Conservation of the Shroud of Turin
Encyclopedia
The conservation of the Shroud of Turin refers to the conservation-restoration and enduring preservation of the Shroud of Turin
to avoid further damage and contamination. Since 1578 the Shroud is kept in the Royal Chapel
of Turin Cathedral (in 1694—1993 the Shroud rested in the Royal Chapel's Bertola altar
), under the laminated
bulletproof glass
of the airtight case. The temperature and humidity controlled-case is filled with argon
(99.5%) and oxygen
(0.5%) to prevent chemical changes, the Shroud itself is kept on an aluminum support sliding on runners and stored flat within the case.
18th century
19th century
20th century
21st century
on the reverse.
On April 11, 1997 the Turin Cathedral sustained another fire, but the Shroud survived entirely unscathed. By that time the Shroud stayed within the three walls of plate glass each 11 feet (3.4 m) long and 6.5 feet (2 m) high. The fireman Mario Trematore decided to use a sledgehammer
against the bulletproof glass to rescue the relic. Eventually he caused the 39mm thick material to shatter and another fireman arrived to help Trematore. When asked how he managed to break the glass, Trematore replied: "The bulletproof glass can stop bullets, but it cannot stop the strength of values represented by the symbol inside it. With only a hammer and our hands (still bleeding), we broke the glass".
During the 2002 restoration, conducted by the Commission for the Conservation of the Shroud between June 20 and July 22, thirty triangular patches, sewn by nuns in 1534, as well as the Holland cloth, were removed. The pre-1516/pre-1192 L-shaped burn holes, called "poker holes" and mentioned in the 12th century Hungarian Pray Codex, have remained.
, which might have been involved in the image formation, the Shroud was not recommended to be stored in vacuum
. As the minor changes of temperature can enhance the pressure, humidity and mechanical stress, the Shroud's case was made climate-controlled.
An electron microscope
investigation of the dust and pollens removed from the Shroud during the 1978 examination has revealed that some species of mites
are resident on the cloth. Lichenothelia
and arachnids in one of the tape samples have been also observed.
As the Shroud was rolled and unrolled for display throughout the centuries, it sustained a repeated abrasion
of the charred edges to the areas holed in the fire. The low magnification images of the blood areas already show an extensive abrasion of this type. To reduce the stress of gravity the Shroud was suggested being in horizontal display. To minimize possible cosmic ray
exposure, it was also suggested that the plane of the cloth be aligned perpendicular to the ground.
American researcher Alan D. Adler, confirming the presence of bilirubin
on the fabric, noted that it is not light-stable and may change the color under any light. According to Adler, since the image fibers are at or near saturation while the surrounding cloth is not, the latter will gradually get darker until the image first becomes a silhouette and later finally vanishes.
Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin or Turin Shroud is a linen cloth bearing the image of a man who appears to have suffered physical trauma in a manner consistent with crucifixion. It is kept in the royal chapel of the Cathedral of Saint John the Baptist in Turin, northern Italy. The image on the shroud is...
to avoid further damage and contamination. Since 1578 the Shroud is kept in the Royal Chapel
Chapel
A chapel is a building used by Christians as a place of fellowship and worship. It may be part of a larger structure or complex, such as a church, college, hospital, palace, prison or funeral home, located on board a military or commercial ship, or it may be an entirely free-standing building,...
of Turin Cathedral (in 1694—1993 the Shroud rested in the Royal Chapel's Bertola altar
Altar
An altar is any structure upon which offerings such as sacrifices are made for religious purposes. Altars are usually found at shrines, and they can be located in temples, churches and other places of worship...
), under the laminated
Laminated glass
Laminated glass is a type of safety glass that holds together when shattered. In the event of breaking, it is held in place by an interlayer, typically of polyvinyl butyral , between its two or more layers of glass. The interlayer keeps the layers of glass bonded even when broken, and its high...
bulletproof glass
Bulletproof glass
Bulletproof glass is a type of strong but optically transparent material that is particularly resistant to being penetrated when struck by bullets, but is not completely impenetrable. It is usually made from a combination of two or more types of glass, one hard and one soft...
of the airtight case. The temperature and humidity controlled-case is filled with argon
Argon
Argon is a chemical element represented by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table . Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide...
(99.5%) and oxygen
Oxygen
Oxygen is the element with atomic number 8 and represented by the symbol O. Its name derives from the Greek roots ὀξύς and -γενής , because at the time of naming, it was mistakenly thought that all acids required oxygen in their composition...
