chronohh, 10 months ago

@aaronm @medievodons "…carmina figurata (a popular form of poetry in the Early Middle Ages when the words could be read in several directions and were visually laid out on a grid / picture) on the true cross." /via https://www.efarnold.com/adventureshoes/2013/02/18/meet-fortunatus-poet-and-saint

taoish, 10 months ago

@aaronm @medievodons
PS the cross figure is upside down in that image.

taoish, 10 months ago

@aaronm @medievodons
That cross figure is a variant (with extra letters) of a figure poem by Ps.-Venantius Fortunatus, which in turn is based on a couplet from the middle of a North African church inscription composed by Calbulus and found in the Codex Salmasianus (Anthologia Latina). There are several witnesses.

I would love to correspond with anyone researching this, as I am. It's an example of a "labyrinth," best known from the Tabulae Iliacae (1st c. BCE).

NFerey, 10 months ago

@aaronm
Looks like this cross in Amiens 223 (Rabanus Maurus)

https://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/iiif/15229/canvas/canvas-1389702/view

@medievodons

chronohh, 10 months ago

@NFerey @aaronm @medievodons

🤯
https://mprove.de/chrono?q=-0.02482,-0.41539&z=9.07&m=IFmd27mp48sd5s-47&d=1&s=1&iiif-content=https://bvmm.irht.cnrs.fr/iiif/15229/manifest&c=h,a

NFerey, 10 months ago

@chronohh
😍 Yes, it's a nice, incredible and famous text, written and designed with calligrams by Rabanus Maurus (IXth. c.), De laudibus sanctae crucis. Several copies are known, in France, Italy (Vatican)... It was also printed in Germany in 1503 :
https://www.bvh.univ-tours.fr/Consult/index.asp?numfiche=55
@aaronm @medievodons

taoish, 10 months ago

@NFerey @chronohh @aaronm @medievodons
The last two figures in Hrabanus Maurus' book feature palindromes as the intexts. It set off a burst of Carolingian "versus recurrentes" over the next century, many by Irish peregrinni in the circle of John Scottus Eriugena.

taoish, 10 months ago

@NFerey @aaronm @medievodons
The figure in Amiens 223 is (a more accurate version of) that same figure. Plus a wonderful doodle on the recto!