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biased, but this notwithstanding, in its time it contributed significantly to broad- ening the reputation and establishing the cult of the Besançon shroud as an au- thentic sacred relic. As tendentious and problematic as one may judge Chifflet’s disquisition to be, it was still highly learned, well-reasoned and followed a clear argumentative structure in its efforts at legitimation. In fact, Chifflet put up a whole system of references, aided by a noteworthy selection of visual material, in his tract. His argument thus seems a very interesting, and hitherto not much studied, case within early modern discourses about Jesus – this in both a histor- ical and a religious context, as it addresses questions of the potential and limits of scholarship, of faith and of propaganda. The illustrations, in all their intended heterogeneity in terms of their sources and figurative style, merit careful exam- ination, for the author selected some and commissioned others to corroborate his central points. I therefore provide here a close reading of parts of Chifflet’s treatise, with particular attention given to his targeted use of engravings as illustrationes (im- ages meant to, quite literally, illuminate the text, its meaning and intention), thus looking at this representation of a local relic as a part and a product of a cultural practice and of shared notions. AN EARLY 17TH-CENTURY TREATISE ON THE FUNERARY LINEN OF CHRIST The editio princeps of De linteis sepulchralibus Christi servatoris crisis historica was published in 1624 at the renowned Plantin press in Antwerp. The print run was 800 copies,10 allowing for wide distribution and circulation of the tract. A few years earlier, Chifflet had presented the public with a book on the past and present of his hometown. Titled Vesontio, civitas imperialis libera, sequanorum metropolis (Vesontio [Besançon], free imperial city, metropolis of the Sequani people) and published in Leiden in 1618, it was the first monograph dedicated to Besançon and featured rich references to and illustrations of historical evi- dence such as archaeological finds and coins.11 Clearly, De linteis sepulchralibus was conceived by the author as a follow-up to the previous volume, present- ing the local winding sheet in such a way that the readers would consider it to be the most important treasure of Besançon. Keeping in mind the competition between the various relic cults of the time, we should note an intriguing cor- respondence to another pair of books: around four decades earlier the Savoy 10 The price of a volume was 30 stuivers. Cf. Waterschoot 2005, 346. A French version (Hiérothonie de Jesus-Christ ou Discours des Saincts Suaires de nostre Seigneur, Paris: Cramoisy, 1631) as well as a second Latin edition (Antwerp: Plantin, 1688) followed. 11 Vregille 2007, 113–134. 50 | Paola von Wyss-Giacosa www.jrfm.eu 2019, 5/1