Chapter Ten— Advice to the Nobility in Manuscripts Produced in the Style of the Master of the Cité des Dames
1. The Master of the Cité des Dames is actually a number of masters who worked in a homogeneous style. For consistency with Meiss, who first published this group of artists, I shall refer to them as the Master of the Cité des Dames . On this style, see Millard Meiss, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Late Fourteenth Century and the Partronage of the Duke , Kress Foundation Studies in the History of Art (London, 1969), 1:356-57; and idem, French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourg Brothers and Their Contemporaries (New York, 1974), 1:377-82. [BACK]
2. " . . . trouver bien et mal, bel et lait, sens et folie, et fere son preu de tout par les examples de l'estoire." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:3. [BACK]
3. For a discussion of realia in one presentation miniature, see Sandra Hindman, "The Iconography of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria (1410-1415): An Essay in Method," Gazette des Beaux-Arts , 102 (1983): 93-123. [BACK]
4. Although Meiss dates three of these manuscripts (Phillipps 1917, M. 536, and Mazarine 2028) between 1410 and 1412, I believe that the manuscripts now in the Bibliothèque Mazarine and in Berlin are of earlier date. The other books in which the Épistre Master, the second artist in Mazarine 2028, worked date from 1403-1408. Further, the secondary decoration in the Grandes Chroniques in Paris is closer to that in other manuscripts painted c. 1405-1407 by the Master of the Cité des Dames and the Épistre Master than it is to the chronicles in Brussels and New York painted around 1410 by the Master of the Cité des Dames .
Finally, Phillipps 1917 bears the closest stylistic relationship to the Épistre Othéa in B.L. Harley 4431, a book dated by Hindman to 1408-10/15. For Meiss's dating of these manuscripts, see Meiss, Fourteenth Century , vol. 1:356; and idem, Limbourg Brothers , 1:377-82. For Hindman's dating, see Épistre Othéa , xix, 101; and Sandra Hindman, "The Composition of the Manuscript of Christine de Pizan's Collected Works in the British Library: A Reassessment," British Library Journal 9 (1983): 93-123. [BACK]
5. Beaune outlines the growth in popularity of emblems and devices when these manuscripts were made in the early fifteenth century. She suggests that until approximately 1382 armorial displays were most common in royal and noble clothing. Between approximately 1382 and 1450, however, kings and princes began to distribute to one another and to their followers clothing marked with devices, emblems, and mottos that frequently reflected current politics. By the latter half of the fifteenth century, the proliferation of symbolic emblems abated, and royalty sought to distinguish themselves through dress from their followers. See Beaune, "Costume et pouvoir en France," 125-46 and 127-28 especially. For further discussion of orders, see Philippe Contamine, Guerre, état et société à la fin du Moyen-Âge (Paris, 1972), 668-76. For an example of a complicated program in which an continue
author supervised the integration of an elaborate political reading into pictures painted by the Master of the Cité des Dames , see Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 100-143. [BACK]
6. B.R. 4 originally contained the Grandes Chroniques from the Trojan origins through the life of Philip Augustus. This portion of the book dates from the first half of the fourteenth century. In the late fourteenth or early fifteenth century it was continued through the description of the death of Louis of Male in 1384. The incipits of this manuscript correspond to those cited in a description of a book belonging to Philip the Bold in the inventory made in 1420 after the death of Philip's son, John the Fearless: "no. 153. Item. ung autre livre des croniques de France couvert de cuir rouge à deux fermoeurs d'argent dorez, armoriez aux armes de feu monseigneur le duc Philippe l'un rond et l'autre quarré commencant ou IIe fueillet Fil en sa prison et au derrenier fueillet Le roy d'engleterre ." It probably corresponds to the reference in the inventory done after Philip the Bold's death in 1404: "Premièrement les croniques de France fermans à deux fermoeurs d'argent armoriez aux armes de feu mondit seigneur." For this identification, see Georges Doutrepont, Inventaire de la 'librairie' de Philippe le Bon (1420) (Brussels, 1906), 101-2; Dehaisnes, Histoire de l'art , 851; and de Winter, Bibliothèque de Philippe le Hardi , 194-95. [BACK]
7. Besides appearing in the manuscript from the Morgan Library and in B.R. 4, the Latin poem at the end of Saint Louis's life is in the first Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782) and the Grandes Chroniques made for Charles VI early in his reign (B.N. fr. 10135), which was listed in the inventory of the library of Philip the Good in 1420. For the poem see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:282.
