Charles of Luxembourg and his gemstones

One of the most influential fourteenth-century rulers, Charles of Luxembourg, king of Bohemia (1346–78), king of Romans (1346–8), and Holy Roman Emperor (1355–78), is well known as a collector of holy relics of Christendom. Less known is that, in addition to relics, he also sought out ancient coins, manuscripts and rare fabrics, jewels, objects of curiosity and, above all, gemstones. By his order, many of these gemstones were incorporated into composite virtuoso objects, reliquaries, and liturgical ornaments and thus converted to novel purposes. The book examines how the bejewelled precious objects supported Charles’s political agenda and self-image from a new transnational and interdisciplinary perspective. Ingrid Ciulisová is a Senior Research Fellow in art history at the Art Research Centre of the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava and holds the title of docent at Charles University in Prague. Her research interests encompass late medieval and early modern art in Europe, the history of art collecting, and the history of art history. She was Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow in the Department of History of Art of Oxford University and a Research Associate at Corpus Christi College (2019–20). Most recently, she coedited the publication Luxembourg Court Cultures in the Long Fourteenth Century: Performing Empire, Celebrating Kingship with Karl Kügle and Václav Žůrek (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2024).