Reliquie е reliquiari dal mare а Genova е in Liguria fra la prima Crociata е il Duecento

Abstract

As in the records of many medieval cities, arrivals and translations of holy relics recur in the history of Genoa. The Mediterranean is the constant background in this analysis; in many cases, the individual events, considered over the long term, characterize actual historical dynamics or are symbols of new political, legal, social and economic settlement. After a brief summary of the earliest relic translations - which took place between the late-sixth and tenth centuries and are attested in the historical, hagiographical, and archaeological sources - this paper turns to some case studies of the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, the memory of which is also recorded through such material evidence as reliquaries still preserved in Genoese and Ligurian churches and museums. Among these, the paper highlights the silver casket containing the ashes of Saint John the Baptist, which reached Genoa in the crucial time of Crusade, reform, and birth of the Comune which advanced the creation of a veritable official ...