The Royal Image Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France, 1274–1422 Anne D. Hedeman UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS Berkeley Los Angeles Oxford
PREFACE From its origins in the late thirteenth century through the mid-fifteenth century, the Grandes Chroniques de France was an important royal history. It is a French translation of the Latin histories written and updated by the monks of Saint-Denis, who were, from the thirteenth century, official historiographers to the French kings.[1] The French text that these monks produced incorporated information from contemporary vernacular chronicles and was structured differently from its Latin model. As first written, the Grandes Chroniques traced the history of the French kings from their origins in Troy to the death of Philip Augustus in 1223. With subsequent additions drafted first at Saint-Denis and then at the court in Paris, the chronicle took its final form, describing a chain of royal lives from the fall of Troy to the reign of Charles VI in the 1380s. Copied and amended for a variety of royal and courtly patrons, it survives in approximately 130 manuscripts. Because the Grandes Chroniques de France originated at Saint-Denis, the center of royal historiography, it had a quasi-official status that distinguished it from other vernacular histories and accounted for its popularity. The study of the Grandes Chroniques has traditionally fallen between two areas of inquiry. Until recently, those interested in the historiography of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries concentrated primarily on Latin texts. They paid little attention to the Grandes Chroniques , which they[2] considered a "simple" translation of the Latin chronicles. Scholars interested in fifteenth-century historiography generally saw the Grandes Chroniques as outdated and passed over its continuations in favor of other fifteenth-century sources.[3] Rarely was the chronicle viewed on its own terms as an original creation whose audience differed from that of the Latin chronicle and whose illustrated text was edited and restructured. Historiographical researchers have begun to reexamine the importance of the vernacular in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and, as a result, propose a different understanding of the Grandes Chroniques . Gabrielle Spiegel's ongoing analysis of the origins of French vernacular historiography traces the political forces that gave rise to the vernacular tradition in France and describes the distinct literary form forged for vernacular history during the thirteenth century.[4] Serge Lusignan and Nicole Pons have studied the selection of Latin or French (or Latin and French) as a literary language in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,[5] providing a context for the origins and development of the Grandes Chroniques and revealing the audience as a determiner of the textual form and of the language. Indeed, as Bernard Guenée's analysis of the diffusion of the Grandes Chroniques shows, the study of audience provides one avenue for understanding the popularity of the chronicle in the Middle Ages. Guenée demonstrates that, for the first 150 years of the Grandes Chroniques's existence, its audience was carefully circumscribed.[6] Its readership was centered in the royal court at Paris, and its owners included French kings, members of the royal family, members of the ― xx ― court, and a few clerics in northern France. During this period, no copies of the work belonged to members of the Parlement or the university community. One of the most important—and distinctive—features that the French chronicles of SaintDenis provide their audience is a program of illustration; unlike the Latin compendia of the thirteenth century that the Grandes Chroniques translated, most copies of the Grandes Chroniques were decorated with miniatures. Scholars seeking to describe the creative rather than the derivative aspects of the Grandes Chroniques have overlooked its pictorial cycles,[7] yet, from the earliest copy of the chronicle presented to King Philip III in 1274 to the copies produced by Parisian booksellers in the early fifteenth century, most manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques were illustrated with widely differing cycles that vary in number, subjects, and style.[8] Of the approximately 130 surviving manuscripts, over 75 have pictorial cycles, ranging in size from 1 miniature to more than 400 miniatures. The illustrations of the
Grandes Chroniques de France offer a rare insight into the creation and dissemination of the royal image in Paris during the tumultuous era in French history when the Valois kings succeeded the Capetians and the Hundred Years' War began. The changes in imagery in copies of the chronicle from the late thirteenth through the early fifteenth century make clear the importance of these political events and the questions about legitimacy that they raised. Because the illustrated cycles in the Grandes Chroniques vary from manuscript to manuscript, a monographic study of an exceptional version would do little to clarify the aggregate function of the illustrations. Yet a comprehensive analysis of all the illustrated exemplars of the text would be unwieldy. This book aims for the middle ground, covering 5 royal and 15 nonroyal manuscripts that exemplify different pictorial solutions to the problem of illustrating the Grandes Chroniques . I chose these books after examining 100 of the 131 manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques that I have located. In order to provide readers with background for my observations and a guide to sources for further research, I have included at the end of the book a Catalogue of Manuscripts dating from 1274 to c. 1420 (coordinated for easy comparison of individual illustrations to specific texts) and appendixes that provide a chronological list of copies of the Grandes Chroniques , as well as lists of the names of known owners of the manuscripts and of artists who decorated them. To explore the role that pictures play in directing a reading of the chronicle, I examine their function in their text and their cycle of illustration. By comparing cycles of illustration in various copies of the chronicle, and by considering the manuscripts within the broader contexts of artistic production and contemporary literature and politics, I hope to place primary emphasis on the structure of cycles and the pictorial content of individual manuscripts and to dispel the notion of a standard pictorial or textual edition.[9] My research suggests that such an approach can provide valuable insights into the uses of history and the perceptions of kingship in France during the late Middle Ages. This book is arranged chronologically and structured to compare chronicles belonging to the king to those belonging to members of the royal circle. These two groups had differing relationships to the history recorded in the Grandes Chroniques . Contemporary events played a major role in determining the illustrations of the past in royal and princely books. Indeed, royal copies of the chronicle ― xxi ― often used pictures to reshape the past to reflect present interests and suggest a new reading of history. This sense of active participation in the interpretation of history is probably the most significant difference between the illustration of royal and noble versions of the Grandes Chroniques. Grandes Chroniques manuscripts produced for the nobility contain less historical interpretation in the illustration and more expression of a popular sentiment for the monarchy, the religion royale . The Introduction describes the origin and development of the text of the Grandes Chroniques , which I interpret as a manifestation of Louis IX's political ideology. It then sketches the relationship of the text to contemporary vernacular historiography and to its Latin predecessors. The remainder of the book concentrates on the manuscripts themselves. Part One analyzes the cycle of the first royal Grandes Chroniques and contrasts its function as a Mirror of Princes with that of courtly chronicles from the first decades of the fourteenth century produced for the nobility and of a chronicle commissioned from a Parisian libraire in 1318. Part Two concentrates on manuscripts executed between 1330 and 1345 during the reigns of the early Valois kings; it contrasts the cycle in King John the Good's newly revised copy with a series of contemporary manuscripts decorated by the Master of the Roman de Fauvel for members of the nobility, manuscripts that show the strength of the religion royale in the early stages of the Hundred Years' War. The subject of Part Three is Charles V's manuscript, the first royal book to break from the tradition of a Mirror of Princes and forge an explicitly politicized vision of history. This section describes how Charles's book, the first to contain the account penned at court by Chancellor Pierre d'Orgement, was continued over a period of years and updated by illustrations and interpolated text specifically grounded in the political events of Charles's reign, additions that never reappeared in subsequent copies. Part Four concentrates on manuscripts produced during the reign of Charles VI, the last French king to reign in Paris before the English interregnum. Perhaps because there was little direct royal patronage for manuscripts while Charles VI was king, most illustrated copies of the Grandes Chroniques produced during his reign were conservative. One group made by Parisian booksellers for the nobility shared a concern for the celebration of the religion royale
popular since the early fourteenth century, and a second group sought to guide Charles VI with a new kind of mirror for kingly behavior. Only a few books were innovative; in response to the absence of royal leadership, manuscripts painted for members of the court by the Master of the Cité des Dames offered creative representations of the past. The turbulent reign of Charles VI is a logical endpoint for this study because production of the Grandes Chroniques ceased for a time in Paris from Charles VI's death in 1422 through Charles VII's exile and the regency of the duke of Bedford for the English king, Henry VI. By the time Charles VII was restored to the throne and production resumed in the mid-fifteenth century, the Grandes Chroniques was no longer current because the last event it recorded had occurred in 1381. It therefore lost its position as official history. By the late fifteenth century the audience for the history recorded in the Grandes Chroniques had changed, and Paris was no longer the sole center for its production. Copies produced after the reign of Charles VI were therefore perceived, illustrated, and used differently. The problems posed by these copies ― xxii ― are very different from those raised by books produced during the first 150 years of the text's existence and will thus be sketched only briefly in the concluding chapter. From the late thirteenth to the early fifteenth century, the Parisian audience, to which the Grandes Chroniques appealed as a quasi-official history of France, commissioned illustrated copies that differed as much from one another as did their individual patrons. Although illustrations may not have played as vital a role as text in forming the political outlook of the Grandes Chroniques's owners, our perception of the political culture of late medieval France is enriched by analyzing these pictures in the contexts of artists' production, patronage, contemporary literature, and historical events. Because the pictorial cycles of the Grandes Chroniques frequently reflect the political attitudes of the manuscripts' owners, they document the different perceptions of kingship engendered by the chronicle. Moreover, in a few special cases, they provide commentary on contemporary events. The illustrations to the Grandes Chroniques de France thus provide additional insight into the impact of vernacular history on its readers. I am pleased to acknowledge the generosity of many scholars during the time that I have worked on this topic: François Avril, Joan Diamond, Bernard Guenée, Gilette Labory, Gilbert Ouy, Nicole Roccati, Gabrielle Spiegel, and Patricia Danz Stirnemann. Elizabeth A. R. Brown and Walter Cahn read earlier versions of the book; their thoughtful criticism improved it. Sandra Hindman, the supervisor of the dissertation that forms the core of my study, deserves special thanks for the guidance she gave as I wrote my dissertation and the advice, encouragement, and friendship she has continued to provide in the years since I finished it. Numerous grants and fellowships supported my work on The Royal Image . The Samuel H. Kress Foundation funded the research for my dissertation, the first stage of this book. Subsequent research, revision, and expansion of the text were made possible by a summer Grant-in-Aid (in 1985) and Fellowship for Recent Recipients of the Ph.D. (in 1987) from the American Council of Learned Societies, and by a J. Paul Getty Postdoctoral Fellowship in the History of Art and the Humanities (in 1987–88). The book is being published with the generous support of an Arnold O. Beckman Research Award from the Research Board of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Finally I would like to thank my husband, John, for his good will, generosity, and humor, and my daughter Jacquelin, for the joy she brought as I worked on this project.
― xxiii ―
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to thank the following people and institutions for providing photographs and permission to reproduce them: Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery: figure 97; Berlin, Deutsche
Staatsbibliothek: color plate 8 and figures 102, 105, 110, 112, 113, 114, 115, 116, and 118; Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier: color plate 2 and figures 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 109, 121, 122, and 123; Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale: figures 16 and 17; Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale: color plate 3 and figures 26, 27, 52, 61, 62, 64, 65, 66, 67, and 68; Mr. J. H. A. van Heek: figure 2; London, The British Library: the cover, color plates 1, 5, and 6, and figures 31, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 63, and 111; London, The Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art: figure 53; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library: color plate 7 and figures 101, 103, 104, and 107; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine: figures 100, 106, 108, 117, 119, and 120; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale: color plate 4 and figures 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 70, 71, 72, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, and 95; Paris, Bibliothèque SainteGeneviève: figures 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 69; Switzerland, Private Collection, figure 53; Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale: figures 94, 96, 98, and 99. Portions of Chapters 5–7 appeared in earlier publications: "Valois Legitimacy: Editorial Changes in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques de France ," reprinted with revision from Art Bulletin , vol. 66, no. 1 (March 1984), by permission of the College Art Association, Inc.; "Restructuring the Narrative: The Function of Ceremonial in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques de France ," reprinted with revisions from Studies in the History of Art , vol. 16 (1985), by permission of the National Gallery of Art; and "Copies in Context: The Coronation of Charles V in his Grandes Chroniques de France ," reprinted from Jànos M. Bak, ed., Coronations: Studies on Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual , copyright © 1990 The Regents of the University of California, by permission of the University of California Press.
ABBREVIATIONS
Arsenal
Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms.
B.L.
London, British Library
B.L. Add
London, British Library, Additional Ms.
B.L. Royal
London, British Library, Royal, Ms.
B.N. fr.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr.
B.N. lat.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat.
B.N. n. a. fr.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. nouvelles acquisitions françaises
B.R.
Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms.
Besançon, B.M.
Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms.
Cambrai, B.M.
Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms.
Castres, B.M.
Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms.
Geneva, B.M.
Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Ms.
Grenoble
Grenoble, Bibliothèque Hoche, Ms.
Guildhall
London, Guildhall Library, Ms.
Leyden, Bibl. Univ.
Leyden, Bibliotheek der Rijksuniversiteit
Lyon, B.M.
Lyon, Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon, Ms.
Lyon, P.A.
Lyon, Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon, Ms. P.A.
M.
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Ms.
Mazarine
Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms.
Munich, Cod. Gall.
Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, cod. gall.
Musée Condé
Chantilly, Musée Condé, Ms.
Oxford, Douce
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce Ms.
Phillipps
Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill.
Prague
Prague, National Library, Kynzvarte[*] Ms.
Reims B.M.
Reims, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms.
RHF
Recueil des historiens des Gaules et de la France . Martin Bouquet et al., eds., 24 vols., Paris
Ste.-Gen
Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms.
Toulouse, B.M.
Toulouse, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms.
Valenciennes, B.M.
Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms.
Vat. Reg.
Vatican, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Reg. lat.
Vienna, ÖNB
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Hs.
W.
Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, W. ―1―
INTRODUCTION— VERNACULAR HISTORY, LATIN HISTORIOGRAPHY, ROYAL PATRONAGE, AND THE GRANDES CHRONIQUES The Grandes Chroniques de France was a vernacular history produced from the 1270s through the early fourteenth century at the abbey of Saint-Denis, a center of French historiography. Because of its place of origin, the chronicle has been interpreted as an attempt to make the facts of French history accessible to those who could not read Latin.[1] Although this was certainly one motivation, the literary structure and content of the chronicle clearly shows that Primat, the monastic author-translator, deliberately wrote a new history, based on a Latin Dionysian (from Saint-Denis) compilation but supplemented by information drawn from the newly emerging tradition of vernacular prose history. To understand how the Grandes Chroniques helped shape the royal image in France, it is therefore essential to examine the historiographic tradition of Saint-Denis and the tradition of regional vernacular historiography. Further, because the Grandes Chroniques was commissioned during the reign of Louis IX, the chronicle must be considered in the light of Louis's political ideology.
Louis IX's Political Ideology Recent studies of French political thought suggest that Capetian ideology, of which the Grandes Chroniques is an important manifestation, was firmly established by the midthirteenth century.[2] During Louis IX's reign, members of the court and of the abbey of SaintDenis blended ideas first formulated among a handful of chroniclers and poets in the circle of Louis's grandfather, King Philip Augustus, into a coherent theory of kingship. Louis's saintly personality and dedication to the Crusades earned him a reputation in Europe as a preeminent Christian king.[3] Those close to Louis IX built upon his saintly reputation by promoting the concept of Christian kingship through expressions of royal power such as ceremonials, artistic commissions, and the text of the Grandes Chroniques . Although few of these expressions can be connected directly to Louis's patronage, they embody ideas about the special nature of French kingship that were important to his government. The French king was presented as the rex christianissimus in the ceremony of coronation, three versions of which were elaborated during the reign of ―2― Louis IX: the Ordo of Reims, c. 1230; the Ordo of 1250; and the Last Capetian Ordo (the Ordo of Sens), c. 1250–70.[4] As early as the Ordo of Reims, the ceremony contributed to the development of the mythology of kingship by stressing the origin of the holy oil with which the French king was anointed, oil thought to have been miraculously delivered by God at the baptism of Clovis, the first Christian king of France. Among the prerogatives given the king to reinforce his special status was the right to take communion of both bread and wine, a privilege normally restricted to the priesthood. Ideas about sacred monarchy expressed in the Ordo of Reims were developed further in the Last Capetian Ordo , which stressed that the French king was the "only one among all kings to be consecrated with heaven-sent oil." This ordo , probably used from Philip III through Philip of Valois, helped define the special nature of French kingship.[5] The ordination of the French kings at their coronation gave them the miraculous power to cure scrofula, the "king's evil," in a second ceremony celebrating France's Christian kingship. Cures of illness by the king's touch are recorded as early as the reigns of Philip I and Louis VI, but after its first mention in a monastic treatise of the early twelfth century the royal practice of touching for the "king's evil" was not clearly discussed in chronicles or accounts until descriptions of the reign of Louis IX were written.[6] These descriptions indicate that Louis IX's reign marked, if not the revival of the practice, at least its increased visibility in midthirteenth-century France, and they clearly demonstrate that Louis possessed the power to heal because he was king of France, not because he was saintly.[7] Louis's artistic commissions also promoted the holiness of French kingship. The SainteChapelle, built to house newly acquired relics of Christ's passion, was dedicated in 1248, just before Louis set out on his first crusade. Its stained glass program places an unusual emphasis on Old Testament kingship, including Louis as the only king from the Christian era.[8] Commissions such as the Old Testament Picture Book (Pierpont Morgan Library, M.
638) merge Old Testament history and French kingship in an even more sophisticated way. Through secularized representations of royal actions in Old Testament stories, they infuse biblical action with contemporary resonance; in the process, biblical history becomes more secular and French royal history more sacred.[9] Later in Louis IX's reign, royal commissions centered more frequently on French kingship without the mediation of Old Testament models. Thus coins struck during Louis's monetary reforms in the 1260s associated the king's shield with the cross and the legend "Christus vincit, Christus regnat, Christus imperat," an assertion of Louis's sovereignty that presented him implicitly as Christ's representative on earth.[10] Since the barons were forbidden to copy Louis's écu d'or , these coins became a powerful symbol of his monarchy. Similar attitudes toward the French monarchy are evident in commissions undertaken by the monks at Saint-Denis. In a move Louis surely approved in the 1260s, the abbey translated the bodies of several kings and queens of France to elaborately sculpted tombs arranged around the crossing of the abbey church.[11] This arrangement celebrated the genealogical continuity of the French ruling house, the descent of French kings from Merovingians to Carolingians and, through Louis VIII and Philip Augustus, from Carolingians to Capetians. The proximity of the royal tombs in the church to those of Saint Denis and his companions also attested to the special relationship between the French house and ―3― France's patron saint. French kings therefore appeared in a privileged position suited to their status as "most Christian," a status that would be impressed upon all the pilgrims who came to the abbey church to visit the graves of the martyrs.[12]
The Tradition of Regional Vernacular History The Grandes Chroniques was only one of many vernacular prose histories that appeared in France in the early thirteenth century.[13] Precursors of the Grandes Chroniques , such as the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle (c. 1200–30), the chronicle of the Anonymous of Chantilly (c. 1210— 30), the Chronique des rois de France by the Anonymous of Béthune (before 1223), and the Abrégé de l'histoire de France of the Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers (before 1260), were regional or national histories written specifically for a lay audience ignorant of Latin.[14] They served purposes different from those of the Latin universal chronicles favored by monastic audiences or the chansons de geste of the nobility. Authors of the earliest vernacular histories emulated existing genres of French literature such as the epic.[15] In the thirteenth century, however, they consciously changed the narrative structure of vernacular history, distancing it from that of the epic, to give more credibility to the stories recounted in the chronicle.[16] In the process, historiographers forged a new French literary language to convey a "literature of fact."[17] Among the early French histories, the Grandes Chroniques de France is the preeminent example of this "literature of fact." Adapting the language and form of vernacular history, Primat translated the Latin chronicles preserved at the abbey of Saint-Denis in the 1270s and drew upon contemporary French histories such as the Anonymous of Chantilly's Chronique des rois de France and the Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers's Abrégé de l'histoire de France to write a royal history that displaced earlier examples of the genre by the early fourteenth century.[18] The Grandes Chroniques was written near Paris, the seat of French government, for a Parisian audience consisting of the king and those who worked closely with him. Unlike such vernacular histories as the French Pseudo-Turpin chronicle, whose origins in northern France and Flanders were noble and perhaps antiroyal,[19] the Grandes Chroniques is a quintessentially royalist text. It is therefore a good vehicle for studying the creation and development of the royal image in court circles between the late thirteenth and the early fifteenth centuries.
The Latin Chronicle Tradition at Saint-Denis The Grandes Chroniques took its present shape over a period of 100 years, during which the monks of Saint-Denis translated into French the Latin chronicles that they had compiled.[20] From the time of the first copy, dated around 1274, until the mid-fourteenth century, the task of continuing the Grandes Chroniques was entrusted to the abbey. Drawing on rich Latin and
vernacular traditions, Primat, the original monastic author-translator, produced a French text that traced the history of the French kings from the fall of Troy through the reign of Philip Augustus. He added elements from contemporary vernacular histories to a translation of writings that had been assembled in Latin anthologies by Dionysian compilers as ―4― early as the first quarter of the thirteenth century: the Latin histories of Aimoin of Fleury, Sigebert of Gembloux, Einhard, Pseudo-Turpin, Hugh of Fleury, the continuator of Aimoin, and Guillaume of Jumièges.[21] Primat interwove these Latin and vernacular sources in a genealogical frame, producing a sequence of royal biographies that for the most part began with the king's coronation and ended with his death. As his primary Latin source, Primat used an anthology (B.N. lat. 5925) made at SaintDenis in the 1250s. He placed the French texts in the same order as many of the Latin ones and incorporated marginal notes from that manuscript, which he may have written himself to comment on and correct its text.[22] Like the earliest translator of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle, Primat modified and supplemented this source.[23] He edited it; added translations of texts such as the Latin Descriptio qualiter (designed to authenticate relics owned by the abbey) and the life of Louis VII, neither of which was present in B.N. lat. 5925; clarified portions of his translation from Latin by comparing it to contemporary vernacular chronicles; and smoothed over transitions between the disparate elements that made up the Latin manuscript.[24] Primat also structured his Grandes Chroniques differently from the Latin anthology. As the arrangement of decorated initials, rubrics, and chapter lists in these manuscripts makes clear, the Latin compendium was designed to present a collection of histories with their individuality preserved, whereas the first Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782) was conceived as a unified whole. In the Latin manuscript large decorated initials reinforce the originality and autonomy of component parts, marking Aimoin's Epistula in librum de gestis Francorum ad Abbonem abbatem (fol. 1), Aimoin's preface to the Historia Francorum (fol. IV), the four books of Aimoin's Historia Francorum and the Gesta Dagoberti (fols. 6, 19, 34V, 69V, and 73), the Vita Caroli Magni by Einhard (fol. 123), the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle (fol. 132), the Gesta Ludovici Pii imperatoris (fol. 149V – followed by shortened lives of his successors), the prologue to the Vita Ludovici VI Grossi regis and the Vita (fol. 199V), and the prologue to the Gesta Philippi Augusti and the Gesta (fols. 248V–249V). Primat chose to omit the two longer passages that preceded Aimoin's history and the prologues that set apart the lives of Louis VI and Philip Augustus. Further, he prefaced each book (except that describing the life of Louis VII, which came from another source) with chapter lists. Primat also added a prologue and subdivided the text of B.N. lat. 5925. Thus the life of Charlemagne was divided into five books and that of Philip Augustus into three; the life of Charles the Bald was made into a single book.[25] As we shall see, many of Primat's new subdivisions were reinforced by illustrations, perhaps to draw special attention to those portions of the text. Because B.N. lat. 5925 was a recueil , it contained no prologue to the work as a whole. Primat integrated part of the proem of Aimoin's Latin chronicle with which B.N. lat. 5925 began (fol. 6), with an edited version of the prologue of a contemporary vernacular history commissioned by Louis IX's brother, the Abrégé de l'histoire de France by the Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers. To these he added material of his own to shape a royalist reading of the Grandes Chroniques .[26] Primat's prologue is most telling when it departs from its models. Certain additions and omissions reveal the bias of the Dionysian historiographer. Whereas ―5― the Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers enumerated diverse sources for his text—ranging from lives of saints to "a book which describes the gestes of the French kings which is at SaintGermain-des-Près"—Primat listed only the chronicles of Saint-Denis.[27] Similarly, Primat stressed genealogy to a greater extent than did the Ménestrel, perhaps because of SaintDenis's role as royal necropolis.[28] Some changes in the Ménestrel's prologue clarify the didactic purpose and audience of the Grandes Chroniques : Primat declared that the king and princes "with lands to govern" should "profit from the example of history."[29] Still other alterations introduce a common literary topos in which the translator who has undertaken the work at the request of his patron humbly begs the pardon of his readers for the inadequacy of his translation.[30]
Primat used a paragraph from Aimoin's Latin proem as a transition from the Ménestrel's text to Primat's largest original contribution to the prologue. Although Aimoin's Epistula and Praefatio were included in B.N. lat. 5925, their subject matter was too specific for the prologue to the Grandes Chroniques ; the Epistula was addressed to Aimoin's abbot, and the Praefatio described the customs and institutions of Gaul and Germany.[31] Primat used the most generalized portion of Aimoin's Proemium , a text following the preface, which celebrated the prowess, fame, and devotion of the ancient Franks.[32] Primat's adaptation first mentions the Trojan origins of the French, then discusses the ferocity with which the French fought their enemies and the mercy with which they treated their subjects, and concludes with a description of the reverence that inspired the French to convert to Christianity.[33] This description of the French people provides a smooth transition to Primat's major addition to the prologue: two long passages that reinforce themes of holiness and seem to relate specifically to the political ideology of Louis IX's court. The first passage describes France's special role as defender of the church; it stresses the holiness of the French nation in an elaboration on Aimoin's description of the ancient Franks.[34] Primat then tells why France merits her special status: first, because Saint Denis protects France and, second, because Paris is the center of learning "by which the holy church is sustained and enlightened," having moved to France from Greece and Rome—an event referred to as the translatio studii .[35] These original passages end with a prayer that God maintain learning and chivalry in France.[36] Primat's additions to the prologue draw attention to the genealogy of the French kings, but they also praise the holy nation that the kings govern under the protection of Saint Denis. Indeed, by juxtaposing his reference to the translatio studii with the prayer that follows it, Primat suggests that France and her kings must strive continually to merit their special status in the eyes of God.[37] Thus Primat's own additions to the prologue cast the chronicle in a didactic, even moralizing, frame; they lead readers, whether royal or noble, to anticipate a history of the holy kingdom of France and its most Christian kings that will provide models for their own behavior. The additions to the prologue, the interpolations of texts like the Descriptio qualiter and the life of Louis VII, the use of vernacular histories to clarify and expand the text, and the restructuring of the Latin source (B.N. lat. 5925) demonstrate Primat's intention to shape a history for a vernacular audience. Three of his ―6― changes in particular distinguish the Grandes Chroniques from other works. First, the revised structure of the French text, reflected in book divisions and decoration, pays increased attention to the lives of Charlemagne, Charles the Bald, and Philip Augustus. Second, the language of the translation is more "objective" than that of the contemporary vernacular histories that Primat used as sources. Third, original additions to the prologue place the text that follows squarely within the framework of Louis IX's royal ideology. The following chapters consider whether the Grandes Chroniques 's illustrations, the most obvious additions to this vernacular chronicle, were equally innovative. ―7―
PART I— THE FIRST ILLUSTRATED COPIES OF THE GRANDES CHRONIQUES ―9―
Chapter One— Philip III's Grandes Chroniques
Contemporary Representations of Kingship at the Court and the Abbey of SaintDenis: Precedents for the Grandes Chroniques Dionysian and courtly commissions, rather than other vernacular histories, provide precedents for the cycles of decoration in the earliest copies of the Grandes Chroniques de France . In view of the origins and patronage of the translation of the chronicle, this is not surprising. Because the French translation of the Latin chronicles of Saint-Denis began during Louis IX's reign, the earliest manuscript (Ste.-Gen. 782) must be considered with other commissions focusing on kingship that were produced for the saintly king and his successors. Further, because the text of the Grandes Chroniques was translated by Primat, a monk of Saint-Denis, and the illustrations of the presentation manuscript were probably planned with the advice of Primat or Abbot Matthew of Vendôme, the pictorial cycles in the earliest Grandes Chroniques de France are analogous to those commissions by the abbey or the court under the supervision of the abbey. The pattern of courtly and monastic commissions in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries demonstrates how depictions of kingship were shaped by patronage and colored by self-interest.
