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This article focuses on the western cult of two saints, Cyrus and John, which was founded in Egypt – where Sophronios of Jerusalem composed the anargyroi 's hagiographic dossier in the seventh century – and quickly spread to Italy. The analysis of the manuscripts containing the Latin translations of Sophronios's texts allows us to trace the diffusion of this hagiographic corpus in Rome, and to link its transfer and first reception in Italy to a broad Mediterranean migration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a book titled "An Artful Relic: The Shroud of Turin in Baroque Italy" by Andrew R. Casper. The book explores the artistic and cultural significance of the Shroud of Turin during the Baroque period in Italy. Casper argues that the Shroud could be interpreted as an object of art without blasphemy, and that it was considered a work of art of divine origin. The author also examines the emotional and aesthetic perception of the Shroud, and its enduring power as an artistic relic. The article praises Casper's work for shedding new light on the subject and providing a unique perspective. [Extracted from the article]

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In agreement with the last will of Doge Francesco Erizzo († 1646), his heart was buried in San Marco, the political and religious center of the Serenissima, next to the high altar and thus ad sanctos to the relics of Venice's patron saint. This unprecedented privilege not only disrupted the city's restrictive policies concerning public monuments, but her republican ideals in general. Due to the significance of the heart in Christian eschatological thinking and corporal state doctrines his burial elevated Erizzo to the status of an absolute ruler threatening the Republic's sacred constitution. In Venice, however, individual and public interests were closely intertwined. This study therefore analyzes the heart burial in the context of Erizzo's self-fashioning, Venetian state ideology, devotional practices and collective memory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dominican church of Santa Corona in Vicenza owed its status and nomenclature to its prestigious relic from the crown of thorns. In the early fifteenth century, the reliquary and its procession were enhanced; the community appeared to increase in number and was taken over by a reform movement. From the late 1470s, an ambitious spatial transformation involved removing the prominent choir precinct from the upper nave; constructing an extended high altar chapel to house new choir stalls; and the creation of a crypt in which the precious relic would be displayed. In 1500, textile merchant Battista Graziani was granted a side chapel location in the newly liberated space of the upper nave. Giovanni Bellini's Baptism of Christ altarpiece, with its unique use of light and composition, focused attention on the figure of Christ and, as suggested by an interpretation of a Dominican text, made reference to the crowning of thorns. Graziani's altar was also subtly related to the high altar, possibly intended to house an image of the crowning of thorns above the projected new site for the relic below. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on a conference on early Christian cemeteries, held in Regensburg, Germany, from April 19-20, 2013. Focusing mainly on the third century, participants discussed such topics as the catacombs of Marcellinus and Peter, Callixtus, and Praetextatus in Rome, Italy, Christian funeral laws and customs from the second to the eighth century, and the role of relics in the writings of Greek Christian church father Johannes Chrysostomus.

The author compares two 12th century medieval sources, the "Descriptio Lateranensis ecclesiae" by John the Deacon and the Icelandic itinerary "Leiðarísir," both of which list relics from saints that were preserved in the Basilica of St. John Lateran and the Chapel of St. Lawrence, or Sancta Sanctorum, in the Palatium Lateranense in Rome. The dating of the texts, Marian relics from Saint Mary the Virgin, and medieval Popes are also mentioned.

