references are to G. Pace: De iuris methodo libri II (Speyer, 1597). The example ofartillery and printing is found at p.47.
60 The depreciation ofcurrency, asubject that was to fascinate Peiresc (see Gassendi: Mirrour,year 1609, pp. 131-33; year 1624, p. 17) is found at pp. 48-49. Peiresc also copied outexcerpts from »Julii Paci J. C. tractatibus de mutatione monetarum« (Carpentras MS. 1775,fols. 283-34).
61 Pace: De juris methodo, p. 49. Even discerning change was made more difficult by thetradition of glossing that required the historically oriented reader first topeel offa layer ofmedieval comment and another of late antique language before theoriginal Roman contextstood revealed (pp. 51-3).
62 De juris methodo, pp. 57-58, 62-65, 70. On polymathy see Zedelmaier: BibliothecaUniversalis, ch. 4;Luc Deitz: »Ioannes Wower of Hamburg, Philosopher and Polymath. APreliminary Sketch of his Life and Works«, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 58 (1995), pp. 132-51.
63 For the relationship between antiquarianism and legal scholarship see J. G. A. Pocock: TheAncientConstitution and the Feudal Law(Cambridge, 1986, 2nd edition revised; 1stedn.1957); Donald R.Kelley: The Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship (New York,1970).
64 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1602,p. 69.65 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1604,p. 80.
/u Peter N. Miller
enthusiastically described Pace's method.66 The latter's insistence on historicalcontext, he wrote, offered ajustification for the antiquary's practice since manypassages of Roman Lawthat had become impenetrable with the passage of timecouldbe recovered with better understanding of daily life in ancient Rome. Andso, uponthe occasion ofhis doctorate of law in January 1604 Peiresc lectured onthe history of academic ceremonial garb »out of innumerable other Monuments;he shewed how the use of these ornaments came from the Greeks to the Latines,and so down to us... All which he confirmed by frequent Citations ofCouncells,Fathers, Poets, Historians, and Orators«.67 Of course, to suggest that polymathywas the >solution< to the problem of an expanding horizon of information onlybegged the question of how onecouldknow everything.
ii.Abraxas, Mithras andthe survival of ancient religion
Looking over an antiquary's shoulder can help us appreciate the sophisticatedconstructionof contexts and formulation of questions that constituted his scholarlyactivity and marked his originality. Peiresc's glyptic studies have received agreat deal of attention in recent years; in what follows, we will look overPeiresc's shoulderas he andhis friends studied the bizarre gem calledAbraxas.61
The Abraxas, or Abrasax, gem (inscriptions use both spellings) depicted astrange figure with the head of a cock, the torso of a soldier in body armor, andthe legs of a serpent, holding a whip in one hand and a shield bearingthe Greekletters IAH in the other. The numerological value of the Greek characters addedup to 365, suggesting a solar theme. Fathers of the Church, Jerome, Irenaeus,and Epiphanius, in particular, provided the most comprehensive contemporaryexplanation of the imagery and its meaning. They identified the gems as tokensproduced by Gnostics in order to propagate their ideas, a sort of ideologically-charged advertising. The question of whether these followers of the second-century heretic Basilides were Christians who borrowed from paganism or pagans who borrowed from Christianity, or whether their teaching was theology,philosophyor magicwas, andremains, a matterof debate.69
66 Peiresc toCallas, October 1602, in: Lettres dePeiresc, VI, pp. 6-7.67 Gassendi: Mirrour, year 1604, p. 77.68 See Marjon van der Meulen: »NicoIas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc and Antique Glyptic«, in:
Engraved Gems: Survivals and Revivals, ed. Clifford Malcolm Brown (Washington, D.C.,1997),pp. 194-227; idem: Petrus Paulus Rubens Antiquarius (Alphen aander Rijn, 1975),esp. ch. 2; idem: Rubens' Copies after the Antique (London, 1994), 3 vols.; David Jaffe:»Reproducing and Reading Gems in Rubens Circle«, in: Engraved Gems: Survivals andRevivals, pp. 181-93; idem: »Peiresc and New Attitudes to Authenticity in the SeventeenthCcntury«, in: Why Fakes Matter. Essays on Problems of Authenticity, ed. Mark Jones(London, 1993), pp. 157-73; idem: »Aspects of Gem Collecting in the Early SeventeenthCentury: Nicolas-Claude Peiresc and Lelio Pasqualink, in: Burlington Magazine 135(1993), pp. 103-20.
69 For discussion of these gems, called >gnostic< or >magical< for reasons similar to thoseinvoked by Scaliger and Bagarris, see P. Post: »Le gdnie anguipede a!ectro-c6pha!e: unedivinitd magique solaire; une analyse des pierres dites Abraxas-gemmes«, in: Bijdragen,
The Antiquary s Art oj Comparison: feiresc ana Aoraxas /1
Peiresc seems to have been interested in these gems for his whole life. Why?In part, of course, the obscurity and complexity of the gem and its peculiargraven image made it a challenging peak for the great connoisseur to conquer.But the presumed late antique, Egyptian provenance of the Abraxas also accounts for its importance in an age particularly fascinated by Egyptian symbolism. Peiresc's letters to older luminaries such as Vincenzo Contarini, UlisseAldrovandi and Marcus Welser dating from his Italian trip show an early interestin the language and religion of the ancient Near East, in hieroglyphs, the »mys-tica di Egitti«, and Phoenician coins struck in Tyre.70 Peiresc's pursuit of theconnection between the languages and religions of the eastern Mediterranean inhis maturity shows that his interest did not flag. The study of Abraxas must beseen as part of this broader focus. Yet, reconstructing the history of Peiresc'sAbraxas-studies is most valuable for the glimpse it affords us of an antiquary'scomparison of texts, objects,and images.
By the time he left for Italy Peiresc seems already to have made himselfsomething of an expert in these gems, and evidence scattered through his surviving papers shows that his collection of, and familiarity with, these gemsrivalled, if it did not surpass, that of his older contemporaries. Bagarris, it will berecalled, had sent Peiresc a copy of Scaliger's >commentary< on some of hisgems. This had included a discussion of the Abraxas. Bagarris, after reviewingScaliger's interpretations, differed precisely on the attribution to them of a magical, rather than a broadly philosophical, content. »M. de la Scala l'estime talisman; je la croiroy plus tost philosophique, comprenant soubs ce mot tout lesubjectou dessains qu'on y a enclos, physique ou naturel, moral ou embtemati-que et historique ou fabuleux«. Bagarris also asked Peiresc for sketches of someof hisgems, »mesme leschrestiennes magiques«.7'
Gassendi describes how, during his visit to Rome in October of the JubileeYear 1600,the twenty-yearold Peiresc lectured an »astonished« Cardinal Baro-
Tijdschrift voor filosofie en Theologie 34 (1980), pp. 173-210; Campbell Bonner: Studiesin Magical Amulets, chiefly Graeco-Egyptian (Ann Arbor, 1950); A. A. Barb: »Abraxas-Studien«, in: Hommage a Waldemar Deona, Collection Latomus 28 (Brussels, 1957); idem:»Diva Matrix: a Faked Gnostic Intaglio in the Possession of P. P. Rubens andthe Iconologyof a Symbol«, in: Journal of theWarburg and Courtauld Institutes 16(1953), pp. 193-238;Peter Zazoff: Die antiken Gemmen (Munich, 1982), ch. 13 »>Gnostische< Gemmen(Magische Amulette)«; Roy Kotansky and Jeffrey Spier: »The Horned Hunter on a LostGnostic Gem«, in: Harvard Theological Review, 88 (1995), pp. 315-37.
70 Mention of the »mystica di Egitti« occurs in the postscript of one letter to Aldrovandi (28November 1601, Carp. MS. 1809, fol. 379*), »lettere Hieroglyphiche« in a second (30October 1601, fol. 379*), the Phoenician inscription on a Tyrian medal in letters to Contarini (21 October 1601, B. N., N.a.f. MS. 5172, fol. 21A0 andWelser (31 January 1602,N.a.f. MS. 5172, fol. 210r_v) with a full discussion in »Della Colonne d'Hercole in medagliedi Tyro. Discorso di N. F. a Monsig. L. P. [Lelio PasqualiniR Carp. Bibl. Inguimb.,MS. 1809, fols. 277-82; Aix Bibl. Mejanes, MS. 209 (1027), pp. 117-24. A description ofPeiresc's >Tyrian< medals is found in B. N. MS. Latin 9340, fols. 38-40.
71 Baggaris to Peiresc, 13 January 1605, in: LesCorrespondants de Peiresc vol. I, fasc. 12,p.56. Peiresc seems to have adopted something of Scaliger's typology. Writing to Thomasd'Arcos in Tunis, he noted that the nativeswere proneto belief in the occult powerof engraved stones »which they take nearly all for Talismans« (Lettres de Peiresc, 10May 1631,VII, p. 97).
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nius on this engraved gem, which Baronius had used to illustrate his discussionof the history and theology of Gnostics in the second volume of his AnnalesEcclesiastici (1597). Peiresc showed Baronius the collection of Basilidian andValentinian gems that he had put together and which he believed offered afirmerdocumentary foundation than the single amethyst that Baronius had reliedupon.72
Gassendi mentions that the substance of Peiresc's remarks to Baronius was
preserved in a letter to Natalitio Benedetti, a well-known gem collector fromFoligno whom he had met on that Italian trip. A copy of this letter, which Gassendi summarized, survives in draft. Peiresc provided Benedetti with a pottedversion of the account found in patristic heresiologists like Epiphanius." Theletters they exchanged over the next decade offer tantalizing traces of an extensive commerce in Gnostic gems.74 Peiresc sought, for a long time after Bene-
72 Baronius: Annales Ecclesiastici, II, year 120, paragraphs vii-xxvi; here parag. xvii. IngoHerklotz has pointed to the importance of Baronius's use of coins for the genre of ecclesiastical history (pHistoria Sacra und mittelaltcrliche Kunst wahrend der zweiten Halfte des16. Jahrhunderts in Rom«, in: Baronio e I'arte. Atti del convegno internazionale di studi,eds. Romeo Maio et al. (Sora, 1987), pp. 23-74, esp., p. 64). For Baronius as scholar seethe essays in: Baronio storico e la Controriforma, eds. Romeo de Maioet al. (Sora, 1982),and now Stefano Zen: Baronio storico. Controriforma e crisi del metodo umanistico(Naples, 1994). For the amethyst of Abraxas used by Baronius see Pierre de Nolhac: »Lescollections de FulvioOrsini«, in: Melanges d'archeologie et d'histoire 4 (1884), p. 154.
73 »Fuerror mio lo scriver a V. S. che'l primo autore della parola ABPACAE fosse vissuto atempi di Giuliano, poscia ch'eglimod sotto Hadriano, e si chiam6 Basilides. e benvero chela sua heresia repulluld in que'tempi, e durd anco fin a Valentiniano e piu abasso.accresciuta di quelle de'Nicolaiti, Gnostici, Carpocratiani, Valentiniani, Heracleoniti,Ophiti, Arcontici, Heusiani, Samrasaei, Bardesianisti, Cathari, Marcosij, e molte altre, lequali nacquero tutte quasi in medesimo tempo, e se beneci eraqualche diversita tra loro,volevano nondimeno tutti che'l mondo fosse fatto da gli Angeli, 6 da certe potentieangelichc imaginate da loro, e battezatto di certi nomi Barbari, tratti quasi tutti, in sensoocculto, d'alle fintioni poetiche di Hesiodo, e degli altri Greci, e moltevolte osservando lamaniera del parlare Ebreo 6 Syriaco. Insomma, sarei troppo longo se volessi raccontarleminutamente gli articoli delle loro heresie sara meglio che V. S. vegga lei stessa tutto il2,3,4 tomidi Epiphanio contra le 80 Heresie« [Epiphanius: Contra octaginta haerescs opus,Panarium appellatam] (Peiresc to Benedetti, 8 March 1602, Carp. Bibl.Inguimb.,MS. 1809, fol. 396r. Gassendi's summary is in: Mirrour, year 1600, p. 28).
74 The following letters survive: from Peiresc to Benedetti, 8 March 1602,26 November 1612,3 April 1613,14 August 1613,29 October 1613,25 March 1614,6 June 1614 (Carp. Bibl.Inguimb., MS. 1809, fols. 397-405), 13 October 1614 (MS. 1872, fol. 254), and fromBenedetti to Peiresc 1 March 1613; 20 May 1613; 24 January 1614; 12March 1614 (B. N.F. fr. 9542, fols. 149-54). Amongthe >intagli antiqui< thathe sentto Benedetti on 26 November 1612 was a »Iaspo verde con1'Erictonio, a capo humano, pedibus serpentini &c.«(Carpentras MS. 1809, fol. 397^. At the end of his letter of 3 April 1613 Peiresc sketched,amid a secretary's transcription, oneof thegems he sent, a bearded canopus surrounded bystars and letters with a reverse showing»instrumenta varia geometrica« (4001). This gemwas reprinted inIoannes Chifflet's Abraxas Proteus (1657), p. 123, with acommentary thatlinked it to theone primordial Creator intheBasilidian cosmogony. It isnowbelieved to bea seventeenth-century forgery. (I thank Jeffrey Spier for this information.) Benedetti sentPeiresc a numberof stoneson 25 January 1614 (received 12 March), including four whosesurviving descriptions by Peiresc seem to identify them with the magical-gnostic amulets:three were typical animal-headed, serpent-footed and lAQ-inscribed, while a fourth, ingreen jasper, was described as »Sarapidis caput cum inscriptionibus Basilidianis« (B.N.MS. F. Fr. 9530, fol. 232'.This list is followed by another which included four additional
The Antiquary's Art ofComparison: Peiresc and Abraxas 75
detti's death, to obtain sketches of the stones in his collection." Abraxasretained enough of a hold on Peiresc's imagination for him to record the chancediscovery, in a Church while on other business, of one such gem incorporatedinto a reliquary.76
Peiresc's relationship with Benedetti bore fruit almost immediately. LorenzoPignoria warmly acknowledged Peiresc's assistance in his Vetustissimae tabulaeaeneae...explicatio (1605), a study of the famed Mensa Isiaca that draws extensively on ancient gems for iconographical evidence and is a model of antiquariancomparison.77 Pignoria specifically acknowledged Peiresc's help in obtainingfrom Benedetti gems that illustrated Epiphanius's and Irenaeus's observationson ancient Christiansects. These had inspired Pignoria to add an Auctarium andthe engravings at the rear of the volume.78 Pignoria argued, following Baronius(to whom the book was dedicated), but with more support from visual evidence,that Abraxas and its makers, including Basilides, were part of an ancient andnative Egyptian tradition of idolatry. The Basilidian and Valentinian heresieswere to be understood as late antique manifestations of that still-fertile imagination.79 Pignoria's engravings of Abraxas gems were crude, but represented more
Abraxas gems, fol. 234). Peiresc seems to have most prized the amethyst of »Mercurycovered in letters with a branch and serpent« (Peiresc to Benedetti, 14 August 1613 Carp.Bibl.Inguimb, MS. 1869 fol. 400") that Peiresc thoughtunusual enough to draw alongsidethe list [Fig. 1]. The serpent with lion head is the Egyptian solar god Chnuphis and theseven vowels referto the seven heavens.The Mercury bears the inscription IACO CABACOAACONEI, invoking the Gnostics' typical use of Hebrew names of God (B. N.,MS. F. fr. 9530 fol. 2320-A moreprecise drawing is at fol. 220r [Fig. 2].
