The epigraphic presence on the Borghorst Cross (ca. 1050): Inscriptions and Interactions

Abstract

The article focuses on the analysis of the epigraphic programme of the Borghorst Cross, a cross reliquary from Germany (Westphalia) dating to the mid eleventh-century. Using the Borghorst Cross as a case study, this paper hopes to contribute to a better understanding of the interplays of inscriptions and relics, by exploring how writing, as both a textual and a visual device, interacted with the monumental context in which the relics were placed, contributed to its meanings and engaged medieval audiences.