RECASTING HRABANUS: ROMANESQUE PRAISE FOR THE HOLY CROSS

In the mid-11th century, Hrabanus Mounts’ renowned 9th-century work, In honorem sanctae crucis, was copied at Saint-Germain-des-Prés with the addition of an original programme of illustration to complement the interwoven images and texts constituting Hrabanus’ original carmina figurata. The first section of this paper explores the fundamental difference in conception between the original and the copy, namely, the 11th-century artist’s characterization of the Cross as a material cross-object. The following section ranges beyond the Saint-Germain example, contextualizing its material conception of the Cross with reference both to other copies of In honorem, and to the 12th-century Priifening production known as De laudibus sanctae crucis. It is argued that while the materiality of the Cross was an aspect of the sign’s identity that Hrabanus sought to avoid, later witnesses portrayed the Cross’ material fabrication as a critical element in both the sign’s identity, and in the project of a book conceived ‘in praise of the Holy Cross’.