Bifolium of relic list of St. Thiébaut in Thann, in German. , Dated 1499.

Description: Complete bifolium on vellum in German. Single column, up to 34 lines, in red ink with occasional elaborate cadels. This unusual document records the re-organization of holy relics at the important medieval collegiate church of St. Thiébaut in Thann (founded 1332). Written in the East Oberdeutsch dialect of German and dated 1499, this complete text describes a transfer of saints’ relics in 1458, as overseen by the lay brothers Johannes Schürer, Michael Feyrlin, and Conrad Weyssman. The relics were removed from monstrances and organized in a reliquary, here called a Tafel, and therefore probably a box with cells carved from porphyry. When relocated, the relics were situated in individual cells given coordinates identified in our manuscript. Among a list of fourteen bones, two teeth, three pieces of fabric, and three splinters from the True Cross, is the tooth of the exceptionally rare Saint Aurelia. She accompanied Ursula and the 11,000 Virgins down the Rhine, but staying behind at Strasbourg due to illness, she missed the chance for martyrdom. The relics listed in this text include cloth from the Virgin’s robe and a tooth of Thann’s patron saint, Thiébaut. Faded mid seventeenth-century notes at the end of the text have not yet been deciphered.Provenance: Acquired by Laurent Ferri in 2013.