| Historiated initial S(cripturus vitam servi tui), the opening words of the preface to the first book of the 'Vita Prima' written by William of St Thierry during Bernard's lifetime. It comes at the beginning (with the opening words in red: 'Incipit prologus domini Wilhelmi abbatis s Theoderici In vita sancti Bernardi clarevallis abbatis') of a composite late thirteenth-century manuscript of the 'Vita prima' and Bernard's Sermons which belonged to the Cistercian nuns of Loewenbrueck near Trier until 1468 when it passed to the Cistercian abbey of Himmerod. Bernard is depicted within the initial S(cripturus) in a grey cowl with a crozier in his left hand and a book in his right, and a small monk in a brown cowl with his hood over his head and his hands clasped in prayer kneels at his feet - probably representing the author himself, William of St Thierry. With only one exception (see MA001) this is the only known early medieval representation of William.
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