75 Sec Peiresc to Pignoria 20September 1616 (Carp MS. 1875 fol. 33O; Peiresc to Aleandro4 November 1620 (Correspondance de Peiresc & Aleandro, II, p. 223); Peiresc to ClaudeMenestrier25 April 1629(Lettres de Peiresc, V, p. 569).
76 Observed in the Church of the Dames Religieuses de St. Louis of the order ofSt. Dominique, Carp. Bibl. Inguimb. MS. 1791, fol. 71v.
77 Its subtitle tellingly located this case study within the framework of early seventeenth-century accounts of comparative religion, such as Pignoria's own addition to VincenzoCartari's lmagini delli dei de gli antichi (1615): »in qua antiquissimarum superstitionumOrigines, Progressiones, Ritus ad Barbaram, Graecam, Romanamque Historiam illustran-dam enarrantur«.
78 »[...] eidem Fabricio acceptum ferri debet omne id quod e Natalitii Benedecti preciosisloculis evulgamus. e quibus Auctarionostracum robore & incremento spiritus accessit. eaenim omnia, quae ad illustrandam Epiphanii, Irenei, & aliorumPatrum historiam Sectariosantiquos exagitantem attulimus, inde profectasunt« (Vetustissimae tabulae aeneae [...] explicate, Venice, 1605, fols. 8v-9r; also quoted by Gassendi for the year 1602). Some ofthese gems may have remained in Pignoria's collection where their presence was recordedin the inventory of Pignoria's Museum: »Gemmaeannulares insignes non paucae, sive expromiscuo signandi usu, sive ex mysteriis Aegyptiorum & veterum haereticorum.«(J. P. Tomasini: Laurentii Pignorii Vita, Bibliotheca & Museum, found in the late seventeenth-centuryreprint of Mensa Isiaca (Amsterdam, 1669), p. 88 separately paginated). Aletter from Pignoria to Peiresc of 17 May 1602, the period in which he was working onMensa Isiaca, contains a postscript >De IAQ< that discusses sources including »Theoretus[sic] in sermone secundo de principiis in Porphyrio«, Diodorus Siculus, bk. II, ch. 5»Moses ab Iaco, quern Deum vocant«, and Bellarmine's reference in his Hebrew Grammarto Clement of Alexandria's Stromateis bk. 5 and Macrobius' Saturnalia bk. 1, ch. 18 (AixBibl. Mejanes, MS. 209 (1027), p. 343).
79 »Sectariorum veterum Hicroglyphica, nugas verius, adiunxi permotus doctorum Virorumadhortatione, & impulsusexemplo Illustrissimi Viri Caesaris Baronii Card, qui historiam
76 Peter N. Miller
types than had thus far been published.80 Peiresc, in any event, had his own wayof increasing their precision: by coloring in Pignoria's engravings in their appropriate shades of red, green and grey.81
Abraxas was a relic of the pagan background of early Christianity. Peirescwas also very familiar with the most elaborate contemporary attempt to retrievethis complex intellectual context made concrete in the image. Jean L'Heureux,>Macarius< (1540-1614) was among the pioneers of archaeologia sacra in theRoman circle of Alfonso Chac6n, along with his countryman Philips vanWinghe and the young Antonio Bosio.82 His work went well beyond Pignoria'srather simplistic category of >idolatry<. We know from published correspondencethe respect which Peiresc had for the younger, and more famous, Antonio Bosio.In a letter to Paolo Gualdo of 1615, long before Roma Sotterranea (1632) wasfinally published, Peiresc asked after Bosio, pledged his service andacknowledged that he had been inspired by him to make his own investigationsof the Alyscamps in Aries, where he had found many marble tombs along withrelics »con note del Paganesimo piuttosto che del Christianesimo«.83
Peiresc's unpublished and unexamined correspondence with Macarius showshow familiar he was with the work of the other members of this first generation
anni CXX scalpta huius generis Amethysto exornatam voluit, & locupletalam. & saneplerique Principes eius scolae, qui nomine tcnus Christiani olim iurarunt in magistri Dia-boli verba, Aegyptij natione fuerunt. in his Marcus, qui Hispanias infecit; Basilides ma-gister luxuriae, turpissimorumque coplexum; &Carpocrates inquinati, &coenosi dogmatisassertor. alij Aegyptiorum doctrinis imbuti, ut Cherintus pestilens ille novator. ut minimeminim videri debeat si Lotum, Harpocratem, & reliqua Aegyptiorum somnia in eorundemsymbolis conspiciamus. ncc defuerunt qui Pythagorae & Platonis axiomata ex Aegyptoplurimum exportata in usus converterent dogmatum insanorum« (Pignoria: Vetustissimaetabulae aeneae, fols. 42v-43r). This is thekernel of theargument for thediffusion of culturefrom Egypt that Pignoria elaborated inthe Seconda Parte delle Imagini de gliDei Indian!Aggionta al Cartari (Venice, 1615), p.361.Gorlaeus's Dactyliotheca has only two representations of the Abraxas gem: ring no. 183and pt. II, no. 137. The tremendous increase inknowledge about these gems over the courseof the seventeenth century is reflected in the quantity in which they are found in JacobGronovius's expanded version ofDactyliotheca (1695). Drawing on published material headded many more illustrations. See Dactyliothecae. Pars Secunda, seu variarum gemmarumquibus antiquitas in signando uti solita, scalpturae, triplo quam fuerint, partim antehacineditarum, partim ex scriptis eruditorum, virorum collectarum numero locuplatiores cumsuccinta singularum explicatione, nos. 325, 328, 331, 332, 333, 334, 336, 338, 340, 342,344, 361, 362, 364. By the late seventeenth century even a courtesy book (albeit onedestined for learned aristocrats) included a chapter on Abraxas. See Baudelot de Dairval:De I'utilite des voyages, et I'avantagc que larecherche des antiquitez procure aux scavans,2 vols.(Paris, 1686), vol. I, pp. 323-31.Peiresc's copy of Pignoria's book is in Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, Res. J. 1302. Thiswas not unusual for him: see Peiresc to Valavez, 14 June 1626, in: Lettres de Peiresc, VI,pp. 555-56; Peiresc to Pasqualini, 26 January 1622, quoted in van der Meulen: »NicoIas-ClaudeFabri de Peiresc and Ancient Glyptic«, p. 211.See Gisela Wataghin Cantino: »Roma sottcranea. Appunti sulle origini dell'archeologiacristiana«, in: Rivista di storia dell'arte 10 (1980), pp. 5-14 and the appended bibliography;Barbara Agosti: Collezionismo e Archeologia Cristiana nel Seicento (Milan, 1996).Peiresc to Paolo Gualdo, 30 November 1615, in: Lettere d'uomini illustri, che fiorino nelprincipio del sccolo decimosettimo, non piu stampate (Venice, 1744), pp. 255-56. See IngoHerklotz: »Cassiano and the Christian Tradition«, in: Quaderni Puteani 2 (Milan, 1992),pp. 31-48 onBosio's tangled posthumus publication history.
/ ne Antiquary s Art oj comparison: reiresc ana Aoraxas it
of sacred archaeologists, Macarius and van Winghe. In the summer of 1611Macarius sent Peiresc a copy of his Abraxas, seu Apistopisti, the most substantial study of the gem yet attempted. Peiresc acknowledged its receipt in a letter toJe>6me de Winghe, Philips' brother, a canon at the cathedral of Notre-Dame deTournai, whom Peiresc had met there on his Grand Tour. Peiresc promised toreply as soon as possiblewith »some curiosities a propos his Abrasax«.84
Nearly a year passed before Peiresc wrote directly to Macarius. He belatedlyand apologetically acknowledged receipt of the discourse and conveyed hisdesire to reply in kind with engravings of some of his own gems and with theobservations that he had prepared some time before. Yet, his professional andpersonal responsibilities had prevented him from doing this and made him feel»more embarrassed than I ever was«. JeYdme had informed him of Macarius's
desire to recoverthe manuscript as soon as possible and so he was returning itwithout the learned commentary that he hoped, eventually, to include. In themeantime, Peiresc wanted Macarius to know how much pleasure he had taken inthe »clarifications ofone ofthe most obscureand rare piecesofantiquity«.85
Macarius replied immediately, thanking Peiresc for reading his Abraxas andhoping one day to have the opportunity to discuss his observations in person.Macarius was sorry both that Peiresc did not visit him when in the Low Countries, and that they had not met in Rome since he, too, was a frequent guest inthe house of Lelio Pasqualini, where Macarius thought he might once have seenhim. Macarius concluded by mentioning that he had composed his discourse on
Peiresc to de Winghe, 17 September 1611,Carp. Bibl. Inguimb., MS. 1876, fol. 680': »J'ayenftn receu les discours de Mr Macarie ou j'ay bien prins de plaizir. Je luy remercyeray aupremier jour avec quelques curiossitls a propos de son Abrasax ou je m'assure qu'iltreuveraquelque goust, s'il plaista dieu.« I follow Peiresc'susage in referring to Jdrdme byhis French name.Peiresc to Macarius, 28 July 1612, Carp. Bibl. Inguimb., MS. 1876, fols. 659"v: »Jepansoystousjours treuverle loisirde ranger une centaynede Graveurs antiques que j'ay dumesme temps avec des Inscriptions convenables a ce que disent les anciens peres de cespremiers heretiques basilidians, valentins gnostiques & aultres quy ont tant donnd de trouble a la primitive esglize meslans des misteres du judaisme & de cristianissme dans leurpaganisme & esperoys parmesme moien d'y pourvoir adjouster quelques petites observations que j'y avoys faict dessus aultreffois: Mais les occouppations du Palais & les afferesdomestiques m'ont insensiblementconduict jusques a ceste heure sans que je me soy ac-quitte* de ce debvoyr. & le prix est que je me treuveen ceste cour le plus embarrass^ que jefeust jamais de sortequ'il me seroytdu tout impossiblea ceste heured'y satisfere. Je voussupplie done d'avoyr agreable que je le differe jusques a ce que je sois de retour en Prou-vence. Cepandant parce que Mr Winghe m'escript que vous desiriez recouvrer vostre discoursje le vous renvoye avec mille remerciemens d'aultant plus grandzque j'avoys moinsmerits ceste faveur envers vous ne pouvantvous en dire aultrechoze si ce n'est que i'y y aytrouve de si belles // & curieuses recherches & de si beaux esclaircissemens d'aulcunes desplus obscures et plus rares pieces de PAntiquitte que je ne pouvoys que prendre unsingullier plaisir a la lecture de tant de eruditions This letter was sent to de Winghe, asPeiresc explained to him in the letter that accompanied it, »parce que je ne scay pas sesquallitez ny bonnement de lieu de sa residence je vous supplie d'adjouster lesdictes qual-litez au dessus de mon pacquet & de le luy faire tenir seurement parce que son discours yest enclos auquelj'eusse adjoustd vollonticrs quelque choze. Mais mon malleur ne m'a paspermis d'en treuver le loisir a mon trez grand regret«(Peiresc to de Winghe, 29 July 1612,Carp. Bibl. Inguimb., MS. 1876, fol. 684*).
78
Pete
rN
.M
ille
r
Abr
axas
befo
rese
eing
Scal
iger
'sO
pusc
ula
vari
aw
ith
its
publ
icat
ion
of
the
lette
rto
Baga
rris
abou
tthe
sege
ms.
He
wish
edto
know
Peire
sc's
view
ofth
atco
rres
pond
ence
.86In
repl
y,Pe
iresc
agre
edth
atit
was
poss
ible
that
they
mig
htha
vese
enea
chot
herc
hezP
asqu
alin
ian
dap
olog
ized
for
bein
gun
able
togi
vea
prec
iseop
inio
non
the
Scal
iger
-Bag
arris
exch
ange
beca
use
hedi
dno
tha
vehi
sco
pyof
theb
ookw
ithhi
min
Paris
.87A
brax
as,s
euA
pist
opis
tus
was
notp
ublis
hed
unti
l165
7,bu
tPei
resc
'spa
pers
pres
erve
two
man
uscr
ipt
copi
esof
the
book
.88In
it,M
acar
ius
expl
aine
dth
em
eani
ngof
the
>mon
strou
s<co
ck-h
eade
dan
guip
ede
inte
rms
ofth
atcu
ltura
lhi
nter
land
whe
repa
gani
sman
dC
hris
tiani
tym
ingl
ed.T
hebo
okca
nbe
read
asan
inte
rpre
tatio
nof
Gno
stic
theo
logy
base
don
the
com
paris
onof
text
san
dar
tefa
cts.8
9M
acar
ius
sum
mar
ised
patr
istic
acco
unts
of
the
Bas
ilidi
anco
smog
eny
wit
hit
s36
5he
aven
s,an
gelic
hier
arch
ies,
and
supr
eme
deity
nam
edA
brax
as(11
.10-
11).
Afte
rm
entio
ning
the
num
erol
ogic
aleq
uiva
lenc
eof
Abra
xas
and
Mith
ras
(also
365
inG
reek
),he
obse
rved
that
the
Basi
lidia
nsou
ght,
ther
efor
e,to
Mac
ariu
sto
Peire
sc,
1Se
ptem
ber
1612
,A
ix,B
ibl.
Mej
anes
,M
S.20
6(1
024)
,p.
336:
»Je
vous
dois
infin
imen
trem
erci
erde
cequ
'ilvo
usa
pleu
parc
ourir
mon
disc
ours
surA
brax
as,
espe
rant
qu'u
njo
urno
usco
mm
uniq
uere
rons
cequ
'enav
ezob
serv
e\Ca
rco
nfes
sons
bien
que
n'av
ons
peu
voir
tout
esles
piec
esd'
antiq
uire
quic
once
rnen
tce
mon
stre,
etpa
rai
nsy
n'av
ons
sceu
faire
nost
redi
scou
rsac
com
pli,
etsi
parf
ait
que
desi
rion
s.Je
pens
ede
vous
avoi
rve
uen
lam
aiso
nde
Lelio
Pasq
ualin
o,le
quel
me
sem
ble
avds
fort
frequ
ents.
