The Orphaned Manuscript: A Gathering of Publications on the Shroud of Turin

Without our knowing, the meeting of March 2-5 was the culmination of Adler’s work. He had brought with him the envelope marked DCMS. At long last, what he wanted to say and how the material should be composed had been reduced in the crucible of his searing, scientific mind. “Here it is”, he said. “It is the most important thing I have ever done. It must be published...” There was an urgency in his voice, an impatience with interruptions...
Strange entreaty! For 20 years, in peer-reviewed scientific journals and the proceedings of international conferences, Adler’s contributions to Shroud science had been published. Papers scattered across time and space and often not readily accessible, are brought all together in this volume as a lasting resource for scientists, scholars, and everyone with a serious turn of mind.
Reading each article in progression, one may be prepared to understand Adler’s entreaty.
Indeed, the manuscript marked DCMS is an extraordinary document. Written not as a presentation to some conference nor as the communication of some advanced research, it is a ‘free’ declaration and final acceptance of an ineluctable conclusion.
This is a book of chemistry and physics; of porphyrins and bilirubin; of Cardinal custodians, VP-8 and C14. It is also the record of a man whose repeatable testable experiments led him to a profoundly personal affinity with the Man whose Image lies one-fiber-deep upon the threads of the Turin Shroud.