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Dear Claire, Your suggestion that the four crosses might stand for the evangelists is certainly not farfetched, but you might want to consider two points: 1) The four dimensions of the Cross were associated not only with the four evangelists (and with the tetramorph), but also with many other biblical and cosmic quaternaries, such as the four rivers of paradise, cardinal virtues, seasons of the year, elements (fire and water, air and earth), partes terrae (i.e. East-West, North-South, sorry, I don't know the English term for "Himmelsrichtungen"), etc. 2) I have done some (not very extensive) research on patristic and (early) medieval interpretations and representations of the four evangelists, and have never found them represented as, or associated with, four crosses, at least not in explicit or otherwise unmistakeable form. For both reasons, I would hesitate to assign this specific meaning to the four crosses in question, unless you can find more concrete evidence supporting this interpretation. After all, there is a good possibility that these four crosses are primarily ornamental and serve, in addition, to highlight the fourfold structure of the Cross in its general symbolical relevance, but do not refer to one of the traditional significates specifically. Kind regards, Otfried ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Otfried Lieberknecht, Schoeneberger Str. 11, D-12163 Berlin phone & fax: ++49 30 8516675, E-mail: [log in to unmask] Homepage for Dante Studies: http://members.aol.com/lieberk/welcome.html Listowner of Italian-Studies: http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/italian-studies/ Listowner of Medieval-Religion: http://www.mailbase.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%