The Formats of the Illustrations

The model for Figure 74 is the illustration of Book IV (Fig. 64). A similar two-register structure divided laterally into three compartments is a common feature, as is the use of an architectural enframement composed of gold arches that end in bosses and are decorated with corner lozenges. The increased dimensions of Figure 74 reduce the normal size of the initial of the introductory paragraph, which is not rubricated. A new feature of Figure 74, the rubricated inscriptions above the upper frame and in the lower margin, will be discussed shortly.

A rubricated inscription also appears above the enframement of Figure 75. The reformatting and re-editing of D bring about a change in the structure of this illustration, which now occupies the entire folio. The model for Figure 75, executed by the Master of the Coronation Book of Charles V, probably after consultation with Oresme and Raoulet d'Orléans, is the format of the full-page bifolio frontispiece of the Politiques in MS D (Figs. 48 and 49). The same type of architectural enframement and border decoration is repeated in Figure 75. Even more significant, instead of the two zones of Figure 74, Figure 75 adopts the three-register format of Figures 48 and 49. Most unusually, the summary paragraph appears before Figure 75; it is the only verbal component of the second column of folio 262v, the folio preceding Figure 75.

What motives may have influenced the choice of models for Figures 74 and 75? First, a reasonable inference is the availability to each miniaturist of an actual model book. Then, the miniatures' reference to the similar layout and format of an earlier illustration may have been intended to promote the reader's association of the contents of Book VII with the earlier ones. Thus in the case of Figure 74, Book VII relates to Book IV; Figure 75, to Book I. Since the bifolio frontispiece of D (Figs. 48 and 49) contains the only other full-page and three-register illustrations of the cycle, it appears that Figure 75 gains in status and importance over Figure 74. Yet the change in format brings about certain problems in the reading of Figure 75 apparently unforeseen by the translator and scribe.