Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T06:58:43.828Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

20 - The New Passion Relics at the Lateran, Fifteenth to Sixteenth Centuries: A Translocated Sacred Topography

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 August 2020

L. Bosman
Affiliation:
Universiteit van Amsterdam
I. P. Haynes
Affiliation:
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
P. Liverani
Affiliation:
Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italy
Get access

Summary

Compared to St. Peter’s, the privileged Roman pilgrimage destination since Early Christian times, the story of relic veneration at the Lateran is more ambiguous. There was no saint’s sepulchre as the devotional and liturgical focus of the church, and its principal relics had a strangely "abstract" character. Throughout the Middle Ages, different strategies were used to improve the reception of the Lateran relics, focusing principally on increased visibility. The peak of "making present" relics was reached with the fifteenth century, when a singular "reliquization" of several objects in the old Lateran palace took place, overlapping the abandoned patriarchíum with a new, sacred memorial topography (the palace of Pilate and other Holy Land sites). Many of these new relics were venerated in a particular performative and haptic way by the pilgrims who compared for example, their bodies’ height to the mensura Christi, passed the "doorways of the palace of Pilate" and progressed on their knees up the "Scala Santa", kissing the bloodstains which the Saviour had left on its steps. The chapter places the palace relics into the Lateran’s traditions and analyzes the reception strategies and veneration practices related to them, focusing especially on the role of materiality and physical approach as devotional means.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×