The Rabbula Cross
The Rabbula Cross is reproduced from Folio 3 b[138] Canon I, I of the Rabbula Gospels Manuscript. The Manuscript, which contains 292 Folios, was written in 586 A.D. by the hand of an unknown person named Rabbula. The Manuscript was inscribed in Syriac Estrangelo at the Monastery of Saint John of Zagba in Mesopotamia (today's Iraq). The Rabbula Gospels Manuscript contains splendid calligraphy and radiant illumination. It is the most celebrated of Eastern illuminated codices. Hence, the Manuscript is indispensable in the study of Syriac and Eastern sacred Christian art. From the Monastery of St. John of Zagba, the Rabbula Gospels Manuscript was transferred several times between monasteries. Recorded events on some of the Folios indicate that between the 11th and the 15th centuries, the Manuscript was in the possession of the Maronite Patriarch at his Seat at Our Lady of Mayfouq in the Ilige Valley and later at his Seat at Our Lady of Qannobin in the Qadisha Valley. Since 1497, the Rabbula Gospels Manuscript has been housed at the Medicaean-Laurentian Library in Florence, Italy. 

The Rabbula Cross is the official logo of the Maronite American Research Institute (MARI). 

Bibl.: The Rabbula Gospels: Facsimile Edition of the Miniatures of the Syriac Manuscript PLUT. I, 56 in the Medicaean-Laurentian Library. Edited and Commented upon by C. Cecchelli, G. Furlani, and M. Salmi, (Olten and Lausanne, 1959); and Stephanus Evodius Assemanus, Bibliothecae Mediceae Laurentianae et Palatinae Codicum mms Orientalium Catalogus..., (Florence, 1742). 
 

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