Phylactery
Private Collection, London
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Saints & Martyrs | Relics & Reliquaries | Shrines & Places
Saints, Relics, and Devotion in Medieval Europe
Culture: Mosan (Belgium)
Date: ca. 1160
Material: Copper gilt, vernis brun, enamel (champlevé), gems, and rock crystal
Dimensions: 22.5 × 22 × 3 cm
Inscribed: left plaque: elena regina iudei cu iuda (Queen Helena asks the advice of the Jews and Judas); right plaque: iudas territ ignis (Judas is frightened by the fire); bottom plaque: iudas crux inventa (Judas discovers the cross); sca crux defunctus suscitatus (The holy cross raises the dead)
Provenance: Possibly the Abbey of Lobbes, thereafter the Priory of Sart-les-Moines, Courcelles, until the suppression of the monasteries in 1796; Mme Hembise-Bomal, who sold it to Monseigneur Dumont, bishop of Tournai, in 1875; thereafter Dumont family and private collection