(0.5%) to prevent chemical changes, the Shroud itself is kept on an aluminum support sliding on runners and stored flat within the case.
Public showings
When the Shroud is not on public display, the case is closed, during the public display the case can be moved, raised and opened. During the last centuries, the Shroud has been publicly exhibited a limited number of times, often on very special occasions.18th century
- 4 May 1722.
- 4 May 1737: to celebrate the marriage of Charles Emmanuel IIICharles Emmanuel III of SardiniaCharles Emmanuel III was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia from 1730 until his death.-Biography:...
, Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia. - 29 June 1750: to celebrate the marriage of Victor Amadeus IIIVictor Amadeus III of SardiniaVictor Amadeus III was King of Sardinia from 1773 until his death. Although he was politically conservative, he carried out numerous administrative reforms until declaring war on revolutionary France in 1792...
, then Prince of Sardinia. - 15 October 1775: to celebrate the marriage of Charles Emmanuel IVCharles Emmanuel IV of SardiniaCharles Emmanuel IV was King of Sardinia from 1796 to 1802. He abdicated in favour of his brother Victor Emmanuel I...
, then Prince of Sardinia.
19th century
- 20 May 1814: to celebrate the return of Victor Emmanuel IVictor Emmanuel I of SardiniaVictor Emmanuel I was the Duke of Savoy and King of Sardinia from 1802 to 1821, and Jacobite Pretender from 1819 until his death.-Biography:...
, King of Sardinia, to Turin. - 21 May 1815: requested by Pope Pius VIIPope Pius VIIPope Pius VII , born Barnaba Niccolò Maria Luigi Chiaramonti, was a monk, theologian and bishop, who reigned as Pope from 14 March 1800 to 20 August 1823.-Early life:...
to mark the restoration of the Papal StatesPapal StatesThe Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
. - 4 January 1822: to celebrate the accession of Charles FelixCharles Felix of SardiniaCharles Felix was the Duke of Savoy, Piedmont, Aosta and King of Sardinia from 1821 to 1831.-Early life:...
, King of Sardinia. - 4 May 1842: to celebrate the marriage of Victor Emmanuel IIVictor Emmanuel II of ItalyVictor Emanuel II was king of Sardinia from 1849 and, on 17 March 1861, he assumed the title King of Italy to become the first king of a united Italy since the 6th century, a title he held until his death in 1878...
, then Duke of Savoy. - 24–27 April 1868: to celebrate the marriage of Humbert IUmberto I of ItalyUmberto I or Humbert I , nicknamed the Good , was the King of Italy from 9 January 1878 until his death. He was deeply loathed in far-left circles, especially among anarchists, because of his conservatism and support of the Bava-Beccaris massacre in Milan...
, King of Italy. - 25 May–2 June 1898: to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Turin Cathedral and 50th anniversary of Italy's Statuto AlbertinoStatuto AlbertinoThe Statuto Albertino or Albertine Statute was the constitution that King Charles Albert conceded to the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia in Italy on 4 March 1848...
constitution. Secondo PiaSecondo PiaSecondo Pia was an Italian lawyer and amateur photographer. He is best known for taking the first photographs of the Shroud of Turin on May 28, 1898...
took the very first photograph of the Shroud.
20th century
- 3–24 May 1931: to celebrate the marriage of Umberto IIUmberto II of ItalyUmberto II, occasionally anglicized as Humbert II was the last King of Italy for slightly over a month, from 9 May 1946 to 12 June 1946. He was nicknamed the King of May -Biography:...
, then Prince of Piedmont. The Shroud is photographed for the second time (by Giuseppe Enrie). - 24 September–15 October 1933: requested by Pope Pius XIPope Pius XIPope Pius XI , born Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti, was Pope from 6 February 1922, and sovereign of Vatican City from its creation as an independent state on 11 February 1929 until his death on 10 February 1939...
to mark the nineteenth centenary of the Resurrection. - 26 August–8 October 1978: to commemorate the fourth centenary of Turin’s custody of the Shroud.
- 18 April–14 June 1998: to commemorate the centenary of the first photograph of the Shroud by Secondo Pia.
- 12 August–22 October 2000: to commemorate the Jubilee anniversary of the birth of Jesus.
