Fragment of the “veil” used to cover the Madonna of S. Maria di Via in Camerino.
[Touch relic]. S. Maria in Via di Camerino. S.l. [Camerino?]: signed in block “Luc f.”, [18th century]. [9.4 x 6.6 cm], [1] f. woodcut with a piece of black textile affixed to it by a wax seal. Minor toning and edge wear.
Unrecorded 18th-century woodcut depicting the Madonna & Child icon of Sta. Maria in Via di Camerino hovering above a cityscape of Camerino (Italy). To this print is affixed a piece of black fabric, very likely a fragment of the “mourning veil” that on Good Friday was placed over the painting. The fabric is attached with a wax seal that certifies its authenticity.
This practice of veiling a Marian image and then distributing pieces of the fabric to the faithful was made popular at Loreto and spread to other pilgrimage sites, e.g., Altötting in Bavaria. Adolph Spamer remarks that the practice of producing devotional “veil images” was adopted at German pilgrimage sites in the 1760s following the earlier tradition at the Santa Casa di Loreto, and that the addition of a veil fragment made these items “especially miraculous” (Spamer, p, 326-7, no. CCX). I have not encountered any other evidence of the practice at Camerino, which certainly was of more local interest than the mega-site of Loreto and the prominent pilgrimage church of Altötting.
The veil here is an example of a ‘touch’ relic (also called a ‘contact’ relic), i.e., an item that contacted or was in the vicinity of a saint’s primary relic (e.g., a body part or personal item) or another holy item. The touch relic carries with it some of the efficacious ‘charge’ of the original holy item/person.
The Madonna & Child of Sta. Maria in Via was acquired in 1643. At the time it was considered to be of extreme antiquity. The consensus today is that it is of thirteenth-century manufacture.
The print is not recorded in OPAC/SBN/ICCU, OCLC or KVK, nor have I seen it in the literature on the topic, but similar items are certainly known.
*A. Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild vom XIV bis zum XX Jahrhundert.