medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
A well-educated scion of a knightly family in Burgundy, Bernard entered religion at Cîteaux at the age of twenty-two, bringing with him as fellow postulants close to thirty relatives and friends. A few years later he was the founding abbot of Clairvaux. A voluminous and talented writer -- his sermons on the Song of Songs are medieval classics -- and an ardent reformer, the personally ascetic Bernard played a leading role both in the rapid growth of his Cistercian Order and in ecclesiastical matters more generally (e.g. the condemnation of Abelard in 1141). His support of Innocent II against Anacletus II brought him to Italy several times and, as papal legate, to Germany.
It was probably at the council of Pisa (1134) that Bernard met a local canon, also named Bernard, who later followed him to Clairvaux and who in 1145 would become the first Cistercian pope, taking the name Eugenius (i.e. Bl. Eugenius III; 8. July). Bernard vigorously promoted Eugenius' call for what is now known as the Second Crusade and his eloquence in that cause at the diet of Speyer in 1146 helped to secure the participation of the emperor Conrad III.
Bernard's writing seems to have stopped in about 1148 with his Vita of St. Malachy of Armagh (BHL 5188) and his _De consideratione_ addressed to Eugenius, both showing his characteristic combination of mystic spirituality and concern for the affairs of the church in the world. He died in 1153 and was canonized in 1174. In 1830 he was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church. He is the patron saint of Gibraltar (reconquered for Christendom on 20. August 1462) and a patron of Queens' College, Cambridge (envisioned as a successor to St. Bernard's Hostel, it was to have been named for him until gratitude for the queen's generous patronage caused her to be recognized as the college's founder).
Today (20. August) is Bernard's feast day in the Roman Catholic Church, in the Church of England, in other churches of the Anglican Communion, and in many Lutheran churches.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Bernard of Clairvaux:
a) as depicted (at right, blessing two monks) in a mid-thirteenth-century Cistercian antiphoner from the abbey of St. Urban in Pfaffnau (Luzern, Zentral- und Hochschulbibliothek, ms. P 15 fol., fol. 128v):
http://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/zhl/0015/128v
b) as depicted (at left, in prayer with bishop St. Malachy of Armagh) in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 106r):
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000891A.jpg
c) as depicted (standing central figure plus scenes from the life) in a late thirteenth-century altarpiece of Catalan origin (ca. 1285-1290; either Barcelona or Mallorca) in the Museu de Mallorca:
http://tinyurl.com/qa56v5u [click on "Ampliar Imagen"]
http://tinyurl.com/plwftg7
d) as depicted (flanked by two nuns) in the late thirteenth-century Beaupré Antiphoner (ca. 1290) from a house of Cistercian nuns in the diocese of Cambrai (Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, ms. W 760, fol. 113v):
http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/W760/data/W.760/sap/W760_000234_sap.jpg
e) as twice depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of Dante's _Commedia_ (London, BL, MS Egerton 943):
1) guiding Dante's eyes toward the BVM (fol. 182r):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=10516
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=10516
2) praying with Dante to the BVM (fol. 184v):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=10518
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=10518
f) as depicted (at right; at left, the emperor Conrad III) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1301-1325) of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 4900, fol. 184r):
http://tinyurl.com/2wzhge3
g) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of his _Opuscula_ (1330; Laon, Bibliothèque municipale, fol. 1r):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_099811-p.jpg
