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Milan's "holy Nail"

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Glenarvon

Glenarvon

Executioner
sacrochiodo.jpg

About alternative crucifixion tools...
This "nail" is an unusual relic conserved in Milan. He's a complex object with a central nail and many rings.
Local tradition tells it's a nail of Jesus cross. Of course, it's not so, but it's probably a roman tool of II-III century, perhaps used for crucifixions.

nail2.jpg
I think basically it functions as a belt buckle. The nail (actually a sort of blade) must be inserted in the back of the hand, but body's weight is mainly supported by the cuff.
 
Glenarvon said:
View attachment 179389

About alternative crucifixion tools...
This "nail" is an unusual relic conserved in Milan. He's a complex object with a central nail and many rings.
Local tradition tells it's a nail of Jesus cross. Of course, it's not so, but it's probably a roman tool of II-III century, perhaps used for crucifixions.

View attachment 179390
I think basically it functions as a belt buckle. The nail (actually a sort of blade) must be inserted in the back of the hand, but body's weight is mainly supported by the cuff.
Click to expand...

Very interesting, hadn't heard of it before.
Wikipedia suggests it is fashioned into a bridle. The alternative in your illustration is intensely interesting, but may be an example of someone with an overactive imagination!

The bridle of Constantine, for instance, is believed to be identical with a relic of this form which for several centuries has been preserved at Carpentras, but there is another claimant of the same kind at Milan. Similarly the diadem of Constantine is asserted to be at Monza, and it has long been known as "the iron crown of Lombardy." Simple fraud is also a possibility. The tale behind the bridle of Constantine originates with the fifth-century Church historian of Constantinople, Socrates of Constantinople, in his Ecclesiastical History, which was finished shortly after 439.[2] According to Socrates, after Constantine was proclaimed Caesar then Emperor, he ordered that all honor be paid to his mother, Helena to make up for the neglect paid her by her former husband, Constantius Chlorus. After her conversion to Christianity, Constantine sent her on a quest to find the cross and nails used to crucify Jesus. A Jew called Judas (in later retellings called Cyriacus) led her to the place they were buried. Several miracles were claimed, to prove the authenticy of these items, and St. Helena returned with a piece of the cross and the nails. The story that one nail was used to make a bridle, one was used to make the Helmet of Constantine and two were cast into the Adriatic Sea has its origins with Socrates.
 
I think it was the work of one of your ancestors, Tree,
one Signor Albero Appeso, Maestro di Chiodi di Croci di Milano
(Master of Crux-Nails of Milan) ;)​
 
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Interesting, I didn't know of that Holy Nail in Milan, I knew of the one in Trier Cathedral which is a solid nasty-looking thing to have driven through one's wrist. I have just found an image of it together with its plushy bejewelled case. Judging by the size of the writing of the label in the photo the nail looks quite big.

I am sure a square sectioned nail (as they probably all were) would be much more painful as every time one shifted position the square edge would grind away a bit more bone. Driving them in with the edges in such a way that just hanging still the edge would sharply dig into the bone would have been an obvious sadistic touch by the executioners.
 

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