Ruthwell Cross
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 October 2015
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0180
- LAST MODIFIED: 26 October 2015
- DOI: 10.1093/obo/9780195396584-0180
Introduction
The Ruthwell Cross is a freestanding stone cross, or high cross. It was carved and erected at some point in the 8th century at what is thought to have been an early monastic site near Ruthwell (Dumfries) in what is now southwestern Scotland near the shore of the Solway Firth. The cross was carved from two differently colored blocks of sandstone, possibly from two different quarries, leading to debates over whether the two parts of the cross (the upper and lower stones) were carved at the same time. It is likely that the cross was originally painted, which would have masked the difference between the two stones. Despite being located in Scotland, the cross is a work of Northumbrian sculpture associated with the expansion of the Northumbrian church and kingdom north and west into the ancient British territories of Rheged and Strathclyde. It is especially important because of its early date, classicizing style, complex iconographic program, and the runic poem on the crucifixion inscribed on its original north and south faces. Because of its stylistic and iconographic similarities with the contemporary Bewcastle Cross (Cumbria), and the relationship of its runic poem to The Dream of the Rood and the verses inscribed on the 11th-century Brussels reliquary cross (Cathedral of Saints Michel and Gudule), it is often studied alongside one or more of these works. The Ruthwell Cross was pulled down and partially buried at the time of the Reformation, and then it was reconstructed in the 19th century, first in the garden of Ruthwell Manse and then in a specially built apse inside the church. Some parts of the cross have never been found, and the top arm of the cross head has been put on back to front. On the basis of its iconographic similarities to the Bewcastle Cross, which still stands in its original location, it is believed that the two broad sides of the cross originally faced west (the side with Christ over the Beasts at its center) and east (the side with Mary Magdalene at the feet of Christ and its center). For information on the historical and sculptural contexts of the cross see the Oxford Bibliographies entries High Crosses and Anglo-Saxon Sculpture.
Bibliographies
All published bibliographies devoted exclusively to the Ruthwell Cross are now woefully out of date, but several annual bibliographies are listed below, all of which can be accessed and searched electronically. Cassidy and Kiefer 1992 and Werner 1984 are good for older publications, while the annual bibliographies of Anglo-Saxon England and the Old English Newsletter will include more recent work. The International Medieval Bibliography covers the whole of the Middle Ages.
The preeminent journal on all aspects of Anglo-Saxon England. The annual bibliography includes a section on sculpture. Available by subscription.
Cassidy, Brendan, and Katherine Kiefer. “A Bibliography of the Ruthwell Cross.” In The Ruthwell Cross. Edited by Brendan Cassidy, 167–199. Princeton, NJ: Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University, 1992.
Not a comprehensive bibliography, but the only one focused exclusively on the cross. Good for the pre-1992 publications.
International Medieval Bibliography.
The most complete annual bibliography available. It also provides greater coverage of European scholarship than the other entries in this section. Available by subscription.
Provides information on research projects and publications, conference opportunities, etc., alongside short articles. The annual bibliography is limited and often does not include articles appearing in the journals of local archaeological societies, but it does provide a brief review of each entry, whereas Anglo-Saxon England does not.
Werner, Martin. Insular Art: An Annotated Bibliography. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1984.
Now out of date but still a convenient guide to the pre-1984 sources. It includes entries on pre-10th century Anglo-Saxon art (including Ruthwell) along with entries on the early medieval art of Ireland, Wales, and Scotland.
Users without a subscription are not able to see the full content on this page. Please subscribe or login.
How to Subscribe
Oxford Bibliographies Online is available by subscription and perpetual access to institutions. For more information or to contact an Oxford Sales Representative click here.
Article
- Aelred of Rievaulx
- Alcuin of York
- Alfonso X
- Alfred the Great
- Alighieri, Dante
- Angevin Dynasty
- Anglo-Norman Realm
- Anglo-Saxon Law
- Anglo-Saxon Manuscript Illumination
- Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture
- Apocalypticism, Millennialism, and Messianism
- Architecture, Carolingian
- Armenian Art
- Art and Pilgrimage
- Art, Anglo-Saxon
- Art, Byzantine
- Art, Gothic
- Art in Italy
- Art, Insular
- Art, Ottonian
- Art, Pictish
- Art, Romanesque
- Arts, Decorative
- Attila And The Huns
- Auchinleck Manuscript, The
- Audelay, John
- Augustodunensis, Honorius
- Bartholomaeus Anglicus
- Benedictines After 1100
- Benoît de Sainte Maure [113]
- Beowulf
- Bernard of Clairvaux
- Bernardus Silvestris
- Biblical Apocrypha
