The Image of Edessa, also later known as the Mandylion, was a relic of Christ, a cloth imprinted with his features which he had used to wipe his face, and subsequently used to cure King Agbar of Edessa, the first Christian ruler. This book collects and provides parallel translations of all the available written evidence for the image, along with detailed analysis of the history of the image. Guscin deftly seperates fact from legend, for while the story of King Agbar is certainly mythical, an image of some sort did definitely exist by the mid tenth century when it was translated to Constantinople.

This volume presents the latest historical, theological and site-specific developments in the study of the Image of Edessa, shedding new light onto various different aspects of the icon. Experts from Russia, Spain, Australia, Georgia, Italy and the United Kingdom bring their latest findings together in order to reach a deeper understanding of this fascinating object.

The icon known as the Image of Edessa (and later the Mandylion) is attributed to the times of Christ, although its existence before the sixth century is a matter for debate. It was taken from Edessa to Constantinople in the mid-tenth century and all traces of the icon are lost after the sack of Constaninople in 1204. The Image has never had its own biography containing all the known texts and information about this fascinating object. This book provides critical editions with previously unpublished versions of all related texts, translations of all texts into English and a detailed analysis of the origins, known history, possible fate and exact nature of the Image of Edessa.

The Image of Edessa was an image of Christ, which, according to tradition, was of miraculous origin. It was taken from Edessa to Constantinople in 944, and disappeared from known history in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. It generated, however, a vast amount of literature and hundreds of copies in churches all over the Byzantine world. This book is a study of the literature, paintings, icons and other aspects related to the Image of Edessa. It examines how it was used as a tool to express Christ’s humanity and for various other purposes, and how some of the related literature became completely decontextualised and used as a magical charm, especially in the West.

According to legend, the Mandylion was an image of Christ’s face imprinted on a towel, kept in Edessa. This acheiopoieton image (“not made by human hands”) disappeared in the eighteenth century. The first records of another acheiropoieton relic appeared in mid-fourteenth century France: a long linen bearing the image of Jesus’ corpse, known nowadays as the Holy Shroud of Turin. Some believe the Mandylion and the Shroud to be the same object, first kept in Edessa, later translated to Constantinople, France and Italy. Andrea Nicolotti traces back the legend of the Edessean image in history and art, focusing especially on elements that could prove its identity with the Shroud, concluding that the Mandylion and the Shroud are two distinct objects.

The manuscript source for the Old English versions of two biblical apocrypha, The Gospel of Nichodemus and The Avenging of the Saviour.