Lives of the Saints
Jumièges, 1050-1075
174 f. 350 x 250 mm.

Bibliothèque municipale de Rouen, ms. 1383 ( Y 80)


In folio 35 v°, a pen and ink drawing portrays Pope saint Gregory seated, writing on a rotulus. The Holy Spirit, symbolised by a dove, is whispering into his ear. This iconography which dates from the Carolingian period at least, is an allusion to an episode from the life of the Holy Pope where his secretary, astonished not to hear him dictating any more, came upon him at the moment at which he was receiving divine inspiration.