Fourteenth-century Italian manuscript of the Letters of St Bernard which formerly belonged to Notre Dame de Laon. Written by the Pole Theodoric and commissioned by Cardinal Raymond de Fargis in 1430 according to the inscription: 'Expliciunt epistole S. Bernardi, scripte per Theodoricum Radulphi de Hirsberc de Polonia, quas complevit infra festum Ascensione Dominice et hoc anno Domini MCCCXXX; quas pro se scribi fecit et mandavit reverentissimus in Christo pater dominus Raymundus de Fargis, divina providentia sancte Marie Nove dyaconus cardinalis'. The first page has a historiated initial S(atis) - 'Long enough, perhaps too long, have I waited, dearest Robert' the opening words of Letter 1 as indicated by the text in red ink above the initial: 'The first letter of Bernard to the monk Robert, his nephew'. Within the rosa initial is a bust of a nimbed and bearded Bernard in a frontal position, wearing a white cowl. He has a simple crozier in his right hand and a red book in his left.
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