Reliquary of the True Cross
description: The cross in this panel comes from the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem, while the panel into which the cross has been set comes from the Rhine-Meuse region. The Latin inscription reads: "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."
source: https://media-management-api.tlt.harvard.edu/api/iiif/manifest/378