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IM-6738: (455x355mm) Original leaf from a medieval manuscript patristic text: Florus of Lyon’s Expositio in Epistolas Pauli. Written in Latin on animal vellum. Pricking evident on both sides of the leaf (to guide ruling). Two columns of 50 lines, in dark brown ink, and written in a fine Cistercian Romanesque script. Note: damp-staining in the upper left.

Patristic texts are the writings and doctrines attributed to the early leaders, or Fathers, of the Christian Church.

France: Burgundy, Monastery of Citeaux, c. 1150

Executed at the famous Monastery of Citeaux in Burgundy – the Motherhouse of the Cistercian Order - founded in 1098, a mere half-century before this example was written. One of its most famous members was St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), who entered as a novice in 1112 - he obtained recognition for the new Order of Templars – a dedicated body of knights fighting in the Crusades.

Early Cistercian scribes are noted for “the quality of their parchment, the care which they take in the formation of letters, their proportions, the page layout…in short for their pure graphics”.

Cistercian manuscripts of this period are now extremely rare!