Jesu
isfor
tmar
ryqu
equ
and
avds
este-
ence
Pays
Bas,
n'av
dsvi
sitd
nostr
epe
tite
mai
son
enAi
re;
Jevo
useu
sse
mon
tre
unau
tre
disc
ours
sur
une
nouv
elle
mat
iere
d'an
tiqui
te[..
.]D
epui
sav
oir
ache
vds
etes
crip
tmon
disc
ours
A'Ab
raxa
say
veu
auliv
rede
sop
uscu
les
posth
umes
deSc
alig
eriu
nior
,lei
ugem
entd
elu
ysu
rno
stre
mon
stre;
etne
I'are
conn
upo
urAb
raxa
s.Je
desir
equ
elis
&les
deux
epitr
esqu
iso
ntsu
rce
poin
t,et
qu'il
vous
plai
sem
'envo
yer
vostr
ead
vis«
.Thi
sin
form
atio
npr
ovid
esa
defin
itete
rmin
usad
quer
nof
1610
for
the
date
ofM
acar
ius'
sco
mpo
siti
on.
Pres
umab
ly,
Peire
scco
uld
have
laid
hand
son
anot
her
copy
ofth
ebo
ok,
butn
otth
eon
eco
ntai
ning
his
anno
tatio
ns,s
ugge
sting
what
wek
now
from
else
wher
e,th
atPe
iresc
'sde
btto
Scal
iger
was
expr
esse
dal
soin
this
kind
ofac
tive
read
ing.
For
Peire
sc's
anno
tatio
nof
his
copi
esof
Scal
iger
'sTh
esau
rus
Tem
poru
man
dDe
renu
mm
aria
see
Peire
scto
Dup
uy,
18D
ecem
ber
1632
,in:
Lettr
esde
Peire
scIII
,p.
396
and
Hen
riO
mon
t:»L
esm
anus
crits
etle
sliv
res
anno
tds
deFa
bri
dePc
ires
c«,
in:A
nnal
esdu
Mid
i1(1
889)
,pp
.316
-39.
Peir
esc
wen
ton
tom
entio
nth
eim
pend
ing
publ
icat
ion
ofa
man
uscr
ipte
ntitl
edSi
bila
Mag
ica
Zoro
astri
Salo
mon
isth
atco
ntai
ned
a»g
rand
nom
bre
des
supe
rstit
ions
fort
conv
enab
les
aux
figur
esm
onst
reus
esde
votr
eAb
rasa
x«:
(Pei
resc
toM
acar
ius,
20O
ctob
er16
12,
Car
p.B
ibl.
Ingu
imb.
MS.
1876
,fol
.658
*).
One
isfo
und
ina
volu
me
onge
ms
that
belo
nged
toPe
iresc
and
prob
ably
ente
red
the
Dup
uyco
llect
ion
in16
48as
Dup
uyM
S.66
7(I
than
kD
r.Jd
r6m
eD
elat
our
for
this
info
rmat
ion)
,an
dan
othe
ris
foun
din
Carp
.M
S.18
31fo
ls.2-
19.T
heC
arpc
ntra
sve
rsio
nha
sm
argi
nal
note
sin
thes
ame
hand
asth
ecop
yist
's,id
entif
ying
the
plac
esw
here
theg
ems
men
tione
din
the
text
coul
dbe
foun
d:w
ith
Ale
xand
erR
enie
rs,V
ince
ntiu
sC
olig
erus
(ide
ntif
ied
as»p
ictor
isBe
lgae
Rom
ae«)
,Pas
qual
ini,
orin
Pign
oria
'sAu
ctariu
m.T
hese
refer
ence
sar
eno
tfo
und
inth
ePa
risco
py,
nor
inth
epr
inte
dve
rsio
nof
Abra
xas,
sugg
estin
g,pe
rhap
sth
atth
ese
are
Mac
ariu
s'sow
nm
argi
nalia
.T
hefa
ilure
toin
clud
ean
yre
fere
nce
toG
orla
eus'
Dac
tylio
thec
aor
Bene
detti
'sge
msm
akes
sens
eon
lyif
the
auth
orof
the
mar
gina
liawe
reM
acar
ius,
not
Peire
sc,
who
was
fam
iliar
with
both
men
and
thei
rco
llect
ions
.Th
epo
sthum
ous
inve
ntor
yof
Peire
sc's
pape
rslis
tsM
acar
ius's
Abra
xas(
Carp
.Bib
l.In
guim
b.,
MS.
1870
fol.
292*
).Io
anne
sM
acar
ius:
Abra
xas,
seu
Apis
topi
stus
;qu
aees
tant
iqua
riade
gem
mis
Basil
idia
nis
disq
uisit
io,(
Antw
erp,
1657
),I.
9.Al
lsub
sequ
entr
efere
nces
are
tose
ctio
n(R
oman
num
eral
s)an
dpa
ge.
The
Ant
iqua
ry's
Art
ofC
ompa
riso
n:P
eire
scan
dA
brax
as7
9
beco
nsid
ered
asw
orsh
ippe
rso
fM
ithra
san
dA
brax
asa
Mit
hrai
cem
blem
.M
acar
ius's
abili
tyto
expl
ain
Mith
raic
imag
ery,
such
asth
esu
n,lio
n,bu
llan
dm
oon,
was
mad
eea
sier
byar
chae
olog
y.H
eha
dac
tual
lyse
enM
ithra
icre
mai
nsin
whi
chhu
man
and
leon
ine
figur
eswe
rein
terc
hang
eabl
yus
ed,a
sin
the
gem
s(V
.14-
15).9
0O
nth
isre
adin
g,Ab
raxa
sw
asa
com
posi
tere
pres
enta
tion,
oral
lego
ry,o
fMit
hrai
cbe
lief
s(V
II.
15).
But
this
rais
eda
muc
hm
ore
com
plex
ques
tion
ofs
yncr
etis
m.
Mac
ariu
sde
scri
bed
the
Abr
axas
as»l
ike
aTr
ojan
Hor
se,
for
just
asth
eG
reek
hero
esem
erge
dfro
mits
wom
b,so
Abra
xas
hide
sin
itsw
omb
allth
efa
mily
ofth
ego
ds,
wheth
erEg
yptia
n,G
reek
,La
tinor
Persi
ans9
1In
Dedi
isSy
ris,
com
plet
edby
1605
,th
ough
notp
ublis
hed
until
1617
,an
dde
clar
edby
Mom
iglia
noto
bea
pion
eeri
ngef
fort
inco
mpa
rativ
ere
ligio
n,Jo
hnSe
lden
seto
utto
docu
men
tw
hat
man
y,lik
eM
acar
ius,
only
impl
icitl
ysu
gges
ted:
that
the
man
ypa
gan
gods
wer
eve
rsio
nsof
aon
eG
odw
how
asw
orsh
ippe
dun
der
diffe
rent
nam
esan
dat
trib
utes
indi
ffere
ntpl
aces
atdi
ffere
nttim
es.92
Seld
endi
scus
ses
the
Abra
xas
gem
inhi
sac
coun
tofT
erap
him
,the
smal
lfa
mily
idol
ssto
len
byRa
chel
whe
nle
avin
gth
eho
use
ofLa
ban.
Seld
enqu
oted
from
ale
tter
ofSc
alig
erto
Casa
ubon
(»Ve
tere
sha
ereti
cipr
aese
rtim
Vale
ntin
iani
&M
arco
siani
mul
taeiu
smod
ireli
quer
unt,
quae
hodi
ein
Antiq
uario
rum
vocu
lisas
serv
antu
rcu
meo
rum
Deo
Abra
sax«
)an
dsu
mm
aris
edth
em
ajor
patri
stic
auth
oriti
es,n
otin
gin
pass
ing
StJe
rom
e's
iden
tific
atio
nof
Abra
xas
with
Mith
ras
inhi
sC
omm
enta
ryon
Amos
.93
Inde
ed,
Mac
ariu
s'scl
aim
that
Mith
raic
relig
ion
shar
edw
ith
Chr
istia
nity
the
ritua
lsof
bapt
ism
,euc
hari
stan
dbe
lief
inre
surr
ectio
n,no
tto
men
tion
its
one
>in
vinc
ible
<go
d(II
I.12
),ra
ised
the
poss
ibili
tyof
apa
gan
mon
othe
ism
with
impl
icat
ions
for
the
unde
rsta
ndin
go
fnat
ural
relig
ion
too
com
plex
toen
teri
nto
here
.A
fter
Mac
ariu
s'de
ath
in16
14hi
spa
pers
pass
edin
toth
eca
reo
fJer
ome
deW
ingh
e,w
ith
who
mPe
iresc
had
mai
ntai
ned,
all
thes
eye
ars,
anac
tive
corr
esp
onde
nce
dom
inat
edby
bota
nica
lqu
estio
ns.
Ina
lette
rto
Peire
scof
8Ju
ly16
18,d
eW
ingh
eex
plai
ned
that
Mac
ariu
s's
exec
utor
sha
dse
nthi
mth
ete
xto
fAb
raxa
sfo
rpu
blic
atio
n.D
eW
ingh
esu
gges
ted
that
itbe
publ
ished
alon
gw
ithPe
ires
c'sow
nco
mm
enta
ryon
the
gem
s.If
Peire
scth
ough
tth
atA
brax
asw
asw
orth
publ
ishi
ng,
othe
rw
orks
byM
acar
ius
had
also
been
deli
vere
din
tohi
spo
sses
sion
.P
eire
sc's
filin
gno
teon
the
flyl
eafo
fthe
lette
rsu
mm
ariz
edit
sco
n-
Lor
enzo
Pig
nori
apu
blis
hed
one
oft
hese
»alta
rs«
whi
chhe
clai
med
toha
vese
enin
Rom
ein
1606
onth
eCap
itolin
eH
illin
hiss
uppl
emen
tto
Vinc
enzo
Car
tari'
sim
agin
idel
lide
ideg
lian
tichi
(161
5).
For
Mith
ras
and
itsi
mag
ery
see
F.Sa
xl:
»Mith
ras.
The
Hist
ory
ofan
Indo
-Eu
rope
anD
ivin
ity«,
inhi
sLe
ctur
es(L
ondo
n,19
57),
I,pp
.13-
44;
Lero
yC
ampb
ell,
Mith
raic
Icon
ogra
phy
and
Ideo
logy
(Lei
den,
1968
).91
Mac
arius
:Abr
axas
,XI.
19:»
uttan
dem
veru
msit
,Abr
axam
instar
esse
equi
Troia
ni,qu
iut
Her
oes
Gra
ecos
uter
oge
reba
t,it
aAb
raxa
sut
ero
cond
atom
nium
Deo
rum
fam
ilias
,se
u>
€gyp
tii,
seu
Gra
eci,
&L
atin
i,&
Per
sici
«.92
See
A.M
omig
liano
:»L
anu
ova
storia
roma
nadi
G.B.
Vico
«,in:
Sesto
cont
ribut
oali
ast
oria
degl
ist
udic
lass
ici
ede
lmon
doan
tico
(Rom
e,19
80),
p.19
7.93
John
Selde
n:De
diis
Syris
(Lon
don,
1617
),p.
viii,
xx,
p.37
.Co
mpar
ison
with
Max
Web
er's
rem
arks
onth
eTe
raph
im(A
ncie
ntJu
dais
m,t
r.H
ans
H.G
erth
and
Don
Mar
tinda
le(N
ewY
ork
&Lo
ndon
,19
52),
p.13
8)sh
ows
how
the
antiq
uary
'sto
ols
and
visi
onha
dch
ange
din
bein
gmad
ein
toso
ciol
ogy.
G.J
.Vos
sius
brie
flylis
tsth
elo
ciof
anci
ent
disc
ussio
nsof
Abr
axas
inD
eTh
eolo
gia
Gen
tili,
(Am
ster
dam
,16
41),
bk.I
,ch.
8,p.
60.
80
Pete
rN
.M
ille
r
tent
sas
:»E
ditio
nde
I'Abr
asax
deM
acar
ius«
.94
On
22A
ugus
t,in
repl
yto
ale
tter
ofPe
ires
c's
now
mis
sing
,de
Win
ghe
expr
esse
dhi
sre
gret
atno
tpo
sses
sing
Pei
resc
'sow
n>
note
san
dob
serv
atio
ns^
Mea
nwhi
le,
heas
ked
Pei
resc
todi
scov
erw
heth
erth
ePa
risia
npr
inte
rSe
basti
enC
ram
oisy
was
inte
reste
din
abo
okof
this
sort
whi
lehe
wou
lddo
the
sam
ew
ith
Balth
asar
Mor
etus
inAn
twer
p.95
On
20Se
ptem
ber,
deW
ingh
eac
know
ledg
edth
atbo
thCr
amoi
syan
dM
oretu
sha
dtu
rned
dow
nth
eman
uscr
iptb
ecau
seth
eyw
ere
too
busy
.De
Win
ghe
still
desir
edPe
iresc
'sno
tes
onAb
raxa
sto
whi
chhe
hope
dto
add
thos
eof
Den
ysde
Ville
rs.9
6A
few
days
later
Peire
scse
ntLo
renz
oPi
gnor
iaa
copy
ofM
acar
ius's
essa
yw
hich
heha
dre
ceiv
edfro
mV
ille
rsin
Tour
nai.9
7In
May
1619
,de
Win
ghe
was
stil
las
king
Peire
scfo
rhi
s»n
otes
sur
Abra
xas«
.91
Ina
posts
crip
tto
that
lette
rof
July
1618
deW
ingh
em
entio
ned
the
exist
ence
ofan
othe
rm
anus
crip
tby
Mac
ariu
s,H
agio
glyp
tasiv
epi
ctur
aeet
scul
ptur
aesa
crae
antiq
uior
es.
Ash
eha
din
Abra
xas,
Mac
ariu
she
rese
tab
oute
xpla
inin
g
94De
Win
ghe
toPe
iresc
8Ju
ly16
18,B
.N.M
S.F.
fr.95
39,
fol.3
1r:»
Mon
sieur
,[...]
ceste
vase
ulem
entp
ourv
ous
dire
,que
lesEx
ecut
eurs
testa
men
taire
sde
feuM
ons.