Kingship in the Royal Context The fortunes of the Capetian house flourished during the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. When the first copy of the Grandes Chroniques was decorated shortly after the death of Louis IX in 1270, the Capetians were in firm control of France. By the reign of Philip the Fair (1285–1314), France was the dominant power in Europe, able to challenge and defeat even the pope. Although the last Capetians, Louis X (1314–16), Philip V (1316–22), and Charles IV (1322–28), were troubled by a dearth of male heirs, the institution of the monarchy remained powerful.[1] Popular commissions responded to the concerns of the reigning king. Before Saint Louis, references to French kingship were couched most frequently in terms of the biblical antecedents of the French monarchs, the kings of Judah.[2] Depictions of kings from the Old Testament mingled with those of queens and prophets in jamb statues, such as those at Saint-Denis and Chartres; later, sculpted ― 10 ― Old Testament kings predominated in the galleries on the facades of cathedrals.[3] Galleries of kings may have been more explicitly dynastic; as early as the thirteenth century, literary references document the popular perception that the statues in the gallery of Notre-Dame represented kings of France.[4] Ceremony and art dealing more specifically with the king also associated biblical with French kingship. One of the most important ceremonies to do this was the French coronation, versions of which were drafted around 1230 and again around 1250.[5] The sculpture of Reims cathedral, the site of the royal coronation, commemorates in more durable form the equation of Old Testament and French rulers expressed in the words of the coronation ceremony. Thus on at least one level, the interior facade of Reims is, as Sadler has shown, a collection of biblical exempla directed to the newly crowned king.[6] Pictorial programs focusing on kingship evolved during the reigns of the last Capetians. Early commissions executed for Louis IX continued to portray kingship in terms of Old Testament models. For instance, artists depicted biblical scenes in a group of Parisian monuments in manuscript and stained glass executed for Louis. These emphasized human rather than divine action and concentrated primarily on Old Testament kings.[7] The changed subject matter and new narrative style in these cycles invested religious history with a "new prescriptive force" to become an example for royal behavior.[8] After Louis's canonization in 1297, hagiographic programs, frequently presented within a dynastic framework, became more common at court.[9] The presence of a royal saint allowed subsequent rulers such as Philip III or Philip the Fair to glorify the royal house by promoting the cult of their saintly forebear.[10] During the reign of the last Capetian kings, royal commissions, whether biblical, hagiographic, or dynastic, manifested concern with legitimacy and dynastic continuity.[11] Increasingly, courtly commissions emphasized the continuous succession of the three races of French kings, a succession whose length and holiness, confirmed by the sainthood of Louis IX, were the subject of the Grandes Chroniques de France .
Kingship in the Dionysian Context Throughout the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries, the fortunes of the abbey of Saint-Denis were closely connected to those of the Capetian kings.[12] As early as the twelfth century, Abbot Suger succeeded in weaving together the destinies of France and the abbey. He acted as regent while Louis VII was on crusade; secured the privileges of guarding the coronation regalia and the oriflamme , the official standard of the French kings; and established the abbey as the burial place for France's rulers. Subsequent abbots followed Suger's lead in promoting Dionysian involvement in France and the king's involvement in the abbey. Abbot Matthew of Vendôme (1258–86) acted as regent when Louis IX was on his second crusade and handled the day-to-day administration for Louis's successor, Philip III.[13] Perhaps at the request of Louis, this same abbot gave visual expression to the abbey's role as royal necropolis by commissioning an extensive tomb program.[14] The deliberate interweaving of abbey and realm continued during the tenure of Giles of Pontoise (1304–26). He had been sponsored for the abbacy by Philip IV, had ― 11 ― acted as a royal councillor, and was an executor of Philip's will. In his commissions Giles of Pontoise continued the long-standing tradition of presenting the French ruler with objects that glorified his kingship and demonstrated the special role of the abbey in royal history.[15] Throughout this period the abbey's royal programs seem to have had a consistent aim: to combine self-promotion with promotion of the royal house. Programs aimed at a larger audience as well as those geared to a single viewer, the king, demonstrate this consistency of purpose. Two Dionysian commissions of the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries exemplify this merging of self-promotion and royal promotion in the abbey's patronage. The program of tombs completed by Matthew of Vendôme in 1267 glorified kingship but also aimed to secure the rights of Saint-Denis over private foundations like Royaumont as the burial place for French kings.[16] Similarly, the presentation copy of Ivo of Saint-Denis's Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii (B.N. fr. 2090–92 and B.N. lat. 13836), commissioned during the reign of Philip IV by Giles of Pontoise and given to Philip V around 1319, combined a vita of Saint Denis with a chronicle stressing his miraculous interventions in French history. This text was intended to reawaken royal devotion to Saint Denis as much as to promote kingship.[17] Although these commissions consistently promoted the abbey, their portrayal of kingship and their dynastic content developed over time. The arrangement of tombs changed after the death of Louis IX and again after his canonization, evolving away from the original schematic demonstration of the origins of the Merovingian, Carolingian, and Capetian kings of France and their relationships to one another. The addition of a gilded tomb for Louis IX sometime before May 1282 affirmed his importance, as did Philip IV's directive in 1306 that the bodies of four Carolingian rulers and Philip III and Isabella of Aragon be moved to make room for his own tomb next to that of Saint Louis. In the process the tombs' program shifted from celebrating the succession of dynasties to concentrating on Louis IX, France's holy king.[18] Similarly, when the presentation copy of Ivo of Saint-Denis's Vita et Passio was prepared for Philip V, its text was translated and miniatures were added to reflect the special importance dynastic themes held for Philip.[19] Similar royal and Dionysian preoccupations influenced the development of cycles of the Grandes Chroniques .
The Copy of the Grandes Chroniques Presented to Philip III: A Mirror of Princes The earliest surviving Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782) is a luxurious manuscript commissioned around 1274 by the monks of Saint-Denis for presentation to Philip III, who had succeeded his father, Louis IX, in 1270.[20] It contained the newly translated vernacular version of the chronicles of Saint-Denis and 36 miniatures and historiated initials. Parisian artists who had undertaken commissions for Louis IX decorated the book.[21] Any analysis of its cycle of decorations must consider these circumstances of production. Such an analysis must also consider the hierarchy of decoration, the scale and positioning of miniatures in relation to one another, and the relationships between text and illustration. Such an approach refines previous interpretations
― 12 ― and shows that the content of the pictures in this chronicle is closer in tone to contemporary Dionysian cycles than to royal cycles commissioned by Louis IX or Philip III. The iconography of Philip III's Grandes Chroniques is particularly inventive. Although the pictures in this new text employ diverse models, they transformed them into a focused program. For instance, a compositional pattern for a battle scene employed as a shop model in the stained glass of Saint-Denis (for the capture of Nicaea by the crusaders) and of Chartres (for the capture of a Spanish city) was adapted to represent Philip Augustus's capture of Le Mans (fol. 295).[22] In this case, the adaptation does not seem to have influenced the content of the scene. Parisian artists who worked in varied media used this model to represent any number of battles. Some pictorial models may, however, have been more closely tied to their original texts. The clearest example of this is the Dream of Charlemagne (see Fig. 5), which illustrates a portion of the Grandes Chroniques translated from the chronicle of Pseudo-Turpin. The two scenes chosen for Philip III's manuscript are similar to those selected for such early monuments based on the text of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle as the thirteenth-century châsse of Charlemagne at Aix-la-Chapelle. As in the Grandes Chroniques , this image combines the vision of the starry sky with the appearance of Saint James. The illustration of Saint James appearing to Charlemagne in the beginning of the Latin Pseudo-Turpin chronicle in the twelfth-century Codex Calixtinus and its fourteenth-century copies is also similar.[23] Although these earlier monuments form part of a rich visual tradition based on the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle—a tradition within which the image in Philip III's Grandes Chroniques belongs—the precise relationship between the illustration in the Grandes Chroniques and the earlier tradition is difficult to establish. Because the events represented in each image are described in both the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle and the Grandes Chroniques , the similarities between the châsse, Codex Calixtinus , and the Grandes Chroniques may be coincidental.[24] Artists may have arrived at their visual formulations independently. The most sophisticated use of models in the Grandes Chroniques occurs in the adaptation of imagery from one text to illustrate another, as in the frontispiece of the chronicle. The first chapter of Book I of the Grandes Chroniques concentrates on tracing the genealogy of the French from Francion, the mythical son of Hector whose descendants founded France, whereas the picture that illustrates it concentrates on the rape of Helen. The beginning of the genealogy, which describes how Priam, ruler of Troy, sent his son Paris to Greece to avenge a slight committed by the Greek king, provided an opportunity to insert the frontispiece: Paris's vengeance was the abduction of Helen. The text of the chronicle goes on to describe the siege and destruction of Troy by the outraged Greeks and to tell how the few survivors of the city scattered all over the world.[25] Only the first part of this brief Trojan account is illustrated in the frontispiece (Fig. 1). In four scenes the miniature portrays Priam dispatching Paris, Paris setting sail for Greece, Paris and his army capturing Helen in the temple of Venus, and the Trojans setting sail for Troy with their prize. The picture offers more information than does its text because it was derived from another source, the Roman de Troie , written in the 1160s by Benoît de Sainte― 13 ―
[Full Size] Figure 1 Priam dispatches Paris to Greece; Paris sets sail; Paris captures Helen at the Temple of Venus; Paris and Helen set sail for Troy. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 2v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris. Maure.[26] The earliest surviving Roman de Troie (Fig. 2), a provincial manuscript dated 1264, near the time of the execution of the Grandes Chroniques , presents the closest analogies with the chronicle's frontispiece.[27] These miniatures share three of four scenes; they differ only in the last frame, where the chronicle's picture substitutes the departure of Paris, Helen, and the Trojan army for the Roman de Troie 's scene of the massacre in the temple that preceded the Trojan flight from Greece. This major change and certain subtle alterations to the miniature of the rape of Helen minimize the unjust behavior of France's Trojan ancestors and thus make them more appropriate models for Philip III. The rape of a queen and the slaughter of innocent, albeit pagan, worshippers were not exemplary modes of behavior. However, these scenes were often paired and graphically illustrated in early cycles of the Roman de Troie and in their adaptation in the Histoire ancienne .[28] By contrast, the rape in the Grandes Chroniques could almost be a wedding; the ― 14 ―
[Full Size] Figure 2 Priam dispatches Paris to Greece; Paris sets sail; Paris captures Helen at the Temple of Venus; Massacre of Greeks. Roman de Troie . s'Heerenberg, Stichting Huis Bergh. figures stand before an abbreviated altar in the presence of handmaidens and soldiers. The only suggestion of coercion in the image is Paris's firm grasp on Helen's wrist. Similarly, although it might be argued that the departure from Greece was added to round out the story, the scene was also appealing because of its nonviolent content. Both the text of the Grandes Chroniques and many later frontispieces go beyond the departure from Greece to offer a graphic depiction of the Greeks' revenge on Troy. Despite their diverse origins, the illustrations of the first Grandes Chroniques form a carefully constructed program, one so particular to its time and place that the images had little influence on subsequent pictorial cycles. This Grandes Chroniques was produced for a specific audience; its miniatures reflect the historical preoccupations of the abbey of SaintDenis, where it was commissioned, and provide certain models of kingship for Philip III, to whom it was presented. Like the illustrations, two textual elements of this Grandes Chroniques support its special purposes. The French poem and prologue bracketing Philip III's book ― 15 ― present the Grandes Chroniques as a collection of exempla that follow the sequence of the three great French ruling houses in an effort to educate the young king Philip to be a good ruler. According to the prologue, the chronicle is to be a "mirror of life" in which "each person can find good and evil, beauty and ugliness, sense and folly, and profit in everything through the example of history."[29] And because there have been three generations of kings in France since it all began, this history will be divided into three principal books: where the first will speak of the generation of Meroveus, the second of the generation of Pepin, and the third of the generation of Hugh Capet. Each of these books will be subdivided into diverse books, according to the lives and deeds of diverse kings; ordered by chapters to understand the material more easily and without confusion. The beginning of this history will be taken at the noble line of the Trojans from whom it [the French line] is descended by long succession.[30]
At the end of Philip III's Grandes Chroniques a special French poetic colophon, rarely copied in later manuscripts, addresses Philip directly.[31] Developing one theme sounded in the prologue—that of learning from the deeds of prior kings—it informs Philip that the manuscript
was made for him to study and read in the hope that he would be a wise king. According to the poem, Philip should emulate the deeds of the good kings recorded in the chronicle and shun the example of the bad. In their focus on the education of a young ruler these passages tie the chronicle to a newly forming tradition, the Mirror of Princes, a genre of political literature that remained popular throughout the Middle Ages.[32] Although Mirrors of Princes took varied forms, ranging from poetry to scholastic prose, they shared a royal audience and a content designed to teach a prince to govern with sound moral principles. The Capetian court of Louis IX, which probably provided the impetus for the translation of the Grandes Chroniques , played an important role in generating and consuming this type of political literature.[33] Indeed, the prologue and poetic colophon establish a reading of the chronicle that is consistent with our knowledge of Louis IX's use of history; Joinville, one of Louis's biographers, describes how the king told his children stories of past rulers to give them examples to follow and avoid.[34] The miniatures of presentation that illustrate the prologue and poetic colophon frame the cycle of pictures in this manuscript and work with their texts to establish how the book should be read. In the first picture (Fig. 3), a kneeling monk humbly presents the chronicle to the king. The second picture (Fig. 4), the largest in the manuscript, transforms the presentation that inaugurates the chronicle, just as the poetic colophon elaborates themes presented in the prologue. In this two-column miniature the king is still enthroned and in his regalia, and Primat still presents his book, but Matthew of Vendôme rather than the king dominates the scene. Supervising the presentation, the imposing abbot stands so tall that the king must look up at him, and he and his monks occupy two-thirds of the picture's space. This miniature calls attention to the giving of the gift rather than its reception, and it suggests that the voice in the poem below it is Matthew's.[35] In doing so it celebrates the abbot's role in guiding Philip III and the important historiographic work done by Matthew of Vendôme and his monks. ― 16 ―
[Full Size] Figure 3 Presentation of book to Philip III. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 1. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris. The distribution of miniatures in the chronicle proper does not follow the simple pattern established by the textual divisions. Primat's translation of the Latin chronicle is laid out as a series of books, all but one of them (the life of Louis VII) preceded by chapter lists: five books
tell of the Merovingians and of Pepin (the first Carolingian); five books recount the exploits of Charlemagne; two describe Charlemagne's first two descendants—Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald; one records the lives of the later Carolingians and of the Capetians up until Louis VI; one each is dedicated to Louis VI and Louis VII; and three report the deeds of Philip Augustus.[36] The miniatures in Philip III's manuscript are of two types. Larger, columnwide miniatures mark the beginnings of books describing the lives of the Merovingian rulers, the imperial Carolingians (Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Charles the Bald), and Philip Augustus. Smaller historiated initials decorate books and chapters that Matthew of Vendôme must have perceived as less important to Philip III—those that record the lives of the last Carolingians and all Capetian rulers except Philip Augustus. Illustrations break this basic pattern in three places: small historiated initials pick out two chapters at the end of the last ― 17 ―
[Full Size] Figure 4 Presentation of book to Philip III. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque SainteGeneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 326v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris. Merovingian book, subdivide chapters in the lives of the last Carolingians, and mark the beginning of the chapter list in the life of Philip Augustus. All these illustrations emphasize certain themes from the prologue of the Grandes Chroniques . Some, like the Trojan frontispiece and representations of good kingship in the lives of Charlemagne and Philip Augustus, are appropriate for the "Mirror" theme mentioned in the poem and prologue. Others relate more closely to the dynastic frame, the succession of races, also described in the prologue. Still others intertwine the histories of France and the abbey of Saint-Denis. As will become clear, all these themes are interdependent, so that the pictures weave together the textual themes of good kingship, dynastic continuity, and historical identity between France and Saint-Denis.