The continuation of Guillaume de Nangis, normally found in family F of the Chronique abrégée , is published in Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:1-64.
Most copies of the Grandes Chroniques from the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries include in their description of the imperial visit chapters 62-65, the second half of 66, and 77-79 in the life of Charles V. In place of these seventeen and a half chapters, B.R. 4 and M. 536 include versions of the following passage: "En cellui temps mil ccc lxxvii l'empereur de romme Charles le iiij e de ce nom vint veoir le roy de france Charles son nepueu à paris qui lui fist très parfaitement grant chière et très honnorablement et grandement le receut et le tient plusieurs jours. Et ala le roy à l'encontre de luy & iusques à la chapelle s. denis et le fist compaignier par ses chevaliers puis quil entra en son royaume. Et reconvoyer jusques il en fu hors a ses despens. Et luy fist pluseurs notables et grans dons de vaissiaux d'or et d'argent de reliques et autres ioyaux" (M. 536, fol. 363v).
M. 536 edits the text of the life of Charles V most actively. Whereas the lives of Philip of Valois and John the Good in M. 536 have different chapter divisions than in Delachenal's edition, their text corresponds to it. The life of Charles V, however, omits the text of chapters 13-14 (attempts to negotiate the marriage of Philip the Bou:ld, 1368), 19-20 (letters sent between France and England), 22 (treaty regarding the marriage of Philip the Bold and Margaret of Flanders), 25-26 (trip of the duke of Burgundy to Paris; the raising of taxes), 53-79 (the imperial visit), 82-84 (burial of Queen Jeanne of Bourbon), 89 (confession of Jacques la Rue), 93-97 (papal election of Urban VI, then his rejection and Clement VII's election), and 101 (a recapitulation of the papal election). I cannot state with certainty that B.R. 4 and M. 536 contain identical texts, because I have not collated them. [BACK]
8. Because the Rolin arms were added to the initial, it is difficult to say with certainty that the chronicle was made expressly for a member of the Rolin family. Further, the arms are engrélé , which usually means that the book belonged to a third son, although these are not the arms of Nicholas's third son, Jean Rolin, as described by Fontenay. For more on Rolin, his family, and his patronage, see Charles Bigarne, Étude historique sur le chancelier Rolin et sur sa famille (Beaune, 1860); Autun, Bibliothèque Municipale, Le livre au siècle des Rolin 8 juin-28 septembre 1985 (Autun, 1985); and H. de Fontenay, Armorial . . . d'Autun ou recueil des armories de ses familles nobles (Autun, 1868). break [BACK]
9. For analyses of Trojan descent, see Krynen, Idéal du prince , 245-50; and Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 15-54. For one example of its visualization, see Hindman, Épistre Othéa . [BACK]
10. The canopies in these scenes of presentation vary in the distribution of color; in the manuscript in the Morgan Library the canopy is green and the fringe red and white, while in the chronicle in Berlin the canopy is red and the fringe green and white. Beaune asserts that Charles VI used red, green, and white as his colors from 1382 to 1392; after that black was used as a fourth color. See Beaune, "Costume et pouvoir," 126-27. [BACK]
11. For the Dialogues of Pierre Salmon (Geneva, B.M. fr. 165), a manuscript contemporary with those we are discussing, see Millard Meiss, The Boucicaut Master , Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art, no. 1 (London, 1968), pl. 72.
Hindman suggests that the selection of red, green, and white may have had Burgundian overtones as well. For their use as Burgundian colors, see Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 120. Beaune cautions that Burgundian colors were not used as systematically as royal ones; white, green, and red predominate in Burgundian documents, but they were frequently used in pairs (white and red or green and red). See Beaune, "Costume et pouvoir," 143. De Vaivre is even more tentative in his discussion of color, cautioning that the use of colors was flexible and that, as a result, colors cannot be identified as closely with a person as his device (verbal motto or visual motif) may be. For this, see Jean-Bernard de Vaivre, "À propos des devices de Charles VI," Bulletin Monumental 141 (1983): 93.