PHeu
reux
m'o
nten
voys
l'Abr
axas
dudi
tL'H
eure
uxpo
urle
faire
impr
imer
mai
sde
vant
que
cefai
re,v
ous
aybi
envo
ullu
prier
prim
iere
men
t,de
me
envo
yer
lesno
tes
etob
serv
atio
nsqu
'ave
zsu
rce
suie
t,au
ltres
que
cclle
sdu
d.L'
Heu
reux
,po
urles
faire
voir
auPu
blic
qav
ecled
.Ab
raxa
s,so
ubs
vost
reno
msi
ains
yil
vous
plai
t[...
].[P
S]Si
i'ay
bonn
em
emoi
re,a
ulib
vre
des
antiq
uete
zde
mon
feufre
re,q
uies
tche
zvou
s,y
aqu
elque
chos
eco
nccr
nant
ledi
tsui
ect;
vous
[me]
fcrez
dem
'enen
voye
rI'e
xtrai
t,se
ilvo
uses
tpo
ssib
le.
Degr
ace
vostr
ejug
emen
t,si
iuge
zled
.lib
vre
d'Abr
axas
estre
dign
ede
voir
lalu
mier
e.II
ensu
yvra
enco
rd'au
trcs,
assa
voir
ung
intitu
le1Ag
iogl
ypta
,etu
nde
sAn
tiqui
tezd
eRo
mm
e.«95
DeW
ingh
eto
Peire
sc,2
2Au
gust
1618
,B.N
.M
S.F.
fr.95
39,
fol.3
3r:
»Mon
sieur
,Voz
avis
sur1
'Impr
imer
iede
l'Abr
axas
me
sem
blcn
tbon
s,et
vous
enre
mer
cye,
mai
ssu
ysm
arry
que
voz
notes
sur
lem
esm
esu
biec
tne
vous
sont
pres
entem
enta
lam
ain.
Siie
pens
oyqu
eda
nsqu
elque
moy
s,de
ux,o
utro
isvo
usiri
ezen
Prov
ence
chez
vous
,i'cn
diffe
rero
ypl
usto
tI'l
mpr
essio
niu
squ'a
cequ
em
'aur
iez
com
mun
iqud
cequ
'enav
ezob
serv
d.Je
suys
endo
uble
ouie
leve
uxfa
ireim
prim
er,
aPa
risch
ezC
ram
oisy
,ou
enAn
vers
chez
Mor
etus
.Su
rqu
oyse
roy
bien
aise
d'avo
irvo
stre
avis,
etqu
'ilvo
uspl
eust
d'en
parle
ra
icelu
yCr
amoi
sy,l
uyfai
sant
enten
dre
quel
libvr
equ
ec'e
st.Je
vous
prie
dene
plus
parle
rdu
libvr
ede
feum
onfre
re,
lors
que
sere
zen
vostr
em
aiso
n,et
aure
zm
oyen
dem
ele
renv
oyer
,le
pour
rez
faire
avo
stre
belle
com
mod
it6.«
96De
Win
ghe
toPe
iresc
,20
Sept
embe
r16
18,B
.N.M
S.F.
fr.95
39fol
.34':
»Led
.Cra
moi
sym
'aes
crip
tqui
lne
peul
tent
endr
ea1
'impr
essio
nde
l'Abr
axas
,aca
use
qu'il
asu
rles
bras
2ou
3au
tres
oeuv
res.
Mor
etus
m'a
ditd
em
esm
e.Je
varie
dele
faire
impr
imer
ence
ste
ville
,ou
iese
ray
tous
iours
surl
esbr
asde
I'im
prim
eur,
ety
serv
iray
deco
rrecte
ur.M
aisje
desi-
rero
ypr
emier
emen
tavo
irles
notes
qu'en
aM
ons.r
deVi
lers
esta
nten
core
nAn
vers
,ets
urto
utles
vostr
es,e
nca
squ
'ilvo
uspl
aitd
efai
reta
ntde
d'ho
nneu
rau
defu
nct
PHeu
reux
,et
debi
enau
publ
ic.«
97In
alet
terto
Pign
oria
dated
25.vi
i.161
8in
which
here
ports
Ville
rs'
findi
ngof
the
small
Saba
zian
hand
cove
red
in>h
ierog
lyphi
cs<,
Peire
scad
dsth
athe
had
been
sent
awd
iscor
zom
olto
curio
so«
conc
erni
ngAb
raxa
swh
ich
hewo
uld
imm
edia
tely
send
alon
gan
dwh
ich
heho
ped
could
soon
bepu
blish
ed(C
arp.B
ibl.ln
guim
b,M
S.18
75fol
.352
*).Tw
omo
nthsl
ater
Peire
scre
min
ded
Pign
oria
that
heha
dse
ntth
edi
scou
rse
of»S
r.M
acar
io«
onth
eAb
rasa
xalo
ngwi
thth
eha
nd(3
540-
Pign
oria
dedic
ated
thebo
oktha
tres
ulted
from
thegi
ftof
theha
nd,M
agna
eDe
umm
aths
ldae
aeAt
tidisq
uein
itio
(Par
is,16
23)t
oPe
iresc
.91
DeW
ingh
eto
Peire
sc,2
0M
ay16
19,B
.N.M
S.F.
fr.95
39,2
0M
ay16
19,f
ol.47
v:»Q
uant
sere
za
Aix,
ievo
uspr
ied'
avoi
rm
emoi
rede
vos
notes
sur
Abra
xas,
affin
que
iem
'enpu
isse
serv
ir[?]
(sim
ele
perm
ettez
)su
r[?]
l'Abr
axas
dufeu
Mon
s.rL'
heur
eux,
sub
tuo
no
min
e.«
The
Ant
iqua
ry's
Arto
fCom
paris
on:
Peire
scan
dAb
raxa
soi
imag
eshis
torica
lly.F
orthi
srea
soniti
snow
consi
dered
atrea
tiseo
f»pio
neeri
neim
porta
nce«
forthe
icono
grap
hicstu
dyof
Chris
tian
symbo
lism.
99In
thepr
eface
Macar
iusoff
ered
aco
mpreh
ensiv
esta
temen
toft
hepra
ctice
ofco
mpari
son'
begin
ningb
yada
pting
Horac
etot
hene
edso
ftheh
istori
anof
imag
es-»I
would
say,m
ore
gene
rally
,tha
tspe
ech
islik
ea
pictur
e:jus
tast
heon
epa
ints
with
words
,the
other
speak
swith
color
sand
lines«
.«»Tr
ying
tojus
tifythe
seriou
sstu
dyof
imag
es,Ma
cariu
sarg
ued
thatt
hese
paint
ings
flowe
dfro
mthe
same
sour
ceas
thean
cient
Chris
tian
litera
turew
hich
wass
oresp
ected
,0'Th
etas
ktha
tMa
cariu
sset
forhim
selfw
asno
thing
lesst
han
expla
ining
»ther
eason
forthe
irha
vingb
eenpa
inted
inthi
sway
andthe
mean
ingof
compo
singt
heim
ages
inthi
sway«
.'°2He
conclu
dedthe
prefac
ebyd
escrib
ingap
ractice
thate
xplic
itlyinv
olved
theco
mpar
ison
ofbo
oksa
ndsto
nesi
norde
rto
deter
mine
their
sacred
ance
ntme
aning
:»the
book
sand
thepic
tures
can
shed
light
on,a
ndas
siste
ach
other,
and
thing
stha
tare
obscu
rein
theau
thors
areoft
enma
decle
arin
thesto
nes,
and
what
isfre
quen
tin
thelat
terbu
trar
elyor
hard
lyat
allme
ntion
edin
thefor
mer.«
The
wisd
omof
theea
rlyCh
ristia
ns,l
ikewi
se,o
ften
surv
ived
»not
only
onpa
perb
utals
oon
walls
and
stones
«.103
The
interp
retati
onof
imag
esreq
uired
aso
phist
icated
prac
tice
ofco
mpar
ison
ina
histor
ical
conte
xttha
tMa
cariu
sand
hisco
lleag
uesh
ad,l
itera
lly,to
exca
vate
from
thegr
ound
Maca
rius's
book
drew
onthe
work
ofhis
older
and
youn
gerc
ollea
gues
Chac
onan
dPh
ilipsv
anW
inghe
.Mac
arius
had
supe
rvised
theret
urnto
Je>6m
eof
Phihp
s'slite
rary
remain
s,an
dso
had
ample
oppo
rtunit
yto
study
hiswo
rk.,w
Herkl
otz;:»
Histo
riasa
craun
dmi
ttelal
terlic
heKu
nst«,
p.61
n;see
also
Wolf
gang
Wisc
h-Sc
hrift
'm^1
1"8
^-f
^S
fArCh
a°,0gie
imRom
derGe
genref
orafion
n:|m
Zeits
chrif
tfur
Kirc
heng
esch
ichte
89(1
978)
,pp.
136-
49at
p14
6Ma
carius
:Hag
ioglyp
ta,p.
1:»E
goin
unive
rsum
dixero
:utp
ictura
oratio
esfq
uod
haec
pmga
tserm
one,
iliaco
loribu
sloq
uatur
etlin
eame
ntis«
(quoti
ngHo
race:
Deart
epo
etica
,
,0'Ibi
d.,p.
I:>,Q
U0dsi
veteru
mEc
clesia
ePatr
um,s
cripta
librosq
uemir
amur,
cumob
in-s.g
nem
p.etat
em,t
urnpr
opter
exce
llente
met
singu
larem
doctr
inam
etsa
pienti
amqu
aein
^IJJ?
!CO
mmPic
t"ras
"onsus
picim
us,qua
eidem
pigme
ntise
nuntia
W,quo
d102
E.Pt
a]T
fCtlm
_ei\e
tabe
odem
fonte
re,i8i
osia
™™
etR
ent's
proflu
xerun
f>«
nfR'
;l?n
q".•![
thCim
^eS
andpic
tures
inme
church
es>cem
eterie
sand
sculpt
ures
exP
S,re
Pmg
'qUaS
ignif,c
ati0ne
suasit
ai™*™
*com
ponere
ntcona
bor103
S™h™
dUm°b.i
tercon
J'iciun
tvisu
min
Pr°jec
taper
viam
etdom
ossax
aantiq
ua,ali
quan
dorec
ogno
scant
sacrum
esse,
quod
profan
umcre
derent
,ets
iqui
erunt
quil
ibro
ZZZ0
FJ1F
*pro
fan°sc
'uePe
nilius
inspe
xeru
nt,"a
bebu
ntqu
odma
gna
cum
volup
tate
^hM
,^nlm
arm0
nbUS
CtP,?
ur,SC
Xhibe
ri'qu
aesen
tentiis
inclus
avWe
nuit.
etmu
tuam
^b.l
ucem
opera
mque
praest
arel.b
rospic
turis,
pictur
aslib
ris,e
tmarm
oribu
ssaep
eclar
afier
iqua
eina
ucton
buso
bscura
erant,
autib
ifreq
uentia
,quo
rumhie
rarav
elpa
enenu
llame
ntio:
simul
veter
umet.
amch
ristia
noru
melu
cesce
teta
bstrus
asap
ientia
etpie
tasex
imia
quoru
mno
nsol
um,n
chart
is,sed
etiam
inpa
rietib
uset
saxis
impre
ssarel
iqueri
ntarg
umc
nte.«
This
argu
ment
remain
edac
entra
lfea
ture
ofan
tiqua
rian
schola
rship
Itis
forex
-S
f^
tk°f
w?«i-
for:w
ordin
Thom
asBu
rgess:
Essay
onAn
tiquit
ies(O
xford
1782
),p.
32.»
Thus
alsot
hean
cient
mann
ersof
ape
ople
areillu
strate
dby
their
laws-
and
dieir
lawsr
ecipro
cally
bythe
irear
lymo
nume
nts.C
oinsa
ndMa
rbles
frequ
ently
throw
great
&T
^"
^Wl"
S°mCti
meSr
cflCCt
8Simi
lar,igh
l0nt
he°bs
curhie
sofa
l<ML^
rStm
^T'i1
5?ch
uddebo
om:P
hiliPs
vanWi
nge(15
60-159
2)en
hetOn
staan
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Chr.s
tel.jk
eArch
eolog
.e(G
ron.ng
en,19
96),
superc
edesG
.J.Ho
ogcw
erff:
»Phil
ipsvan
82
Pete
rN
.M
ille
r
Peir
esc
seem
sto
have
seen
asu
rviv
ing
note
book
,ent
itled
Insc
ript
ions
sacr
aeet
prop
hana
e,wh
envi
sitin
gTo
urna
i,for
inFe
brua
ry16
07,n
otlo
ngaf
terre
turn
ing,
hewr
ote
toJe
rdme
expl
aini
ngth
at»J
'oub
liay
dem
arqu
erda
nsle
livre
defeu
Mr.
Phili
ppe
vostr
efre
reun
feui
llet
oude
uxqu
'ily
ade
Pond
erib
usan
-tiq
uis«
and
aske
dif
copi
esco
uld
bem
ade
of»l
esau
ltres
dess
eins
deCh
ristia
n-ism
e«.,0
$So
met
ime
befo
reA
ugus
tof
1612
Jero
me
had
sent
Peire
scth
eno
tebo
okfo
rfu
rther
study
.On
30Au
gust
Peire
scex
plai
ned
that
»Je
faict
trava
iller
avec
plus
dudi
llige
nce
qu'il
m'es
tpo
ssib
lea
laCo
ppie
devo
stre
livre
.Mai
sce
lluy
quil
aen
trepr
iseva
sile
ntem
entq
u'il
me
faict
perd
repa
tienc
epa
rceq
ueje
desi-
rero
isde
vous
renv
oyer
vist
emen
tpo
urav
oir
l'aut
re.«1
06B
yre
turn
post
Je>6
meas
sure
dhi
mth
atth
ere
was
nohu
rry.
»Tou
chan
tle
livre
dem
onfe
ufre
reie
suis
mar
ryqu
eie
vous
veye
enpe
ine
dem
ele
renv
oyer
bien
tost,
ien'
ensu
isen
aucu
nepe
ine,
etsu
istre
sco
nten
tque
lete
n6s,
etpo
rted
envo
stre
pais
tant
que
vous
plaira
,etq
uele
tout
soit
ache
v6a
l'ays
e,sa
nsvo
usha
stero
upr
ecip
iterq
uipo
urro
ites
treca
use
dega
ster
peut
estre
Pouv
rage
«.107
The
note
book
woul
dre
mai
nin
Pei
resc
'sha
nds
for
anot
her
elev
enye
ars.1
08H
agio
glyp
tawa
sfir
stm
entio
ned
in16
18,b
utit
ison
lyin
April
1621
,whi
lere
porti
nga
new
effo
rtto
publ
ishall
ofM
acar
ius's
work
s,th
atde
Win
ghe
actu
ally
desc
ribed
itsco
nten
tsto
Peire
sc.
