12 - Mesoamerican Idols, Spanish Medicine: Jade in the Collection of Philip II
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 November 2020
Summary
Abstract
This essay examines a singular object in the post-mortem inventory of Philip II of Spain: a greenstone ‘idol’ from New Spain (present-day Mexico and wider Mesoamerica) that was said to cure abdominal pain. While the stone can be considered within the European tradition of lapidary medicine, its distant American and, moreover, pagan origins, complicates our understanding of it. Through examination of the stone's materiality, the purpose(s) it may have served in its culture of origin and sixteenth-century New Spanish and Spanish natural histories and medical treatises, this chapter considers how, and by whom, it was transformed from an American idol into Spanish medicine.
Keywords: Spain; New Spain; Mesoamerica; medicine; jade; Philip II
Upon the death of Philip II of Spain, in 1598, the monarch's worldly goods were inventoried and appraised so that they could be auctioned. As befitted a man of his stature, Philip's collection included thousands of valuable and prestigious objects: jewel-encrusted reliquaries, books, precious stones, silver, armour, tapestries, clocks, ceramics, paintings and furniture. This essay examines a single item – now lost – in the king's inventory, an object that occupies the intersection of the king's interests in science and Americana, and that urges us to consider its ambiguous material and ontological status:
A large green stone, that they say is plasma de esmeralda (emerald plasma), that came from New Spain and served as an idol, with a face on the end, that they say is good for the side [of the body], wrapped in green taffeta; that weighs 2 marcos, 1 onza, and 1 ochava: valued at 12 ducados.
This greenstone is inventoried with a variety of other coloured stones. Some are identified as ‘idols’, some have a New World provenance and some are imbued with medicinal virtues. One, like the ‘idol’ above, is a New Spanish greenstone ‘that they say is for the side and urine’. Of these stones, however, only the one described above is a triple threat: a New Spanish idol turned medicinal stone.
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- Religious Materiality in the Early Modern World , pp. 229 - 246Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2019