Contents

Data Source: Mmmonk

• Manuscript 32 contains three texts: (ff. 1v-147bisr) Gregorius Papa in Hiezechiel; (ff. 147r-147v) Duae epistolae Alexandri III de canonisatione sancti Bernardi; and (ff. 147bis-200v) Vita sancti Bernardi. All texts involve persons vital to Cistercian monasticism. The first text, a commentary on the Biblical book of Isaiah, was written by pope Gregory the Great (r. 590-604). The third text is biography of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (d. 1153), one of the most important and influential members of the Cistercian order. The biography is attributed jointly to William of Saint-Thierry (d. 1148), Arnold of Bonneval (d. after 1156) and Geoffrey of Auxerre (d. 1194), all three contemporaries and close friends of Bernard's. Both texts were probably copied in the first decade of the thirteenth century, in two columns per page. Initials were executed mainly in red ink, decorated with penwork in blue ink. It is possible that these texts were copied in the scriptorium of Saint Donatian in Bruges. Between the texts is a single, significantly smaller leaf (f. 147) containing two letters issued by pope Alexander III (r. 1159-1181) regarding the canonisation of Saint Bernard. These letters were copied in the fourteenth century, The manuscript contains an ownership inscription of Ten Duinen that has been extended to include a book curse. [Summary by Dr. Mark Vermeer]