Itwa
s»a
nice
piec
etre
atin
gth
eim
ages
used
byth
eCh
ristia
nsin
the
prim
itive
Chur
ch,
draw
nfro
man
cient
cem
eter
ies
and
the
chur
ches
ofan
cien
tChr
istia
ns«.
Itw
ould
,he
thou
ght,
wor
kw
ellw
ith
the
imag
esth
athi
sbro
ther
had
colle
cted
atth
esa
me
time
inRo
me.10
9Pe
iresc
'sre
ply
Win
ghe«
,in:
Med
edee
linge
nva
nhc
tNed
erla
ndisc
hH
istor
isch
Insti
tuut
teRo
me
7(1
927)
,pp
.59-
82.
Some
trace
sof
Phili
ps'a
ctivit
yha
vebe
enpr
eser
ved
inthe
corr
espo
nden
ceof
Abr
aham
Ort
eliu
s.E
ccle
siae
Lond
ino-
Bat
avae
Arc
hivu
m.
Abr
aham
iO
rtel
iiet
Vir
orum
erud
itoru
mad
eund
em[..
.]ep
istul
ae.T
omus
Prim
us,e
d.Jo
anne
sH
enric
usH
esse
ls(C
ambr
idge
,18
87):
no.1
70va
nW
ingh
eto
Orte
lius
24D
ecem
ber
1598
;no.
185
van
Win
ghe
toO
rteliu
s1
Sept
embe
r15
90;
no.1
86va
nW
ingh
eto
Den
isVi
llers
1Se
ptem
ber
1590
;no
.18
7C
arol
usBr
oom
anto
Orte
lius
11Se
ptem
ber
1590
;no.
215
Ville
rsto
Orte
lius
1Ju
ly15
92;
no.2
17va
nW
ingh
eto
Orte
lius
13Ju
ly15
92.
Also
God
eliev
eD
enha
ene,
»Un
temoig
nage
de1'i
nteret
desh
uman
istes
flama
nds
pour
lesgra
vures
italie
nnes:
unel
ettre
dePh
ilipp
eva
nW
ingh
ea
Abra
ham
Ortel
ius«,
in:Bu
lletin
deI'l
nstit
uthi
storiq
ueBe
ige
deRo
me
62(1
992)
,pp.
69-1
37.1
than
kJe
ffSp
ier
for
this
refe
renc
e.105
B.N
.MS.
N.a.
f.51
72,P
eires
cto
deW
ingh
e27
Febr
uary
1607
,fol
.21
lr.Th
ispa
ge,a
lsom
arke
d66
6at
the
uppe
rrig
ht,b
elong
sto
Carp
.M
S.18
76,w
hich
cont
ains
aco
ntin
uous
colle
ctio
nof
min
utes
ofPe
iresc
'sle
tters
tode
Win
ghe;
pagi
natio
nth
ere
isco
ntin
uous
exce
ptfor
am
issin
gpa
gebe
twee
n66
5an
d66
7.106
Peire
scto
deW
ingh
e,30
Augu
st16
12,C
arpe
ntras
,Bi
bl.
Ingu
imb.
MS.
1876
,fol
.685
v.Sc
hudd
eboo
m(p
.99)
com
men
tsth
atth
eid
entit
yof
this
»oth
er«
man
uscr
iptc
anno
tbe
dete
rmin
edw
ith
cert
aint
y.107
Jero
mede
Win
geto
Peire
sc17
Sept
embe
r16
12,
Aix
Bibl
.M
ejane
s,M
S.21
3(1
031)
,P
-332
..
,tt
mIn
the
sam
elet
terof
July
1618
that
men
tions
the
effo
rtto
publ
ishM
acar
ius
Abra
xas
and
the
exist
ence
ofH
agio
glyp
ta,J
e>6m
ewo
nder
edal
oud
if»t
hebo
okof
myl
ate
brot
her's
onan
tiqui
ties«
cont
aine
dan
ythin
gre
levan
tto
Mac
arius
*ar
gume
nt(D
eW
ingh
eto
Peire
sc8
July
1618
,B.R
MS.
F.fir.
9539
,fol
.31*
).109
DeW
ingh
eto
Peire
sc,1
April
1621
,B.N
.,M
S.F.
fr.95
41,f
ol.36
':»[
...]n
des
nepu
eux
defeu
Mon
srl'H
eure
ux,a
lias
Mac
arie,
docte
uren
med
icin
epr
attiq
uant
aCa
ssel
enFl
andr
e,es
tces
iours
pass*
pari
cypo
urAn
vers
enin
tentio
nd'
yfai
reme
ttre
surl
apr
esse
l'Abr
axas
dud.
'Mac
arie
.etu
nau
trelib
vre
sien,
intit
ule
Agi
oelv
pta.
seu
scul
otur
efsl
etim
agin
essa
crae.
quie
stun
belle
piece
,tra
ittant
desi
mage
susit
eesp
arles
i"Ch
resti
ense
ten
lapr
imi-
The
Ant
iqua
ry's
Art
ofC
ompa
riso
n:P
eire
scan
dA
brax
as8
3
of
17A
pril
,in
whi
chhe
expr
esse
dhi
spl
easu
reat
new
so
fwha
the
assu
med
was
its
impe
ndin
gpu
blic
atio
nan
dfr
ustr
atio
nat
bein
gun
able
tose
ndth
elo
ng-s
ough
tno
tes
onth
eA
brax
as,"
0cr
osse
dw
ith
deW
ingh
e's
of2
6A
pril
whi
chre
stat
edth
epl
ans
fort
hepu
blic
atio
no
fMac
ariu
s'sw
orks
and
aske
dif
his
brot
her
had
com
men
ted
onth
eA
brax
asin
the
man
uscr
ipt
that
rem
aine
din
Pei
resc
'spo
sses
sion
."1
Ina
long
erre
ply
of3
May
,Pei
resc
agai
nex
plai
ned
that
hew
asun
able
tola
yhi
sha
nds
onP
hilip
s'm
ater
ial,
thou
gh,
unli
keJ6
r6m
e,he
did
notb
elie
veth
atit
cont
aine
dan
ythi
ngth
atsu
bsta
ntia
llyal
tere
dM
acar
ius's
acco
unt."
2In
hisl
ette
ro
fJul
y16
21Pe
ires
csh
owed
how
wor
ksli
keH
agio
glyp
taco
uld
have
been
used
,as
king
deW
ingh
eif
eith
erM
acar
ius'
orP
hilip
s'w
orks
disc
usse
dth
efis
hw
hich
anci
entC
hris
tians
had
used
asa
sym
bolo
fJes
us."
3In
Oct
ober
Peir
esc
repe
ated
his
ques
tion,
this
tim
ein
dica
ting
that
wit
hout
anan
swer
hew
ould
beun
able
toco
mpl
ete
a»d
iscou
rs«
ofhi
sow
n,ot
herw
ise
unid
entif
ied.
"4A
llth
isin
dica
tes
that
Pei
resc
neve
rsa
wH
agio
glyp
ta.
tive
eglis
e,tir
ees
desa
ncie
nsce
miti
eres
eteg
lises
desa
ncie
nsC
hres
tiens
,A
quoy
vien
dron
tm
erve
illeu
sem
ent
bien
apo
intl
esfig
ures
cem
iteri
ales
defe
um
onfre
requ
'ave
zve
uch
ezm
oyle
sque
lles
ilso
ntre
cuill
ypa
rens
embl
ea
Rom
me«
(und
erlin
ings
are
Pei
resc
's).
1,0Pe
iresc
tode
Win
ghe,
17Ap
ril
1621
,C
arp.
Bibl
.In
guim
b.M
S.18
76,
fol.
69lr
:»J
esu
istr
esai
zed'
ente
ndre
qu'o
nim
prim
ele
soeu
vres
defe
uM
rM
acar
ius
etbi
enm
arry
den'
estr
een
Prov
ence
pour
yad
ious
ter
mes
obse
rvat
ions
deI'
Abr
asax
.M
ais
d'ic
yje
nesc
auro
isri
enfa
ire
qui
vail
le.«
111D
eWin
ghe
toPe
iresc
,26
Apri
l16
21,B
.N.,
MS.
F.fr.
9541
,fo
l.37
r.»J
epe
nse
queT
unet
Paut
reoe
uvre
sera
aggr
eabl
eet
bien
venu
ato
usge
nts
curi
eux
etam
ateu
rsde
san
tiqui
tds
eccl
esia
stiq
ues.
Jese
rois
tres
aise
devo
uscc
que
mon
frere
peul
tav
oir
anno
tre
d'A
brax
asau
libvr
etqu
evou
say
laiss
dde
luy«
(und
erlin
ings
are
Pei
resc
's).
1.2Pe
iresc
tode
Win
ghe,
3M
ay16
21,C
arp.
Bib
l.In
guim
b.M
S.18
76,
fol.
69lv
:»J
esu
istr
ezai
zequ
eTon
[se]
reso
lve
enfin
al'e
ditio
nde
sop
uscu
les
duSr
L'H
eure
uxta
ntde
l'Abr
axas
que
deI'A
giog
lypl
aes
tque
les
figur
esqu
eM
rvo
stre
frere
enav
oitr
eceu
illis
ayen
tcst
ein
-se
recs
mai
sbi
enm
arry
dem
evo
iren
cor
abse
ntde
lapa
trie
etpa
rco
nseq
uent
l„.]
des
moy
ens
devo
usre
nvoy
erle
spa
pier
sde
Mr
vostr
efre
rea
caus
ede
l'opi
nion
quev
ous
avez
qu'il
yay
tqu
elqu
eob
serv
atio
nde
I'Abr
asax
qui
ayt
este*
obm
iseau
disc
ours
deM
rL'
Heu
reux
.Sur
quoy
jevo
usdi
ray
qu'il
mes
ouvi
en[t
]bi
end'
yav
oir
veu
quel
que
figur
ette
sav
ec('i
nscr
iptio
nsd'
ABRA
SAX,
com
me
ils'
entr
ouve
une
infin
iteet
entre
aultr
esce
des
mes
mes
que
Baro
nius
afa
icti
mpr
imer
,les
quel
les
ilzr
ecog
noit
teni
rde
M'v
ostre
frere
sije
nem
etro
mpe
etpe
nse
queM
rvo
stre
frere
yay
tann
otte"
quel
que
petit
pass
age
des
auth
eurs
anci
ens
mai
sje
netie
nspa
spo
urta
ntqu
'ily
aytr
ien
defo
rtim
porta
ntqu
'yay
testd
obm
ispa
rM
rL'h
eure
ux.«
1.3Pe
iresc
tode
Win
ghe,
24Ju
ly16
21,C
arp.
Bibl
.In
guim
b.,
MS.
1876
,fo
l.69
2v:
»Je
voul
-dr
ois
bien
scav
oir
[si]
leso
euvr
esde
Mr
Mac
ariu
set
defe
uM
rvo
stre
frere
sero
ntbi
ento
stac
heve
eset
s'il
zn'
ontr
ien
escr
iptP
unou
I'aul
treto
ucha
ntle
sim
ages
d'un
oude
plus
ieur
spo
isson
spo
ursy
mbo
lede
nostr
eSe
ignr
etde
sC
hres
tiens
que
s'il
zen
onte
scrip
tqu
elqu
ech
ose
etqu
el'e
ditio
nso
itpo
ures
treen
tend
ue[s
ic:at
tend
ue?J
enco
res
long
tem
psvo
usm
efe
riez
bien
plai
sirde
mef
aire
trans
crire
seul
emen
tcet
endr
oict
ouil
zen
parle
ntca
rpo
ssib
lej'y
adjo
uste
rois
quel
que
chos
e.Sy
n'on
tce
que
vous
m'a
vez
ordo
nn£
ets'
ilzn
'enpa
rlent
poin
tmai
squ
'ilza
yent
repr
esen
tsen
treles
figur
eset
imag
es[..
.]«Pe
iresc
seem
sto
have
igno
red
deW
ingh
e'sco
ntin
uing
requ
estf
orhi
sno
tes
onAb
raxa
s:»L
ors
que
sere
zde
chez
vous
,ser
aytre
sai
ses'
ilvo
uspl
aitm
'env
oyer
cequ
'ave
zob
serv
dsu
rAb
raxa
s«(d
eW
ingh
eto
Peire
sc,
16Ju
ne16
21,B
.N.,
MS.
F.fr.
9541
,fol
.41*
).114
Peire
scto
deW
ingh
e,6
Oct
ober
1621
,Car
p.Bi
bl.
Ingu
imb.
MS.
1876
,fo
l.69
4r:
»Pou
rle
rega
rdde
mes
obse
rvat
ions
sur
lepo
isson
Mist
erie
uxde
sC
hres
tiens
j'aur
ois
mau
vaise
sgr
aces
devo
usen
rien
met
trepa
resc
riptq
ueje
nevo
yece
que
Mr
Mac
ariu
sen
aura
diet
etqu
elle
figur
esil
enau
rare
pres
ent^
par
cequ
epo
ssib
leau
rat
ilob
serv
dle
sm
esm
ech
ose[
s]
84 Peter N. Miller
In this last letter Peiresc amplified his disappointment atthe news that publication of Macarius's works was deferred, referring to his »great esteem for theconceptions and observations of this author«. Nevertheless, he noted that theywere never close friends. Peiresc suggested, in a typical illustration of how heused comparison as atool, that the publication of these ancient images could bemade even more useful if accompanied byothers from an ancient manuscript ofGenesis, referring here to RobertCotton's codex which Peiresc hadborrowed onbehalf of Fronton le Due and which also had not yet been returned."5 But herecognised that the number of illustrations and the cost of such a project militated against its being undertaken."6 It took Peiresc two more years to returnPhilips van Winghe's notebook."7 Macarius's Hagioglypta would remain unpublished until 1856. Van Winghe's Inscriptiones isstill in manuscript.
Peiresc's long familiarity with the iconographical research of two pioneers ofsacred archaeology not only contributed to the shaping of his own method butalso brought him into close contact with the syncretic world of late antiquereligion that Macarius revealed behind the image of Abraxas. At the same timethat he was exchanging letters with de Winghe, Peiresc had been correspondingwith his Roman eyes-and-ears, Girolamo Aleandro. In 1616 Aleandro had published an essay interpreting a solar relief that marked the beginning of an exchange of letters between them about the survival of paganism in general, andsolar cults like Mithras in particular."* The following year, the same one inwhich Selden published his treatise on solar worship in ancient Syria, De diisSyris, Peiresc mentioned to Aleandro that he had seen a Mithraic figure of >Cro-nos< among drawings of Roman antiquities by one »Stephano du Perac« which
que moyauquel cas je travaillerois envain et puis je nescay pas comment se pourroit en-chasser mon discours sijenevois l'image des figures sur lesquelles il lepeult attacher.«
1' Peiresc received the priceless tome in March 1618 and returned itin the spring of1622. SeeSchuddeboom: Philips van Winghe, p. 69 n279; Linda van Norden: »Peiresc and theEnglish Scholars«, in: Huntington Library Quarterly, 12 (1948-49), p. 386. Gassendi alsodescribed it as »written inthe dayes ofTheodosius« (Mirrour, year 1618, p. 158).
