Textile fragment from the Reliquary of St. Librada (BOSMFA 53.118.1)
This silk textile fragment features a heraldically-posed eagle in the center of a roundel as well as a myriad of secondary imagery, including two tablets clutched in the eagle’s talons which read “Baraka,” the Arabic word for blessing. Woven in Islamic Spain around the year 1100 and found in the Reliquary of St. Librada, it was likely wrapped around a fragment of St. Librada’s bone. This textile provides a vibrant example of how objects made by Muslim craftspeople were adopted and integrated into even the most sacred Christian contexts. The distinct design of medallion silks, characterized by their repeated roundels, impacted a broad range of media, including the Chertsey tiles.
