What is this?
This is a textile fragment from the Reliquary of St. Librada located in the Cathedral of Siguenza in Guadalajara, Spain. Reliquaries are containers used to preserve a saint’s relic, so it is likely that this cloth was wrapped around a fragment of St. Librada’s bone.
This textile's silk composition and regular pattern of circles situate it within the vast network of marvelous medallion silks that circulated across lands and cultures in the wake of the crusades. Medallion silks are characterized by the repetition of roundels aggregated across a textile. A primary image, usually an animal, human, or other creature, is featured in the center of each roundel. A myriad of secondary imagery surrounds the primary image: composing the roundel's border, interconnecting medallions, and occupying space between medallions.
This textile fragment features a heraldically posed eagle in the center of each roundel, and secondary imagery including harpies, griffins, gazettes, hearts, geometric shapes, rosettes, white dots meant to visually evoke pearls, interlace, and Arabic text that reads “Baraka” or “blessing.”
This textile design, now classified as “medallion silks,” was first produced in the Sassanian empire (224-651 AD) which existed in the “pre-Islamic Middle East” (Anderlini, 103). The design was later adopted and developed by the Byzantines and replicated in Muslim lands, including “Egypt, Lebanon, Northern Africa, and Muslim regions in Europe” (Anderlini, 103). In connection with the crusades, these textiles migrated from the eastern worlds of Byzantium and Asia to the West, more specifically Christian Europe, and with the movement of advancing textile technology were eventually manufactured in Spain and Italy, where new, grand textile production centers emerged.
In addition to the inherent value of medallion silks due to the raw materials and advanced technology used in production, the origination of medallion silks in the East (possibly in the Levant, or the region along the east side of the Mediterranean that encompasses the Holy Land) greatly increased their status, value, and significance, especially in Western Christian Europe. The unique design elements transcended location of manufacture; even imitation medallion silks made in Spain, such as this textile fragment, and Italy were highly coveted.