116 Peiresc to de Winghe, 6 October 1621, fol. 693-694v: »Et suis bien marry d'entendre leretardement de I'Edition de Agioglyptes de Mr Macarius que je vouldrois bien voir impri-mezpour lagrande estime que je fais des conceptions etobservations dece personage avecI'humeur et inclination duquel je me recontrois en toutplain dechose. Sy j'eusse eu le biende le voir jamais je pense que nous eussions estd merveilleusement grands amys. SiI'imprimeur qui a entrepris cette edition la avoit assez de courage pour entreprandrel'edition des figures ancienncs de toutte laGenese. L'un nesevendroit possible pas malai-scment avec I'aultre et 1'ouvrage seroit bien curieux car ce sontdes figures d'un manuseritfait comme Pon croit du temps de Theodose oules habillements et facons de faire respondent fort fidellement a la vraye antiquitd d'ou il se peult tirer d'infiniment belles consequences et notions deI'Histoire etc. Mais lenombre estgrand, et degrandes despences.«On 22 July 1623 Peiresc recorded sending a letter »a M' Winghe avec son livre« (Paris,B.N. MS. N.a.f. 5169 fol. 50- De Winghe's last letter to Peiresc was dated 4 February1622.
1,8 G. Aleandro: Antiquae tabulae marmoreae solis effigie symbolisque exculptae accurataexplicatio. Qua priscae quaedam mythologiae, ac nonnulla praeterea Vetera monumentamarmorum, gemmarum, nomismatum illustrantur, (Rome, 1616;Paris, 1617).
The Antiquary's Art of Comparison: Peirescand Abraxas 85
he had come across only »these past days«. Peiresc identified this Duperac as thecreator of a »dissegno dellaRoma Antiqua«."9
This Mithraic figure is one of several found in a collection of Dupdracdrawings that has long been known, butwhose relation to Peiresc has not.120 Itcan now with certainty be identified and it aspires to be a handbook of ancientreligion documented by visual material. The full title of Bibliotheque Nationale,MS. Fond francais 382, Illustration des fragmens anticques, appartenant a lareligion et ceremonie des antiens romains, presents the collection as the visualanalogue to other sixteenth-century works such as Guillaume Du Choul's Discours de la religion des anciens romains (1556).121 The first book containsEgyptian imagery, including a drawing of the Abraxas gem, and the secondRoman objects, including several Mithraic figures [Figs. 3aand 3b]. The collection's very structure makes a historical argument through images about culturalexchange in the ancient Mediterranean. But what marks its antiquarian aspirations is the introductory text that offers a brief history of Egyptian and Romanreligion. Duperac worked closely with Pirro Ligorio and Onofrio Panvinio,though this earned his antiquarian skills nomore respect from Peiresc. In a letterto Lelio Pasqualini discussing the appearance of the Porta Trajana, depicted byDupe>ac in one of his already available engravings, Peiresc wrote: »Et non faregran conto di quello ch'ha stampata indritto, Stephano du Perac Architetto, bench'egli affermi che sia curatiss.™ delineato (iuxta antiqua vestigia)«.122
119 Peiresc to Aleandro 28 March 1617, in: Correspondance de Peiresc & Aleandro, I, p. 87:»Io viddi questi giorni passati un libro curiosissimo di molte Anticaglie, raccolte etdissegnate in Roma, da Stephano du Perac, assai celebre Architetto et Antiquario, authoredel dissegno della Roma Antiqua, che sitrova communemente intagliata inrame sotto'l suonome. In questo libro tra I'altre cose e'eun foglio nel quale e dissegnata una figura humanacircondata da un serpe, con i vestigij di certi segni celesti, et altre cose che puonno serviredi supplemento, al fragmento di quella che ftl trovata in Aries, che le mandai ultimamente.«
120 For a summary of the received view, see Jean-Louis Ferrary: Onofrio Panvinio et lesAntiquitis Romaines (Rome, 1996), pp. 136-7 nl03; Lhote and Joyal: Correspondance dePeiresc &Aleandro, vol. I, pp. 86-9 nn86-89.1 am grateful toIngo Herklotz for discussingthis point with me.
121 Twoof Peiresc's inventories, the first from 1623 and hisreturn from Paris to Provence, andthe other posthumous, list a»Livre des antiquites de Rome de Perac« (Carp. Bibl. Inguimb.MS. 1869, fol. 941) and a»recueil des antiquitez de Rome par Duperac en 2 cayers« (Carp.Inguimb. MS. 1870, fol. Ill*)- This copy, unlike the very similar one in the Louvre,contains prefatory remarks, presumably byDuperac, summarising the theology and deitiesofthe Egyptians and the Romans. Bound into the rear ofthis volume are pages ofdifferentsize and shape with drawings of two nesting bowls that belonged to Peiresc and areidentified in his handwriting (fols. 100, 101, 104). The drawing of a giant stone phalluswith a note describing its discovery is dated »July or August 1636« (fol. 90*). Peirescpresumably bound this additional material at the rear of the volume as was his custom. Acopy of Duperac's preface to Bk. I, on Egyptian antiquities, is also found in Carp.MS. 1789, fols. 426-31.
122 Peiresc to Pasqualini, 20 December 1610, Montpellier Bibl. de I'Ecole de M^decineMS. H. 271 vol. I, fol. 13.
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The Antiquary's Art of Comparison: PeirescandAbraxas 87
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Peiresc's exposure to the world of Mithras continued the following yearwhen Aleandro presented him with another example of comparative scholarshipon ancient Mithraic religion, a >discorsetto< that sought to identify the god calledInvictus in a poem by the third-century Christian writer Commodian. This briefessay, on a text that would be published by one of Bernays's heroes, NicolasRigault, in 1650, is another demonstration of comparison, using epigraphy,objects and images to explain a hitherto obscure poem.123
Aleandro drew on the existence of inscriptions bearing the legend >Deo Soli,Invicto Mithrae< and literary identifications of the sun with Mithras to identifypositively Sol Invictus as Mithras. Invincibility was often ascribed to both thesun and the lion, hence the monstrous nature of the deity referred to by the poet.The image is made concrete with the sketch of a coin showing the Deus Invictuswith his lion head.12,4 Invoking the theory that the gods reflected natural properties, Aleandro explained that just as Demeter referred to the grain harvest,Dionysus to the grape, and Isis to both, so Mithras' sun stood for fire and itsprocreative force.125 In his immediate reply, Peiresc declared that he »could notadmire enough the felicity of his concepts and the justness of his conjectures« inthis »most erudite discoursesl26
Comparison with the interpretation of >Invictus< produced by an intellectualgiant of the preceding generation, Abraham Ortelius, offers another opportunityto mark off the methodological advance represented by the work of Macariusand Aleandro. In his study of ancient gods depicted on ancient coins, Deorumdearumque capita (Antwerp, 1602), Ortelius gave two interpretations of theclaim that the sun was invincible. The first, referring to a coin of Constantine,identified the sun with Christian justice and, therefore, with invincibility. Thesecond, assuming the coin to antedate Constantine's conversion, explained that
123 Acopy ofCommodiani veteris scriptoris versus quidam prolati in iis quaesitum quis fueritDeus Invictus was sent to Peiresc (Aleandro to Peiresc, 18 September 1618, Correspondance de Peiresc & Aleandro, I, p. 222) and is conserved in B. N. MS. Dupuy 746fols. 217'-220v. The original is found in B. A. V. MS. Barb.-Lat. 1987, fols. 3-6 and arough draft is in Barb. Lat 2036, fols. 42-46. Peiresc mentions this »observation concerning Sol lnvictus« in a letter to Jerome Bignon of 6 December 1623 and describes it as»extrememcnt gentile ct rare« (Peiresc Correspondance, VII, p. 630). G. H. Halsberghc, TheCult of Sol Invictus (Leiden, 1972) omits Commodian from his reprint of ancient sourcesmentioning Sol Invictus. Bernays would, no doubt, have smiled at the irony of the modernscholar >forgetting< precisely that source which early modern scholars had used to make thedefinitive identification on which the modern's work is founded.
124 Aleandro: Commodiani, fols. 217V, 218r_v.123 Aleandro: Commodiani, fol. 218v: »Nemini non est cognitum, fabulosa ilia veterum
mysteria ad res naturalcs respexissc, veluti Eleusinia ad stationcm frugum, &germinationem, Bacchica ad vendemiam, Isiaca ad utrumque. Itaque & Mithriaca ad ignemreferri videntur, eiusque, ut sic dicam, procreationem. Ignem enim persac deorum primum& praecipuum venerabantur«.
126 Peiresc to Aleandro, 23 October 1618, in: Correspondance de Peiresc & Aleandro, vol. I,p. 226. Aleandro was delighted by this response and felt comfortable enough to proclaimhimself satisfied »d'havcr dimostrato alibi, Deum, qui apud Romanos Invictus dicebatur,Mithram esse Persarumu (11 December 1618, Correspondance, vol. I, p. 250).
TheAntiquary'sArt ofComparison: Peiresc and Abraxas 89
the sun was called invictus because it never tired from its constant course.127 Therange of textual sources is limited to Homer and Virgil, there are no referencesto epigraphy or archaeology, and only a lone engraving ofa man crowned by thesun's rays. Ortelius communicated no sense that understanding the image mightrequire first understanding the culture and society in which it was produced.
The originality ofMacarius and Aleandro, and their intellectual accomplishments, did not, however, go unnoticed. In Filippo del Torre's early eighteenth-century study of the inscriptions of Antium there is a long discussion »De Mithraejusque tabulis symbolicis«, in which Aleandro's >discorsetto< is cited as thefirst account to explain correctly the meaning of>Invictus<.128 Del Torre reprinteda large chunk ofAleandro's essay, commenting that he hoped that this worthywork would soon be published in its entirety.12" Having upheld Aleandro'sidentification of >Sol Invictus< with Mithras, he then explicitly endorsedMacarius's interpretation ofAbraxas in terms ofMithraic theology.130 Del Torreargued that while Mithras began as a Persian deity, the cult soon spread undermany different names, »unde explicantur gemmae Basilidianorum«.131
The ancient religion made accessible through artifacts like the Abraxas gemblurred the difference between pagan and Christian.132 If the Basilidian Gnosticsrepresented a survival of the pagan in the early Christian, late Christianityseemed to some of its scholars to preserve traces of this paganism. In his firstletter to Benedetti, Peiresc had sketched a genealogy of heresy from Basilides tothe Cathars that seemed to represent Gnosticism as an undying heresy. This>structuralist< framework seems to inform an exchange of letters with Rubensfrom the late summer of 1623.1" He informed Rubens that »La nuova di quei deBasilidiani di Seviglia non era ancora pervenuta sino a me«. But in the followingsentence he reported having information about »certi altri sectarii nuovi dellaRosea Croce, assai celebre in Germania, che forzi son gli medesimi di Sevi-
A. Ortelius: Deorum dearumque capita, ex antiquis numismatibus collecla, ed. F. Sweerts(Antwerp, 1602), sig. C4V: »Solem autcm invictum appellari crediderim, cum quod, etsidiuturno nocturnoque cursu laboret, tantoque hactenus tempore laborarit, indefatigabilispermanet«. Peiresc's copy is in Houghton Library, Harvard University, shelf-mark Typ 63002.657.
Filippo del Torre: Monumenta Veteris Antii hoc est Inscriptio M. Aquilii ct tabula solisMithrae variis figuris &Symbolis exsculptam (Rome, 1700), p. 163: »At Hicronymus Ale-ander Junior in prima ex dissertationibus philologicis quae manu ipsius exaratae, ut alibimemoravi, extant in Bibliotheca Barberina, Invictum hunc deum esse Mithram pro certohabct«.
Del Torre: Monumenta Veteris Antii, p. 163: »Ita Alcander: cujus opera incdita licet brevilucis usuram adeptura speramus [...]«. He reprints Aleandro's essay from fol. 218V to theend (220v).DelTorre, Monumenta Veteris Antii,p. 171.Del Torre, MonumentaVeteris Antii, p. 161.See, forexample, Peiresc's comments on ancient Roman calendars in letters to Aleandro of25 July 1618 (Correspondance de Peiresc & Aleandro, vol. I, p. 198) and 18 December1620 (II, p. 252). For a discussion of this theme with specific reference to theAbraxas seeBruno Nevcu, »Archeolatric et modernite" dans le savoir ccclesiastique au XVII" siecle« inhis Erudition et religion aux XVIIe et XVII1C siecles (Paris, 1994), pp. 365-84.For a modern version ofthis argument sec loan Coulianou: Tree ofgnosis. Gnostic theologyfrom ancient Christianityto modern nihilism (New York, 1992).
90Peter N. Miller
glia«.IM Rubens, in his reply, noted that the decree of the Inquisition against the»Basilidiani in Sevilla« had not reached him either.135 By the middle ofSeptember, Peiresc could report that he had finally received »una relatione minutissimadi tutti gli interrogatorii fatti dagli inquisitori alii Adombradi [sic] o Denudi diLisboa« who performed obscene acts under the cover ofpiety, and by February1624 he had sent Rubens the document on the »Ahmbrados«.m Peiresc's assimilation of the Alombrados and Rosicrucians to the Basilidians reflects thecontinuing power of patristic heresiologies and, more broadly, historia sacra,with its typological or structural bias.
