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This is the sixth installment of "Gabriel Vial," part #31 of my Turin Shroud Encyclopedia. For more information about this encyclopedia, see part #1. This post will help me write, Chapter 3, "A linen cloth" of my book in progress, "Shroud of Turin: Burial Sheet of Jesus!" See 06Jul17, 03Jun18, 04Apr22, 13Jul22, 8 Nov 22 & 20Jun24).
Vial Gabriel Vial (1916-2005) was the Curator of the International Centre for the Study of Ancient Textiles (CIETA) at the Ancient Textile
[Right (enlarge): Gabriel Vial[KD10].
Museum, Lyon, France[RR05, 189; RR08, 63; WI10, 70].
Radiocarbon dating Vial and Prof. Franco Testore (1925-2018), an Italian textile expert from Turin Polytechnic's Depart-ment of Material Science, were present at the cutting of the radiocarbon dating sample in Turin Cathedral on 21 April 1988[DP89, 611; GH96, 260; GV01, 125]. They had been invited by the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Anastasio Ballestrero (r, 1977-89), to be expert witnesses to the cutting of the sample[WI10, 70]. They were also to choose the best place on the Shroud from which to cut off the sample[PM96, 48], and to follow all the operations[PM96, 48]. But when asked by the Cardinal to nominate the place from which the sample was to be taken, neither Vial nor Testore could say where because of their limited knowledge of the Shroud[GV01, 125]. So that decision was made by Turin professors Giovanni Riggi (1935-2008) and Luigi Gonella (1930-2007)[DT12, 166]. Which was to take the sample from the same corner where Prof. Gilbert Raes (1914-2001) had taken his sample in 1973, at the bottom left corner of the frontal image, called "Raes' corner"[GV01, 125], with Riggi doing the cutting[PM96, 62-63; GH96, 276].
The British Museum's Michael Tite (1938-), who was the cordinator of the Shroud's radiocarbon dating[IJ98, 162; GM98, 67; WI98, 6], had asked Prof. Jacques Evin (1937-), Director of the Lyon radiocarbon dating laboratory, among others, to find a 13th-14th century herringbone twill linen cloth, from which a sample could be provided as a control[GV01, 129]. Evin was eventually successful in obtaining from the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene, in the town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume, in Provence, France, threads from the cope of St. Louis d'Anjou (1274-97)[PM96, 56-57; GV01, 129]. This sample was plain-weave linen, but its gold thread embroidery was herringbone weave and on the sample there was an impression which appeared to be herringbone[WI89, 6; WI98, 186; AM00, 182]. Also, it was only threads, not pieces of cloth, as the other samples were[WI98, 186]. Tite asked Evin to mail the sample to him, but fearing a postal strike, Evin gave the sample to Vial to hand deliver it to Tite, which he did[WI89, 5; GV01, 129], and it became the fourth sample[GV01, 129].
Report Vial took the opportunity to make a very careful examination of the Shroud, which he called "The Document" (see below), and write a technical report on the cloth[VG91, 7; WI10, 70].
[Above (enlarge): Dimensions of parts of the Shroud as measured by Vial[VG91, 7].]
Weave Vial confirmed Vignon's 1938 identification of the Shroud's weave as "3:1 herringbone twill"[VG91, 7].
Dimensions Vial measured the total dimensions of the Shroud as "length 4.30 m x width 1.08 m"[VG91, 7]. Or ~14 ft 1 in. x ~3 ft 6 in. This compares with the latest 442 cm = 14 ft 6 in. average length and 113.35 cm = 3 ft 9 in. average width, during the 2002 Restoration after the Shroud's Holland cloth backing had been removed[LM05].
Two parts Vial found that the Shroud is actually two cloths, what Vial called the "Main piece" (usually called the "main body of the Shroud") and a "Lateral band" (usually called the "Sidestrip" which Vial also calls it). The image lies on the main piece[VG91, 7].
Main piece Vial gives the dimensions of the main piece as "4.30 x 1.08 m"[VG91, 7] but that is an error because that is the total dimensions of the Shroud (see above). In the diagram above Vial gives the width of the main piece as "ca 1.01 m" but that is also an error because 1.08 - 8 - 0.5 cm = 99.5 cm. Since the width of the sidestrip is usually quoted as 8 cm[SR82, 41] and the seam is likely to be about 0.5 cm, either Vial's "1.08 m" width of the Shroud, and/or his "ca. 1.01 cm" width of the main body of the Shroud, is slightly too short.
To be continued in the seventh installment of this post.
Notes:
1. This post is copyright. I grant permission to extract or quote from any part of it (but not the whole post), provided the extract or quote includes a reference citing my name, its title, its date, and a hyperlink back to this page. [return]
Bibliography
AM00. Antonacci, M., 2000, "Resurrection of the Shroud: New Scientific, Medical, and Archeological Evidence," M. Evans & Co: New York NY.
DP89. Damon, P.E., et al., 1989, "Radiocarbon Dating of the Shroud of Turin," Nature, Vol. 337, 16 February, 611-615.
DT12. de Wesselow, T., 2012, "The Sign: The Shroud of Turin and the Secret of the Resurrection," Viking: London.
GH96. Gove, H.E., 1996, "Relic, Icon or Hoax?: Carbon Dating the Turin Shroud," Institute of Physics Publishing: Bristol UK.
GM98. Guscin, M., 1998, "The Oviedo Cloth," Lutterworth Press: Cambridge UK.
GV01. Guerrera, V., 2001, "The Shroud of Turin: A Case for Authenticity," TAN: Rockford IL.
IJ98. Iannone, J.C., 1998, "The Mystery of the Shroud of Turin: New Scientific Evidence," St Pauls: Staten Island NY.
KD10. Koudinoff, D., 2010, "In honour of Gabriel Vial," weavinglesson.blogspot.com, November.
LM05. Latendresse, M., 2005, "Length Measurements on the Shroud of Turin," 16 August.
PM96. Petrosillo, O. & Marinelli, E., 1996, "The Enigma of the Shroud: A Challenge to Science," Scerri, L.J., transl., Publishers Enterprises Group: Malta.
RR05. Rogers, R., 2005, "Studies on the radiocarbon sample from the Shroud of Turin," Thermochimica Acta, Vol. 425, No. 1–2, 20 January, 189-194.
RR08. Rogers, R.N., 2008, "A Chemist's Perspective on the Shroud of Turin," Lulu Press: Raleigh, NC.
RTB. Reference(s) to be provided.
SR82. Schwalbe, L.A. & Rogers, R.N., 1982, "Physics and Chemistry of the Shroud of Turin: A Summary of the 1978 Investigation," Analytica Chimica Acta, No. 135, 3-49.
VG91. Vial, G., 1991, "The Shroud of Turin: A Technical Study," Shroud Spectrum International, No. 38/39, March/June.
WI89. Wilson, I., 1989, "A French Accusation Against Dr. Tite," BSTS Newsletter, No. 22, May, 4-7.
WI98. Wilson, I., 1998, "The Blood and the Shroud: New Evidence that the World's Most Sacred Relic is Real," Simon & Schuster: New York NY.
WI10. Wilson, I., 2010, "The Shroud: The 2000-Year-Old Mystery Solved," Bantam Press: London.
Posted 12 October 2024. Updated 18 October 2024.
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