Models of Kingship The Trojan frontispiece and the subcycles of the lives of Charlemagne and Philip Augustus shed light on the ideals of kingship promoted in the Grandes Chroniques given to Philip III. A comparison of the frontispiece with its probable model and of the illustrations of the lives of Charlemagne and Philip Augustus with the subsequent tradition helps to pinpoint consistent aims in the cycle.
As discussed earlier, the frontispiece of the first copy of the Grandes Chroniques emphasizes the Trojan ancestry of the French kings. With certain care― 18 ― ful modifications, it copies the most modern visual source for the story to show the ancestors of the French kings as suitable models for kingship. Pictures illustrating the life of Charlemagne provide similar models. Except for its opening miniature, the subcycle of the life of Charlemagne resembles early cycles of his life based on the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle and is typical of later cycles in the Grandes Chroniques .[37] Nonetheless, the repetition of the figure of Charlemagne in scenes from his life attracts the reader's attention. Thus the dream of Charlemagne encompasses two scenes (Fig. 5): in one the king first sees the vision of the starry road, and in the other Saint James appears to explain it to him. In the miniature of Charlemagne's coronation (Fig. 6) two images invert the relationships between the emperor and the pope. In the upper scene the church is supreme, and Charlemagne kneels to be crowned emperor in Rome at the hands of the pope; in the lower scene the state takes priority, and the pope pleads with Charlemagne to commute the sentences of those condemned by the emperor for degrading the pontiff. Although these scenes derive directly from the chronicle's text, they depart from it in one important visual detail—they emphasize Charlemagne's kingship
[Full Size] Figure 5 Charlemagne has vision of the starry sky; Saint James appears to sleeping Charlemagne. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 141. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris. ― 19 ― rather than his imperial status. Only the miniature of Charlemagne's coronation as emperor includes an imperial crown.[38] Its absence in subsequent miniatures is curious yet may be explained by the historical relationship of the French kings to the empire. These pictures express a nationalistic tradition that held that Charlemagne was an important model of French kingship.[39] Until the twelfth century Charlemagne was viewed as ancestor of the West Frankish, or French, kings, but not as progenitor of the German rulers who became associated with the Holy Roman Empire.[40] With the exception of the German
emperor, Frederick Barbarossa, who sponsored the canonization of Charlemagne in 1165, few Germans felt a popular sentiment for Charlemagne. In France, on the other hand, Charlemagne was immensely popular in both Dionysian and royal circles. As early as the twelfth century, the abbey of Saint-Denis employed numerous devices to tie itself to the growing cult of Charlemagne.[41] A forged charter suggested that Charlemagne had paid homage for France at the abbey. The monks mounted a campaign to promote the oriflamme , guarded at Saint-Denis, as Charlemagne's personal standard. This propaganda was effective and spread into vernacular chansons de geste , like the
[Full Size] Figure 6 Pope Leo III crowns Charlemagne at Rome; Pope and emperor judge conspirators. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 121v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris. ― 20 ― Pilgrimage of Charlemagne , which celebrated Charlemagne's fictitious trip to the East from which he brought back relics allegedly given later to Saint-Denis by Charles the Bald. By the reign of Philip Augustus a cult of Charlemagne flourished in France, focusing on Charlemagne as emperor. It was employed primarily to justify territorial expansion.[42] In the popular imagination, reflected in chansons de geste of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, Charlemagne's empire was equated with the kingdom of France: 170 passages in the chanson de Roland make this equation.[43] In the late thirteenth century, when this manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques was produced, the association of France with the empire and the French king with the emperor seems to have had a different use. Despite, or perhaps because of, a botched attempt to secure the imperial crown, Philip III placed more emphasis on defining the limits of French kingship than on claiming the empire.[44] Political texts produced during his reign consistently underscore the French king's sovereignty—he is princeps in regno suo who "takes his power from no one except God and himself" (le roy ne tient de nului fors de dieu et de lui )—without any reference to the empire.[45] The identification of the French king with Charlemagne in a ceremony described in the Grandes Chroniques further strengthened French kingship. Philip was the first king to use Charlemagne's sword, Joyeuse , in the ceremony of coronation, thus emphasizing Charlemagne's role as ancestor of the French kings.[46] Certainly, the portrayal of
Charlemagne as a French king in the illustrations of Philip III's Grandes Chroniques was deliberate and, moreover, compatible with his consistent political posture. Illustrations of the life of Philip Augustus are equally important in this manuscript, both as models of kingship for Philip Augustus's namesake and possibly as a further means of associating Philip III with Charlemagne. The hierarchy of decoration in the manuscript, as well as one particularly powerful miniature, mark this segment of the text with a special subcycle. A historiated initial of the king enthroned begins the chapter list, and three miniatures illustrate the life of Philip Augustus. Only Philip Augustus's life has a historiated initial mark the chapter list, and miniatures rather than historiated initials illustrate the account of his reign—the first in the manuscript since the histories of the early Carolingians. Doubtless Philip Augustus alone of the Capetians receives such attention in part because he held a special place in the thoughts of Philip III. Philip Augustus was presented along with Saint Louis as a model for Philip III, as, for instance, in the dedication verses to Guillaume de Nangis's Life of Saint Louis .[47] Other writings from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries describe Philip Augustus as one of the first of a series of holy kings to rule France. The first miniature of Philip Augustus's life (Fig. 7) suggests this king's holiness and miraculous birth: Christ swoops down from behind a cloud to present a young crowned king to Louis VII and his wife, who kneel in prayer with representatives of a cross section of society. This image is more emblematic than narrative. Instead of illustrating Louis VII's Christological vision (Philip Augustus giving the barons blood to drink from a chalice) or the actual birth of an heir—images that became canonical illustrations for this text in later copies of the Grandes Chroniques —this miniature focuses on Philip's sobriquet, Dieudonné . The picture derives from the text of the chronicle but combines Louis VII's prayer with its ― 21 ―
[Full Size] Figure 7 Louis VII and Queen Alix receive Philip Augustus from Christ. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 280. Photograph by the author. response. The text describes how the king, his queen, and all the clergy and people of the realm prayed for the birth of a son. God heard their prayers and gave them Philip, a son whom Louis "nourished healthily and introduced plainly in the faith of Christ and the
commandments of the holy church" and whom he had crowned at Reims when he was "of appropriate age."[48] The portrayal of Philip as a crowned child holding a scepter contradicts part of the narrative; he was not crowned until he was 14 years old. Indeed, Philip's dress alludes to Louis VII's prayer, also recorded in the chapter, in which Louis requests an heir to rule: "Lord, give me a son, heir of my body, noble governor of the realm of France."[49] This boy clad in the attributes of kingship comes in answer to the prayer of the king and the populace for a "governor." The picture thus celebrates both the birth of Philip Augustus and the God-given kingship of France. In this manuscript Philip Augustus and Charlemagne not only provide Philip III with distinct models for French kingship, but are also associated with ― 22 ― each other. This connection is emphasized by the layout of the cycle of decoration. A reader coming upon the group of miniatures illustrating the life of Philip Augustus might well recall that Charlemagne was the last ruler in this manuscript to have such a cycle. Textual evidence provides further reasons for associating Philip Augustus with Charlemagne. The most famous text to do so is the reditus regni ad stirpem Karoli Magni , the prophecy that seven generations after the usurpation of the French throne by Hugh Capet, France would be returned to a ruler of Carolingian descent.[50] In this copy of the Grandes Chroniques , discussion of the reditus is limited to a small paragraph at the beginning of Hugh Capet's life which states that Philip Augustus married Elizabeth of Hainaut expressly to recover the line of Charlemagne.[51] In later copies of the chronicle an expanded discussion of the reditus appears at the beginning of the life of Philip Augustus's son, Louis VIII, who fulfilled the prophecy because he was descended from the Carolingians on both his mother's and father's sides.[52] Perhaps because Louis's life was not included in Philip III's manuscript, Philip Augustus is presented as the prime agent of the reditus . The reditus affected Primat's translation of his sources. In describing the second coronation of Philip Augustus, which took place in Saint-Denis in 1180 during his marriage to Elizabeth of Hainaut, Primat transformed his Latin source, a text by Rigord, by explicitly referring to Charlemagne. The Latin text described how Elizabeth's uncle, Philip of Flanders, carried a sword with honor before the king; Primat's version speaks of "Philip of Flanders, who on this day carried Joyeuse , the sword of the great king Charlemagne, before the king as is right and customary at coronations of kings."[53] These visual and textual references to Charlemagne and Philip Augustus are provocative because they may echo Philip Augustus's identification with Charlemagne, voiced most explicitly in the reditus . Primat's interpolation, moreover, may have been an attempt to establish a precedent for Philip III's use of Charlemagne's sword in his coronation and to strengthen the identification between Philip III and his great Capetian ancestor Philip Augustus. Mention of the sword Joyeuse was probably intended to recall Charlemagne, Philip Augustus's illustrious predecessor, and to refer to Philip III, his namesake who also used Charlemagne's sword in the ceremony. Thus both text and pictures present Charlemagne and Philip Augustus to Philip III as dual models of kingship.
Dynastic Continuity Other illustrations in Philip III's Grandes Chroniques develop the dynastic theme of the prologue. These merge, yet differentiate, the sequence of Merovingian, Carolingian, and Capetian rulers that stretches back to Troy, and in the process they celebrate the legitimacy of the Capetians and of Philip III. Two historiated initials break the pattern of illustrations in the first portion of the manuscript to address the transfer of government from Merovingian to Carolingian. The first (Fig. 8) portrays the coronation of Chilperic II, in a chapter that begins with a rubric, "Ci commence li fait du noble prince Charles Martel," which directs attention away from Chilperic to the mayor of the palace, Charles Martel. The second initial (Fig. 9) celebrates the prowess of Pepin, Charles Martel's ― 23 ―
[Full Size] Figure 8 Coronation of Chilperic II. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 100. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris.
