This study focuses on a tenth-century copy of De laudibus sanctae crucis preserved in Trinity College, Cambridge. The volume emulates ninth-century Carolingian examples, but its place of origin remains the subject of debates. The new evidence on previously unexplored aspects of the manuscript presented here clarifies its methods of production. The non-invasive technical analyses of the Trinity Hrabanus, undertaken in 2017 as part of the MINIARE project, identified the rich palette and sophisticated painting techniques. The results are interpreted here vis-à-vis three sets of evidence: textual and palaeographical studies of the Trinity Hrabanus; art-historical comparisons with contemporaneous English and continental manuscripts; and analytical data currently available on ninth- and tenth-century English and continental illumination, wall painting and polychrome sculpture. The synthesis of earlier and new research, integrating the disparate priorities and contexts of several disciplines, is intended to help resolve some questions about the manuscript’s origin and raise new ones about the possible survival of knowledge alongside artefacts from late Antiquity into the tenth century.