Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Vitae patrum
Italy, Naples, between 1350 and 1375
MS M.625 fol. 38v

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Ammon of Nitria: Scene, building Monastery -- Ammon of Thebaid, nimbed, tonsured, wearing monk’s habit, as half-figure on top of building with scaffold and bucket affixed to wall, extending hands to stone raised on head of tonsured monk, mounted on ladder. Beside the Ammon, half-figure of hooded monk, with right hand holds trowel and with left hand holds object, possibly brick.
At far left, tonsured monk holding hoe over mound before wall, behind which is another tonsured monk, with left hand supporting barrel on left shoulder.
Scene in landscape amid trees.
At far right, Ammon of Thebaid, nimbed, tonsured, wearing monk’s habits, raising right hand to lips, flanked by two monks, also wearing monk’s habits, raising right hands to lips, all seated before draped table spread with two platters of food, two pitchers, cup and knife.
Illustration of Rufinus of Aquileia, Historia Monachorum in Aegypto, Chapter 3.