With a deed of donation signed on May 28, 1359 in Venice, the hospital purchased from the Florentine merchant Pietro di Giunta Torrigiani a precious collection of relics and reliquaries from Byzantium, which according to tradition belonged to Emperor Constantine. Representing Santa Maria della Scala, friar Andrea di Grazia had been sent from Siena, entrusted with conducting the purchase negotiation. However, it was a fictitious act of donation because the sale of relics had been prohibited by the Church by the Fourth Lateran Council (1215). For this reason, in the deed still preserved in the museum today, the word "donation" was used to avoid accusations of simony.
Among the oldest relics is the rectangular box-shaped reliquary commonly dated to the 12th century, which bears on the"," front"," a refined ","Crucifixion"," in cloisonné enamels, faithful to the Byzantine iconographic tradition. On the ","back",",instead, there is an elegant Greek cross made of precious stones set against a gold background. A cartouche connected to it lists the relics contained: besides the instruments of the Passion, the blood and the hairs of Christ's beard. recto una raffinata Crocifissione in smalti cloisonnè, fedele alla tradizione iconografica bizantina. Sul verso,invece, è presente una elegante croce greca costituita da pietre preziose incastonate sul fondo oro. Un cartiglio ad esso connesso elenca le reliquie contenute: oltre agli strumenti della Passione, il sangue e i peli della barba di Cristo.