There is a passage in the book The Quest for Beckett's Bones speculating
that there might have been a separate skull shown to pilgrims while the
body of the saint remained in the shrine.
Tom Izbicki
At 04:54 PM 7/25/2000 -0400, you wrote:
>
>>>> Martin Howley >>>
>I have just checked the Name of the Rose and discovered that I was barking
>up the wrong tree. William of Baskerville is the one who refers to the
>skull (not 'head') of the Baptist and is indeed making a joke at the
>expense of the more extravagant claims of the cult of relics. Please
>ignore my last posting!
><<<
>
>Oops! I should have checked that myself before bringing the subject up in
>the first place. The basic question (of how close Eco's fictional example
>is to anything that was actually attested) is still more or less valid, I
>suppose, but I'd forgotten the nature of the reference in the story ...
>apologies.
>
>If there were such ridiculous claims, I suppose I'd mainly expect to find
>references to them in the context of a critique or denunciation, so Guibert
>of Nogent seems like the right type of source ...
>
>Jonathan Gilbert
>
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