Inscription

the Latin inscription on the border of the cover, written in gothic characters, translates as follows: "If you want information about the cross, read this: A priest, a true descendant of Judas, stole the relic and boarded a ship. Instead of the fair breeze he was wishing for, the aggrieved sailors ran into a tempest. The priest became raving mad to the point of gnawing his own hands. The Virgin Mary appeared to him and said: 'You will immediately recover your wits it you undertake to give back what you robbed.' He thereupon bequeathed the relic to the Knights Templars and agonized, brooding on himself: 'As long as I breathe, the waves will form horrible whirlpools. If I am thrown into the sea, it will quiet down.' He gave up the ghost and was thrown overboard. The pilgrims happily disembarked at Brindisi and returned peacefully to their country with the relic of the cross which you see beautifully set in its container. The panel-shaped reliquary was made in the year of the incarnation 1214 in the month of February." On front, Latin inscriptions listing the relics run between the inner and outer lines of the ovals and inside the two roundels not circumscribed by an oval.