St. Ursula and the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne: relics, reliquaries and the visual culture of group sanctity in late medieval Europe

Contents

Heads and tales: envisioning the Eleven Thousand Virgins of Cologne -- An archaeology of texts and bones: the legend of the Eleven Thousand Virgins -- Bones and more bones: relics and the spread of the cult -- Ecclesia sanctarum undecim milum virginum: the Church of the Eleven Thousand Virgins and its decoration -- The face of sanctity: reliquary busts of the Eleven Thousand Virgins -- Golden visions: altarpieces with relics -- The protective mantle: the Holy Virgins as patron saints of Cologne -- Picturing the pilgrimage: narrative cycles in Cologne -- A peregrinatious tale: images and narrative cycles beyond the Rhineland -- Golden bones: the Goldene Kammer of St. Ursula and early modern developments -- From slight to light: concluding thoughts.