Nonetheless, a consideration of the archival material published by Delaborde makes clear that, while robes of red, of green, or of red, white, and green might be commissioned for the duke or for members of his family, only three entries mention colors specifically as part of the duke of Burgundy's devices. At least in 1412, the date of all three references, John the Fearless's colors were white, green, and black. The first describes a payment, "pour iii aulnes de vert, blanc et noir, dont on a fait les brodeures de la devise de MdS [mon dit seigneur] sur lesdittes houppellandes." The second records a payment for the embroidery on the sleeves of eight robes of a large plane, three branches of broom, and leaves "faittes à sa devise et de ses trois couleurs." Although the second reference does not specify what his three colors were, a subsequent entry that commissions harnesses does: "à chascun desdis harnoix, deux pendans de trois couleurs, l'une blanche, l'autre verde, et l'autre noire, lesquels sont semez de rabos et de couppeaux de laton doré, à la devise de MdS." For these entries, see Léon Delaborde, Les ducs de Bourgogne , part 2 (Paris, 1849-52), 1:70 no. 219, 84 no. 239, 90 no. 259. Thus it is highly unlikely that the colors in the frontispieces to the Grandes Chroniques in New York and Berlin were the duke of Burgundy's; they could only have been Charles VI's. [BACK]
12. A background composed of radiating fleurs-de-lis does appear in the miniature beginning Louis VI's life, but it is very different from the pair under discussion. [BACK]
13. To my knowledge, the only other place where John of Jerusalem is portrayed at Louis VIII's coronation is in a manuscript from the early fourteenth century, B.N. fr. 2615, fol. 214v. In that picture he does not bless the proceedings. [BACK]
14. The most notable appearance of John the Fearless with his hammer occurs in the frontispiece to the Dialogues of Pierre Salmon, discussed at note 11. See as well the scene at the beginning of Christine de Pizan's Débat des deux amants in her collected works in London (B.L. Harley 4431, fol. 58v) where the duke holds a hammer and sits on a throne whose ciel (canopy) is decorated with his coat-of-arms. For a reproduction of this frontispiece, see Lucie Schaefer, "Die Illustrationem zu den Handschriften der Christine de Pizan," Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstwissenschaft 10 (1937): pl. 6. [BACK]
15. On the Order of the Porcupine, see Andrew Favyn, The Theatre of Honor and Knighthood (London, 1623), 448-85; Eva Kovacs, "L'ordre du camail des ducs d'Orléans," Acta Historiae Artium 27 (1981): 225-31; and Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 44-51, 112, 187. break
The collar of the order did not always have a dangling porcupine. See, for example, the equestrian seal of Charles of Orléans (1444) where the pointed necklace can be seen above the horse's flank. This is reproduced in Hindman, Épistre Othéa , pl. 71. [BACK]
16. Famiglietti shows that the first literary reference to the queen's infidelity dates c. 1421, but pictorial evidence supports the possibility that there is a veiled reference here that predates it. See Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue , 45. The picture of Menelaeus in Phillipps 1917 may have been intended as a kind of "device," like the collar of mail from the Order of the Porcupine that identifies Louis of Orléans, the hammer that identifies John of Burgundy, and the imperial arms that identify Aeneas. [BACK]
17. Although the arms are not precisely those of Pope Alexander ( Azure, a star of eight wavy rays surrounded by eight molets all gold ), they are close enough that they were certainly clear to those at court who were aware of the short-lived results of the Council of Pisa (1408-1409) in which Alexander was elected as a compromise to replace Popes Gregory XII and Benedict XIII. For the arms of the popes, and especially of Alexander V, see Donald L. Galbreath, Papal Heraldry (Cambridge, 1930), 81; and for the events surrounding the Council of Pisa, see Noël Valois, La France et le grand schisme d'occident (1902; reprinted ed., Paris, 1967), 4:99-108.
