| Bernard is featured within the initial P(rima virtus viri sancti), the first Responsory of the first Nocturn from Vigils on the feast of Bernard, from a Cistercian Antiphonary. He is blessing three kneeling nuns in white habits with black veils. From the end of the twelfth century it is perhaps the earliest known representation of Cistercian nuns, as well as being the earliest in the extensive collection of the Belgian Royal Library. Nuns in white habits are represented elsewhere in this manuscript (on f 59v), and it is most likely that this Antiphonary originated in a house of Cistercian nuns.
|
