Nine, forty, crescent/cross

[Ralph Cleminson]

Regarding the "explanations" for the slanting crossbar on the eight-
pointed Cross, I had always understood that none of these is true, and
the real reason for its apparent slant is the Byzantine artists'
conventional indication of perspective.

Incidentally, the statement that "the Russian Orthodox Church never
decreed that the cross should be represented  exclusively in one single
way" is true as far as the official church is concerned, but does not
hold for the Old Believers, who insist upon the eight-pointed cross.  It
is for this reason that Moscow-printed books of the later seventeenth
century always include headpieces incorporating the four-pointed
cross, so that they can be readily identified as authorised editions
following the Niconian revisions.


R.M.Cleminson,
Professor of Slavonic Studies,
University of Portsmouth,
Park Building,
King Henry I Street,
Portsmouth PO1 2DZ
tel. +44 23 92 846143, fax: +44 23 92 846040

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                http://members.home.net/lists/seelangs/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------