Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Vita S. Benedicti
Italy, perhaps in Padua, ca. 1450
MS M.184 fol. 27v

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Miniature, left compartment: Benedict of Montecassino: Scene, Miracle of Cloths -- Through window of convent, heads of four nuns (foremost two with faces visible), wear veiled habits, look toward one of two monks, tonsured, wearing habit, seated on bench, raising right hand and with left hand on book on lap, and the other standing, wearing hooded monk’s habit, with right hand on breast and left hand raised. Scene in exterior of convent. Miniature, right compartment: In room, two tonsured monks, wearing habits, the foremost holding cloth with left hand and raising right hand to breast, kneel before nimbed Benedict of Montecassino, tonsured and bearded, wearing monk’s habit, raising left hand, accompanied by seven monks, in hooded habits (five with only heads visible). Miniature within frame at end of Chapter 19 of Book II of Dialogues; Benedict of Montecassino knows his monks had received handkerchiefs from nuns in a nearby village and rebukes them.