Peiresc's own, growing collection ofGnostic gems testifies to his continuinginterest in the world oflate antique paganism - orearly Christianity.137 Survivingnotes and letters provide amore detailed and nuanced picture'of the motives forexpanding his collection. In comments on the tetragrammaton preserved asreading notes filed under the heading L'ESCHASSIER (the Scottish-Gallican jurist,Jacques), Peiresc wrote that the third letter, vau, was the origin of»le diphthongeZEUC et IOV1S, a quoy j'adjousterois le tao) des Basilidiens & Gnostiques«(underlinings in original).138 A second memo, drawing on papers belonging toJacques-Auguste de Thou and describing a funerary urn, noted that »Mithra estle soleil en Langage Persan«.139 The link between Jove, the Basilidian IAQ, and
134 Peiresc toRubens, 3August 1623, in: Rubens Correspondance, III, p. 221.135 Rubens toPeiresc, 10 August 1623, in: Rubens Correspondance, III, p.228.136 Peiresc to Rubens, 17 September 1623, in: Rubens Correspondance, III, p. 244; 11-12
February 1624, III,p. 277.137 By 1621 Peiresc already owned 80 ofthese gems (Peiresc to Rubens, 26 November 1621,
in- Rubens Correspondance, II. p. 293). The number remained constant through the 1620s(Peiresc to Aleandro, 26 October 1628, B. A. V. MS. Barb.-Lat. 6504, fol. 224'), but by1633 it had climbed to200 (Peiresc toSaumaise, 14 November 1633, in: Peiresc Lettres aClaude Saumaise. p. 33). In the discussion ofPeiresc's collection ofantiquities that passesas aposthumous descriptive inventory, gems were treated under the second heading, »con-cerning stones« (Francois Chapard: Fabriciani Cimeliarchii promptuanum triceps (Aix,1647) p 8 The three parts were texts, stones and metallica. This is avery rare piece: 1citefrom the copy in the Bibliotheque Nationale, J. 5057). These, in turn, were divided intostones ofpublic or private commission with gems among the latter. Many ofthe piecesmentioned in the Pasqualini and Rubens correspondence appear, along with »alnsque humsgeneris quamplurimi Deorum Dearumque facies & symbola referentes, veluti Isidis,Osiridis, Apollonis, Bachi: Hcroum praeterea veterum &Hcroinarum nomma &epithctasculptaque animalia quamplurima sacris AEgyptiorum simulachris adhiben solita, quibuspriscarum superstitionum ritus ad Barbaram, Graecam, Romanamque historiam contincnturexpressi [...] Multa tandem ccrnuntur amulcta, bonis (si fas sit credere) comparandis. malisautem avcrruncandis aptissima, Copticis, Arabicisque characteribus insigmta, quorumethymon vulgatum fecit Talismani vocabulum [...] Et quidquid veterum falsis nummibus obancillantium mentibus indidit superstitiosa rcligio; quibus annumerantur portcntosaBasilidanorum amuleta«. (Carp. Bibl. Inguimb. MS. 1870 fol. 38v describes the content ol»Unc petite boittc quarre cotte Basilidis« as engraved gems and copies of inscriptionsfrom engraved gems.) _
138 »Lc Vav de la troisiesme lettre, est prononcc\ tantost en demis consonnante, d V, tantost envoyclle U, ou diphthongue OV. ou bien un co.Omcga. d'ou vient le diphthonge zaJC etipvis, a quoy j'adjousterois le iaco des Basilidiens &Gnostiques« (Carp. Bibl. Inguimb.MS. 1864, fol. 252').
139 B N MS Latin 8957 fol. 178': »Mithra est le soleil en Langage Persan, I urnc est ck.crystal faicte a I'antique, remplie des oz bruslez, & des cendrcs dudit Kyndonax, et
TheAntiquary's Art ofComparison: Peiresc and Abraxas 91
Mithras describes the arc from Persia to Egypt to Rome that directed theresearches of scholars for the next two centuries.
Peiresc's letters to Rubens from the period in which they planned to publish abook of ancient gems are full of references to Abraxas.m In a letter of 1627, forexample, Peiresc used a particular gem with its image of a winged Jove as thejumping-off point for a broader assessment of the ancient Near Eastern pantheon. He claimed to possess a gem showing a deity clearly recognisable as Jovebut with the inscription lAO »under which name was confounded the Jehova ofthe Hebrews, and under this mask those early heretics confounded the divinityworshipped by the Hebrews and Christians with that of the Baal or Balsamen oftheTyrians and orientals and thatof Jupiter and Saturn«.141 A subsequent digression on the polymorphousness of ancient Near Eastern paganism and the all-inclusive character of solar worship, underlined how, for Peiresc, as for Macarius, Selden, and Aleandro, Mithras could have taken on the Egyptian features ofAbraxas}*2
For antiquaries like Peiresc, the history of religion was linked to the historyof language. The way in which the Abraxas gem prompted Peiresc's connectionbetween the two illustrates the larger questions that often impinged upon thenarrower domain of the connoisseur. Letters dating from the Autumn of 1628show a marked intensification of Peiresc's interest in the history of the languages of the ancient Near East, stimulated, in part, by the beginning of thePolyglot Bible project in Paris.143
I'inscription est gravee au tour de la pierre qui enferment le vase./E schedis Jacobi AugUStiThuani«.
140 See Peiresc to Rubens, 26 November 1621, in: Rubens Correspondance. II, p. 295; Peirescto Rubens. 9 June 1622, in: Rubens Correspondence, II, p. 435; Peiresc to Rubens, 10August 1623, in: Rubens Correspondance, III, p. 233; Peiresc to Rubens, 13 November1623, in: Rubens Correspondance, III, p. 261; Peiresc to Rubens, 25 May 1624, , B. N.MS. N.a.f. 5172, fol. 119; Peiresc to Rubens, 4 June 1624, N.a.f. 5172, fol. 120v-121'; Peiresc to Rubens, 16 August 1624, N.a.f. 5172, fol. 125'. The glyptic, though not Mithraic,content of their correspondence has been examined by van der Meulen: Petrus PaulusRubens Antiquarius, csp. ch. 2; Nancy T. de Grummond: »A Seventeenth-Century Book onClassical Gcms«, in: Archaeology 30 (1977), pp. 14-25); David Jaffe": »The BarberiniCircle:Some exchanges between Peiresc, Rubens and their Contemporaries«, in: Journal ofthe History of Collecting 1 (1989), pp. 119-47. Jaffe" is preparing an edition of the as yetunpublished correspondenceof Peirescand Rubens.
141 Peiresc to Rubens, 7 June 1627, MS. N.a.f. 5172, fol. 141v: »Et io ho vislo fra gli intagli dique'Basilidiani & gnostici unafigura d'un Giovc con il fulmino in mano la barba promissa& ale grandissime con inscrittionc IAQ sotto le cui nome confondevano il Jehova de gliHebraei, & sotto la cui persona que'primi heretici confondevano la divinita adorata da glihebraei & christiani quclladel Baalo Balsamen dcgli Tyrii & oricntali & quelle di Giove diSaturno & molte altre. Et'l peggio e che cotesti heretici passavano allora quasi tutti sottoI'nome di Christiani come si vedc in S. Epiphanio & altri St. Padri antiqui et che sivalevano detti heretici spesse volte di arti magichc dellequali si accusavano poi similmentei Christiani senza distinguerli da quelliscelerati.«
142 Peiresc to Rubens, 19May 1628, in: Rubens Correspondence, IV, p. 414.143 For Peiresc's Samaritan studies see my »An Antiquary Between Philology and History:
Peiresc and the Samaritans«; for his Coptic studies see Francis W. Gravit: »Pciresc et lesetudes copies en France au XVIIe sieclc<(, in: Bulletin de la socicte d'arch<5ologie coptc, 4(1938), pp. 1-22; Agnes Bresson: »Peiresc ct les crudes coptes: proldgomcncs au dechif-frement des hieroglyphcs«, in: XVIIC Siecle 158 (1988), pp. 41-50.
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dede
ttoPc
ntateu
cho«
(Peir
escto
Alea
ndro
25Se
ptem
ber
1628
,B.A
.V.M
S.Ba
rb.L
at.65
04,f
ol.21
97145
Peire
scto
Alea
ndro
,26
Octo
ber
1628
,B.A
.V.M
S.Ba
rb.L
at.6
504,
fol.2
24:»
Ioho
piu
diott
anta
intag
lian
tiqui
diqu
e'Gno
stici,
eBa
silidi
ani,
&alt
rise
ttarii
diqu
e'prim
isec
olich
'have
vano
fatto
una
certa
Relig
ione
alor
posta
,pien
adi
Mys
terii
Juda
ici,C
hrist
iani
,et
Genti
lico
nin
scrit
tioni
inca
ratte
riGr
eci,
mavo
ciGr
eche
,Heb
raich
e,et
Barb
are
ch'io
hosem
preg
iudica
toess
ereEg
ittia.
lama
ggior
parte
,per
lame
scolan
zach
ee'e
delli
myste
riiHi
erog
lyphic
idc
H'Eg
itto.
Mas
sime
have
ndon
eun
ado
veM
ercur
ioe
rapp
resen
tato
co1
cadu
ceo,
etco
nlo
spog
liodi
Volpe
intes
ta,&
ilsu
ono
meTh
othEg
ittio
inca
ratte
riGr
ew.
Etfor
zich
echi
potes
seve
dere
quel
voca
bolar
io,se
neca
vare
bbon
opa
rech
iein
terpr
etatio
nidi
quell
evo
ciba
rbar
esc
olpite
inqu
e'inta
glich
epo
trebb
ono
dar
gran
lume
aH'in
terpr
etatio
nean
cora
delle
figure
che
visi
trova
nora
ppres
entat
e«.G
arth
Fowd
en's
com
men
tson
the
link
betw
een
gnos
ticism
and
Herm
etism
seem
appo
site:
The
Egyp
tian
Herm
es:A
Histo
rical
Appr
oach
tothe
Late
Paga
nM
ind,
2nd
edn
(Prin
ceton
,19
93),
146Pe
iresc
tode
llaVa
lle,2
6No
vemb
er16
28,C
arp.
Bibl
.Ing
uimb
MS.
1871
,fol.
243r
:»lo
mirit
rovo
sino
aott
anta
etpiu
intag
lian
tichi
con
Iscrit
tioni
Grec
o-Ba
rbar
ede
pend
enti
dalli
supe
rstitio
nidi
che
prim
iHe
retici
Basil
idian
iGn
ostic
iet
altri,
che
prev
alsero
pren
cipalm
entc
nell'E
gitto
delle
quali
sipo
trebb
efar
citir
arqu
alche
costr
uttoc
onIa
iuto
diqu
esta
Lingu
aEg
ittia,
giach
evis
itro
vano
parec
hievo
cive
rame
ntcGr
eche
etHe
braic
he,
etalt
reinc
ognit
e,ch
eson
nopiu
tosto
Egitt
ie,ch
edi
qual
sivo
glia
altro
Idiom
a«(a
lsoAi
xB
ibl.M
ejan
es,M
S.21
3(10
31)p
.65)
.147
Peire
scto
Dupu
y,3
Augu
st16
29,i
n:Pe
iresc
Corr
espo
nden
ce,I
II,pp
.147
^8.
gods
,»a
ltere
d«,
orad
apte
d,by
the
Basil
idia
ns.1
4'»Q
uite
ofte
n«,
Peire
scco
ncl
uded
,»th
efig
ures
serv
eve
ryw
ellt
ode
ciph
erth
ein
scri
ptio
nsan
d,co
nver
sely
,th
eins
crip
tions
toid
entif
yth
efig
ures
«.149
The
stud
yof
the
Abr
axas
gem
inth
eci
rcle
ofPe
iresc
pres
ents
usw
itha
pict
ure
ofth
ean
tiqua
ries'
com
para
tive
prac
tice
inal
lits
soph
istic
atio
nan
dm
essi
ness
.W
eha
vese
enob
ject
sbe
ing
clar
ified
byco
mpa
riso
nw
ith
text
s,an
dte
xts
mad
ese
nse
ofin
the
light
ofar
tefa
cts.
Peir
esc's
frien
ds,
such
asIsa
acC
asau
bon,
ackn
owle
dged
his
mas
tery
ofth
ispr
actic
e.In
ale
ttert
hank
ing
him
for
help
ing
with
the
iden
tifi
cati
ono
fso
me
anci
ent
coin
san
dpr
eser
ved
inG
asse
ndi's
Vita
,C
asau
bon
com
men
ted:
»Dou
btle
sse
that
way
whi
chyo
uha
veun
dert
aken
tocl
ear
upth
eda
rkpa
ssag
esof
Antiq
uity
isth
em
osts
ure
and
only
way.
Ieag
erly
expe
ctw
hat
the
grea
tSc
alig
erw
illob
serv
eto
uchi
ngth
ese
kind
ofAn
tiqui
ties:
but
Ifo
rese
e,th
ere
will
bepl
ace
for
your
glea
ning
saf
ter
his
Har
vest.
For
itw
asa
happ
ieth
ing
that
you
shou
ldm
eetw
ithth
ese
Coin
s,wh
ich
have
give
nyo
ulig
htin
such
dark
pass
ages
«.l$
0In
astu
nnin
gle
ttert
oRu
bens
tow
ards
the
begi
nnin
gof
thei
rco
rres
pond
ence
,Pe
iresc
sum
med
upth
eat
titud
ebe
hind
his
stud
yof
obje
cts
like
the
Abr
axas
gem
s.Th
ehi
storic
ally
-min
ded
inqu
irer,
heex
plai
ned,
had
topl
ace
grea
terw
eigh
ton
docu
men
tary
worth
than
,as
was
gene
rally
custo
mar
yfo
rth
ose
who
colle
cted
gem
s,on
beau
ty.H
ism
etap
hor-
one
that
exte
nds
toho
wPe
iresc
lived
his
life
-w
asth
atw
hen
lack
ing
bette
r,on
eha
dto
beco
nten
tw
ith
wha
tla
yto
hand
,jus
tas
the
sailo
rin
the
mid
stof
the
ocea
nha
dto
besa
tisfie
dw
ithdr
iedbi
scui
t.T
his
was
the
fate
ofa
llth
ose
who
wis
hed
»to
have
unin
terr
upte
dno
tice
ofan
cien
thi
story
and
prov
eit
byco
ntem
pora
ry,
publ
icau
thor
ity«.
Peire
scex
plai
ned
that
heon
ceha
d»t
hesa
me
fasti
diou
snes
sab
outm
any
thin
gsof
crud
ew
orkm
ansh
ip«
but
whe
ntra
velli
ngin
»tho
sela
nds«
-re
ferr
ing
toRu
bens
'Fl
ande
rs-
heha
dfo
und
node
cent
win
ean
dso
been
cons
trai
ned
todr
ink
beer
.W
ithin
afe
wda
yshe
foun
dth
etas
teso
muc
hto
his
likin
gth
at»f
rom
then
onI
have
held
itam
ongs
toth
erpl
easu
res
and
abov
ean
yso
rtof
the
best
win
es,w
hich
are
notl
acki
ng«,
head
ded
poin
tedl
y,»i
nth
ese
land
s«.T
his
was
how
Peire
scha
dde
velo
ped
his
taste
for
the
thin
gsof
poor
wor
kman
ship
that
wer
eye
tnec
essa
ry»t
ofil
lin
man
yla
cuna
ein
anci
ent
histo
ryin
the
mos
tba
baro
usan
dun
know
nce
ntur
ies«
.Ev
enth
ese
»pov
eret
te«,
heob
serv
ed,»
som
etim
esop
ened
the
road
togo
beyo
nd«.
