The Cross as 'te' in 'The Canticle of Creatures,' Dante's 'Virgin Mother,' and Chaucer's 'Invocation to Mary'

Author / Editor
Treanor, Lucia.

Title
The Cross as 'te' in 'The Canticle of Creatures,' Dante's 'Virgin Mother,' and Chaucer's 'Invocation to Mary'

Published
Santa Casciani, ed. Dante and the Franciscans. The Medieval Franciscans, no. 3. Boston and Leiden: Brill, 2006, pp. 229-88.

Series
Medieval Franciscans, no. 03.

Description
Pope Innocent III explicitly recognized the Greek letter 'tau' as representing the form of the cross and saw it as a sign of renewal in the church. Likewise the syllable 'te' was interpreted as a sign of the cross. Treanor explores graphic figurations of the cross as the figure te in several works, including Chaucer's "Invocation to Mary" in SNP. Chaucer's poem follows the palindromic structures and patterns of its classical and medieval antecedents.

Contributor
Casciani, Santa. ed.

Alternative Title
Dante and the Franciscans.

Chaucer Subjects
Second Nun and Her Tale