Lonely Bones Relics sans Reliquaries

• Published in: Destroyed—Disappeared—Lost—Never Were pp. 100 - 112
• Main Author: Liepe, Lena
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: University Park, USA Penn State University Press 20.05.2022
• DOI: 10.1515/9780271093758-010

A jawless skull with the inscription BBa15 is today an anonymous human fragment but was once known and venerated as the head relic of St. Lucius, patron saint of Roskilde Cathedral (fig. 7.1).¹ The skull was brought to Denmark sometime in the late eleventh or twelfth centuries and constituted the crown jewel of the cathedral’s medieval relic collection. In 1665, it was handed over to the Royal Kunstkammer together with a cover, a fourteenth-century cap made from yellow silk brocade. The accession number BBa15 stems from when the skull was transferred from the Kunstkammer to the newly established Royal Art Museum