Alphonsus de Benavento, Treatise, Initial C with Alphonsus offering the book to a bishop, Walters Manuscript W.421, fol. 2r

Alphonsus de Benavento, Treatise, Initial C with Alphonsus offering the book to a bishop, Walters Manuscript W.421, fol. 2r, originally uploaded by Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts.

Alphonsus de Benavento wrote the treatise on penitential canons and acts of confession contained in this manuscript. The colophon informs us that Alphonsus was a professor of canon law at the university of Salmanca, Spain, and wrote this manuscript in 1456 in the nearby city of Tejares. At that time there was a pestilence in the city, for which Alphonsus asks for prayers. A historiated initial in which Alphonsus presents the treatise to a bishop begins the text, and the manuscript still retains its original stamped red leather binding.