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Source Description
A lengthy Latin inscription on the frame recounts the history of the central relic--a fragment of the True Cross--and provides an exact date for its container: "You who ask about the cross: read! The heir of Judas the priest/Stole it. But when, after boarding a ship,/He sought a mild breeze, a fierce storm opposed the sorry sailors./Out of his mind, he gnawed at his own hands./In the end the blessed Virgin spoke thus to him:/‘You shall soon be well, if you seek to return what was stolen.’/ He pays back this debt to the brothers of the Temple . . . When he died, they cast him overboard, and the storm subsided./Happy they arrive at Brindisi, quiet they have returned with the cross,/Which resides beautiful in this handsome panel. This tablet was created in the 1214th year from the Lord’s incarnation in the month of February."
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
130314
label
Reliquary of the True Cross
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
130314
contentType
object
title
Reliquary of the True Cross
description
A lengthy Latin inscription on the frame recounts the history of the central relic--a fragment of the True Cross--and provides an exact date for its container: "You who ask about the cross: read! The heir of Judas the priest/Stole it. But when, after boarding a ship,/He sought a mild breeze, a fierce storm opposed the sorry sailors./Out of his mind, he gnawed at his own hands./In the end the blessed Virgin spoke thus to him:/‘You shall soon be well, if you seek to return what was stolen.’/ He pays back this debt to the brothers of the Temple . . . When he died, they cast him overboard, and the storm subsided./Happy they arrive at Brindisi, quiet they have returned with the cross,/Which resides beautiful in this handsome panel. This tablet was created in the 1214th year from the Lord’s incarnation in the month of February."
date
c. 1214
citation
rights
CC0
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
wikidata
Q60759275
genreSpecific
Metalwork
imageCount
1
source
import
dimensionsRaw
Overall: 44 x 31 x 4.7 cm (17 5/16 x 12 3/16 x 1 7/8 in.)
cul
Cross: Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
Panel: Rhine-Meuse region, Gothic period, 13th century
accession
1952.89
Source extras
tec
silver, gilded silver, niello, precious stones, walnut core
tombstone
Reliquary of the True Cross, c. 1214. Cross: Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem
Panel: Rhine-Meuse region, Gothic period, 13th century. Silver, gilded silver, niello, precious stones, walnut core; overall: 44 x 31 x 4.7 cm (17 5/16 x 12 3/16 x 1 7/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund, 1952.89
collection
MED - Gothic
inscriptions
inscription
the Latin inscription on the border of the cover, written in gothic characters, translates as follows: "If you want information about the cross, read this: A priest, a true descendant of Judas, stole the relic and boarded a ship. Instead of the fair breeze he was wishing for, the aggrieved sailors ran into a tempest. The priest became raving mad to the point of gnawing his own hands. The Virgin Mary appeared to him and said: 'You will immediately recover your wits if you undertake to give back what you robbed.' He thereupon bequeathed the relic to the Knights Templars and agonized, brooding on himself: 'As long as I breathe, the waves will form horrible whirlpools. If I am thrown into the sea, it will quiet down.' He gave up the ghost and was thrown overboard. The pilgrims happily disembarked at Brindisi and returned peacefully to their country with the relic of the cross which you see beautifully set in its container. The panel-shaped reliquary was made in the year of the incarnation 1214 in the month of February." On front, Latin inscriptions listing the relics run between the inner and outer lines of the ovals and inside the two roundels not circumscribed by an oval.
citations
citation
Milliken, William. "Reliquary of the True Cross." <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art </em>39, no. 8 (October 1952): 203-205.
page_number
Reproduced: front cover; Mentioned: p. 203.
citation
The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook.</em> Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958.
page_number
Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 141
citation
Verdier. “A Thirteenth-Century Reliquary of the True Cross.” <em>The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art</em> 69, no. 3 (March 1982): 94–110.
page_number
Mentioned and reproduced: p. 94-96, figs. 1-3; p. 98-99, figs. 11-12
citation
Bagnoli, Martina. <em>Treasures of heaven: saints, relics, and devotion in medieval Europe</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 2010.
page_number
Reproduced: cat. no. 49, p. 54, 90 - 91
citation
Boehm, Barbara Drake and Melenie Holcomb, eds. Jerusalem, 1000-1400: Every People Under Heaven. NY: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2016.
page_number
62
creditline
Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
updatedAt
2026-05-29 06:44:03.621000
sourceId
130314
dept
Medieval Art
coll
MED - Gothic
med
silver, gilded silver, niello, precious stones, walnut core
thumbnail_url
image_url
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
4a1f70d79104cb95