[Full Size] Figure 9 Carloman and Pepin capture Laon from their brother Grifon. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 103. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris. ― 24 ― son and the progenitor of the Carolingian line, shown with his brother capturing the city of Laon. The text describes how, as a reward for his nobility in defending the French realm, Pepin was crowned king of France by the pope, who noted the weakness of the last Merovingian rulers, whom he was deposing, and the strength of Pepin as true governor of the realm.[54] A second, less explicit break of decorative pattern comes in the book dedicated to the lives of the last Carolingian and early Capetian kings. In this section historiated initials subdivide several chapters outlined in the chapter list. The clusters these form again imply
that a transition of dynasties is a reward for good government. A sequence of scenes in one chapter creates a precedent for Capetian rule. In the first cluster (Fig. 10) Normans invade France because the Carolingian king, Charles the Simple, is too young and too weak to govern. In desperation the barons turn to the mayor of the palace, Odo Capet, and crown him king (Fig. 11). Odo governs but remains loyal to young Charles. As soon as Odo dies and the realm reverts to Charles the Simple, the political situation degenerates. The Normans invade again, only to be driven from the realm by the duke of Burgundy (Fig. 12). A second cluster of historiated initials represents the chaos that preceded Hugh Capet's accession to the throne. A sequence of three historiated initials shows the coronation of Louis V, the last Carolingian king (Fig. 13); the conflict between Louis's uncle, Charles, and Hugh Capet's army, which broke out because Hugh would not accept Charles's succession (Fig. 13); and the resolution of the crisis—Hugh Capet, descendant of Odo and, like Odo, mayor of the palace,
[Full Size] Figure 10 Invasion of the Normans. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 208v. Photograph: Bibliothèque SainteGeneviève, Paris. ― 25 ― becomes king (Fig. 14). As the chronicle describes it, "because Hugh saw that all the heirs and the line of Charlemagne were destroyed and also since [the line] died out and since there was no one to contradict him, he had himself crowned in the city of Reims."[55] Hugh's life does not show his assumption of power but rather depicts him already crowned and exercising his kingly prerogatives, in this case pardoning the count of Flanders at the request of the duke of Normandy. This handful of historiated initials promotes the idea that the French ruling house draws its legitimacy as much from just government as from blood. Such legitimacy can be confirmed by blood, as the reditus suggests, but it is not necessarily created by it.[56] This view seemed to be foremost at Saint-Denis from the 1260s to 1280s, for it shaped other commissions, including the large sculpted tomb program for the abbey church and the Latin guide to the tombs written by Guillaume de Nangis.[57] The combination of distinct lines unified by the reditus in the tombs and in the Latin Abbreviated Chronicle supports my interpretation of Philip III's program of decoration. All three—the tombs, the Latin chronicle, and the pictorial cycle of Philip III's Grandes Chroniques —trace the lines of office of the French king and note each spot where succession based on good government and succession based on blood diverge. But in each the careful documentation of genealogical discontinuity is secondary to the celebration of continuity of the long line of good governors. This continuity was confirmed by the reditus , which reunified legitimacy of blood with legitimacy of succession to office in the Capetian descendants of Philip Augustus.[58]
[Full Size] Figure 12 Normans driven from France by the duke of Burgundy. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 209. Photograph by the author. ― 27 ―
[Full Size] Figure 11 Coronation of Odo Capet. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 208v. Photograph: Bibliothèque SainteGeneviève, Paris. ― 26 ―
[Full Size] Figure 13 Coronation of Louis V; Army of Charles of Lorraine puts to flight that of Hugh Capet. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque SainteGeneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 219. Photograph by the author. ― 28 ―
[Full Size]
Figure 14 Hugh Capet pardons the count of Flanders. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 219v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris.
The Royal House and the Abbey of Saint-Denis: A Shared History The impetus toward self-promotion characteristic of commissions sponsored by the abbey of Saint-Denis explains the presence of one rare miniature in this Grandes Chroniques . The illustration for the first book of the life of Charlemagne comprises two scenes (Fig. 15). In the lower register, Childeric III, the last Merovingian king, is deposed and forced to enter a monastery.[59] Above this scene Pope Stephen II crowns Pepin, the first Carolingian ruler. Perhaps in an attempt to feature the coronation at Saint-Denis in which the pope took part, the composition in this miniature inverts the narrative structure common to every other multitiered miniature, in which the story unfolds from left to right and from top to bottom. This is therefore a specially tailored image whose subject does not recur in any later cycles.[60] Although dynastic interests account in part for the inclusion of the miniature of Pepin's coronation, the history of Saint-Denis may explain its prominence. Because the ceremony took place at Saint-Denis, it was as much a part of the history of the abbey that produced the text as it was of the king who received the manuscript.[61] The illustration of Pepin's coronation served as a reminder to the king of the intertwined history of the abbey and the French royal house. Philip III's Grandes Chroniques is a carefully crafted text decorated by illustrations that clarify the chronicle's dynastic and Dionysian content. Primat's French ― 29 ―
[Full Size] Figure 15 Pope Stephen II crowns Pepin; Childeric III deposed. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 107. Photograph: Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Paris.
text is more than a translation from the Latin; Primat rearranged the structure of his Latin model to focus more attention on Charlemagne and Philip Augustus, and he appended a prologue and a poetic colophon that together shaped the text as a Mirror of Princes. Pictures reinforce many of Primat's innovations. The historiated initial at the prologue and the large miniature at the end of the manuscript strengthen this interpretation of the text, and the density of the cycles and scale of illustration promote the importance of Charlemagne and Philip Augustus as royal models. In addition, miniatures betray the circumstances of the book's production, stressing the concerns with dynastic legitimacy, which were important to royalty, as well as the historical ties between the French crown and the abbey, which were so evident in Dionysian commissions. These observations may explain why this pictorial cycle spawned no progeny despite its presence in the royal library at the Louvre.[62] Because Philip's Grandes Chroniques was commissioned for a special audience at a particular time, its pictures tailor the reading of the text to suit the needs of both Philip III and the abbey of Saint-Denis.
― 30 ―
Chapter Two— Manuscripts Produced during the Reigns of the Last Direct Capetians Manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques produced during the reigns of the last Capetians are simpler in conception than is Philip III's book. Few have the precise didactic frame, the combination of prefatory prologue and poetic colophon, that Philip III's book has, and those that share Philip III's textual frame do not share its complex program of decoration.[1] Controlled, self-conscious versions of the chronicle such as Philip III's were in the minority in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Pictures in most manuscripts from this era share only the simplest aspects of Philip III's program of decoration. Parisian libraires working for members of the nobility supervised the production of the majority of surviving copies of the Grandes Chroniques from this period.[2] Perhaps as a result, cycles of decoration in these manuscripts do not seem to focus on exempla in the same way that the illustrations in the manuscript of Philip III do. Indeed, it is difficult to determine whether the pictures in many of these books were intended to shape a reading of the text. It is unclear whether the events highlighted by pictures were important to a specific patron, whether they were selected for him, or whether they were prepackaged by the editor before a patron arrived. Yet there are ways of coming to grips with the cycles in these manuscripts. Once the late Capetian manuscripts have been examined carefully, certain books reveal affinities with courtly and royal programs from the reign of Philip IV.
Genealogical Manuscripts Libraires producing many of the Grandes Chroniques for the court adapted their illustrations to portray one of the many themes that shaped Philip III's manuscript: dynastic continuity. Taking their lead from the passage in the prologue that describes the "long succession" of French kings, they represent a royal genealogy that concentrates on succession to office rather than heredity.[3] Two chronicles from the early fourteenth century (Cambrai, B.M. 682; B.N. fr. 2615) reveal the shape that such genealogical programs took. Although the provenance of these manuscripts is uncertain, textual and pictorial evidence links ― 31 ―
[Full Size] Figure 16 Clovis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 682, fol. 19. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale de Cambrai. them to a courtly milieu. The chronicle in Cambrai includes the French and Latin dedication poems that appear in Philip III's Grandes Chroniques and in three later manuscripts, one of which belonged to Charles V. These textual features may indicate a royal recension of the text and suggest at the very least that the book was made for a person close to the king.[4] Artistic evidence places the second manuscript (B.N. fr. 2615) in a Parisian milieu.[5] Pictures in this chronicle relate stylistically to those by a group of artists who decorated books for the king and members of the nobility. On the basis of style, Avril dates the Grandes Chroniques in Paris to 1315–20, an attribution that is supported by a textual interpolation that provides a terminus post quem of 1315.[6] In planning illustrations for these manuscripts, the libraires took their cue from the portion of the prologue that describes the genealogy of the French kings. The pictures repeat basic patterns, emphasizing enthroned rulers in the chronicle in Cambrai and coronations in the manuscript in Paris. The cycle from the Cambrai manuscript is the simpler. Its historiated initials, which mark normal divisions in the text, contain enthroned kings holding either swords or scepters, as for instance in the picture of Clovis (Fig. 16). The only deviation from the pattern occurs at the beginning of the third book of the life of Charlemagne (Fig. 17), where an emperor holds an orb and a scepter to commemorate Charlemagne's imperial coronation. The cycle decorating the Paris manuscript is structured on the same principle but executed with greater sophistication. Coronations of almost every ruler of ― 32 ― France illustrate this book.[7] Their placement breaks down the customary structure of the text, which is normally divided into books subdivided into chapters. In this manuscript reigns of kings form textual units, and as a result the density of illustration varies radically. For instance, illustrations of the coronations of Louis III, Odo Capet, and Charles the Simple (fols. 140–141) break what normally constitutes the seventh chapter of the life of Louis the Stammerer into three segments. In other parts of the manuscript many folios separate miniatures. Thus the sequential miniatures illustrating the coronation of Louis the Pious as coemperor by Charlemagne (fol. 90v) and the coronation of Louis the Pious as emperor (fol. 115) are 25 folios apart. The iconography of the Paris book's cycle of illustration was carefully coordinated before the gatherings were given out to at least nine different artists.[8] Each scene incorporates details drawn from its text. Thus when the Grandes Chroniques lists three of the king's brothers attending his coronation, the miniature includes them.[9] The designer of the manuscript even elaborated the text on occasion by using elements drawn from conventions of representation to identify characters. For instance, the attributes used to distinguish
Charles Martel (a large gold hat) and Pepin the Short (a lion under his feet) in the illustration of Charles Martel dividing his realm between Pepin and Carloman (Fig. 18) also appear in subsequent miniatures.[10] In the next folio Pepin is easily identified by his lion in the illustration of the coronation by Pope Stephen (Fig. 19). These extratextual iconographic details occasionally promote the theme of dynastic continuity. Thus Pepin's and Charles Martel's costumes are used for their
[Full Size] Figure 17 Charlemagne. Grandes Chroniques de France . Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 682, fol. 140v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale de Cambrai. ― 33 ―
[Full Size] Figure 18 Charles Martel divides the realm between Pepin and Carloman. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2615, fol. 72. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size] Figure 19 Coronation of Pepin by Pope Stephen II. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2615, fol. 72v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 34 ― descendants. When Charlemagne supervises the pope's coronation of his two sons, Pepin and Louis (Fig. 20), Charlemagne and Pepin dress like their namesakes. Charlemagne wears the gold hat of Charles Martel, and Pepin has a lion like Pepin the Short's at his feet. Although scenes from the Paris Grandes Chroniques incorporate specific details drawn from the text, they are essentially nonnarrative, like the miniatures in the Cambrai manuscript. Both cycles are fundamentally different from that in Philip III's Grandes Chroniques . The repetition of enthroned kings or of ceremonies of coronation in these manuscripts focuses attention on the line of kings who governed France rather than on the exploits of certain rulers who were special models for kingship. Such genealogical programs have parallels in secular and Dionysian commissions from the reigns of Philip the Bold, Philip the Fair, and his sons. These, like B.N. fr. 2615 and Cambrai, B.M. 682, also reject the reditus as a structuring principle for representations of dynastic kingship. The series of montjoies , or markers, erected on the road between Paris and Saint-Denis was an early and public example of such a dynastic program.[11] In place from the late thirteenth century, these monuments were identical in type: each was topped by a cross and decorated by fleurs-de-lis, and each contained three niches filled with generalized representations of French kings who varied in pose from one monument to the other. The cumulative effect of these monuments emphasized the length and strength of the French line. On a trip from Paris to Saint-Denis a traveler would have seen 21 to 27 kings.[12]
