To Main Menu

 Shroud History







This page of the website was one of the first pages I built back in 1996, thanks primarily to our good friend, Shroud author and historian, Ian Wilson, who graciously allowed us to reprint a portion of his own, well-researched Shroud history on this site. However, in those early days of the internet, when most people were still using slow dial up modems, issues like page size were a critical factor in web page design. Large pages took forever to download and most of the time, when confronted with a large, slow loading page, visitors would simply move on to something else without ever viewing the page. Since Ian's history was so extensive and detailed, we opted to only include what was then referred to as the "Undisputed" history of the Shroud, starting in the mid-1300's, in order to keep the page size more modest. Aside from the additions that I included of more recent events, the basic history has remained unchanged since 1996.

It's amazing what changes can occur in 25 years! After all that time, Ian recently revisited the page and told me of his shock when he realized just how substantially his thinking has changed and developed over the years, even on matters that we originally called "Undisputed History." This changed thinking has arisen due to the research that he has been conducting into the Charny family during the last decade. In fact, some of his findings will be published in specialist academic publications during the course of the next year. The Winter Edition of the British Society for the Turin Shroud Newsletter will include a major new article by Ian providing some advance notice of these academic publications and those findings, as these affect certain fundamental and longstanding historical assumptions that are currently held by Shroud proponents and opponents alike. The article should be available some time in January.

Ian has asked me to advise you of this because due to this new evidence, certain revisions will be needed to a number of chronological entries that are included here on our Shroud History page. He also mentioned that there are important new entries for the 14th and 15th centuries that will need to be added. Ian promises to provide this revision just as soon as possible, though because of his other writing commitments, it may take a year or more to complete. Our sincere thanks to Ian for bringing this to our attention and for his generous offer to provide us with an update in the future. We will keep you informed and let you know once the updating has been accomplished.

Barrie Schwortz
November 7, 2020


The history of the Shroud of Turin can be best studied by dividing it into two specific categories. The general consensus of even the most doubting researchers is to accept a "1350" date as the beginning of the "undisputed" or documented history of the Shroud of Turin. This also happens to coincide with the approximate date determined by the 1988 carbon dating of the cloth. Although there is a significant amount of evidence supporting the Shroud's existence prior to the mid 1300's, much of it is, in fact, "circumstantial" and remains mostly unproven.

In an effort to bring factual information to the viewers of this website, I am including here only the undisputed history as accepted by most scholars. I am also limiting the scope of this history to only the more significant events. A completely detailed Shroud chronology can be found in the 1998 book titled "The Blood and the Shroud," by Ian Wilson, that includes the earlier, more speculative and "circumstantial" material as well. (It is available directly from Amazon.com via the Books section of the Website Store page of this site).

I wish to include a special note of thanks to Ian Wilson for providing his detailed chronology of Shroud history (circa 1996) as the basis for this page and allowing me to share it with you on this website. Ian is a highly respected Shroud researcher and noted author. His many books are listed on the "Shroud Booklist" page of this site. This page would not exist without his dedicated and meticulous efforts as a Shroud historian and his willingness to share his material with all of us.


You can use the following Century Navigator to skip directly to the era of Shroud history you wish to read about or you may scroll through the page in the usual manner. The Century Navigator links will take you to the first event in the list for the specific century you selected. You can always return to this navigator by using your browser's "back" button. A duplicate of this navigator also appears at the end of the history.

[1300's] [1400's] [1500's] [1600's] [1700's] [1800's] [1900's] [2000's]


Highlights of the Undisputed History

© 1996 Ian Wilson
Used by Permission

You can use the Century Navigator below to skip directly to the era of Shroud history you wish to read about or you may scroll through the page in the usual manner. The Century Navigator links will take you to the first event in the list for the specific century you selected. You can always return to this navigator by using your browser's "back" button. A duplicate of this navigator also appears at the top of the page.

[1300's] [1400's] [1500's] [1600's] [1700's] [1800's] [1900's] [2000's]



Top of Page Main Menu Shroud Library