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Introduction to the Source

The manuscript source is Vatican. Reg. Lat. 124. f.35v and is available to view here. All images of the text displayed on this site are copyright Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana.

Introduction to the Text

This text is one of a series of figure poems by Rabanus Maurus (c.780-856 CE), a Benedictine monk and prolific writer who rose to become archbishop of Mainz (in what is now western Germany). The speaker in the poem is a Christian kneeling before the cross, praying to the crucified Christ, and this is mirrored by the shape of the poem on the page of the manuscript: words surrounding - and forming - the shape of a cross.

Credits

Translation by May Peterson, Encoded in TEI P5 XML by Jordan Rosen-Kaplan