Original scientific paper St Veronica, Volto Santo, and Anno Santo: Visual Testimonies of Pilgrimages is written by full professor Sanja CVETNIĆ, PhD (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences), collaborator on the FEMIGLA project.
The paper is published in 2nd International Scientific Conference Multidisciplinary Research on Cultural Heritage, Conference Proceedings (MRCH 2025) (ed. A. Dragojević, Hrvatski državni arhiv, Zagreb, 2026), pp. 55–61.
It is available HERE.
Summary
As Cardinal Jacopo Stefaneschi reported in his Liber de centesimo seu Iubileo anno, at the beginning of the 14th century, numerous pilgrims travelled to Rome, eager to obtain forgiveness for their sins and receive a plenary indulgence. Croatian pilgrims have been recorded among them from the very beginning, as noted by Dante in Paradiso (XXXI, 103–108). Boniface VIII, moved by their faith, sought to fulfil their expectations and, on 22 February 1300, issued the bull Antiquorum habet fida relatio, formally proclaiming the first Jubilee Year.
Since then, each Jubilee Year has drawn vast crowds of pilgrims to Rome, with one of the most venerated relics being the Volto Santo (Holy Face) in St Peter’s Basilica. In Croatian Glagolitic missals, many depictions of Veronica and the Holy Face reflect an awareness not only of the relic itself but also – in illuminations by Bartol Krbavac – of its placement in the (old) St Peter’s Basilica, in the structure (a ciborium-reliquary altar) erected for its public veneration.
This study examines how drawings, woodcuts, engravings, and related representations in sacred art, as well as early printed works, shaped the formation and reception of this iconography, particularly in Glagolitic illuminations and figural arts in Croatia in the course of transit from the Late Middle Ages to the early modern period.
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