Search

In 1519, soil from the Campo Santo Teutonico next to St. Peter's in Rome — a burial place thought to contain earth from Jerusalem — was spread over the extramural cemetery in the Saxon town of Annaberg. This article asks how the reception of the soil from Rome was shaped by the local community and its landscape at a time of religious change. It demonstrates the potential for both positive and negative views on the part of Annaberg's citizens, arguing that these were informed not only by traditional religiosity and reform ideas, but also by the distinctive visual and material culture of a silver mining community. In this way, the article offers new perspectives on the transalpine connections of the Campo Santo Teutonico, the role of the substance of the landscape in creating and criticizing links with the Roman Church at the start of the Reformation, and the relationship between materialities of religion and the environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the visual responses (with political, spiritual and social connotations) to the visual statements about the role of Rome and the pope in Western Christendom made by Pope Urban V (1362–1370) at the time of his return to the Urbe from Avignon in 1367–9. It investigates the plurality of responses to these papal statements, the chain of further visual communications that these statements set in motion as well as their longue durée by engaging with the reception of the pontiff's powerful messages by different audiences, both secular and ecclesiastic, from Rome to the Italian peninsula more broadly, and southern France, in the following 50 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bernardo de Toro (Seville 1570–Rome 1643) was a devotee of the Immaculate Conception and the last leader of a mystic group called the Brotherhood of La Granada. This article analyses what Toro did to create two shrines dedicated to the Brotherhood in the convents of La Concepción (Lebrija) and La Encarnación (Seville) of which neither has survived. This article reassembles their original components, which included the remains of the four leaders of the Brotherhood and investigates how Toro combined the relics of the four men, their portraits and the image of the Immaculate Conception in order to safeguard their spiritual legacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyses the military use of holy relics, images, and other Christian apotropaic devices in the Roman- Persian wars. I examine a wide range of literary evidence from the 4th to the 7th century exploring where, why, and how different Christian objects were used in military contexts. Moreover, I consider different factors, as the local religious practices or the rivalry between the Christian Roman Empire and Zoroastrian Persia. I argue that the earliest military uses of relics and holy images happened in the context of the Roman-Persian conflict and frontier region, and that, during the 4th-7th centuries, these uses were much more common there than anywhere else. Also, that some local practices of this region could have been adopted by military officers and the Imperial elite. I propose that three factors could explain this: First, the intensity of the cult of relics and images in Syria and the Near East. Second, the growing identification of the Roman Empire as a Christian power between the 4th and 7th centuries. Finally, the Roman-Persian conflict and the climate of religious confrontation that grew over the course of the Byzantine-Sassanian wars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two types of materials were sampled as part of an investigation of the relics of the Holy Catholic Church of the Apostles St Philip and St James in the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli in Rome: bone- and mummy-materials and architectural samples. The analyses encompassed radiocarbon dating, thermoluminescence dating, gas and liquid chromatographic separation with mass spectrometric detection, X-Ray fluorescence, X-Ray diffraction, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, Raman spectroscopy, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The results show that the samples were subjected to a number of conservational and exhibition-related treatments. The alleged femoral bone of St James was dated between AD 214 and 340 (2σ confidence), which shows that this cannot be the bone of St James. An encrustation found in a canal in the reliquary in the high altar construction showed the presence of heavily oxidized rapeseed oil, which was radiocarbon dated between AD 267 and 539 (2σ confidence), and a ceramic shard also found in the high altar construction was TL-dated to AD 314–746 (2σ confidence). The two latter dates are consistent with a translation of the relics following the erection of the church at the time of Pope Pelagius I in AD 556–561. [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.

Pope Gregory I’s reconstruction of the church’s presence in Rome, and reassertion of Rome’s influence in Italy make his pontificate (590–604) significant for the history of Italian leadership. His correspondence with rivals, counsel for friends, and deployment of relics furnish historians with an opportunity to reassess what leadership theorists depict as “the humility factor” as well as what theorists identify as the roles of “disruption” and “dissonance” in the formulation and implementation of leadership strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RACAR: Canadian Art Review / Revue d'art Canadienne is the property of Universities Art Association of Canada / Association d'Art des Universites du Canada and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)