Suaire de Saint-Josse [SEP] material used
Suaire de Saint-Josse
The Suaire de Saint-Josse, the "Shroud of Saint Josse" that is now conserved in the Musée du Louvre, is a rich silk samite saddle cloth that was woven in northeastern Iran, some time before 961, when Abu Mansur Bakhtegin, the "camel-prince" for whom it was woven, was beheaded. It was brought back from the First Crusade by Étienne de Blois and dedicated as a votive gift at the Abbey of Saint-Josse, near Caen, Normandy.
Saint-Josse was secularised just before the French Revolution, the abbey church became the parish church of the French commune of Saint-Josse; the "suaire" was kept there until it was transferred to the Louvre.
References.
- Louvre Museum: "The Saint-Josse Shroud"
- Exhibited as no. 4 in Jones, Dalu & Michell, George, (eds); "The Arts of Islam", p. 74, Arts Council of Great Britain, 1976,