Engraved Broadside

Giovanni Battista de’Cavalieri (1526–1601). 
S. Benedictus.
Rome: [s.n.,] 1590. (BRB0653)

Published by one of Rome’s leading sixteenth-century engravers, this striking devotional image depicts St. Benedict of Nursia (ca. 480–543), the founder of Western monasticism, who in 529 established a communal retreat for contemplative Christian life in a mountain grotto at Subiaco, east of Rome. The broadside includes a central image of the saint and fourteen subsidiary illustrations of episodes from his life accompanied by Latin captions. The sequence of illustrations begins with the second panel from the left at the bottom and proceeds clockwise around the central image. The grotto at Subiaco is depicted in the third and fourth panels in the sequence, located on the left side of the print.