John the Fearless's emblem of the plane was ubiquitous. For examples of its use in manuscript illustration, see the robe worn by John in the presentation miniatures of the Fleur des histoires (B.N. fr. 2810, fol. 226) of c. 1413; in the copy of the Dialogues of Pierre Salmon in Paris (B.N. fr. 23279, fol. 1v) of c. 1409; and in the background of the crucifixion of St. Andrew from John the Good's Book of Hours (B.N. n.a. lat. 3055, fol. 172v). These are reproduced in Meiss, Boucicaut , pls. 70, 98, 473. For descriptions in documents, see Delaborde, Ducs de Bourgogne , 1:20 no. 84, 21 no. 88, 28 nos. 23, 24. For its use in Christine de Pizan's manuscripts see Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 174. [BACK]
18. This is most notable in the prophecies of the second Charlemagne, which in France centered around Charles VI. See Chaume, "Une prophétie." This miniature may also refer to the duke of Burgundy's important role as first peer at the coronation ceremony. For discussion of this, see Jackson, Vive le roi! ; and Dewick, The Coronation Book .
19. For Christine's shifting dedications, see Gauvard, "Christine de Pisan," 422-23, 426. Christine's Lettre à la reine is published in de Pizan, "Christine de Pisan to Isabelle of Bavaria," 144-50.
For conflicting views on Vivat Rex , see Nordberg, Les ducs et la royauté , 209-12; and Krynen, Idéal du prince . Nordberg believes it was Burgundian propaganda, while Krynen presents Gerson's works persuasively as a manifestation of Gerson's loyalty to the monarchy. For the text see Jean Gerson, L'oeuvre * française , vol. 7, pt. 2 of OEuvres * Complètes , ed. Palemon Glorieux (Paris, 1960-73), 1137-85; and for Veniat Pax dated approximately to 1408, see ibid., 1100-23.
For Christine's Lamentacion sur les maux de la guerre civile , see Christine de Pizan, "La lamentacion sur les maux de la France de Christine de Pisan," ed. A. J. Kennedy, in Mélanges de langue et littérature françaises du Moyen-Âge et de la Renaissance offerts à Monsieur Charles Foulon par ses collègues, ses élèves, et ses amis (Rennes, 1980), 177-85. [BACK]
18. This is most notable in the prophecies of the second Charlemagne, which in France centered around Charles VI. See Chaume, "Une prophétie." This miniature may also refer to the duke of Burgundy's important role as first peer at the coronation ceremony. For discussion of this, see Jackson, Vive le roi! ; and Dewick, The Coronation Book .
19. For Christine's shifting dedications, see Gauvard, "Christine de Pisan," 422-23, 426. Christine's Lettre à la reine is published in de Pizan, "Christine de Pisan to Isabelle of Bavaria," 144-50.
For conflicting views on Vivat Rex , see Nordberg, Les ducs et la royauté , 209-12; and Krynen, Idéal du prince . Nordberg believes it was Burgundian propaganda, while Krynen presents Gerson's works persuasively as a manifestation of Gerson's loyalty to the monarchy. For the text see Jean Gerson, L'oeuvre * française , vol. 7, pt. 2 of OEuvres * Complètes , ed. Palemon Glorieux (Paris, 1960-73), 1137-85; and for Veniat Pax dated approximately to 1408, see ibid., 1100-23.
