The oldest collection of Bernard's works was compiled at the French Benedictine abbey of Anchin c 1165, little more than a decade after his death. It consists of three volumes and was the work of one hand, the monk Siger, who is represented near the beginning in a large initial B(ernardus abbas). Introducing Bernard's treatise on the twelve steps of humility is a large miniature extending the full length of the folio and forming the initial I(n hoc opusculo). It consists of Jacob's ladder, a fragile connection on which the angels of God moved up and down, and a reminder that faith is a precarious commitment. In the words of Bernard: 'No one reaches the summit immediately: the top rung of the ladder is grasped by ascending, not by flying'. This accords with the kernel of Benedict's teaching contained in the famous definition of the monastery as ' a school of the Lord's service', heaven being the reward for a long apprenticeship of humility. Here the angels are shown on the left ascending by humility, while those on the right are descending by self-exaltation. The devil at the foot grabs the hair of a falling angel, and at the bottom in the middle Jacob is shown awakening. His scroll reads: 'Truly this is a holy place' (Gen 28:16) The angel on the hightest rung has a scroll saying 'I will place my seat to the north, and I will be like the most high' (Is 14:13-14). At the top, within the lower half of a semi-circle, Christ is depicted as the goal to be reached at the summit. This very Benedictine theme occupied a central position in the teaching of Bernard, and here Christ is flanked by two monks, Benedict in a brown habit seen writing his Rule, and Bernard in a white cowl with a book in his right hand and a crozier in the left. Bernard is not shown nimbed but this is correct as the picture was painted some years before his canonization in 1174.
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