h) as depicted (at left; at right, the BVM appearing to him) by Giovanni da Milano in a predella panel of his mid-fourteenth-century Prato polyptych (ca. 1343-1363) in that city's Pinacoteca comunale:
http://tinyurl.com/nascwmz
i) as depicted (at left, second from top [just beneath St. Eulalia]) as depicted either by Ferrer Bassa and Arnau Bassa or by Arnau Bassa alone in their or his mid-fourteenth-century altarpiece of the Annunciation and the Epiphany (betw. 1347 and 1360) in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya in Barcelona:
http://www.museunacional.cat/sites/default/files/015855-000.JPG
j) as depicted in a mid- to later fourteenth-century breviary for the Use of Paris ("Breviary of Charles V"; betw. 1347 and 1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1052, fol. 478r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84525491/f965.image.zoom
k) as depicted (ar center, discoursing with fellow monks) in a mid-fourteenth-century copy, from the workshop of Richard and Jeanne de Montbaston, of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1348; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 241, fol. 214r):
http://tinyurl.com/283o38m
l) as depicted (at right; at left, the BVM appearing to him) by Matteo di Pacino (a.k.a. the Master of the Cappella Rinuccini) in the central panel of his later fourteenth-century triptych of the Apparition of the Virgin to St. Bernard (1360s), now in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence:
http://www.wga.hu/art/m/matteo_p/appariti.jpg
https://acrh.revues.org/docannexe/image/2768/img-1.jpg
Detail view:
https://acrh.revues.org/docannexe/image/2768/img-2.jpg
m) as depicted in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century Cistercian breviary of Catalan origin ("Breviary of Martin of Aragon"; Paris, BnF, ms. Rothschild 2529, fol. 374r):
http://www.aquiweb.com/templiers/images/bernard2.jpg
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b52000996s/f749.item.zoom
n) as depicted in one of the numerous pen-and-ink illustrations in the margins of an early fifteenth-century copy of the _Chronicon a mundi creatione ad annum 1220_, an abbreviation and continuation of the _Pantheon_ of Godfrey of Viterbo (ca. 1401-1415; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 4935, fol. 17r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8455934w/f43.image
o) as depicted in the earlier fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (ca. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 269v):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054146-p.jpg
p) as depicted in the earlier fifteenth-century Breviary of Marie de Savoie (ca. 1430; Chambéry, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 4, fol. 594r):
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht1/IRHT_035713-p.jpg
q) as depicted (at left; the miracle of the rain) in an historiated initial "B" by the court workshop of Frederick III in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ (1446-1447; Vienna, ÖNB, cod. 326, fol. 196v):
http://tarvos.imareal.oeaw.ac.at/server/images/7006869.JPG
r) as depicted (at left; at right, the BVM appearing to him) by Filippo Lippi (with workshop assistance?) in a mid-fifteenth-century panel painting (1447) in the National Gallery in London:
http://tinyurl.com/qxobnch
http://tinyurl.com/pcqbvtb
s) as depicted (left of center, at the building of the abbey of Clairvaux) in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of Giovanni Colonna's _Mare historiarum_ (betw. 1447 and 1455; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 4915, fol. 361r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000905v/f791.item.zoom
NB: At fol. 369v <http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6000905v/f808.item.zoom>; the BnF's image database Mandragore identifies the two standing figures as "s. hildegarde et s. bernard". Yet the manuscript's own chapter heading immediately preceding this illumination describes what follows as _De Ildegarde prophetissa theutonie et Ricardo de sancto Victore et eius libris..._. One might think, then, that the standing figure in Cistercian habit and holding a book is not St. Bernard but rather his fellow Cistercian Richard of St. Victor.
