medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
From: Cate Gunn <[log in to unmask]>
>there was an article in yesterday's (UK newspaper) 'The Independent'
headlined 'Scientist claims Turin Shroud is a fake - and he knows how it was
done' but I can't find it on-line to give a link.
nor can i, though i read the story yesterday.
searches on "shroud" + "turin" turn up nothing, nor does one on this guy
Garlaschelli.
>The scientist, Luigi Garlaschelli, a professor of organic chemistry at the
University of Pavia, has recreated the shroud using techniques and materials
available at the time that carbon-dating has placed the shroud (between 1260 &
1390). 'Professor Garlaschelli said he expected people to contest his
findings. 'If they don't want to believe carbon-dating done by some of the
world's best laboratories, they certainly won't believe me.'
unfortunately, though discovering the precise technique used to create the
shroud image would be something approaching "progress" (it is *not* painted,
but rather seems to be some sort of "scorch" penetrating the threads of the
cloth), reproducing the technique utterly fails to answer the essential
objection to the shroud's image being produced in the late 13th century:
no middlevil art hysterian in her right mind can look at that artifact and
claim with a straight face that it was produced in the high/late middle ages.
the many issues of style and, above all, iconography will simply not allow
such an hypothesis.
whatever that artifact is (and i've got no skin in the game, either way), it
is most certainly *not* something made between the termini put forward by the
carbon dating (the accuracy of the results of which can themselves be
questioned on several grounds).
>He is due to deliver a paper at a conference on the para-normal in Italy.
> (I imagine it's the conference not the para-normal that's in Italy!)
i wouldn't be too sure about that.
Prof.Dr. Garlaschelli, poor guy, seems to be making a cottage industry out of
Debunking Superstitious phenomena.
here's a report on his technique concerning "Weeping" Madonnas:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science-debunks-miracle-of-weeping-madonna-1590530.html
Science debunks miracle of weeping madonna
Steve Connor Science Correspondent
THE ONLY weeping madonna officially accepted by the Roman Catholic Church has
been exposed as a fake by an Italian scientist who used the logic of Mr Spock,
the deductive reasoning of Sherlock Holmes and a knowledge of capillary
attraction.
There has been an sharp increase in the sightings of weeping madonnas, from
Ireland to Croatia, but the only one recognised by the Church is a statue of
the Virgin Mary in the town of Siracusa in Sicily. It first began weeping in
1953.
The "miracle" of a statue that appears to weep has even been caught on film.
But Luigi Garlaschelli, a chemistry researcher at the University of Pavia,
believes he has an explanation.
Dr Garlaschelli has made his own weeping madonna which baffled onlookers into
believing the statue was able to shed tears without any mechanical or
electronic aids or the deployment of water-absorbing chemicals.
The secret, he revealed, is to use a hollow statue made of thin plaster. If it
is coated with an impermeable glazing and water poured into the hollow centre
from a tiny hole in the head, the statue behaves quite normally.
The plaster absorbs the liquid but the glazing prevents it from pouring out.
But if barely perceptible scratches are made in the glazing over the eyes,
droplets of water appear as if by divine intervention - rather than by
capillary attraction, the movement of water through sponge-like material.
Dr Garlaschelli said: "I notice that, among these weeping madonna miracles,
the only one accepted by the Catholic Church happened in Siracusa in 1953.
This is the best documented case, with many witnesses to an actual case of
weeping, and even a couple of amateur films showing watery tears appearing on
the face out of the blue.
"Examination of a copy of this bas-relief from the same manufacturer as the
original, however, proved it to be made of glazed plaster and to possess a
cavity behind the face."
Dr Garlaschelli said the actual madonna of Siracusa is kept behind a glass
partition and he is unable to inspect its glazing for himself. ''I think
permission won't be granted to examine it. Many of these relics are not
allowed to be examined.''
Italy in particular is going through a craze of weeping madonna sightings.
Last year there were only two or three, but this has risen to more than a
dozen in the first few months of this year, Dr Garlaschelli said. One of the
most famous is at Civitavecchia near Rome, which sheds tears of "blood". Dr
Garlaschelli believes the bloody tears are more a fashion statement than true
miracles.
"Nowadays madonnas weep blood. In my opinion this is because we now have
colour TV.''
Dr Garlaschelli has more recently turned his attention to several officially
accepted sightings of ''bloodied hosts'' - red spots that appear on the Holy
Eucharists used in Communion. He thinks this is caused by the microbe Serratia
marcescens which lives on starch and excudes a bright red, jelly- like
pigment.
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