ABSTRACT
In 1585, Elisabeth of Austria, queen widow of Charles IX of France, received from her brother, Archduke Ernst, a relic of St Leopold. Leopold, Third Margrave of Austria, died in 1136 and was remembered for acts of piety and the foundation of monasteries. The shape of the reliquary itself suggests a family tree, in whose branches perch 30 more saintly figures nestled among palm fronds, fleur-de-lis foliage and pomegranate fruit. Balthasar Polzman's confusion of the bones ts still an interesting error, but why he selected a pelvic bone as a gift might best be explained by reference to his subconscious associations, a fuller explanation of which will only appear in Vienna a few hundred years later. The canons of Klosterneuburg were clever about handing out relics of their patron. In 1581 Ernst requested relics to be sent to Spain, and received a rib from Prior Christiani.
