From the Mandylion of Edessa to the Shroud of Turin

Andrea Nicolotti, Ph.D. (2005), University of Turin, is Research Fellow at the Department of Historical Studies. He has published many studies on history of Christianity, including Esorcismo cristiano e possessione diabolica (Brepols, 2011) and I Templari e la Sindone (Salerno, 2011).

Acknowledgements ix
List of Illustrations xi

1 Introduction 1

2 Origins and Traditions 7
King Abgar and the Origins of the Legend 7
The Apparition of the Image in Edessa 9
The Development of Traditions about the Image 12
The Siege of Edessa 14
A Later Genesis? 17
An Older Genesis? 18
Silence in Syria and Traditions in Armenia 22
The Iconoclastic Era 26

3 Shifting Perspectives? 29
Acts of Thaddaeus 29
The Term tetradiplon and the Reliquary of the Image 34
The Question of the Folds 39
The Letter of the Three Patriarchs and Jesus’ Height 47

4 The Translation of the Image of Edessa 53
Gregory Referendarius and the Translation of the Image 53
The Narratio de Imagine Edessena 66
The Keramion 72
The Edessean Cult of the Image 77
The Synaxarium 80
The Liturgical Odes 84

5 The Mandylion in Constantinople 89
The Name “Mandylion” 89
Persistence of Converging and Diffferent Traditions 91
An Elusive Vision 96
The Preservation of the Mandylion in Byzantium 99
The Revolt of the Palace 106
Robert de Clari 109
Latin Sermon 112

6 An Overview of Iconography 120
The Holy Face of Lucca 120
Orderic Vitalis 126
Iconography of the Mandylion 128
Flowers or Holes? 148
Miniatures of the Mandylion 152
The Georgian Icon of Ancha 159
The Madrid’s Skylitzes 162
A Russian Icon 170
Byzantine Coins 173
Two Copies of the Mandylion of Edessa 182

The End 188
The Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and the Disappearance of the Mandylion 188

Conclusions 202

Index of Names 205