[Full Size] Figure 20 Charlemagne supervises coronation of Pepin and Louis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2615, fol. 79v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 35 ― Royal commissions for Philip the Fair placed equal emphasis on his descent. The most notable courtly commission of this sort was the decoration of the Grande Salle of the Palais de la Cité under Philip IV. There a series of labeled polychromed statues portrayed French kings from Pharamond to Philip himself.[13] Contemporary descriptions make clear that these were perceived as commemorations of the office of king. In the 1320s Jean de Jandun described the statues in terms of succession to office: "For the honor of their glorious memory, the statues of all the kings of France who occupied the throne up to the present are gathered in this place. Their likeness is so expressive that at first glimpse one would believe they were alive."[14] Philip IV's commissions at Saint-Denis also concentrated on royal succession rather than the sequence of dynasties or the reditus . In 1306 Philip IV ordered the tombs at Saint-Denis rearranged to move his and his parents' tombs to the Carolingian side of the choir. This change merged the division of ruling houses that had been so carefully established in the 1260s.[15] Although some scholars interpret the rearrangement as an attempt to place Philip III's and Philip IV's tombs close to that of their holy ancestor, Louis IX, it also blended the lines so that the overwhelming impression on a visitor to the abbey would be comparable to that of Jean de Jandun when he faced the sculpture of the Grande Salle of the Palais de la Cité. Royal taste for the emphasis on the long line of kings eventually affected Dionysian commissions. During the reigns of Philip IV and his sons even the monks of Saint-Denis abandoned the reditus as a means of structuring royal succession. A telling example is the third portion of Ivo of Saint-Denis's Vita et Passio (B.N. lat. 13836), part of a manuscript commissioned by Philip IV but presented to Philip V c. 1319.[16] This book merged the histories of France and Saint-Denis by appending at the end of Saint Denis's vita a historical compilation decorated by pictures of enthroned kings woven into a genealogical framework that is much more explicit than that of any contemporary copy of the Grandes Chroniques . Marginal notes in a 1330s version of the Vita et Passio preserved at the abbey of SaintDenis (B.N. lat. 5286) contribute to a reconstitution of the pictorial program in the manuscript presented to the king.[17] Several of these notes refer to images in the king's book that present special models of kingship in Charlemagne and Saint Louis or stress the importance of the French house.[18] One image in particular could have been included in the king's book only for dynastic reasons. At the end of the folio on which Hugh Capet's life is described in the later copy (B.N. lat. 5286) preserved at Saint-Denis, a cursive note describes a chart that diagrams Hugh Capet's descent from the Carolingians.[19] Although references to the chart occur in the monastery's copy, it was included only in the king's version (Fig. 21).[20] There it
reinforces the Latin and French rubrics to the chapter, thus confirming Hugh Capet's legitimacy as a Carolingian.[21] The inclusion of this chart in the illustrations of the kings of France that decorate the royal book presents the reader with a pictorial genealogy of the kings of France that, like those of the Grande Salle's sculptures and contemporary genealogical Grandes Chroniques , runs unbroken from Troy to Philip V, but presents continuity of blood as well as of succession. ― 36 ―
[Full Size] Figure 21 Genealogical tree for Hugh Capet. Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 13836, fol. 78. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 37 ―
Independent Traditions: A Parisian Bookseller's Chronicle One manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 10132), probably finished in the 1320s and continued again in the mid-fourteenth century, illustrates the extent to which available
models affected the form of cycles. This book was commissioned from Thomas of Maubeuge, a noted Parisian libraire , by Pierre Honnorez of Neufchâtel in Normandy.[22] Apparently Thomas based his manuscript on a copy of the Grandes Chroniques to 1223, which copies an exemplaire that seems to have circulated among Parisian booksellers until the early fifteenth century, and supplemented that text with Guillaume de Nangis's amplified chronicle for the lives of Louis VIII through Louis X.[23] To organize the text Thomas turned not to royal or courtly models of the Grandes Chroniques but to contemporary vernacular histories, specifically to the Abrégé de l'histoire de France by the Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers, one of the texts whose prologue was adapted for the Grandes Chroniques .[24] This copy of the Grandes Chroniques is the only one whose text follows the tripartite division outlined in the section of the prologue taken from the Ménestrel's chronicle and used to structure manuscripts of that text. Thomas of Maubeuge did as the derivative section of the Grandes Chroniques 's prologue mandates: he divided the history into three principal books that deal with the "generations" of Meroveus, Pepin, and Hugh Capet. To clarify the organization of the text further, Thomas provided a genealogically structured table of contents in the first gathering, which was added after the manuscript was completed through the life of Louis X. Besides listing certain important passages and noting the folios on which they appear, the chapter list explains how to use the text when it is divided into three: "And to know how to find the generation by the number, you will find in the first generation on each page the number .i., in the second .ii., and in the third .iii. And thus you will find the things which are there."[25] Within each of the subdivisions of the text proper the pagination begins anew. The earliest manuscripts of the Abrégé de l'histoire de France , dating from the thirteenth century, append genealogical trees that function like Thomas's genealogically ordered chapter list.[26] These diagrams distinguish the Merovingians, Carolingians, and Capetians from one another so clearly that few other illustrations are needed.[27] As a result, the Abrégé provided few pictorial models for Thomas. The textual relationship between these books therefore makes the independence of Thomas's illustrations even more noteworthy. Indeed, they differ distinctly from the few illustrated manuscripts of the Abrégé and from the copies of the Grandes Chroniques produced under courtly or Dionysian patronage. In selecting his pictures, Thomas seems to have forged an independent cycle—one that may provide insights into nonroyal uses of history in the early fourteenth century. Directions to the rubricator and illuminator preserved in B.N. fr. 10132[28] suggest that the genesis of this pictorial cycle was similar to that described for contemporary romances. In romances verbal guides written as directions to the illuminator often indicated the subjects for illuminations and explanatory captions in the form of rubrics often summarized the chapters and explained their miniatures.[29] ― 38 ― In B.N. fr. 10132 this practice was limited to material derived from the first of the two textual models used for the portion of this Grandes Chroniques finished in the 1320s.[30] Apparently Thomas used a fully rubricated copy of Guillaume de Nangis's amplified chronicle for the second portion of the manuscript describing events from 1223 to 1316, because that part has rubrics for every chapter and contains no marginal guides to the illuminator or rubricator. In contrast the Grandes Chroniques to 1223 that Thomas used as a source for the first portion of the book seems not to have been fully rubricated. Because original rubrics and notes to the illuminator survive in that part of the manuscript, the creative process involved in emphasizing selected texts and images is most evident there. With the exception of the fourth book of the lives of the Merovingians, which has rubrics for each chapter, rubrication is scattered in the portion of Thomas's text based on the Grandes Chroniques . Not all illustrated chapters have rubrics, and not all rubricated chapters have illustrations. Nonetheless, selected cases in which a rare combination of directions to the illuminator and rubricator survives demonstrate how the libraire constructed the pictorial cycle.[31] These marginal directions were first published by Berger and Durrieu, who described the positions of the notes to the rubricator in the lower or side margins and the notes to the illuminator in the lower margins.[32] They suggested that the notes were written by two separate hands: the first, the scribe of the text and rubric, wrote notes for the rubricator, and the second wrote notes for the illuminator in a more cursive hand. Berger and Durrieu concluded that Thomas of Maubeuge's Grandes Chroniques was created through the
successive intervention of three people: the copyist, who was also the rubricator; the director of the illumination; and the illuminator. Gilbert Ouy's suggestion that the two sets of directions were written by the same hand employing different styles of script presents a different vision of the creation of the book in which at any given time one person was responsible for copying the text, writing the notes dictating the content of rubrics and subjects for illumination, and rubricating the manuscript.[33] Certain inaccuracies in the pictorial cycle support his observation. For example, on folio 256 (Figs. 22 and 23) the directions to the illuminator follow the notes to the rubricator in the lower margin. First is the note for the rubric that celebrates King Robert's descent from Hugh Capet and his scholarly bent, and second is the note for the illumination that describes how, with plenty of soldiers, he besieges a city.[34] It seems likely that someone wrote the note to the illuminator after completing the note to the rubricator; for that person the "he" of the illuminator's note was clearly King Robert, who had just been mentioned by name in the rubricator's note. Robert's identity was not so clear to the artist, who apparently read only the notes written in the script used for directions about pictorial content. He painted a generic scene of knights approaching a castle, rather than a king leading a siege.[35] When directions to the rubricator and the illuminator were not juxtaposed on the same folio, the scribe knew that the artist would not have seen the note to the rubricator and was careful to specify in the direction to the artist the presence of "the king" or "the emperor." The artists followed these directions, thereby producing more accurate representations of the events described in the chapter than those produced on folios where directions to the illuminator immediately ― 39 ―
[Full Size] Figure 22 Knights approach a castle. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132, fol. 256. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 40 ―
[Full Size] Figure 23 Notes to the illuminator and rubricator. Grandes Chroniques de France
. Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132, fol. 256. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size] Figure 24 Battle of Charles of Anjou and Manfred. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132, fol. 371v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 41 ― followed directions to the rubricator. This occurs whether the directions to the rubricator and illuminator are on facing pages (fols. 219v–20 and 240v–41) or on the recto and verso of one folio (fols. 252–52v and 255–55v). Most miniatures in Thomas's manuscript are essentially schematic compositions. The treatment of pictures showing battles exemplifies the way in which the artist who followed the marginal notes tailored these stock scenes to fit various situations. The battle of Manfred and Charles of Anjou (Fig. 24) represents the basic composition—a confrontation between a king and a knight on ground defined by hillocks made of black and white swirls. Artists could add details to this basic image. Extra knights and portions of dismembered bodies appear in the battle of Charles of Anjou against Conradin and Henry of Spain (Fig. 25); in a miniature painted by this artist in a later copy of the Grandes Chroniques (Castres, B.M.) trees fill in the representation of a preliminary skirmish before the battle of Bouvines (Fig. 26), and a complement of knights aid Philip Augustus in that battle (Fig. 27). Although none of the instructions for these specific pictures survive, it is quite likely that the directions given the artist for each of these miniatures specified the representation of a battle and that he adapted a stock scene to fill the need.[36] The relation between the content of the illuminations and the rubrics that act as explanatory captions is revealing as well. When directions to the illuminator are present, pictures never depend exclusively on the rubric; in fact, in 17 of the 19 cases where directions to the illuminator survive, the rubric is very
[Full Size] Figure 25 Battle of Charles of Anjou against Conradin and Henry of Spain. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132, fol. 372. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 42 ―
[Full Size] Figure 26 Battle of Bouvines. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 282v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres.
[Full Size] Figure 27 Capture of Ferrand. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 285. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. ― 43 ― simple, introducing a book dedicated to the life of a king.[37] In the two cases where the rubrics are more elaborate, the pictures still follow the directions to the illuminator. However, when directions to the illuminator are absent, pictures often illustrate more elaborate rubrics that function as captions. The most obvious examples of this occur in a sequence of four rubrics in Books I–III, which provide such detailed descriptions that they could function as directions to the illuminator, although only three are illustrated in B.N. fr. 10132. These captions differ from those given in the chapter list and in such earlier copies of the chronicle as Ste.-Gen. 782. They seem to have been part of a text that circulated among Parisian libraires , because they resurfaced in a number of late fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques .[38] Although most images in this Grandes Chroniques are composites assembled by the artist from stock compositions to illustrate written directions for "a battle," the cycle itself was carefully constructed. Indeed, the structure of this cycle of illustration differs distinctly from those that I have termed "royal" or "genealogical." The first two pictures in particular reinforce the preoccupation with dynasties exhibited in the tripartite division of text in this Grandes Chroniques . The first miniature depicts the destruction of and flight from Troy (Fig. 28). Its placement at the beginning of the prologue is rare, because the Trojan story forms part of the first chapter of Book I. A unique image derived from the iconography of the tree of Jesse (Fig. 29) displaced the Trojan image as an illustration for the first book of the chronicle. It shows a recumbent king from whom grows a tree bearing fruits that are crowned and uncrowned male heads. The rubrics for these two pictures establish a relationship between them. A rubric under the illustration of the destruction of Troy is better suited to explain the tree: "Here begins a genealogy of the dukes who reigned before there was any king in France, and then, of the kings who reigned after them."[39] The image of the tree of descent shows the uncrowned heads (dukes) and crowned heads (kings) forming part of the same tree. Its rubric alludes to the destruction: "Here begins a genealogy of the kings of France and how they descended first from those who fled Troy."[40] The displacement of the Trojan scene to include the tree of descent at the beginning of Book I emphasizes the importance to this book of the length of the French line. This unique combination of text and image reflects the special concern with genealogy and succession outlined in the prologue of the Grandes Chroniques , a preoccupation reinforced by the introductory materials (fols. 1–6v) added to this manuscript to clarify its division into three parts.
