Flourished Initial, In A Volume Of Theological Works By St. Ephraim And Others

St. Ephraim (d. 373) of Nisbis, Mesopotamia, despite being the son of a pagan priest, became Christian and was baptised. His surviving written works are extremely numerous, many of them in verse. This manuscript belonged to the Augustinian Abbey of Bristol, as shown by several flyleaf inscriptions ('Liber sancti Augustini Bristolie'). The initial 'R' marking the start of a sermon by St. Caesarius, Bishop of Arles (502-542) is unusual in this manuscript because it has figurative penwork decoration with a human head in profile. In the middle of the bottom edge of the leaf is the cropped remains of a quire signature.