Treasury of the Basel Cathedral

Basel, Switzerland, is one of the few European towns to have retained a substantial portion of its medieval treasury. When the Protestant Reformation reached the city in 1529, the costly ritual objects used on the high altar of the cathedral were locked away for protection and not seen for three centuries. Many were then auctioned off by the municipal government and the objects scattered in museums and private collections. For a hundred years attempts have been made to bring them back together, culminating in an exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum in New York for which Treasury of the Basel Cathedral is the catalog. A fascinating reconstruction shows how some 70 splendid ecclesiastical and secular objects made of gold and silver, crystal and precious stones would have been arranged in ritually significant positions on the altar. The types of object, the dates at which they entered the treasury, and alterations made to them in antiquity all provide valuable information about medieval life. For example, when the authority of the bishops was challenged after the earthquake of 1356, the number of gifts of reliquaries increased, the divine power invested in them protecting the power of the church. Treasury of Basel Cathedral is a sumptuous presentation and an intriguing story of scholarship, devotion, and detective work. --John Stevenson