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The proposed monograph is dedicated to a specific group of images (icons), whose existence in historical sources of Christian Orient dates back to the middle of the 6^th century. In the Orthodox world, man’s relationship to God has remained depicted through God’s portrait until today. The subject of our interest lies in a unique form of religious and artistic expression: an image not made by a human hand (gr. acheiropoietos), according to legends regarding its origin. This image goes completely beyond other depictions of Christ. It presents his immediate physical form and thus in an essentially different way represents the predeceasing model, archetype and thus He Himself. In the monograph we discuss the history of a picture which was not created by any artist, iconographer or craftsman, but an icon which, according to the legends, originated during Christ’s life on Earth as an imprint of His face on the linen cloth. Several historical sources are connected with this context. They are usually called the Abgar Legend Cycle. Using narrative sources it is rather complicated to reconstruct the genesis of the image not made by human hand. Information included in the sources is inconclusive, difficult to interpret and may be confusing, often including interpolations. Reference to the image appears only in more recent versions. Not all of these sources mention the image, and when their content does refer to the image, it does not necessarily refer to the one created by Christ himself. We analysed particular sources and attempted to find answers to the following questions: What was the function of an image not made by human hand in the society? What power and effectiveness did it carry during military campaigns or town sieges? What justification does a statement connecting its origin directly to Christ’s life on Earth have?  

            The monograph is divided into two parts. In the first, part we characterise images not made by human hand in general, including their etymology and references to them in the Old and the New Testament. We briefly introduce the pagan predecessors of Christian images not made by human hand (diipetes) and we also mention imperial images (imagines imperiales). In detail, we characterise Christian acheiropoietai and clarify how they are referenced by authors of historical sources, proceeding to categorize them into three types, as done in the sources themselves. We point out to their magical qualities and apotropaic effects. In the second part, we focus on the Image of Edessa not made by the human hand. We clarify the cycle of legends about Abgar, the ruler of Edessa, and we introduce sources that have been selected. We explain the etymology of the word mandylion and we answer the fundamental question of whether the Image of Edessa is justifiably called Mandylion by historians. We also analyse the source of Narratio de imagine Edessena, which records the transfer of the Image of Edessa to Constantinople, and we answer the question of why the siege of Edessa by Sassanid military units in 544 A.D. was unsuccessful even though no image not made human hand was used to protect the city. In the appendix we mention von Dobschütz’s edition of the Narratio de imagine Edessena.

There are three primary goals and purposes of this monograph. Firstly, we attempt to revive the interest in the Byzantine spiritual culture of Late Antiquity and Early Middle Ages on the territory of Middle Europe. Byzantology, as a developing scientific field in Slovakia, requires new impulses and thus we believe that in this book we will contribute to spreading awareness and enriching knowledge about Byzantine culture. We also intend to question the customary usage of images not made by human hands in historiography, disseminated mainly in scientific studies from abroad. Experts identify the acheiropoietos of Edessa with the noun Mandylion, as early as at the time of its first appearance in written sources. We point out that the term mandylion is a few centuries younger and is not the name of a particular image, but rather an iconographic type that later became a model for creating further images. The tangible image with the depiction of Christ’s face on the fabric, together with a story of its origin, appeared at a later time in history. This iconographic type has become one of the permanent and unmistakable parts of Byzantine spiritual culture and from this environment it gradually entered into other orthodox cultures. Currently, we know of several copies that claim to be images not made by human hands but that cannot, however, be justifiably connected to the fact. Acheiropoietai played such an important role in the whole Byzantine spiritual culture that they managed to overcome it. The third and not less substantial goal of our work is to introduce, clarify, and root the term of an image not made by human hand in Slovak historiography.