Renaud de Bar, who served as canon at the Cathedral of Verdun and provost of St Mary Magdalene before becoming bishop of Metz in 1303, was a prominent member of the Lorraine nobility.
He was the son of Thibaut II, Count of Bar, and Jeanne de Châtillon-Toucy. His arms (azure two barbels addorsed crusily fitchy or) emblazoned on several folios, were overpainted by a later owner (e.g. fol. 1r). His mother’s arms of Chatillon-Toucy (gules three pales vair, in chief or four martlets gules) also occur in the manuscript (e.g. the initials D on fols. 4v and 40v). The initials on fols. 8v and 74v, which include fish motifs, possibly allude to the pair of barbels (carp-like fish) in the Bar family arms. The arms of Bar and Châtillon-Toucy are intact in the Prague part of the Pontifical (National Library of the Czech Republic, MS XXIII.C.120).
