| Miniature in a late fifteenth-century manuscript of Vincent de Beauvais 'Speculum Historiale' featuring Bernard's entry to Citeaux. The main scene shows Stephen Harding, identified by his name above his head, assisted by three monks receiving new recruits. He is shown wearing a black cap but is not nimbed whereas Bernard is. This is the opposite of what is shown in a very similar scene of Bernard's entry to Citeaux (MA88) where Stephen Harding is nimbed but Bernard is not, but is also found in another example (GL60), whilst occasionally they are both shown nimbed (GL10). Bernard, identified by 's. bernard' above his head, has already received the habit. Another recruit kneels before the abbot, and a further three await their turn, one of them being helped out of his secular clothes by one of the monks. Bernard's father, identified by his name, is on the far left. On the far right is Bernard's mother, Aleth, assisting his sister Humbeline, who is being received by the black Benedictine abbess of Jully carrying her crozier and accompanied by two other nuns. The two events did not take place at the same time, Humbeline becoming a nun much later than Bernard entered Citeaux, but, in true medieval fashion, accurate chronology was less important than the fact that they both entered religion. The two events are also featured together in one of the scenes from the Zwettl altarpiece. Another miniature in the same manuscript shows Bernard writing, f 295r - see MA260.
|
