On the final page of this manuscript there is a small portrait of a tonsured monk. With his left hand he dips a pen into an inkhorn, and in his right hand he holds a knife (used to sharpen the point of the quill); a manuscript sits on the lectern in front of him. The rubric reads: ‘Image of Hugo painter and illuminator of this work’) The self-portrait (from which we can see that he was apparently left-handed), bestows a sense of individuality on this volume, like a modern autograph; but one must be careful not to ascribe anachronistic motives to a product of the monastic scriptorium, where communal enterprise and spiritual devotion were more important than artistic reputation, let alone celebrity.

MS. Bodl. 717, fols. 287v–288r