Misura della Colonna di Cristo Nro Signore

[Rome]: Santa Prassede, 19th century. Linen ribbon cut to 69 x 4 cm, printed in black ink on one side with the words “MISURA DELLA COLONNA DI CRISTO NRO SIGNORE ALLA QUALE FU FLAGELLATO”, and, in much smaller letters “SI VENERA PRESSO LI MMCI VALLOMBROSANI DI S. PRASSEDE DI ROMA”. On each end is a small reproduction of the column surrounded by foliage. In excellent condition. Rare and ephemeral “metric relic.” Cut to the exact height of the column that Christ was lashed to during his flagellation, these ribbons would have been available to pilgrims visiting the Basilica of Saint Praxedes in Rome, where the supposed column is housed. The column was translated to the basilica in 1222 from Jerusalem, and it remains there today.

Metric relics, items made to match specific dimensions of holy things, offered a contemplative alternative to physical remains. Medieval and early modern Christians placed great emphasis on divine measurements and meditated on them as a means of imagining the people and places from the Biblical narrative. Visualizing the distances, heights, depths, and lengths of sacred elements lent realism and credibility to literary descriptions, and those unable to undertake an actual trip to the Holy Land could instead go on a mental pilgrimage. Tourists making spiritual journeys to Rome enjoyed purchasing small relics like this to take back to their homes as mementos of their journeys. Cheap and easy to produce, metric relics could be made in large quantities without fear of inauthenticity, and they still provided a source of income for the church.

Unrecorded in OCLC, OPAC, and KVK; Barbier de Montault, “Les Mesures de devotion” in Revue de l’art chrétien 32(1881) 369-370; Van Asperen “’As if they had phyicalled visited the holy places’” in The Imagined and Real Jerusalem in Art and Architecture 202-203; Hagen, “Heavenly Agent and Divine Disclosure” in Tracing the Jerusalem Code Volume 1 381-382.