In the mid-eleventh century, Hrabanus Maurus{\textquoteright} renowned ninth-century work, In honorem sanctae crucis, was copied at Saint-Germain-des-Pr{\'e}s with the addition of an original programme of illustration to complement the interwoven images and texts constituting Hrabanus{\textquoteright} original carmina figurata\ (Paris, BnF, Ms. lat. 11685). The first section of this paper explores the fundamental difference in conception between the original and the copy, namely, the eleventh-century artist{\textquoteright}s characterization of the Cross as a material object. The following section ranges beyond the Saint-Germain example, contextualizing its material conception of the Cross with reference both to other copies of In honorem, and to the twelfth-century Pr{\"u}fening production known as De laudibus sanctae crucis. It is argued that while the materiality of the Cross was an aspect of the sign{\textquoteright}s identity that Hrabanus sought to avoid, later witnesses portrayed the Cross{\textquoteright} material fabrication as a critical element in both the sign{\textquoteright}s identity, and in the project of a book conceived {\textquoteleft}in praise of the Holy Cross.{\textquoteright}
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}, year = {2013}, journal = {Romanesque and the Past: Retrospection in the Art and Architecture of Romanesque Europe}, publisher = {Maney for the British Archaeological Association}, address = {Leeds}, language = {eng}, }