MEDIEVAL IMAGES OF SAINT BERNARD OF CLAIRVAUX - MA241.jpg

Category Manuscript
Origin: artist/workshop Tuscan School
Date 15C/3
Reference No MS Vat. lat. 5493, f 272v
Size 2.2x4.0
Provenance
Present Location Vatican. Biblioteca Apostolica
Bibliography Dal Pra 1990, 348-9

Florence 1990, 38
Illustration From photo - Library
Other illustrations Dal Pra 1990, ill 5

Country Italy
Description:
A mid-fifteenth-century Book of Hours has a tiny miniature of Bernard sitting at a desk with an open book before him in a verdant landscape. He looks up to the Virgin whose hand is raised up in blessing. Behind Bernard's chair a small chained devil crouches. Next to the miniature is the initial I(llumina oculos meos), the beginning of the Verses of Bernard which are interspersed with prayers. The border to the left and at the top is decorated with leaves and flowers. The Verses are introduced by the text in red: 'Isti sunt versus sancti Bernardi quicumque omni die dixerit sine contritione atque confessione mori poterit. Versus' (These are the verses of St Bernard which, whoever recites them every day, will not die without contrition and confession).