Inde
ed,a
ndhe
rePe
iresc
show
edag
ainth
eclo
seco
ncep
tual
link
betw
een
arch
aeol
ogy
and
anth
ropo
logy
befo
reth
eyw
entt
heir
sepa
rate
disc
ipli
nary
ways
,»th
eclo
thin
gwo
rnby
the
nativ
esof
India
,Per
uan
dAf
rica,
made
ofth
eba
rks
oftre
es,o
rqu
ills
orpe
lts,o
rot
her
thin
gsof
very
little
wor
th,
dono
tce
ase
tobe
view
edw
ithpl
easu
reby
the
grea
test
and
mos
tcu
rious
,an
dw
ithgo
odre
ason
...Is
ayall
this
toex
cuse
my
delig
htin
thes
ego
fferie
and
spec
ifi-
148Pe
iresc
toSa
umai
se,
14N
ovem
ber
1633
,in:
Lettr
esa
Clau
deSa
umai
se,p
.33.
149Le
ttres
aCl
aude
Saum
aise
,p.3
3:.»
Etbi
enso
uven
tles
figur
essc
rven
tfor
tade
schi
ffrer
lesin
scrip
tions
etau
cont
raire
,les
insc
riptio
nsa
reco
ngno
istre
lesfig
ures
,qui
yso
ntgr
avee
s,ca
rily
ena
plusie
urs
oude
spa
rolle
spu
reme
ntgr
ecqu
eset
hebr
aique
sso
nten
treme
slces
avec
les
acgy
ptie
nnes
.«15
0G
asse
ndi:
Mir
rour
,ye
ar16
05,p
.93.
cally in the Christian or pseudo-Christian intaglios from which we can deriveinformation about things most obscure in Epiphanius and other ancients.«151
»Ma bisogna nondimeno tal volta ricorrere a tal violenza quando mancano cose migliori ctconlcntarsi dcH'alimento del pane biscotto quando si sta in mezzo al mare et che nonpuonno havere alimenti piu dclicati, se si vuol havere notitia non intcrrotta delle historicantique ct fame la prova con publica autorita contemporanea, il che non e di poco diletto achi si da quella prima violenzadi cavarne il primo gusto. Io haveva havuto altre volte quasiil medesimo fastidio di molte cose di goffa maestria, non per la medesima caggione diquello di V. S. ch'io non haveva la capacita di giudicare ne stimare le cose buonc omigliori, anzi per dcbolczza d'ingegno, bastandomi ogni cosa buona per trattcnermi senzalasciarmi tempo di cssaminare dcH'altrc, ma si come facendo il viaggio ch'io feci altre voltein cotcste bande, ne trovandovi del vino che s'accomodassc alia mia sanita, fu costretto dimcttcrmi alia biera, la quale se ben mi riusci da principio di gusto tanto acerbo che miconveniva turarc le narrcne per beverla come sc fosse stata una medecina. Fra pochi giorni,sendomi avezzato, la trovai piu gustosissima; di maniera che da quel tempo in poi, I'hotenuta in delitiis et quasi sopra ogni sorte di vino di piu eccellenti, come non ce ne mancain qucstc bande. Cosi appunto quando per sorte mi furono capitate certe antiquita di goffamaestria, che mi convenne serbare qualchc tempo, per rispetto di certi mici parcntich'avevano voluto ch'io le tcnessi per amor loro, m'avennc un giorno d'indovinare a casocerto particiolare che mi diede qualche diletto ct m'apri talmcntc la strada a passar piuoltre, che m'ha quasi fatto perdere la dilcttione delle piu nobili, allc quali non mancanopadroni che le tengono in prctio ct le sanno far valere, accio non rcstino del tuttoabbandonatc qucstc povcrettc, delle quali si ponno riempire ct rcstituire molte lacunedell'historia antiqua ne'secoli piu barbari et non cogniti [...] Cosi c certo che molte coses'hanno da stimare nonostante qualsi voglia goffezza di maestria, per essempio le vestedelli Barbari dell'India et del Peru, o dcll'Africa, le quali sono di scorza d'alberi, o dipenne, o di pelli, o altre cose di pochissimo momento, non lasciano d'esscr vedutevolcntieri dalli piu grandi et piu curiosi, et con molta raggione [...] Questo si a dctto perfarmi scusare nella dilettatione di quelle goffcric et specialmentc di que'tagli christiani opseudo-christiani dalli quali si cava la notitia di cose oscurissimc in Epiphanio et altrianliqui« (Peiresc to Rubens, 23 December 1621, in: Rubens Correspondence, II, pp. 317-18).
Ralph Hafner
Das Erkenntnisproblem in der Philologie um 1700
Zum Verhaltnis von Polymathie und Aporetik bei Jacob FriedrichReimmann, Christian Thomasius und Johann Albert Fabricius*
Johann Albert Fabricius (1668-1736), der Hamburger Philologe und langjahrigeProfessor am Akademischen Gymnasium, legte im Jahr 1718 eine Ausgabe derWerkedes spatantiken Gelehrten Sextus Empiricus (fl. 180-200 n. Chr.) vor, dienoch weit ins 19. Jahrhundert hinein verbindlich bieiben sollte. Die editorische
Leistung, die man seit je daran bewunderte, verdeckt aber leicht die besonderendenkgeschichtlichen Bedingungen, die ihn veranlaBten, sich mit einem Schlus-seltext der antiken Skepsis iiber Jahre hinweg zu beschaftigen. Wenn Fabriciusinder Einleitung seinen Autordem Leserso nachdrilcklich empfahl, weil der umdie antike Philosophic bemUhte Gelehrte kaum irgendwo mehr lernen k5nne,' sozeugt diese Aussage von einem tiefen Interesse an der Dogmengeschichte derantiken Wissenschaften, in dem sich zwei sehr unterschiedlich akzentuierteKonzeptionen gelehrter Erkenntnis verbanden: Die polyhistorische Verzeich-nung des Wissens, wie sie seit den frUhesten antiken >Blutenlesen< und zumalseit Isidor von Sevilla auch fur die christliche Polymathie bestimmendgewordenwar, trat hier in ein produktives Verhaltnis zu einem von neuem erwachten Interesse an der Traditionsgeschichte der uberliefertenLehrmeinungen.
Die Darstellung der diachronen Abfolge philosophischer Dogmen konnte,solange sie die historischen PersCnlichkeiten und ihre Werke zum Gliederungs-kriterium erhob, ebenfalls auf eine Tradition zurtlckblicken, die mindestens biszu des Diogenes Laertios Geschichte berUhmter Philosophen zuriickreichte.Insbesondere seit dem 17. Jahrhundert erschien eine groBe Anzahl derartigerGeschichten antiker Philosophen und Gelehrter; man denke an einschlagigeWerke von Gerhard Johann Vossius, Georg Horn oder Thomas Stanley.2 1659veroTfentlichte Johannes Jonsius seinen Traktat De scriptoribus hisioriae philo-sophicae, mit dem sich der junge Fabricius selbst in einer Entgegnung kritischauseineinanderzusetzen hatte.
Die vorliegendc Abhandlung isl die Ubcrarbcitete Fassung cines Vortrags, den ich imRahmen des vonChristopher Ligota geleiteten Forschungsscminars »History of Scholarship(from the Renaissance onwards)« am 10. November 1995 im Warburg Institute, London,zur Diskussion gcstellt habe. Ilerm Dr. Christopher Ligota bin ich hierfur zu herzlichemDank vcrpflichtct.Vgl. Johann Albert Fabricius: »Ad lcctorem«, in: Sextus Empiricus: Opera, graece& latinc[...], Leipzig 1718, nicht paginiert: »[...] licet pauci exstant scriptores e quibus studiosusveteris Philosophiac plura disccre, atque si sano judicio instructus ad lectionem ejus acce-dat, majorem fructum capere possit.«Vgl. Mario Longo: Mistoria philosophiac philosophica. Tcorie e metodi della storia dellafilosofia tra Scicento c Setteccnto, Mailand 1986.
Die Deutsche Bibliothek - CIP-Einheitsaufnahme
Philologie undErkeimmis: Beitragezu Begriff und Problem frtthneuzeitlicher>PhiloIogie< / hrsg. vonRalph Hafner. - Tubingen: Niemeyer, 2001
(Fruhe Neuzeit; Bd. 61)
ISBN 3-484-36561 -7 ISSN 0934-5531
© Max Niemeyer Verlag GmbH, Tubingen 2001DasWerk einschlieBlich allerseinerTeile ist urheberrechtlich geschtltzt. JedeVerwertung auDerhalbder engen Grenzen des Urheberrechtsgesetzes ist ohne Zustimmung des Verlages unzulassig undstrafbar. Das gilt insbesonderefQr Vervielfaltigungen, Ubersetzungen, Mikroverfilmungen und dieEinspeicherung und Verarbeitung in elektronischen Systemen. Printedin Germany.Gedruckt auf alterungsbestandigem Papier.Satz: Carsten Behle, Hamburg, und Ralph Hafner, BerlinDruck: AZ Druck und Datentcchnik GmbH, KemptcnEinband: Buchbinderei Koch, Tubingen
Inhalt
Vorwort VII
I. ANTIQUARIANISMUS,KRITIK, SKEPSIS 1
Luc Deitz
Gerhard Johann Vossius' De philologia liberund sein Begriff von »Philologie« 3
Lorenzo Bianchi
Erudition, critique et histoire chez Gabriel Naud6 (1600-1653). .
Peter N. Miller
The Antiquary's Art ofComparison: PeirescandAbraxas
Ralph HafnerDas Erkenntnisproblem in der Philologie um 1700. Zum Verhaltnisvon Polymathie, Philologie und Aporetik bei Jacob FriedrichReimmann, Christian Thomasius und Johann Albert Fabricius ....
II. Epistemologie, Sprache, Grammatik.
Constance Blackwell
Vocabulary as a Critiqueof Knowledge.Zabarella and Keckermann - Erastus and Conring:Eclipses, Incantations, Hieroglyphics, andthe History of Medicine.
Herbert Jaumann
Iatrophilologia.Medicus philologusund analoge Konzepte in der frtihen Neuzeit..
Florian Neumann
Zwei furiose Philologen: PaganinoGaudenzio (1595-1649)und Kaspar Schoppe (1576-1649)
Helmut Zedelmaier
DerUrsprung der Schrift als Problem der frtihen Neuzeit.Die These schriftloser Uberlieferung beiJohann Heinrich Ursinus (1608-1667)
35
57
95
129
131
151
177
207
VI Inhalt
III. Philologie, Humanismus, Platonismus 225
Paul Richard Blum
Was ist Renaissance-Humanismus?
Zur Konstruktion eines kulturellen Modells 227
DouglasHedleyThe Platonick Trinity:Philology and Divinity in Cudworth's Philosophy of Religion 247
Wilhelm Schmidt-BiggemannDie philologische Zersetzung des christlichen Platonismusam Beispiel der Trinitatstheologie 265
IV. Patristik und Konfessionalismus 303
Jean-Louis QuantinLa philologie patristique et ses ennemis: Barthlllmy Germon, S. J.,et la tentation pyrrhonistechez les anti-jans^nistes 305
Martin Mulsow
Gegen die Falschung der Vergangenheit.Philologie bei Mathurin Veyssiere La Croze 333
Ralph HafnerPhilologische Festkultur in Hamburg im ersten Dritteldes 18. Jahrhunderts: Fabricius, Brockes, Telemann 349
V. INDICES 379
Namen 381
Sachen 389
Vorwort
Mit der gertngfUgigen Emendation eines Satzes, den Immanuel Kant 1766Blick auf die Bestimmung von dem »Begriff eines Geistes« formulierte, k(Jiman wohl sagen: >Von der Erkiarung, was der Begriff eines Philologen enthist der Schritt noch ungemein weit zu dem Satze, dafi solche Naturen wirkliclauch nur mOglich sein.< Man konnte einwenden, dafi schon das schiere Vorldensein von Xoyot, von geschriebenen oder gesprochenen WOrtern und Reauf das Dasein von Liebhabern schliefien lasse, die sich eben diese XoyoiObjekt ihrer Begierde ausersehen haben, ja dafi die >Hochzeit Merkurs undPhiIologie< nur als rechtskraftiger Akt naturlicher Personen begriffen wekOnne; allein die Frage, welche Merkmale zur Bestimmung des BegriffsPhilologie wesentlich erfordert werden, wenner nichtUberhaupt (wie nach 1der des Geistes) »eine Art von Undenklichkeit« enthalte, ist durch den Bedes Gegenstandes, mit dem sich der Philologe zu beschaftigen pflegt, niweniger als gelOst. Man mufi nicht so weit gehen wie der Jesuit Jean Hard<der annahernd die gesamten Xoyoi der Antike als Falschungen13. Jahrhunderts ausgab und damit den Philologen in der Tat in jenes »Pandes Phantasten« verbannte, der sich in nicht endender Produktivitat ein »S<tenreich« der Fiktionen errichtet - und in welchem Kant den unerfreuli-
Anblick des Geistersehers gewahrte -: wenn aber Eunapios den Rhetor Lowegen einer vielfaitigen Gelehrsamkeit als »lebendige BibIiothek« preisen dund Plotin von demselben behauptete: »Philologe ist Longin wohl, Philoaberauf keine Weise«, so gab er mit dem Zusatz, dafi Longin ein »Meiste:Beurteilung« (KpixiicrfraxTOc;) sei, eine prazise Anzeige ftir einen wesentliund wahrscheinlich den hervortretendsten Charakterzug des PhilolcDemnach ginge in den Begriffdes Philologen zuerst undvorallem gar nichbestimmter Gegenstandsbereich ein, er begriffe sich vielmehr selbst dure!gewisses sich-Verhalten zu den Dingen, das Plotin durch das Merkmal dertik< auszeichnend charakterisiert hatte.
Der vorliegende Band versammelt die Beitrage, die anlafilich der Internnalen und interdisziplinaren Tagung »ZuBegriffundProblem der Philologie1580-ca. 1730)« vom 19. bis 23.Juli 1998 in WolfenbUttel zur Disku?gestellt wurden. Bei aller sachorientierten Zerstreuung ist es das MerkmaKritik, das die Abhandlungen - durch unterschiedlichste ideen- und g(schaftsgeschichtliche Kontexte maandrierend - wie ein gemeinsames 1durchzieht. Die Einsicht in das >kritische< Verhalten zu den >Dingen<, dasPhilologen gegenUber dem Rhetor, Sophisten, Theologen etc. offenbar ausz