A staurotheke of Serbian provenance in Pienza

Abstract

The paper discusses the virtually unpublished reliquary of Serbian provenance now kept in the Museo Diocesano in Pienza. It tackles the issue of the typology of the staurotheke, its decoration and symbolic significance. Based on its Old-Serbian inscription, “Sava, the first archbishop and patriarch of the Serbs”, the reliquary is dated to the last quarter of the fourteenth century and related to the programme of the Serbian Patriarchate. The surviving sources make it possible to reconstruct the road the staurotheke travelled from the treasuries of Žiča and the Patriarchate of Peć to Pienza. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. 177003: Medieval heritage of the Balkans: Institutions and culture]

Keywords

• relic of the True Cross
• staurotheke
• St Sava of Serbia
• Žiča
• Patriarchate of Peć
• Pienza