Fabric from the habit of St. Giuliana Falconieri. Unrecorded.

[Giuliana Falconieri] / [Sisters of the Third Order of Servites] / [Mantellate Sisters] / [Touch Relic]. Veste di S. Giuliana Falconieri. S.l. [likely Florence]: s.n., s.a. [likely c. 1737]. [4.3 x 3.2 cm as folded], [1] f. letterpress sheet folded into an envelope and enclosing a piece of fabric, red wax seal. Some spotting, seal cracked but intact and unopened. 
 
 
Unrecorded letterpress sheet folded to form a small envelope containing a piece of fabric taken—as the text states—from the habit (“veste”) of Saint Giuliana Falconieri (1270-1341), founder of the Sisters of the Third Order of Servites (Servite Tertiaries or Mantellate Sisters). Relics of this sort are rarely encountered today.
 
Falconieri—a Florentine noblewoman whose family was long associated with the Basilica of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence—was canonized in 1737, and the wax seal on the envelope carries the coat of arms of Giuseppe Maria Martelli, Archbishop of Florence (1722-40). It thus stands to reason that the piece was produced in conjunction with Falconieri’s canonization.
 
The Servites’ were also known as “mantellate” because their habit, a black gown with white girdle and a white veil, had short sleeves to facilitate manual work.
 
The textile enclosed in the letterpress envelope is an example of a ‘touch’ relic (also called a ‘contact’ or ‘secondary’ relic), i.e., an item that came in contact with or was in the vicinity of a saint’s primary relic (e.g., a body part or personal item). Such fabric cuttings undoubtedly were offered for sale to pilgrims visiting Falconieri’s body in the Basilica Santissima Annunziata. Printed relic ‘envelopes’ of this sort only rarely survive today. 
 
The envelope remains sealed, and so the piece of fabric has not been examined. There are, of course, many reasons to be dubious about the authenticity of relics of this sort, but if the fabric comes from a habit Falconieri wore in life, then it would be a very rare survival of early 14th-century clothing.
 
 
No similar examples are located by OPAC/SBN/ICCU, OCLC or KVK.
 
* A. M. Rossi, Santa Giuliana dei Falconieri; F. Soulier, Life of St. Juliana Falconieri: Foundress of the Mantellate or Religious of the Third Order of Servites.