Conquis par feu Another Shroud Mystery Solved?
Well-known to many students of the Shroud is that Margaret de Charny, grand-daughter of the Geoffrey de Charny of Lirey with whom the Shroud first historically surfaces in Europe, stated on oath that the Shroud had been conquis par feu messire Geofroy de Charny .
There has been a great deal of uncertainty regarding the meaning of these words, but now Patrick Farrell of Ross shire has come up with a highly convincing explanation. According to him feu refers to Geoffrey, and is the same as in the well-known feu le roi, vive le roi, i.e. the king is dead, long live the king. In other words this is not the feu derived from focum, meaning fire, but a feu from fatutus, meaning deceased. You can check this with any French dictionary. In this context conquis means no more than obtained. The bad news is that it sheds absolutely no light on the circumstances in which Geoffrey gained possession of this relic.
Patrick Farrell's argument can indeed be checked with any French dictionary, and seems to settle this previous mystery once and for all.
As mentioned in the Editorial, Barrie Schwortz (seen at right, with Cardinal Saldarini), the STURP photographer whose Internet site on the Shroud represents the subjects finest standard-bearer for the outside world, has been working on a Shroud CD-ROM.
For anyone unfamiliar with CD-ROM technology, discs the size of ordinary music CDs can be imprinted with a vast amount of data which anyone with a home computer that is fitted with a CD-ROM player can access with ease. For instance the London National Gallery's entire collection of paintings has been put on CD-ROM, and discs can be purchased relatively inexpensively for such home use for anyone to study details from these paintings at their leisure. The entire Encyclopaedia Britannica is likewise available in this same format.
On his Internet site Barrie explains his plans for a Shroud CD-ROM as follows: please click here .
Barrie has been working on the development and production of the Shroud of Turin CD-ROM for more than two years. The project is now more than 50% complete, and Barrie could have the final version ready for release by mid-1999 with sufficient backing. However so far he has been unable to find a publisher willing to provide the funding necessary to finish the production, although many have shown an interest in distributing the disc once it is completed.
has produced a limited edition fine art print from one of his Shroud photographs, "The Man In Sepia", seen at right, the proceeds from which will go towards completion of the CD-ROM project. As described by Barrie, this is the first fine art print ever made from any of the photographs in his collection. For details please visit the Website Store on Barrie's site.
To enable world-wide study of Dr. Alan Whangers controversial arguments, a very major upgrade has recently been made of the website of CSST, the American Council for Study of the Shroud of Turin of which Alan and his wife Mary are directors. This now includes videotape movies of Alan's polarized image overlay comparison. Barrie Schwortz has described the results of the improvements as dramatic and enlightening, not to mention downright fun. The site can be accessed at: http://dmi-www.mc.duke.edu/shroud/default.htm, but can also be easily accessed via Barrie's www.shroud.com.