| Manuscript belonging to the Dominicans of St Mark's, Florence, of Bernard's Sermons on the Song of Songs dated the beginning of the fourteenth century. Within the initial V(obis fratres) - the beginning of Sermon 1- a nimbed and bearded Bernard sits on a red cushion on an elaborate chair in front of a lectern on which is an open book. Below him are seven of his monks, six of them looking up at him, and the one in front sitting at a desk on which is an open book in which he is copying the opening words VOBIS FRATRES using a pen in his right hand and a knife in his left. The initial is gold against a blue decorated ground and with a reddish-brown border on the right on which the remainder of the opening words (obis fratres) are written vertically. Above the initial are three birds. At the foot of the folio are three circular medallions within which are three half-figures: in the centre, a nimbed and bearded Bernard in a frontal positin and carrying a red book, on the left a Cistercian monk in a white cowl, and on the right a Cistercian nun in a white habit with black veil, the last two turned inwards towards Bernard to whom they are pointing. Above the medallions are two more birds.
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