La “croce di Desiderio”: funzioni reliquiarie e museografiche

he so-called “Cross of Desiderius” is among the most representative objects in the current museum exhibition at Santa Giulia in Brescia. The artistic literature accompanying this liturgi-cal artifact has specified its uses and functions without accurately reconstructing its origins and rituals. This study retraces the contri-butions that have addressed the cross and, through an archival and documentary survey, presents a thorough analysis of its use. In par-ticular, the recovery of nineteenth-century sources relating to the work’s acquisition by the Queriniana Civic Library following the Napoleonic suppression of the monastery, allows us to clarify some highly significant aspects of its history. Above all, what stands out, in addition to its processional function, is its use as a reliquary for the preservation of a fragment of the True Cross, its placement in the central chapel of the Basilica of San Salvatore, known as Sancta Maria ad Hierusalem, its display during Holy Week, and its restora-tion and functional repurposing in the sixteenth century. With the end of the monastery, the cross was partially depleted of its most precious gems and the cross, once recovered by the Municipality of Brescia and destined for the Queriniana library for museum and conservation purposes, were relocated and was restored with a museographic function and a strong neo-medieval taste consistent with a strong patriotic sentiment.