By 1912, Staubig knew of the pursuit of the Holy Grail by Henry Walton Jones, Sr., and was willing to pass on bits of Grail lore to his colleague. While on holiday in Dubrovnik in August 1932, Staubig found in an antiquarian bookstore an apparently genuine manuscript of The Book of the Spells of Merlin and found a description of a Chalice that could be the Holy Grail. He was asked by Professor O'Lochlainn to restore the runes that would conjure the vision of the Chalice. Staubig was also approached by René Emile Belloq and was impressed by the Frenchman's erudition but perturbed by his association with certain political elements in Germany.