Benedict of Bari
Benedict of Bari (c. 1150 – 1220?), Italian Benedetto da Bari, Latin Benedictus Barensis, was a Benedictine monk of Santissima Trinità della Cava dei Tirreni who wrote the Christian theological treatise De septem sigillis (On the Seven Seals). This is the only major work of theology written at La Cava. Benedict was a native of Bari. He identifies himself as Barensis dictus, "called the Bariot". He was probably born early in the second half of the 12th century. He wrote De septem sigillis between 1208 and 1232. According to a later note discovered by Jean Mabillon, it was completed around 1227. A 19th-century abbot, however, reported an entry for Benedict in the abbey's necrology for 1220. De septem sigillis survives in a single illustrated manuscript in Beneventan script kept at La Cava (Cavensis 18). It may be Benedict's autograph. It contains a miniature, perhaps also by Benedict himself, depicting the author handing a copy of his work to his abbot, who is depicted mitred and seated on a chair. The author is depicted advanced in age with a younger man's head imposed above him. This single double-headed figure is probably intended to represent the author when he began and when