At 13:51 15.05.98 +0100, you wrote:
>I'd be glad of any examples of the flowering/blossoming
>cross/ crucifix known to list-members. I know what Schiller has to say
>in her standard Iconography of Christian Art and I note that Nigel
>Morgan suggests the Robert de Lidsey Psalter (a.1220) example may be
>related to contemporary Scandinavian carved wooden crucifixions --
>but a correspondent asks me whether there is any associated legend of
>the cross which might underlie such iconography -- I can't find that
>there is, though Bonaventura's words are cited by the authorities in
>this connexion.
Dear Malcolm,
I am not sure how narrowly you define the "crux florida" and how clearly
you want to distinguish it from non-flowering and non-blossoming forms of
crosses assimilated to trees or plants. I suppose that for these latter
forms Schiller has already referred you to the two main contexts: A) the
"lignum vitae" in earthly (Genesis) and heavenly (Revelation) paradise,
interpreted typologically, like almost every other biblical tree or rood or
rod, as a figure of the Cross (for one of the biblical types, the greening
rod of Moses, see Thomas N. Hall, _The Cross as Green Tree in the Vindicta
Salvatoris and the
Green Rod of Moses in Exodus, in: English Studies 72,4 (1991), p.297-307);
and B), yet in my opinion less important, the legend according to which the
wood of the Cross was taken from a tree which genealogically and materially
stemmed from a seed or layer of the Tree of Life. For this latter legend I
have some pretty old references, but the article "Kreuzlegende" in
Kirschbaum's _Lexikon der christilichen Ikonographie_ will be able to
supply you with better info:
KAMPERS Franz
Mittelalterliche Sagen vom Paradiese und vom Holze des Kreu-
zes Christi in ihren vornehmsten Quellen und in in ihren
hervorstechendsten Typen. Ko"ln: Bachem, 1897
MORRIS Richard
Legends of the holy rood. Symbols of the passion and cross-
poems. In Old English of the eleventh, fourteenth, and fif-
teenth centuries. Edited from mss. in the British museum and
Bodleian libraries, with introduction, translations, and
glossarial index. London: Tru"bner, 1871 (= EETS)
NAPIER Arthur Sampson
History of the holy rood-tree, a twelfth century version of
the cross-legend, with notes on the orthography of the
Ormulum (with a facsimile) and a Middle English Compassio
Mariae. London: Tru"bner, 1894 (= EETS)
MOORE Edward
Studies in Dante, Third series: Miscellaneous Essays, Ox-
ford: Clarendon Press, 1903, p.219-220: The Legend of the
Wood of the Cross.
For a specific type of non-flowering and non-blossoming cross, the
trifoliate cross or St Patrick's cross, I have heard (but cannot supply
bibliography) that it was associated with (or was the origin of) the legend
that St Patrick used the trefoil to visualize and explain the mystery of
the trinity to his hardheaded compatriotes.
I don't know which words of Bonaventure's are quoted by your authorities as
relevant for legends of the Cross associated with the "crux florida". But
his iconographically most relevant writing, the _Lignum vitae_ (Opera omnia
ed. Borgnet, t.VIII, 1898, p.68-87, derives its title, structure and
accompanying diagram from the lignum vitae in Apc 22,2, "et (ostendit mihi)
ex utraque parte fluminis lignum vitae / adferens fructus duodecim / per
menses singula reddentia fructum suum / et folia ligni ad sanitatem
gentium". The work consists of 48 (12 x 4) chapters meditating on virtues
and achievements of Christ. The diagram (which varies strongly in the
manuscript tradition) represents the lignum vitae in its correspondence
with the numerical structure of the work: the biblical verse form or are
associated with the roots or foot of the tree, and each of the 12 branches
carries a 'fruit' inscribed with one of the central topics and four
'leaves' inscribed with the verse titles of the four chapters treating this
topic. In the Howard-Psalter, Ms. Arundel 83 I, f.13r, from ca. 1300-1320,
the branches are also topped by figurines of 12 OT prophets, and at the
foot of the tree there are represented seven more prophets and apostles,
among them John who is holding the inscription with his verse Apc 22,2
(reproduced by Ulrich Ernst, _Carmen figuratum_, Cologne et al.: Bo"hlau
Verlag, 1991 (= Pictura et Poesis, 1), p.647, tab. 235). No blossoms or
flowers in the diagram, as I recall it, only fruits and leaves. Yet this
book and its biblical source may give us a clue why Bonaventura in Dante's
Paradiso is presented as one of 24 (2 x 12) luminous souls and
representations of wisdom which he describes as "ventiquattro piante" (Pd
12,96) grown from the 'seed' of true faith. Literary predilections in some
cases apparently persist in paradise.
As an earlier figural poem representing this time in fact a flowering
cross, more precisely a lily cross, see Hrabanus Maurus, _Liber de laudibus
sanctae crucis_, fig. XXIII (PL 107,239; critical edition by Michel Perrin,
together with French transl. and ms. reproductions, in CC-Cont. Med. 100
(1997)). The quadrangular hexametrical text (written without spacings) is
inscribed by a cross formed by two "versus intexti" of 6+12+1+12+6 letters
each (not having my email water colours at hand to highlight these letters,
I reproduce only the versus intexti but omit the basic hexametrical text):
F O R
T I
S
N
P
L
E
V
I
T
C
V R R
T I L
I R CONSIGNANSJESUSPIAPRAEMIA C U
O T A
C U S
S
S
U
A
F
A
M
I
N
A
V
I R
T U S
The prose "declaratio" identifies the four trigonal figures at the ends
with the leaves or rather petals of a lily: "Sunt quoque in quatuor
trigonis circa crucem, [omit the comma] quatuor nomina triumphatoris
coelestis conscripta, quae sancta crux in modum foliorum repandi lilii per
cornua dilatat" (col. 242BC). The hexametrical text and the declaratio do
not, of course not, refer to any legends, but explain the structure of this
figure in its numerical accordance (based on the numbers six and four) with
the works of creation and salvation, explaining the number six also
arithmetically as a "perfect number" ("Sex micat in numeris perfectus et
primus et ipse est" v.12) because it is equal to the sum of its possible
divisors 1, 2 and 3, and this is one of the reasons why the petals are
arranged as 3+2+1 or 1+2+3 letters respectively (another reason is the
arithmetical understanding of six as a trigonal number).
Nothing of all this is really answers your question, but I hope that it is
at least entertaining!
Otfried
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