21st century
- 10 April–23 May 2010: first public exhibition of the Shroud after its restoration in 2002
Restorations
On December 4, 1532 the Shroud sustained a fire, which burned out several holes in the fabric. In the spring of 1534 the Poor Clare Nuns patched the holes and placed a backing Holland clothHolland cloth
The Holland cloth, or simply Holland is a plainwoven or dull-finish linen used as furniture covering or a cotton fabric made more or less opaque by a glazed or unglazed finish...
on the reverse.
On April 11, 1997 the Turin Cathedral sustained another fire, but the Shroud survived entirely unscathed. By that time the Shroud stayed within the three walls of plate glass each 11 feet (3.4 m) long and 6.5 feet (2 m) high. The fireman Mario Trematore decided to use a sledgehammer
Sledgehammer
A sledgehammer is a tool consisting of a large, flat head attached to a lever . The head is typically made of metal. The sledgehammer can apply more impulse than other hammers, due to its large size. Along with the mallet, it shares the ability to distribute force over a wide area...
against the bulletproof glass to rescue the relic. Eventually he caused the 39mm thick material to shatter and another fireman arrived to help Trematore. When asked how he managed to break the glass, Trematore replied: "The bulletproof glass can stop bullets, but it cannot stop the strength of values represented by the symbol inside it. With only a hammer and our hands (still bleeding), we broke the glass".
During the 2002 restoration, conducted by the Commission for the Conservation of the Shroud between June 20 and July 22, thirty triangular patches, sewn by nuns in 1534, as well as the Holland cloth, were removed. The pre-1516/pre-1192 L-shaped burn holes, called "poker holes" and mentioned in the 12th century Hungarian Pray Codex, have remained.
Natural hazards
Because of dehydrationDehydration
In physiology and medicine, dehydration is defined as the excessive loss of body fluid. It is literally the removal of water from an object; however, in physiological terms, it entails a deficiency of fluid within an organism...
, which might have been involved in the image formation, the Shroud was not recommended to be stored in vacuum
Vacuum
In everyday usage, vacuum is a volume of space that is essentially empty of matter, such that its gaseous pressure is much less than atmospheric pressure. The word comes from the Latin term for "empty". A perfect vacuum would be one with no particles in it at all, which is impossible to achieve in...
. As the minor changes of temperature can enhance the pressure, humidity and mechanical stress, the Shroud's case was made climate-controlled.
An electron microscope
Electron microscope
An electron microscope is a type of microscope that uses a beam of electrons to illuminate the specimen and produce a magnified image. Electron microscopes have a greater resolving power than a light-powered optical microscope, because electrons have wavelengths about 100,000 times shorter than...
investigation of the dust and pollens removed from the Shroud during the 1978 examination has revealed that some species of mites
MITES
MITES, or Minority Introduction to Engineering and Science, is a highly selective six-week summer program for rising high school seniors held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Its purpose is to expose students from minority, or otherwise disadvantaged backgrounds, to the fields of...
are resident on the cloth. Lichenothelia
Lichenotheliaceae
The Lichenotheliaceae are a family of fungi with an uncertain taxonomic placement in the class Dothideomycetes.-External links:*...
and arachnids in one of the tape samples have been also observed.
As the Shroud was rolled and unrolled for display throughout the centuries, it sustained a repeated abrasion
Abrasion (mechanical)
Abrasion is the process of scuffing, scratching, wearing down, marring, or rubbing away. It can be intentionally imposed in a controlled process using an abrasive...
of the charred edges to the areas holed in the fire. The low magnification images of the blood areas already show an extensive abrasion of this type. To reduce the stress of gravity the Shroud was suggested being in horizontal display. To minimize possible cosmic ray
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are energetic charged subatomic particles, originating from outer space. They may produce secondary particles that penetrate the Earth's atmosphere and surface. The term ray is historical as cosmic rays were thought to be electromagnetic radiation...
exposure, it was also suggested that the plane of the cloth be aligned perpendicular to the ground.
American researcher Alan D. Adler, confirming the presence of bilirubin
Bilirubin
Bilirubin is the yellow breakdown product of normal heme catabolism. Heme is found in hemoglobin, a principal component of red blood cells. Bilirubin is excreted in bile and urine, and elevated levels may indicate certain diseases...
on the fabric, noted that it is not light-stable and may change the color under any light. According to Adler, since the image fibers are at or near saturation while the surrounding cloth is not, the latter will gradually get darker until the image first becomes a silhouette and later finally vanishes.