New Identification of the Two Nin Reliquaries Known as the Caskets of St Asellus and St Marcella

Abstract

This paper contributes to the discussion on the cult of the patron saints of Nin by examining two medieval reliquaries from Nin, traditionally referred to in the literature as the reliquary caskets of St Asellus and St Marcella. The aim of the paper is to support and further elaborate the author’s previously proposed hypothesis that the second of the two reliquaries has been misidentified in Croatian historiography. Through an analysis and interpretation of preserved inventories of the Nin reliquaries, the author demonstrates that, contrary to prevailing scholarly opinion, the reliquaries in question should in fact be attributed to St Asellus and, most probably, St Ambrose. This conclusion not only enables a clearer understanding of the iconography of both reliquaries but also sheds light on the complex and previously unresolved relationships among the three patron saints of Nin. Emphasising the absence of any evidence connecting St Marcella with the other two patron saints of Nin prior to the fifteenth century, the author concludes that the reliquary in question was not historically regarded as that of St Marcella until the nineteenth century.