The Veronica of Boniface of Verona

In the second half of the thirteenth century, Boniface of Verona wrote a poem in hexameters, the Veronica, describing the story of the holy cloth with the face of Christ. He dedicated his work to Cardinal Guillaume de Braye. The text is transmitted by a single fifteenth-century manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms Lat. 8229). To compose his poem, which is divided into two books, Boniface of Verona draws on different traditions: the cloth preserved in Saint Peter's Basilica is identified with the Holy Face of Edessa, brought to Rome by Saint Veronica, who is considered not the pious woman of Calvary, but the wife of Abgar, King of Edessa. Boniface of Verona is, therefore, an important witness to the various circulating versions of the history of the Roman Veronica. This contribution, which is the first step towards the complete critical edition of Boniface of Saint Verona's Veronica, offers an overview of this unknown testimony of the worship of the relic in Rome during the thirteenth century, under the sway of the papal curia.