For Christine's Lamentacion sur les maux de la guerre civile , see Christine de Pizan, "La lamentacion sur les maux de la France de Christine de Pisan," ed. A. J. Kennedy, in Mélanges de langue et littérature françaises du Moyen-Âge et de la Renaissance offerts à Monsieur Charles Foulon par ses collègues, ses élèves, et ses amis (Rennes, 1980), 177-85. [BACK]
20. Famiglietti has shown that John the Fearless's power was not as absolute as scholars had previously believed. For example, during the period of John the Fearless's guardianship, very few of the dauphin's staff were Burgundian appointments. By 1413 the dukes of Guyenne and Burgundy were at odds; from then until he died, Louis opposed John the Fearless. For this, see Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue , 80, 84, 85-110, and 133-52 especially. [BACK]
21. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:9-10 n. 2. For Geoffrey of Monmouth, see Geoffrey of Monmouth, The British History of Geoffrey of Monmouth , trans. A. Thomas, rev. G. A. Giles (London, 1842). [BACK]
22. Geoffrey of Monmouth, British History , 254. break [BACK]
23. "De celui Brut descendirent tuit li rois qui puis furent en la terre jusques au tens que Anglois, qui vindrent d'une des contrées de Saisoigne qui ert apellée Angle, pristrent la terre, des quex ele est apelée Angleterre." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:11. [BACK]
24. Because of a legal complication, they remarried in 1397. See Palmer, England, France, and Christiandom , 175. For John of Brittany, see Georges Knowlson, Jean V, due de Bretagne et l'Angleterre (1399-1442) , Archives historique de Bretagne, no. 2 (Rennes, 1964). [BACK]
25. Although representations of Louis of Orléans's emblem are not as ubiquitous as John the Fearless's hammer or plane, documentary descriptions do attest to their existence. Indeed even John the Fearless wore a robe decorated with knobby sticks in 1406 as a conciliatory gesture to Louis of Orléans. For this, see Vaughan, John the Fearless , 38.
Meiss cites a possible representation of the baton noueux in an Adoration of the Magi in the Boucicaut Hours. See Meiss, Boucicaut , 10 and pl. 33. His identification is supported by an entry of 1401 from the Orléans archives published by Delaborde. It describes a necklace similar to that in the Boucicaut miniature in a payment to a goldsmith, "pour avoir rappareillé et mis à point et ou feu deux colliers d'argent blanc, tortissiez, yceulx avoir acourtis, chascun d'un grant pousse, et fait des paillettes d'argent et une devise devant fait et forgié en manière d'un baston tortissié. . . " See Delaborde, Ducs de Bourgogne , 3:197 no. 5936. [BACK]
26. For the relevant text, see Book II, chapter fourteen of the chronicle. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:148-52. [BACK]
27. See M. 563, fol. 12 and Phillips 1917, fol. 14.
It is impossible to determine whether references to the Burgundian-Orléanist conflict were avoided in this particular image in the manuscript in Berlin because they cast the Duke of Burgundy in a negative light. This may be possible since the figure who was identified negatively as the Duke of Burgundy in the manuscript now in the Bibliothèque Mazarine is, in the book now in Berlin, the only son to mimic his mother's distinctive hand gesture, perhaps identifying with the saintly, conciliatory behavior of Clotilda, a former princess of Burgundy. [BACK]
28. On mutations in the regency during Charles VI's reign, see Nordberg, Les ducs et la royauté , 61-76; and Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue .
Indeed Isabeau's power gained through her son was such that the government stopped when she fled Paris with the dauphin after the execution of John of Montaigu in 1409. This precipitated John the Fearless's treaty of friendship with Isabeau when he recognized her important political role. However, John was named sole guardian later in that year, when Isabeau received her own treasury, apparently in exchange for surrendering the tutelle of the dauphin to John the Fearless. For this, see Maurice Rey, Les finances royales sous Charles VI. Les causes du déficit 1388-1413 (Paris, 1965), 286-87. [BACK]
29. Charles V did this in his ordinances of 1374 and 1375. For these, see text pages 111, 113. For the role of queens in government, see Françoise Barry, La reine de France (Paris, 1964), 239-322. [BACK]
30. See de Pizan, "Christine de Pisan to Isabelle of Bavaria." [BACK]
31. For the text, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 4:263-70; 7:32. [BACK]
32. Christine addressed the topic of the dauphin's education in at least two books dating from this period: the livre du corps de policie written between 1404 and 1407 and the Livre de la paix written circa 1412. Jean Gerson also addressed this important question in a tract that gave detailed recommendations on the education of Louis of Guyenne. For these, see Krynen, Idéal du prince , 76. For the text of Gerson's letter, see Antoine Thomas, Jean de Gerson et l'éducation des dauphins de France (Paris, 1930), 30-55. [BACK]
33. Their patronage has been documented by Meiss, Fourteenth Century ; idem, Limbourg Brothers ; de Winter, Bibliothèque de Philippe le Hardi ; and Schultz, "Artistic and Literary Patronage of Louis of Orléans." break [BACK]