By contextualizing a reliquary panel by Tommaso da Modena within the interrelated artistic, scientific, and religious trends and practices of fourteenth-century Italy, a better understanding of the ways such a devotional aid was received comes to light. This article considers how the reliquary panel's material, composition, and decorative techniques could have resonated with aspects of Trecento visuality and devotion (e.g., the production of eyeglasses, debates about the Beatific Vision, Ugo Panciera's Treatise on Perfection, and the Franciscan theology of light). It pays particular attention to the panel's incorporation of verre églomisé, a technique that experienced a significant revival during the Trecento and which was recommended by Cennino Cennini's for decorating reliquaries. Such an investigation demonstrates how Tommaso's panel, and others like it, could have capitalized on the growing interest in the sense of sight and optics to affect spiritual insight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1463, construction was underway on the Fatih Mosque in Istanbul by Sultan Mehmet II. According to one of the Sultan's ambassadors, the Mosque was located "in the best site of the city." The site of the new mosque was the Church of the Holy Apostles, which had served as a site of Byzantine imperial ceremony. While the circumstances of its destruction remain murky, Israel argues that the demolition of the church was subsumed into the rhetoric of conflict as Mehmet conquered Venetian territory along the Adriatic, and as Pope Pius II tried to stir enthusiasm for a crusade. Against this backdrop of political strife, this article explores the reproduction and redefinition of the Church of the Holy Apostles through traces of its relics and architectural forms as the Republic again redefined their relationship with the Byzantine Empire, claiming inheritance over its patrimony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Franks incorporated Saxony into the Carolingian empire through a long, brutal struggle coupled with forced conversion. When Saxons themselves began to write a few decades afterwards, they had to make sense of this history and of their role and identity in their contemporary Carolingian world. In contrast to the portrayal of Saxons in writers such as Einhard and Rudolf, three ninth-century Saxon accounts of relic translations — those of Vitus, Pusinna and Liborius — reinterpreted history to claim a place for the Saxons as a distinct group equal to the Franks within the populus Christianus under the Carolingian monarchs. As a key part of their literary strategies, these authors attempted to salvage from the story of their defeat and forced Christianisation an account of God''s sovereignty, native agency and virtue (especially fidelity) as a foundational element of Saxon identity. These texts prefigure the debates about post-conquest Saxon identity which would underlay the later and better-known Ottonian triumphal self-conceptions. Moreover, the concerns of these authors led them to remarkable hagiographical innovations in grappling with paganism, conversion, miracles, social class and faith. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Near the village of Cardeto, in the southern sector of the Aspromonte Massif (southern Calabria, Italy), a greenschist to low amphibolite facies metamorphic complex outcrops in two main tectonic windows beneath the Aspromonte Unit. Petrological and structural similarities from both windows allow them to be grouped into a single metamorphic complex defined here as ‘Cardeto Metamorphic Complex’ (CMC). The CMC is made up essentially of metapelitic-metapsammitic rocks containing intercalations of marbles and (garnet) amphibolitic-schist lenses, mylonitic strain becoming more intense towards the north. Two stages of metamorphism are recognised: the early stage is sporadically preserved in the form of relics of mineralogical assemblages inside cores of garnet porphyroblasts. P–T conditions are ca. 0.6 GPa and 550 °C. The latter stage of metamorphism is related to the shear deformational episode which produced the widespread mylonitic foliation observed in the CMC rocks. The peak metamorphic conditions of this syn-mylonitic stage are in the range 0.6–0.9 GPa and 550–600 °C. Estimates of PT conditions of metamorphism using compositional isopleths of garnet in phase diagrams in the simplified MnNCKFMASH system allow to constrain the possible PT path. The absence of pre-Alpine mineralogical and structural relics casts doubt on correlation with other Palaeozoic metamorphic units outcropping in the Peloritani Mountains (Sicily) (e.g., Mandanici Unit), due to the same structural position and petrographical features. Rather, a correlation with the Alpine Madonna di Polsi Unit, outcropping in the central sector of the Aspromonte Massif, is plausible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commonly accepted reconstruction of the historical and artistic backgrounds of the celebrated Charioteer of Delphi statue rests on a delicate chain of reasoning connected with the inscription on a base block from the sanctuary. The two partial lines of writing that make up this exceptional epigraphic document identify two dedicants: a Gelas anasson (ruler of Gela), which can be read underneath a rasura; and Polyzalos, son of Deinomenes and brother of Gelon, Hieron, and Thrasyboulos. Since the discovery of the bronze statue and the base, scholars have sought to combine the statue, the base block, and the dedicants with literary sources relating to the Demomenids, their athletic successes at Olympia and Delphi, and political events occurring in Sicily. The purpose of the present study is to analyze fully the archaeological evidence in light of a detailed paleographic investigation of the inscription on the base, as well as provide a stylistic examination of the sculpture. I suggest that there were two different dedications set up in the sanctuary at Delphi: one dedicated by the Gelas anasson, later appropriated by Polyzalos, and another (by an unknown dedicant) represented by the Charioteer statue, which should be dated between 470 and 450 B.C.E. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents information on the imitation of architecture by art through the Saint Philip reliquary in renaissance Florence, Italy. Translation of a relic of Saint Philip's arm to Florence; Sources of the Saint Philip reliquary; Architectural imitation of the Saint Philip reliquary.

The article addresses the role of saints' relics in the western controversy over the use of religious images in Italy and France in the later eighth and ninth centuries and examines the place of holy relics in relation to religious art in the thought of four of the leading western participants in the controversy: Theodulf of Orléans, Claudius of Turin, Dungal, and Jonas of Orléans. Theodulf believed that relics are consecrated objects because of their intimate link with the saints and martyrs, unlike images. His understanding of the association between holy relics and religious images reflects the official doctrine and mainstream practice of the early medieval western church.

The object of this enquiry is a silver-mounted, miraculously unbreakable drinking glass from early fourteenth-century Padua. Known as Aleardino’s Glass, the vessel took its name and status from the fact that it remained miraculously intact despite being cast to the ground by a heretical knight named Aleardino who had publicly challenged the sanctity of St Anthony of Padua. Taking Aleardino’s wonder at his unbroken glass as a point of departure, this contribution explores the interlacing of material properties and conceptual representations that underlies and informs our understanding of the vessel. It considers the status of the glass as a conceptual work, and investigates the relationship between the physical properties of the vessel and its visual attributes. The essay explores the notion of material difficulty mobilized by a glass that does not break and discusses the cleverness of Aleardino’s Glass in terms of the reciprocal relationship between the physical resilience of the vessel and its resistance to interpretation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study which examined the heart of Santa Rosa, a well preserved mummy in the monastery of the same name in Viterbo, Italy that dates back to the 13th century AD. The study was aimed at determining the cause of death of the gracile girl, who died at age 18 or 19. The researchers suggested that Santa Rosa died of cardiac embolism, not tuberculosis, as there was no evidence of an infectious chronic disease.