Visual Redefinitions and the Functions of the Manuscripts
Although the three categories of illustrations appear in both A and C , they are used as visual definitions in varying frequency and complexity. To make the point another way, the visual definitions of A are redefined in almost every instance. Why do these changes occur in two such closely related manuscripts executed for the same patron? An important clue comes from the different functions of A and C within Charles V's library. In its large size (318 × 216 mm) and every aspect of its appearance, A is a luxury presentation copy intended for consultation in the king's library and not for circulation.[33] Gold and colors are lavished on the orna-
mental capitals, the vignettes, and the eleven miniatures. An elaborate layout borrowed from thirteenth- and fourteenth-century manuscripts on canon and civil law separates the text, written in two narrow columns of thirty-five lines per folio, from Oresme's surrounding commentary (Fig. 11). The formality of design expresses the luxurious nature of the book. Finished after 1372, A is a magnificent testimony to Charles V's enlightened patronage. In A only two of the eleven illustrations occupy the width of the entire text block in a half-page, almost-square format. While the scribe has been identified only as associated with Raoulet d'Orléans, the miniaturist is known as the second Master of the Bible of Jean de Sy, also called the Boqueteaux Master. Greatly favored by Charles V, this illuminator and his shop, who also participated in the illustration of B , produced a series of lively and expressive miniatures of generally high quality.
In contrast, C is smaller in size (218 × 152 mm). Like its companion volume D containing the Politics and Economics translations by Oresme, C is considered to have served as a portable volume designed as a pocketbook.[34] Written by the well-known and official scribe of Charles V, Raoulet d'Orléans, as was D, C is altogether more modest than A . In C , text and commentary are intermingled in a two-column format, while the ornamental decoration is more limited and figures are represented in grisaille enhanced by color washes. Indeed, the presumed function of C as a "reading copy" for the king accounts for the changes in its program from its model, A . The didactic character of the C cycle is marked. For example, a wordier series of inscriptions gives more information about the contents of each book, and the format and size of the miniatures also expand. Not only virtues (as in A ) but their opposing vices are represented in the illustration for Books III and IV in C . Indeed, all the illustrations of C act as frontispieces for each book and occupy the width of the text block. The redefinitions and expansion of the program in Books I through V of C made the dimensions of the miniatures inadequate. As a result of overcrowding, the vertical dimensions of the miniatures for Books VI through X gradually increased. Dated 1376, C chiefly represents the work of the miniaturist known as the Master of the Coronation of Charles VI.[35]
Differences between the programs of A and C may have arisen from reactions to the first manuscript by patron and translator. In some instances, Charles V may have judged that certain miniatures in A did not advance the reader's understanding of the text. Colophons and other evidence reveal that the king took an active part in specifying and correcting texts and illustrations that he himself commissioned.[36] It is, therefore, possible that the incentive for a revised program of illustrations came from Charles V. Indeed, the king may have made specific recommendations to Oresme, for the difficult text of the Ethics is the first lengthy work Oresme translated to require a program of illustrations. Oresme may have lacked time, experience—or both—to provide detailed instructions to the illuminator. For those books in the Ethics for which iconography and models existed without additional adaptation, Oresme may have thought that only brief instructions were necessary. For those that demanded more explicit indications for definition of more unfamiliar concepts or terms, his instructions may have been misunderstood by the illuminator. Or perhaps Oresme did not foresee the precise visual form of
the translation of his instructions. Still another explanation is that Oresme may have relied too heavily on the scribe or supervisor of the book without allotting time for revisions.
Certain features of C support these suggestions. For one thing, by 1376, by which date C was produced, Oresme had designed the program of miniatures for B . The counterpart of A, B is the first illustrated copy of Oresme's French translations of the Politics and Economics executed for Charles V[37] and is only slightly later in date than the Ethiques .[38] The program of B is far more elaborate than that of A , indications both of the greater importance of the Politiques text and Oresme's greater experience as designer by the time C and D , Charles V's second illustrated copies of the Ethiques, Politiques , and Yconomique , were revised. Perhaps because of Oresme's knowledge of the production process, the D cycle does not show extensive revisions from its model B in the same pattern followed by C and A .
The scribe Raoulet d'Orléans was also involved in the production of C and D . He was a highly competent and experienced practitioner who probably supervised the conversion of the elaborate layouts of A and B to a simpler and less expensive format. An example of Raoulet's importance is his ingenious intervention to explain verbally certain obscure features of an important illustration revised in D .[39] Raoulet must also have had a role in responding to the internal revisions of C , when the inadequate scale of the first five miniatures was greatly enlarged in the second half of the book to accommodate the expanded program. Thus, the process of visual redefinition is a complex one, in which translator, patron, scribe, and illuminators played significant, if not clearly designated, parts. Although the reasons and process underlying the extensive visual redefinitions of A remain conjectural, the didactic nature of the revisions in C is obvious. For one thing, the more restrictive quadrilobe format of the A miniatures gives way in C to rectangular or square pictures that occupy the width of the text block. This expanded field allows space for more inscriptions and figures. Moreover, a two-register format in seven of the C illustrations and a three-tiered arrangement in another are indications of a more complex program.
The didactic character of the C program leads not only to more elaborate verbal information and division of the pictorial field but also to a redistribution of the three representational modes established in A . Apart from the dedication miniatures, there are five personification allegories in A , but only three in C . Instead, in C , a preference for complete subject guides is obvious. In Books III and IV vices accompany the appropriate virtues, while in Books VI and VIII examples drawn from everyday life are sometimes juxtaposed with personifications. Yet the climactic image of C is a monumental personification allegory of unusual aesthetic quality and intellectual complexity. Overall, the program of C strives for "the whole picture" in terms of expanded visual tables of contents combined with consistency in details of costume and attributes. In a class by itself, however, is the decision allegory for Book IX mentioned above. Because of experiments with the complex process of re-editing and redefining verbal and visual relationships in C , the deliberate didacticism of the program does not always meet the goal of more complete or more profound interpretation of the text.