Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Vitae patrum
Italy, Naples, between 1350 and 1375
MS M.626 fol. 1v

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Upper compartment:
1) Jerome, nimbed, wearing belted garment, raising right hand and with left hand unfurling scroll; amid trees and landscape.
Center compartment:
2) John Baptist, nimbed, wearing garment of skins belted with rope and right shoulder draped with robe, with left hand unfurling scroll and with left arm cradling cross-staff, he raises right hand to indicate Lamb of God, cross-nimbed, holding cross-inscribed banner in foreleg, surmounting tree; amid trees and landscape.
Lower compartment:
3) Anthony Abbot the Great, nimbed, wearing habit, grasping tau-staff in both hands, looking down at horned devil extending beads (rosary?) toward him, (partly visible behind bush at right); amid trees and landscape.
Portraits of Jerome, John Baptist and Anthony Abbot the Great taken from Jerome, Life of Paul the Hermit.
Illustration at end of Table of Contents.