Ramsey Abbey Library Historiated Initial With St. Isidore

In a Volume Containing The ‘Sentences’ Of St. Isidore, and two Abridgements of The ‘Moralia’ of St. Gregory.
St. Gregory the Great’s ‘Moralia In Job’ was a hugely important medieval text, but is also extremely long: it was typically bound in three or more large volumes. Several authors therefore composed shorter versions of it, two of which are contained in this manuscript. It has been shown to have belonged to Ramsey Abbey: a flyleaf contains a list of manuscripts, including this one, and some which are known to have been at Ramsey; another flyleaf bears the ownership inscription of Ranulph, Abbot of Ramsey (1231-1253). The volume opens with a text by St. Isidore (c.560-636), bishop of Seville, illustrated with a historiated initial ‘U’, doubtless intended to represent Isidore himself, despite the fact that he is dressed as a 13th-century bishop and does not have a halo.