Book illumination; medieval; art; Bohemia; Prague; Middle Ages; Crucifixion

The manuscript known in the Czech environment as the Mater verborum and held in the Library of the National Museum in Prague consists of a set of three encyclopaedic dictionaries of which the most extensive is the Glossarium Salamonis (Mater verborum) compiled at the beginning of the tenth century. The Prague edition of the manuscript originated around 1240, and was quite certainly made in a Benedictine environment. Especially interesting are the historiated initials, unusual for this type of manuscript, and always present at the beginning of the appropriate letter of the dictionary. The unique iconography of the initial ‘T’abanus (fol. 169v) with Christ crucified on a cross decorated with the cut branches in the form of a ‘Y’ (forked cross, or Gabelkreutz) stands out among them. This is the first ever example of this iconography in central Europe. The initial demonstrates its connection with the text of the glossary which almost literally cites excerpts from The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville, while the scribe moreover added the motto (Tabernaculum corpus domini, tentorium vel papilionum) to Isidore’s text, inspiring the presence of the Crucified in the accompanying initial, but nevertheless not explaining the portrayal of the cross in the form of the Gabelkreutz.