NA TURIi 



241 



THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 1903. 



THE HOLY SHROUD OF TURIN. 



I.c Linceul du Christ ; Etude scientifique. By Paul 

 Vignon, Dr. e Sci. Nat. Pp. 207 and 9 photo- 

 gravures. (Paris : Masson et Cie, 1902.) 



The Shroud of Christ. By Paul Vignon, D.Sc. (1 1 

 Translated from the French. Pp. 170; 9 photogravures 

 and collotype plates and 38 illustrations. ("West- 

 minster : Archibald Constable and Co., Ltd., 1902). 

 Price \2S. (id. net. 



WHETHER the relic described, figured and dis- 

 cussed in this handsomely got up volume is the 

 veritable shroud which enwrapped the body of Christ is 

 a question which need not be seriously considered in the 

 columns of a scientific publication. Dr. Vignon seems 

 to have convinced himself that the relic is genuine, and 

 his object in publishing this work is (presumably) to con- 

 vince his readers, or at any rate to place before them the 

 evidence on which his conclusions are based. So far as 

 the antiquarian evidence goes, it will suffice to remind 

 readers of NATURE that during the recent controversy — 

 which appears to have been the last of a series of con- 

 troversies concerning the authenticity of the relic in 

 question — Father Herbert Thurston, S.J., communicated 

 a letter to the Times of April 28, from which we make a 

 few extracts : — 



"The Abbe Ulysse Chevalier claims to have proved 

 to demonstration that the linen winding-sheet exhibited 

 at Turin is a spurious relic manufactured in the fourteenth 

 century, and, as the writer believes, with fraudulent 

 intent." 



" We are not, of course, in any way bound to believe 

 that those responsible for the subsequent veneration of 

 this alleged relic have been guilty of conscious fraud. It 

 may even in the first instance have been fabricated with- 

 out intent to deceive. . . . Just as in the case of so many 

 facsimiles of the Holy Vails, what was in the first instance 

 a mere copy for devotional purposes has come in time to 

 figure as an original, the wish, no doubt, being father to 

 the thought, but probably without any deliberate in- 

 sincerity." 



Thus, out of the seven chapters composing this work, 

 there are but two which come within our province, viz., 

 chapter vi., in which the author deals with the scientific 

 evidence, and chapter vii. more particularly, in which he 

 puts forward an explanation of the image which is to be 

 seen on the shroud. The antiquarian lore of the pre- 

 ceding chapters has no particular interest for us, and we 

 may add, further, that the question whether the shroud is 

 the real article or whether it was "faked" in the four- 

 teenth century is a point which in no way affects the 

 discussion of Dr. Vignon's scientific evidence, because 

 the explanation with which we have to deal is equally 

 miraculous whether the image is some twenty centuries 

 old or whether it is only six hundred years old. 



It will be necessary, in order that our readers may 

 judge the issue raised by Dr. Vignon's c'tude scien- 

 tifique, to give a brief description of the relic, facsimile 

 reproductions of which are given in photogravure plates 

 showing respectively the full-length image and the head 

 only on an enlarged scale. The impression, according 

 to the description and figure, is that of a human body un- 

 NO. 1733, VOL. 67] 



draped, with hands crossed, with a long face terminating, 

 in a beard, with hair over the lips and long hair lying 

 along each side of the face ; in brief, the face of Christ 

 as made familiar by the great masters of the old Italian, 

 school. This description, of course, applies only to the 

 front aspect. The back view is such as would be pre- 

 sented by the same body if seen from behind or if it pro- 

 duced an impression on the linen while lying on its back, 

 the front aspect being produced (on the assumption that it 

 is an impression; by drawing the same shroud lengthways- 

 over the face of the prostrate body. The shroud would 

 evidently in these circumstances (again assuming that 

 the body impressed its image) show the two figures, 

 front and back view, on being opened out, the figures 

 being joined head to head, and this is declared to be the 

 state of affairs visible on the holy shroud. The image 

 is said to be formed of reddish-brown shades and 

 what is of fundamental importance to the author's theory 

 — the lights and shades are reversed, i.e. the impression 

 corresponds to a photographic negative. Inconsequence, 

 the true aspect of the features only appears when the 

 image is reversed by being photographed, and this is 

 well shown in the plates referred to, from which the 

 reader will be enabled to compare the image with its. 

 photographic reverse. There are many other marks on 

 the shroud which are caused by rents, stains, burns, pieces 

 clipped out, &c, all of which naturally appear in the 

 photographs. We fail to see the importance of the over- 

 elaborated details of description with which the author 

 treats of these marks, unless it be to establish his claim 

 for the authenticity of the relic from the antiquarian 

 point of view. With this we have nothing to do here ; 

 scientifically, these marks appear to us to have no value 

 whatever. 



It remains to be pointed out that the author, so far as 

 can be gathered from his writings, has never seen this- 

 relic himself, but has relied upon the descriptions of 

 others, upon a water-colour copy made in 1898 and upon 

 photographs taken by M. Pia, by M. Fino and others in 

 the same year when the shroud was allowed to be on 

 view for eight days. We suppose that Dr. Vignon is 

 satisfied that the image, as it appears on the shroud, is 

 really a negative impression and that the photographic 

 have not been tampered with, although we confess 

 that for an diude scientifique we should have expected some 

 more substantial and first-hand verification of these funda- 

 mental statements. We will, however, let all this pass 

 and meet the author half-way, and admit that there is a 

 negative image of a human figure on the linen, and this 

 brings us to the core of the subject, which is embodied 

 in the query: — Apart from the question of age, how 

 was this image produced ? 



Now according to the author's descriptions, which, 

 we may repeat, are given in ridiculously minute detail, 

 there are visible on the head and on the body itself 

 certain marks which we are asked to believe to repre- 

 sent blood stains, lacerations and wounds, and we 

 are even given an illustration of the particular kind of 

 "flagrum" with metal buttons which the Romans used. 

 In fact, the description as given by the New Testament 

 writers is, if we are to accept the author's statements, so 

 faithfully and so minutely verified by the figure on the 

 shroud that the ordinary reader who is not thirsting for 



M 



