Mirror as one which would allow a praying man to use them for his personal piety: the mirror surrounded by scenes of the Passion to reflect on it and on oneself, a rosary as a device in this process, the veiled and cushioned bench to use as a prie-dieu, and the abandoned shoes that point in the direction in which the praying man kneeled. The metaphorical meaning of depicted mirrors is complex and many-layered, e.g. as an attribute of Mary, the “speculum sine macula”, or as attributes of scholarly and theological wisdom and knowledge as they appear in book illuminations of
René de Prie René de Prie René de Prie (1451–1519) was a French Roman Catholic bishop and cardinal. René de Prie was born in Touraine in 1451, the son of Antoine de Prie, baron of Buzançais, and Madeleine d'Amboise. He was a cousin of Cardinal Georges d'Amboise. Through the influence of his cousin the cardinal, Prie became grand-archdeacon of Bourges; archdeacon of Blois; and dean of the Église Saint-Hilaire-le-Grand. He was also a protonotary apostolic. On 3 August 1498 he was elected Bishop of Bayeux. He entered his see on 25 March 1499 and occupied it until 24 November 1516. On 8 January