[De Laudibus sanctae crucis opus] Magnencij Rabani Mauri De Laudib[us] sanct[a]e Crucis opus. : erudicione versu p[r]osaq[ue] mirificum. /

The author of these poems, Rabanus Maurus (784?-856), the Archbishop of Mainz, compiled an early encyclopaedia, wrote commentaries on the Bible, and devised a complicated system of coded poetry. Magnencij Rabani Mauri De Laudib[us] sancte Crucis opus begins with an introduction by the German humanist, writer, and theologian Jakob Wimpheling (dated 1501) and includes 30 full-page poems printed in red and black and combining woodcut and letterpress. The poems are followed by a transcript in ordinary type for the sake of clarity and a Declaratio explaining the whole arrangement. The encrypted poems are composed in a grid of 36 lines each containing 36 letters. Rabanus sometimes incorporated a figure within the grid, creating both a figurative and a literal picture poem. It continues a late classical tradition in its form: it consists of "carmina figurata" where figures were superimposed on the text so that new verses appear, and these verses have a new meaning. Gustav Mahler composed his 8th symphony around one of Rabanus’s poems (Source: University Library Princeton http://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2008/05/rabanus_maurus_archbishop_of_m.html).Wimpheling was a contemporary of Johannes Reuchlin. There exists a letter written by Mutianus Rufus to Reuchlin in which the printer's achievement is praised in glowing terms; Reuchlin's cooperation and help in the production must have been considerable (Source: H. Alberts in Johannes Reuchlin Festschrift, 1955, p. 208)DigitizationCatalogin