Medieval books often amaze not only with their beauty, but also with their intricacy. Some authors liked to play with the text, creating unusual works. Among them is a German writer-theologian of the VIII-IX centuries. Rabanus Maurus, creator of the 22-volume encyclopedia On the Nature of Things. The thinker was interested in the mystical aspects of the surrounding entities, the study of which he devoted his life to.
His unusual work Praise of the Holy Cross (De laudibus Santae Crusis) gained great fame. This is a collection of poems, which in one form or another glorifies the symbol of Christianity. Several ancient copies have survived to this day, one of which is kept in the British Library. On each left page is the work itself, next to which, on each right page, a detailed commentary is submitted.
One copy is dedicated to the King of the Franks, Louis the Pious. On one of the pages, the king is depicted as a warrior with a cross in his hand and a halo above his head. The dedication appeared in some later copies made from this copy.
Some crosses are presented in capital letters. In the figure below we see a combination of two words: Crux - "cross" and Salus - "salvation". The poem itself tells about angels, whose names and titles are in capital letters of the cross. For example, in the letter "u" in the vertical word Crux we read arcangeli - "archangels".
In the next image, a monk kneels under a large cross. This is a kind of self-portrait: the fact that Rabanus the Maurus himself is in front of us is indicated by the highlighted letters in the upper part of the picture that make up Rabanus.
In 2006, Germany celebrated the 1150th anniversary of the death of Raban Maurus. Fans of old books could see The Praise of the Holy Cross and other important works, as well as read several studies on the medieval writer and his work.
