Transmuting Silver into Gold: Cautionary Notes on the Iconography and Symbolism of Silver Trumpets

Abstract

The evidence recently published by Timothy J. McGee on the type of metal specifi ed for the “brass” instruments of the haut bands of highand late-medieval Western Europe, particularly Florence, is clearly noteworthy. This article provides supplementary materials—iconographical, symbolic, and economic—to refi ne the treatment of that evidence, and, like the paper to which it responds, it too is chiefl y concerned with the Tuscan experience, particularly that of the city on the Arno. Little will be said regarding the evidence for French and English practice. Before proceeding to the matter of this article, it is worth stating at the outset that, in source criticism (diplomatics), the nomenclature used in a record is accepted unless there is a compelling reason to reject it. In default of such a reason it is not usual procedure to doubt inventory or statute descriptions of the materials from which objects are made. Later practices of the same geographic region, no matter how consistently different from what went before, cannot constitute a compelling reason for doubt unless they form part of a carefully reasoned, scrupulously documented, and fully presented argument. This principle remains unaffected by the genre of the document; a notary who uses the term “silver” means “silver,” be it in contract, conveyance, or ordinance. The one proviso is that the content or signifi cation of words is culturally determined, and content is not necessarily constant across space or time. What we commonly mean by “silver” may or may not be equivalent in whole or in part to what a fourteenthor fi fteenth-century Florentine meant by “silver.” As a starting point, however, critical prudence leaves little choice but to take at their face value the words of the documents presented by Professor McGee.