Page - 62 - in Europäische Bild- und Buchkultur im 13. Jahrhundert

62 michaEl a. michaEl phia in Novgorod,23 and on surviving crosses from the Rhineland and Mosen regions (fig. 14).24 Nigel Saul suggests that the ‘rough-hewn raguly tree (sic) was in fact a symbol of new life, a victory sign whose mutilated chopped-off stumps, it is implied, would soon sprout new shoots’. He surmises that it is for this reason that it is used on tomb slabs in England such as that for a man and wife at St Giles Church in Bre- 23 Henrik Birnbaum: Medieval Novgorod: Political, Social and cultural Life in an Old Rus- sian Urban Community. In: California Slavic Studies 14 (1992), pp. 1–43, esp. pp. 42–43, n. 467. 24 For instance, the Mosan gilt-bronze cross, from the Soltikoff Collection, London, The Victoria & Albert Museum, No. 7938‒1862, see: Peter Springer: Kreuzfüße. Ikonogra- phie und Typologie eines hochmittelalterlichen Gerätes. Berlin 1981, K. 303, cat. no. 40, pp. 169–173. Fig. 14: Copper-gilt Cross. Lon- don, Victoria & Albert Museum, No. 7938‒1862, valley of Meuse Fig. 15: St Alban’s Psalter. The tree of life, end of Psalm 150, Canti- cum of Isiah (12:3). Hildesheim, Dombibliothek, St. God. Nr. 1, page 372, St Albans, c. 1120–1145 Fig. 16: Wooden Crucifix. From Tretten (I), Øyer (Oppland). Oslo, Kulturhistorisk museum, Norway, c. 1250