One of eight images of Bernard from a Legendary illustrated by Nicolas of Bologna dated 1330-40 and featuring the lives of 51 saints. Four are on this folio and four on the preceding facing folio. The top left image shows Bernard dictating a letter to his secretary William, later abbot of Rievaulx, addressed to Bernard's nephew, Robert, who had left Clairvaux for Cluny. It started to pour with rain, but miraculously not a drop fell on the letter which was not smudged. The rain is seen falling to the right and the left of two monks in grey cowls, one of whom is sitting on the ground writing with a pen on a long piece of parchment on his knees while the other is kneeling before him and dictating with hands outstretched. The artist seems to have got the two figures mixed up as he has shown the one writing with a halo. The inscription reads: 'V. Quomodo faciebat scribere in pluvia non nocebat' (How he began to write in the rain without any damage). See also MA246-9 & 251-3.
|