Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Vita S. Benedicti
Italy, perhaps in Padua, ca. 1450
MS M.184 fol. 37r

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Miniature, left compartment: Benedict of Montecassino: Devil as Physician -- Horned Devil as Physician (damaged), mounted on saddled and bridled mule, with claw foot in stirrup, extends round case in which are bottles toward Benedict of Montecassino, nimbus with scallops, bearded, wearing hooded monk’s habit, extending left hand and gathering garments in right hand, accompanied by monk, wearing hooded habit, holding book. Scene in hilly landscape with trees. Miniature, right compartment: Benedict of Montecassino, nimbus with scallops, bearded, wearing hooded monk’s habit, partly kneels, extending right hand to face of tonsured monk, his mouth issuing devil, the monk kneels, supported from behind by kneeling monk in hooded habit, all before hexagonal wellhead with bucket suspended from rope on pulley. Scene in grassy exterior, before arched portal of building. Miniature within frame at end of Chapter 30 of Book II of Dialogues; Devil riding mule dresses as physician and encounters Benedict of Montecassino. The devil was on his way to possess one of Benedict’s monks.