Overview

• Historian Nicolas Sarzeaud reports that Oresme, a 14th‑century theologian and future bishop, labeled the Lirey shroud a "clear" and "patent" fake attributed to deceptive clergy.
• The passage, written between 1355 and 1382 and likely after 1370, was identified in an Oresme treatise by historians Alain Boureau and Béatrice Delaurenti.
• Records place the relic’s first public display in Lirey in the mid‑1300s, followed by its removal around 1355 and a later restriction to exhibit it only as a representation.
• Recent research continues to conflict on authenticity, including 1988 radiocarbon dating to the 13th–14th centuries and a 2025 Archaeometry 3D study suggesting the cloth wrapped a sculpture.
• Shroud scholar Andrea Nicolotti calls the Oresme text further historical evidence of medieval skepticism, while noting the wider debate over the relic’s origins remains unresolved.