Illuminated Initial, In A Composite Volume Of Texts, Many Relating To Monastic Life f.5r
This volume is made up of several sections, written by several scribes. It includes the ‘Rule’ of St. Benedict; notes and commentary on the ‘Rule’; short works by Robert Grosseteste (Bishop of Lincoln), St. Bernard, and others; and anonymous works on penitence, Mass, etc.
It has additions such as copies of letters addressed to the abbot of Ramsey, showing that it must have belonged in the Middle Ages to Ramsey Abbey, which lay in Grosseteste’s diocese. The first text in the volume is a prologue to the ‘Rule’ of St. Benedict, introduced by this initial ‘A’.