- Birgitta of Sweden and the Birgittine Order
- Boccaccio, Giovanni
- Boethius
- Bokenham, Osbern
- Book of Kells
- Bozon, Nicholas
- Byzantine Manuscript Illumination
- Calendars and Time (Christian)
- Cambridge Songs
- Canon Law
- Cantari, Italian
- Capgrave, John
- Carolingian Era
- Carolingian Manuscript Illumination
- Carthusians and Eremitic Orders
- Cecco d’Ascoli (Francesco Stabili)
- Charlemagne
- Charles d’Orléans
- Charters of the British Isles
- Chaucer, Geoffrey
- Childhood
- Christian Mysticism
- Christianity and the Church in Post-Conquest England
- Christianity and the Church in Pre-Conquest England
- Christina of Markyate
- Chronicles of England and the British Isles
- Church of the Holy Sepulchre, The
- Cistercian Architecture
- Cistercians, The
- Clanvowe, John
- Classics in the Middle Ages
- Coins
- Confessors, Handbooks for
- Coptic Art
- Corpus Christi
- Councils and Synods of the Medieval Church
- Crusades, The
- Crusading Warfare
- da Lentini, Giacomo
- da Tempo, Antonio and da Sommacampagna, Gidino
- Dance
- Dance of Death
- de’ Rossi, Nicolò
- de Santa Maria, Cantigas
- Death and Dying in England
- Drama, French
- Drama, German
- Drama in Britain
- Drama, Italian
- Drama, Liturgical
- Dress
- East Anglia, Art of
- Economic History
- El Cid
- England, Post-Conquest
- England, Pre-Conquest
- England, Towns and Cities Medieval
- Exeter Book, The
- Falconry
- Family Letters in 15th Century England
- Feast of Fools
- Feudalism
- Findern Manuscript (CUL Ff.i.6), The
- Florence
- Folk Custom and Entertainment
- Food, Drink, and Diet
- France
- France, Regions of Medieval
- French Monarchy, The
- French of England, The
- Friars
- Froissart, Jean
- Games and Recreations
- Gawain Poet, The
- Gerson, Jean
- Glass, Stained
- Gower, John
- Gregory VII
- Guilds
- Harley 2253 Manuscript, The
- Hiberno-Latin Literature
- High Crosses
- Hilton, Walter
- Hoccleve, Thomas
- Hood, Robin
- Hungary
- Hungary, Latin Literacy in Medieval
- Hungary, Libraries in Medieval
- Hymns
- Icons
- Illuminated Manuscripts
- Insular Manuscript Illumination
- Italian Novella, The
- Jewish Manuscript Illumination
- Jews and Judaism in Medieval Europe
- Julian of Norwich
- Junius Manuscript, The
- King Arthur
- Kings and Monarchy, 1066-1485, English
- Knapwell, Richard
- Kraków
- Lancelot-Grail Cycle
- Language, Middle English
- Latin Arts of Poetry and Prose, Medieval
- Latino, Brunetto
- Ælfric
- Libraries in England and Wales
- Lindisfarne Gospels
- Liturgical Processions
- Liturgy
- Lollards and John Wyclif, The
- Lombards in Italy
- Love, Nicholas
- Low Countries
- Lydgate, John
- Machaut, Guillaume de
- Magic in the Medieval Theater
- Maidstone, Richard
- Malmesbury, Aldhelm of
- Malory, Sir Thomas
- Manuscript Illumination, Ottonian
- Manuscript Ilumination, Norman (and Anglo-Norman)
- Manuscripts, Illustrated Beatus
- Marie de France
- Markets and Fairs
- Medicine
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Fifth to Eleventh Centuri...
- Medieval Archaeology in Britain, Twelfth to Fifteenth Cent...
- Medieval Britain, Schools in
- Medieval Ivories
- Medieval Music Theory
- Medieval Naples
- Medieval Optics
- Metalwork, Anglo-Saxon
- Metalwork, Carolingian
- Middle Ages, Family Life in the
- Middle Ages, Hospitals in the
- Middle Ages, Masculinity and Male Sexuality in the
- Mirk, John
- Mosaics in Italy
- Mozarabic Art
- Mural Decoration, Italian
- Musical Instruments
- Necromancy, Theurgy, and Intermediary Beings
- Nibelungenlied, The
- Nicholas of Cusa
- N-Town Plays
- Nuns and Abbesses
- Old English Hexateuch, The Illustrated
- Old English Language
- Old English Literature and Critical Theory
- Old Norse-Icelandic Sagas
- Ovid in the Middle Ages
- Owl and the Nightingale, The
- Papacy, The Medieval
- Paris
- Peasants
- Peter Abelard
- Petrarch
- Pizan, Christine de
- Plowman, Piers
- Poetry, Old English Religious
- Poland
- Poland, Ethnic and Religious Groups in Medieval
- Pope Innocent III
- Preaching, Late Medieval
- Pre-Carolingian Western European Kingdoms
- Prick of Conscience, The
- Prosody, English
- Pucci, Antonio
- Queens
- Rate Manuscript (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 61)
- Regular Canons
- Related Texts, The Cloud of Unknowing and
- Religious Lyrics
- Robert Mannyng of Brunne
- Rolle, Richard
- Roman Law
- Romance, Arthurian
- Ruthwell Cross
- Saint Plays and Miracles
- Saint-Denis
- Scandinavian Migration-Period Gold Bracteates
- Scogan, Henry
- Seals
- Sermons
- Sex and Sexuality
- Ships and Seafaring
- Shirley, John
- Slavery in Medieval Europe
- Song of Roland, The
- Songs, Medieval
- Southampton, Archaeology of
- Spain
- St. Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury
- St. Peter's in the Vatican (Rome)
- Textiles
- The Middle Ages, The Trojan War in
- Theater and Drama, Dutch
- Theater and Performance, Iberian
- Thomas Aquinas
- Thomism
- Thornton, Robert
- Travel and Travelers
- Tropes
- Troubadours and Trouvères
- Troyes, Chrétien de
- Universities, Medieval English
- Usk, Adam
- Usk, Thomas
- Venerable Bede, The
- Vercelli Book, The
- Vernon Manuscript, The
- Vikings
- Visigothic Period, Art in the
- Von Eschenbach, Wolfram
- Wace
- Wall Painting in Europe
- War, Hundred Years
- Wearmouth-Jarrow
- Welsh Literature
- William of Ockham
- Witchcraft
- Women's Life Cycles
- Wulfstan
- York Corpus Christi Plays
- York, Medieval