Christ and a Monk and Two Shepherds

At the top of this miniature, Christ and a monk hold up an abbot's crozier, symbolic of a shepherd's crook. Below on the left, sheep and ar vigilant shepherd and dog represent a good flock. On the right, a slumbering, neglectful keeper and his seated watchdog fail to monitor a herd of bad goats. The only full-page miniature in the manuscript, this frontispiece heralds Hugo de Fouilloy's Treatise On Shepherds And Flocks, a mystical commentary on certain verses of the Roman author Virgil's Ninth Eclogue. The illumination draws its imagery of Christ as a shepherd and the separation of sheep and goats from the Bible. In Hugo's discussion, Christ is a model for an abbot who is shepherd to his monks. The two shepherds depicted represent the qualities of vigilance and neglect.