t) as depicted (holding a devil on a slender chain) by the workshop of Filippo Lippi in a mid- or slightly later fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1447-1469) in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:
https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/1975.1.70b
u) as portrayed in a probably mid-fifteenth-century boss on the ceiling of the gate (1448) of the Old Court of Queens' College, Cambridge:
http://www.queens.cam.ac.uk/files/styles/small/public/stbernard.jpg?itok=y709Pvu1
v) as depicted (at far right, presenting Dante to the enthroned BVM and Christ Child) by Giovanni di Paolo in a mid-fifteenth-century copy of the _Divina Commedia_ (ca. 1450; London, BL, MS Yates Thompson 36, fol. 189r):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=56997
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMINBig.ASP?size=big&IllID=56997
w) as depicted in a panel from a mid-fifteenth-century stained glass window (ca. 1450) of upper Rhine origin in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny) in Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/p8prbtk
x) as depicted in grisaille by Jean le Tavernier in the mid-fifteenth-century Hours of Philip of Burgundy (ca. 1451-1460; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 2, fol. 267r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f2%3A267r_min
y) as depicted (standing over a devil falling to the floor or arising from it) in a later fifteenth-century copy (ca. 1451-1500) from Bruges of Jean Mansel's _Fleur des histoires_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 298, fol. 76r):
http://tinyurl.com/pxzp3oz
z) as depicted (upper register at center; with others of his family) in a later fifteenth-century copy (ca. 1480-1490) of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 245, fol. 44r):
http://tinyurl.com/pkjav53
aa) as depicted (at center; at left, the Virgin appearing to him) as depicted by Filippino Lippi in a late fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1482-1486) in Florence's chiesa della Badia Fiorentina:
http://tinyurl.com/pez4hle
Detail view (Bernard):
http://tinyurl.com/otgly5h
bb) as depicted (leading a devil on a chain) in a late fifteenth-century Roman breviary (betw. 1482 and 1500; Clermont-Ferrand, Bibliothèque du patrimoine, ms. 69, fol. 1v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_081510-p.jpg
cc) as depicted by the Master of the Modena Book of Hours in a late fifteenth-century Dominican missal from Lombardy (ca. 1490-1500; The Hague, Museum Meermanno, Ms. 10 A 16, fol. 211v):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_mmw_10a16%3A211v_init
dd) as depicted (at right, his lactation by the BVM) in a late fifteenth-century miscellany of canon law (ca. 1490-1500; Troyes, Médiathèques de l'Agglomération Troyenne, ms. 41, fol. 1r):
hxtp://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht7/IRHT_108351-p.jpg
ee) as depicted (right margin at top) in a hand-colored woodcut in the Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century _Weltchronik_ (_Nuremberg Chronicle_; 1493) at fol. CXCVIIIr:
https://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/right_page/101%20(Folio%20CXCVIIIr).pdf
ff) as depicted (lower register at right) in the very late fifteenth-century Prodigal Son window of the cathédrale Saint-Pierre-et-Saint-Paul in Troyes (bay 232; after July 1499):
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Troyes%20cathedral/w232-tl4.htm
gg) as depicted in the late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century London Rothschild Hours of southern Netherlandic origin (ca. 1500; London, BL, MS Add 35313, fol. 228v):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_35313_f228v
hh) as depicted (his lactation by the BVM) in an early sixteenth-century collection of private prayers and devotions in Latin and in French (ca. 1501-1520; Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 264, fol. 38v):
http://tinyurl.com/qdzrl7y
ii) as depicted in an earlier sixteenth-century window panel (bay 16; window is from ca. 1501-1525 with extensive late C19 additions) in the église paroissiale Sainte-Savine in Sainte-Savine (Aube):
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Troyes-St-Savine/w16-c2.htm
jj) as depicted (his vision of the BVM) by Joos van Cleve in an earlier sixteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1501-1525) in the Musée du Louvre in Paris:
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/image/joconde/0846/m503604_12-586091_p.jpg
http://www.culture.gouv.fr/Wave/image/joconde/0846/m503604_05-509922_p.jpg
Detail view (Bernard):
https://aulouvrejaime.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/img_20150702_181604.jpg
kk) as depicted (with his parents, Aleidis and Tesclin; here considered saints) in earlier sixteenth-century window panels (ca. 1505-1508) thought to have come from the Cistercian abbey of Mariawald in today's Heimbach (Lkr. Düren) in the Eifel southwest of Köln and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/wallyg/2190512206
ll) as depicted (being tempted by a devil) in an early sixteenth-century book of hours for the Use of Rome (ca. 1510; Tours, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2104, fol. 149r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_051185-p.jpg
mm) as depicted in thirteen panels of varying size from a suite of earlier sixteenth-century windows (after 1535) on the life of Bernard from the Cistercian abbey of Altenberg in today's Odenthal (Lkr. Rheinisch-Bergisches Kreis) just east of Köln and now in Köln in the Museum Schnütgen:
http://tinyurl.com/nfhvggr
Best,
John Dillon
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