Posted by Samantha Hughes-Johnson.
On this day (30 September) in 1487, Luca Landucci, the apothecary and Florentine diarist, informs us that the relics of Saint Jerome,
“were taken from the altar of the Cross at Santa Maria del Fiore and were set in silver and gold, very richly, at a great cost; and then a fine procession was made, and they were replaced in the said chapel with much reverence. This was done at the cost of the estimable Messer Jacopo Manegli, one of the canons of the said church. It was reported that he had spent 500 gold florins on the setting; and besides this he had endowed a chapel. And every year these beautiful relics were devoutly carried in procession.”
Images: Antonio di Salvi Salvucci, The Reliquary of Saint Jerome, 15th Century, gilded Silver with translucent enamel, Museo dell’ Opera del Duomo, Florence. Wikimedia Commons.
References: Luca Landucci, A Florentine Diary From 1450-1516 by Luca Landucci: contiued by an anonymous writer ‘till 1542 with notes by Iodoco del Badia. Trans. Alice de Rosen Jervis, London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1927, pp. 43-44.