The treatment of the reditus provides one of the most telling examples of how the perspective of Thomas of Maubeuge and Pierre of Neufchâtel, his patron, on the reading and picturing of history differed from that represented in the first version of the Grandes Chroniques .[41] In Philip III's Grandes Chroniques the reditus provides the underlying structural principle for the whole cycle. Pictures of Charlemagne and of Philip Augustus are of large scale, and textual references connect the two in a complex interrelationship. The expression of the reditus and the implications for French legitimacy of the return of government to descendants of Charlemagne were important to both the abbey of Saint-Denis and to Philip III. ― 44 ―
[Full Size] Figure 28 Destruction of Troy. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132, fol. 19. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 45 ―
[Full Size] Figure 29 Tree of descent. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132, fol. 20v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The reditus is not an important concept in the Grandes Chroniques directed by Thomas of Maubeuge. In this manuscript the life of Hugh Capet, in which the reditus is first mentioned, is illustrated by a rare scene of the marriage of Philip Augustus and Elizabeth of Hainaut (Fig. 30), the deed by which the reditus was accomplished. Because this image is unusual, a reader might interpret it as a deliberate visualization of a political prophecy. Nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed, this seemingly innovative picture was the easiest way to illustrate the text that follows it. As the first event described in the chapter to lend itself to visual formulation, the marriage of Philip and Elizabeth found its way into the list of directions to the illuminator, where it is described, "How the king marries a woman and several knights and many clergy are there."[42] The text and image for the life of Louis VIII in the manuscript commissioned from Thomas of Maubeuge support this interpretation of the reditus miniature. The official life of Louis VIII preserved in contemporary manuscripts of the ― 46 ―
[Full Size] Figure 30 Marriage of Philip Augustus and Elizabeth of Hainaut. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132, fol. 255v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Grandes Chroniques includes an extended celebration of the reditus .[43] The continuation employed by Thomas of Maubeuge in this Grandes Chroniques plays down the prophecy, and the illustration of the chapter ignores it, representing Louis VIII receiving a messenger.[44] A consideration of pictures that depart from the traditional layout followed in this manuscript (in which a miniature begins each book of the chronicle) makes clear what themes attracted either Thomas of Maubeuge or Pierre of Neufchâtel. Nine pictures subdivide books in this copy of the Grandes Chroniques .[45] These reveal interest in such heroes of French history as Clovis, Dagobert, and Pepin and demonstrate a desire to document Charlemagne's acquisition of relics that, at the time of this manuscript's execution, were thought to be kept at Saint-Denis. In summary, what is most important about Pierre of Neufchâtel's Grandes Chroniques is the insight it provides into popular cycles of the chronicle. Both the pictorial cycle and the textual organization of this manuscript are very different from contemporary Dionysian, royal, and courtly programs. Thomas of Maubeuge was the only editor to be faithful to the division of the texts outlined in the prologue of the Grandes Chroniques and to attempt in the first few illustrations of the program to reinforce the prologue's dynastic message. Both the organization of the text and the paired introductory miniatures in this copy of the chronicle concentrate on the succession of the three races of French kings. Although the ― 47 ― rest of the cycle is less innovative, it is nonetheless an important source for examining aspects of the history that interested the broader audience who bought manuscripts from libraires . This chronicle manifests less concern with questions of dynastic succession than preoccupation with traditional French heroes. Unlike many royal and courtly manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques , which were tied closely to royal self-perception and to the changing political situation in France, such apolitical manuscripts as that commissioned from Thomas of Maubeuge retained their popularity through the reigns of the early Valois.[46] ― 49 ―
PART II— DYNASTIC CHANGE AND THE REPRESENTATION OF HISTORY IN THE MID-FOURTEENTH CENTURY ― 51 ―
Chapter Three— Textual and Pictorial Innovation in John the Good's Grandes Chroniques Because the last Capetians left no male heirs, the Capetian and Valois kings during the first half of the fourteenth century were plagued by the problem of royal succession.[1] When Louis X died in 1316, his wife was pregnant; his brother Philip, named regent for the duration of the pregnancy, became king when the newborn son died, because the treaty regulating the regency had laid the groundwork for the elimination of Louis's daughter from the succession. An assembly of barons confirmed Philip's selection in 1317. Philip V died without a male heir. He was succeeded by his younger brother Charles IV, who left a daughter and a pregnant queen at his death. Because of the precedent for female exclusion set in 1316, Isabelle, the sister of Louis X, Philip V, and Charles IV, was not considered for the succession after her youngest brother died. The barons instead chose Isabelle's cousin Philip of Valois as regent, and when Charles IV's widow gave birth to a daughter, they declared Philip king in 1328. Two claimants to the French throne, Edward III of England and Charles of Navarre, objected to this exclusion of women; each claimed succession through his mother—Edward III through Isabelle, sister of the last three Capetian kings, and Charles of Navarre through Jeanne of Burgundy and Navarre, daughter of Louis X. The English claim, pressed from 1337, constitutes one of the primary causes of the Hundred Years' War. The younger pretender, Charles of Navarre, began to maneuver for the throne only during the 1350s. Although the conflict between England and France escalated during the reign of Philip of Valois, most of the attacks were aimed at Philip's descendants, particularly John the Good, Philip's heir when the Hundred Years' War began.[2] Perhaps because of his shaky status, John actively commissioned manuscripts, particularly political texts. His Grandes Chroniques de France , one of the earliest of his manuscripts, is therefore best seen in its political context.[3] The copy of the Grandes Chroniques produced for John the Good (B.L. Royal 16 G VI) is one of the most luxurious French manuscripts of the fourteenth century. With over 400 illustrations incorporating more than 600 individual scenes, this manuscript contains a painstakingly revised text of the chronicle, which runs through the life of Saint Louis.[4] Although the book is not listed in any surviving inventories of the Louvre or in descriptions of John the Good's possessions ― 52 ― when he was captured at Poitiers in 1356, it belonged to John before he became king. On the first folio are John's arms as duke of Normandy, a title he held from 1332 to 1350. Moreover, at the end of the manuscript John's signature as duke has been erased.[5] A group of artists active for the court in the 1330s painted the book c. 1335–40.[6] Clearly, then, this Grandes Chroniques , now in London, was made for John when he was between 16 and 21 years old. Whether commissioned by John or by someone close to him at court, the manuscript offers a rare opportunity to examine the ideal of kingship deemed appropriate for the young heir to the throne. Further, the dense marginal annotations provide insights into the maturation of John's political thought. Although the text in John the Good's chronicle is structured essentially like that of Philip III's, its content differs. Like Philip III's chronicle, John the Good's is divided into a sequence of books, each of which (with the exception of Louis VII's life) is introduced by a chapter list. John's manuscript, however, continues the Grandes Chroniques with lives of Louis VIII and Saint Louis, both without chapter lists.
The text in John's book was edited carefully by someone who went back to Primat's primary Latin source (B.N. lat. 5925) preserved in the library of Saint-Denis. Certain passages in the Latin manuscript were included without the corrections provided in Primat's French translation; other passages that Primat interpolated into his translation were omitted.[7] The compiler need not have been a monk of Saint-Denis, however, since he had access to such Parisian sources as the cartularies of Notre-Dame in Paris, which he used on at least one occasion to correct the Grandes Chroniques .[8] Further, his translation of Saint Louis's life consistently suppresses remarks relating to the Abbey of Saint-Denis.[9] Most revisions in the body of John's Grandes Chroniques clarify the chronicle by specifying where events described in the text took place and by adding phrases like "près de Paris" to locate obscure places.[10] They also recommend further reading in the lives of saints for the history of the Merovingian rulers of France.[11] John's Grandes Chroniques apparently retained its status as an important translation throughout his reign. Later in John's lifetime, the text of this manuscript was revised a second time.[12] The primary source for this revision was once again the Latin compilation (B.N. lat. 5925) preserved at Saint-Denis. Delisle showed that the editor prepared for his revision of John's Grandes Chroniques by annotating B.N. lat. 5925 with cross-references to a historical manuscript from Saint-Germaindes-Près (now B.N. lat. 12711), references to the chapter divisions of the French chronicle, and French glosses about faulty translations in the text of the Grandes Chroniques .[13] After verifying the translation in John the Good's manuscript, the editor annotated it extensively in French; his work was written in a clear Gothic bookhand in the margins (see, for example, Fig. 42). Delisle correctly suggested that the revisions must have been made at court because the editor had easy access to manuscripts from Saint-Denis, Saint-Germain-des-Près, and the royal library. According to Delisle, the editor was Pierre d'Orgemont, the chancellor of John's son, King Charles V, who is thought to have supervised the continuation of the Grandes Chroniques in the 1370s during Charles's reign.[14] Delisle speculated that John's chronicle was annotated as a prelude to the production of Charles V's magnificent manuscript. ― 53 ― Textual evidence, however, supports a simpler theory—that John the Good ordered the revision. Both the tone of the annotations and their subject are consistent with the initial translation done for John. Like the body of John's Grandes Chroniques , the elaborate marginal annotations primarily retranslate Primat's Latin source. They thus share the concern for clarity and authenticity that informed John's manuscript in the 1330s and follow the same method of compilation. Moreover, Delisle's theory fails to explain why Pierre d'Orgemont would collate several manuscripts and annotate John the Good's chronicle in preparation for his work for Charles V only to turn to another textual model for the first portion of Charles's manuscript, Philip III's copy of the Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782), preserved in the royal library. Finally, the few cursive annotations in the margins of B.L. Royal 16 G VI do not support Pierre's authorship of the new translation. These notes were not written by the same hand (presumably Pierre d'Orgemont's) that covered the margins of the first Grandes Chroniques with cursive directions to the scribe of Charles V's manuscript.[15] The inescapable conclusion is that the editor of Charles V's book had little or nothing to do with the production of the chronicle preserved in the British Library.[16] The relation between the marginal annotations and the pictures in John's chronicle suggests that the marginalia were designed to enhance John's manuscript, not to prepare for a more authoritative version of the chronicle. Two annotations comment on miniatures to clarify the text. The first corrects faulty heraldry in a miniature from the life of Louis VI (fol. 301), which should depict Henry I of England sleeping with his arms at the ready but shows the arms of France rather than England beside the recumbent king. A referencing mark, :/, like those used to insert annotations, appears in the margin closest to the arms in the miniature, and above it ":/ Angleterre" is written in cursive. A second marginal note in Gothic bookhand explains an ambiguous picture in the life of Philip Augustus (fol. 362v), showing a king, presumably John of England, paying homage to Philip Augustus. The accompanying text describes a visit of the English king to France and recounts an incident in which King John failed to comply with Philip Augustus's request to come to Paris as a peer. The picture does not illustrate either incident. Apparently this confusion was evident to the annotator of John the Good's manuscript: he added a marginal note later in the same chapter, beside a text describing how Philip gave Arthur, the nephew of John, the counties of Brittany, Anjou, and
Poitou, along with 200 knights and a sum of money, explaining the illustration with a phrase drawn from the Latin life of Philip Augustus: "King Philip received him [Arthur] perpetually in liege homage."[17] The iconography of Saint Denis also supports the Parisian provenance for the manuscript. Three scenes (fol. 183, Charlemagne prays at Saint-Denis; fol. 235v, Charles the Bald gives gifts to Saint-Denis; and fol. 302v, Louis VI prays at the abbey of Saint-Denis) include a distinctly Parisian representation of Saint Denis: Denis appears with all but the top of his head intact (Fig. 31). This image is in keeping with the assertion of the canons of NotreDame that they possessed the relic of the top of Saint Denis's cranium. First proposed during the reign of Philip Augustus, this claim was immediately contested by the monks of SaintDenis and continued to be a subject of active debate into the fifteenth century when it came to trial before the Parlement of Paris.[18] If Royal 16 G VI were a gift to John from ― 54 ―
[Full Size] Figure 31 Charles the Bald presents gifts to Saint-Denis. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 235v. By permission of the British Library. the monks, as Ste.-Gen. 782 had been to Philip III, it is doubtful that such imagery would have been included. If we reject Delisle's theory that Charles V's chancellor directed the revision of this Grandes Chroniques , then the London chronicle takes its rightful place as an important example of John's literary patronage. Following the lead of his mother, Jeanne of Burgundy, John the Good commissioned numerous translations of religious books and politically oriented texts, many of which were densely illustrated.[19] The Grandes Chroniques surviving in the British Library may well be one of the earliest of these commissions. Pictures are integral parts of John's Grandes Chroniques . Almost every chapter has a miniature; 418 illustrations contain over 600 scenes. Curiously, this wealth of imagery has never been fully examined, despite its significant difference from all other royal copies of the chronicle. This neglect may be the result of John's image as a chevalier who loved the hunt, relished battle, and lived luxuriously,[20] a view that colored certain interpretations of his manuscript and led scholars to dismiss its pictures as derivative. Stiennon and Lejeune, for example, concluded that the ― 55 ―
manuscript derived its cycle of Roland from chansons de geste [21] and that its pictures did not even illustrate the chronicle. Historians of art have therefore restricted their analyses of this book to studies of style.[22] Yet the illustrative cycle of John's Grandes Chroniques is never purely derivative but creatively modifies its sources, as demonstrated in its relation to Philip III's chronicle (Ste.Gen. 782), which, as the only other copy of the text known to have been in the royal library, may have been a source, and to a historical and hagiographic text also preserved in the royal library, the Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii of Ivo of Saint-Denis. If the compiler of John's Grandes Chroniques consulted Philip III's book, he adapted only certain aspects of its pictorial layout. For example, in both royal manuscripts the lives of the imperial Carolingians (Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Charles the Bald) are more densely illustrated than other royal lives. Philip's manuscript, however, places great emphasis on the imperial Carolingians, thus associating Philip Augustus with the early Carolingians— particularly with Charlemagne—as royal models for Philip III. John's Grandes Chroniques , on the other hand, does not involve the imperial Carolingians in a system of sophisticated pictorial cross-references but simply illustrates their texts and, through variations in scale and density, emphasizes themes already present in the chronicle. Most of the numerous illustrations to the lives of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Charles the Bald in John's chronicle concentrate on themes that provide appropriate models for his kingship: Charlemagne's military prowess and his piety. The fact that John took part in battle from an early age might explain why the seven pictures (fols. 141v, 143, 144, 145v, 147, 148v, and 149v) illustrating Charlemagne's campaigns in the second book of his life are two columns wide. Charlemagne's piety is a less common theme for a prince's book; nonetheless, John's manuscript contains a pair of double miniatures followed by a series of seven scenes in which Charlemagne in Constantinople receives the relics of Christ's suffering (fols. 159, 160), brings the relics home (fol. 161v), witnesses their miraculous properties (fol. 162v), and displays them to the populace at the fair of Lendit (fol. 163). Indeed, Charlemagne's recovery and adoration of Christ's relics are given more emphasis than the crusade by which they were acquired. Such an unusual combination of military prowess and religious devotion was doubtless intended to demonstrate the desired balance between worship and action in a Christian king. The admonitions added to the text to look for more information in the lives of the saints were taken to heart in its program of illustrations. The pictures of John's Grandes Chroniques blend images drawn from a variety of hagiographic traditions into an integrated cycle that closely illustrates its text. For example, one particularly dense subcycle in the Grandes Chroniques relates to an illustrated saint's life preserved in both the Dionysian and royal libraries: the Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii by Ivo of Saint-Denis.[23] Ivo of Saint-Denis's history, the third portion of the Vita et Passio , begins with the fall of Troy and ends in the reign of Philip V. Even though its structure, like that of the Grandes Chroniques , follows a sequence of royal biographies, its content focuses on the role in French history of Saint Denis and the abbey that bears his name. Predictably, one of the fullest royal cycles in Ivo's historical ― 56 ― compilation illustrates the life of Dagobert, the royal founder of the abbey of Saint-Denis. Dagobert's life is also the most densely illuminated of the Merovingian kings in John's Grandes Chroniques ; five 2-column miniatures are among 14 pictures dedicated exclusively to Dagobert. The iconography and style of this cycle are closely related to those of a contemporary copy of Ivo's text (B.N. lat. 5286), the only surviving witness to the full cycle of illustration in Ivo's presentation copy and a reliable guide to its cycle of illustrations. The pictorial model of Ivo's history is, however, transformed in John's book in order to concentrate on French kingship.[24] A comparison of images from the Grandes Chroniques with equivalent scenes from the Vita et Passio demonstrates how carefully the pictures in John's chronicle were selected. The Vita et Passio includes six full-page miniatures, read left to
[Full Size] Figure 32 Sighting and pursuit of stag. Ivo of SaintDenis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5286, fol. 135v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size] Figure 33 Stag takes refuge in Saint-Denis. Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii .
Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5286, fol. 137. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 57 ― right and bottom to top, that illustrate the discovery of the tomb of Saint Denis by Dagobert. The sighting and pursuit of the stag, complete with the hunters blowing horns in the first miniature (Fig. 32), is a separate image from the second, the stag's entry into the church containing the tomb of Saint Denis from which Dagobert and his fellow hunters were miraculously excluded (Fig. 33). Two subsequent miniatures show why Dagobert needed to seek refuge at the tomb. In the third, Dagobert's tutor insults him, and Dagobert humiliates his tutor as a punishment (Fig. 34). In the fourth, the tutor appeals to King Clotaire for revenge, Dagobert seeks sanctuary at the tomb from his father's wrath, and soldiers are sent to bring him back for punishment (Fig. 35). In the Dionysian manuscript of the Vita et Passio the king does not go to the tomb until his emissaries have failed to gain entry. The flurry of activity in this sequence of illustrations to Ivo's history centers on the tomb, which is also the central focus of the tale.
[Full Size] Figure 34 Dagobert tests and punishes his tutor. Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5286, fol. 138v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size] Figure 35 The tutor demands revenge; Dagobert seeks sanctuary at Saint-Denis. Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5286, fol. 139v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 58 ― The story concludes when Saint Denis and his companions appear to Dagobert who, inspired by them, writes to his father (Fig. 36) and is reconciled to him (Fig. 37). Although all the events pictured in Ivo's history are described by the text of the Grandes Chroniques , the miniatures in the chronicle are concerned less with the tomb than with Dagobert's miraculous protection by Saint Denis; extraneous details of the hunt are omitted. Dagobert's discovery of the tomb of Saint Denis and his companions is the focus of only two large miniatures in John's Grandes Chroniques . The first (Fig. 38) combines the chase after the stag with the frustration of the hunters when they cannot reach their quarry because Saint Denis protects it. The second image (Fig. 39) illustrates how Dagobert takes advantage of Saint Denis's protection after he has humiliated his tutor and
[Full Size] Figure 36 Saint Denis and companions appear to Dagobert; Dagobert writes to his father. Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5286, fol. 140v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size]
Figure 37 Dagobert reconciled with King Clotaire. Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5286, fol. 141v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 59 ― sought sanctuary from his father's wrath in the place where the stag has been protected. The pictures in the Grandes Chroniques also emphasize Dagobert's relationship with his father, the king. Unlike Ivo's Vita et Passio (Fig. 35), the Grandes Chroniques portrays King Clotaire accompanying the messenger (Fig. 39), even though a small minature illustrating Dagobert's vision and his reconciliation with Clotaire (Fig. 40) appears later in the correct narrative sequence. By stressing King Clotaire's exclusion from his son's refuge, John's chronicle shifts the focus away from Saint Denis's tomb—the center of attention in Ivo's Dionysian text—to the royal story, the relation between father and son. As this small portion of the cycle of Dagobert's life demonstrates, the illustrative program of this Grandes Chroniques is independent of contemporary iconographical sources. The pictures of Dagobert's life are not simply quotations from preexisting, mainly Dionysian, cycles. They are free adaptations designed to focus attention on Dagobert. Indeed, the parallel scenes of Dagobert's hunt and sanctuary in the Grandes Chroniques are two of only five large scenes among the 14 minatures that illustrate his life. They are given large scale as an important early manifestation of Dagobert's special status, just as the last large miniature, in which Dagobert establishes his testament in conference (fol. 107), demonstrates the full fruition of his kingly wisdom as he provides for his succession. Numerous other sources for the illustrations of John the Good's Grande Chroniques probably exist; Stiennon and Lejeune imply parallels with the
[Full Size] Figure 38 Hunt of the stag. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 92. By permission of the British Library. ― 60 ―
[Full Size] Figure 39 Dagobert in sanctuary. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 93v. By permission of the British Library. illustration of romances, although this has not yet been proven.[25] Despite its numerous sources, however, John's chronicle is a carefully constructed whole in which the densest cycle of pictures to appear in any manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques complements a thoroughly revised and glossed text. Derivative or not, the pictures were selected to work with their text in a program of decoration, and they are best understood in that context. Interpretations that concentrate solely on visual or textual sources for the imagery of John the Good's book fail to account for either the internal structure of the manuscript or the close relationship between the text of the chronicle and its 418 minatures. The pictorial structure of the book is not tightly woven, but multiple miniatures introduce and subdivide chapters to stress certain distinctive themes,[26] suggesting that certain portions of the text had special importance for John the Good. The lives of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, and Charles the Bald—the imperial Carolingians—contain an especially dense concentration of illustrations; 77 of 97 miniatures in this portion of the chronicle are two columns wide, as compared to 126 of 321 in the rest of the book. Occasional clusters of two-column miniatures also occur in the lives of Clovis, Dagobert, and Charles ― 61 ―
[Full Size] Figure 40 Dagobert's vision and reconciliation with Clotaire. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 94v. By permission of the British Library. Martel. Crusading imagery and the representation of relics are carefully detailed in pictures that may have been timely responses to contemporary politics. If there is one overarching theme in the cycle as a whole, however, it is the celebration of France's Godgiven kingship, whose holy character was confirmed by the sainthood of Louis IX.
Politics and the Problem of Succession The illustration to the prologue and the changes to its text establish the theme of succession as central to John the Good's Grandes Chroniques . The prologue's miniature (Plate 1) is a nonnarrative image showing the coronation of an enthroned pagan king of France flanked by a pagan duke and two Christian rulers. Their costumes identify them: the duke wears a circlet, and the kings wear crowns adorned with fleurons; checkered patterns mark the robes of pagan rulers, and the fleur-de-lis, given to the French during the reign of Clovis, the first Christian king, distinguishes Christian rulers. ― 62 ― The pagan duke stands on a pedestal to the left of the enthroned king, and the Christian kings stand on pedestals to the right. This arrangement suggests that they should be interpreted as the predecessor and successors of the king whose coronation is taking place. If this is the case, then the sequence of pagan duke to pagan king to Christian kings identifies the coronation as that of Pharamond, the first king of France. To an audience familiar with the court, as readers of this royal manuscript would have been, this miniature must have recalled the sequence of sculpted kings, beginning with Pharamond, that decorated the Grande Salle of the royal palace. A change in the prologue reinforces the pictorial reference. Just after the description of the three lines of kings who governed France, John's chronicle modifies the phrase in the prologue, "The beginning of this history will be taken at the noble line of the Trojans from whom it [the French line] is descended by long succession," to read "is descended by succession of time."[27] Neither
picture nor text places undue stress on the relationship of these rulers by blood. Both seem to celebrate instead the continuity of the office of king, to which the king is elected and in which he is supported by the barons who help place the crown on his head in the miniature. These changes in image and text may have been timely responses to the difficulties created by the succession of the early Valois kings. In the late 1330s, when this Grandes Chroniques was produced, Edward III was the main threat to John the Good, claiming the French throne and waging campaigns against the French in propaganda and on the battlefield. Edward's claim, supported by his political and military maneuvers, helps to clarify the imagery of the introductory miniature and to reveal its relation to its text and perhaps to the rest of the cycle. Edward's anti-Valois propaganda, which centered on John, the heir apparent, rather than his father, Philip, the first Valois king,[28] may well have begun before Edward claimed the kingship of France in 1337. As early as 1332 Philip anticipated a difficult succession and had his barons swear to support John should Philip die while on crusade. John's need for protection lasted through the 1340s; in 1347 his brother-in-law, Charles IV, the Holy Roman Emperor, promised to aid John if his succession were threatened. In 1340 Edward's agents disseminated a poster containing a French translation of the Latin letter in which Edward claimed to be the legitimate heir to Charles IV, the last Capetian, who died in 1328, and assumed the royal style of King of France and England.[29] This translated letter, posted on church doors in northern France, was so inflammatory that Philip ordered all copies confiscated and all who posted it or permitted it to be posted imprisoned. Edward's propaganda was so broadly disseminated that it affected the visions recorded in the late 1340s by Saint Bridget of Sweden,[30] an anti-French author often quoted by the English in their political writings. In one vision the Virgin Mary appeared to Bridget and contended that Philip was a legitimate king, since he had been selected by the barons of France and had not come to the throne by violence,[31] and should therefore rule France until his death. Many asserted, however, that Edward was closer to the inheritance of the throne than Philip and should be designated by Philip as his successor.[32] Such threats to John's legitimacy may explain why the prologue and its miniature present succession to the throne as a "succession of time" rather than ― 63 ― a succession of blood. Such an argument could be used to defuse English claims. Other portions of the cycle focus on the same themes as Edward's propaganda, celebrating descent from Saint Louis and the idea of a crusade, while promoting France's holy kingship.
Saint Louis: The Model Roi Très Crétien Almost from the moment of his death, Louis IX became a model for royal behavior against whom subsequent kings were measured and often found wanting. Royal descent from Louis cut in two directions; while the canonization of a French king gave the Capetians proof that they were part of a line of rois très crétiens , Louis's life was a reproach to subsequent kings who, not gifted with sanctity, had difficulty living up to his example.[33] Nonetheless, devotion to the royal saint was strong, particularly among members of the royal house. Such patrons as Louis's daughter, Blanche; his wife, Marguerite; his grandson, Philip IV; Jeanne de Navarre; and Jeanne d'Evreux commissioned portraits of Saint Louis and cycles of his life in panel paintings, frescoes, stained glass, and manuscripts.[34] These cycles celebrated Louis IX's sanctity and the special status of the Capetians who were related to the saint. Saint Louis played an important role in polemical discussion from the moment Philip of Valois succeeded the last direct Capetian. Philip viewed himself as the head of the Capetian house and often used references to Saint Louis, particularly during the first troubled years of his reign, to add the prestige of his royal ancestor to his own acts.[35] He ordered coinage early in his reign "of the weight and law of Saint Louis" and refrained from doctoring its composition until 1337 because of the value of its symbolic connection.[36] Between 1329 and 1331 a series of documents issued by Philip's chancery adopted the form employed by the Capetians, opening with an invocation and closing with the royal monogram and signatures of court officials. Cazelles notes that this literary form was abandoned as soon as Edward III confirmed the legitimacy of the Valois succession by acknowledging in 1331 that his homage of 1328 to the French should have been liege.[37]
While Edward continued to claim the throne of France, however, he celebrated his own descent from Saint Louis. In the 1340 letter posted in northern French churches, he stressed that he did not want to infringe on the rights of the French people, but rather he wanted to return France to the "good laws and customs which existed in the time of our ancestor [and] progenitor Saint Louis, king of France."[38] He also emphasized the need for peace in Christian countries so that a crusade could be mounted to free the Holy Land.[39] The notion of a unified crusade of the Western nations was a recurring theme that became intertwined toward the end of the Hundred Years' War with prophecies of the last world emperor.[40] When Edward's letter was written and John's book painted, however, the references to a crusade probably related more closely to claims of direct descent from Saint Louis, the last crusading king of France, rather than to claims to world empire. They refer as well to the legitimate French king's status as "most Christian king." The crusading reference in Edward's letter was probably a jibe at Philip and John. As early as 1334 Philip, who had vowed to go on crusade, sent the ― 64 ―
[Full Size] Figure 41 Assault on a castle by the Tartars. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 400. By permission of the British Library. Connétable d'Eu to England to persuade Edward III to participate in the crusade that Philip had negotiated with Pope John XXII.[41] With the approval of the pope, Philip collected special ecclesiastical taxes but did not go to the Holy Land because of France's uncertain relations with England; instead, from 1335 to 1337 Philip used the funds to finance his English war.[42] In March of 1340, a little over a month after Edward's letter was written, Philip asked Pope Benedict XII for a pardon for his fiscal indiscretion. Only in 1344 was the pardon awarded by Pope Clement VI to Philip and to John, who apparently shared responsibility for this fiscal abuse. It is tempting to see the emphasis on crusades in John the Good's Grandes Chroniques (1335–40), particularly crusades in which Saint Louis participated, as reflecting the French side in the polemical war with England. Louis's crusades receive special attention in the dense cycle that illustrates John's manuscript: only six pictures in the entire manuscript subdivide chapters, and three of these occur in the crusading sections of Saint Louis's life.[43] These miniatures establish each of Louis's crusades as a holy war, provoked by pagans. The first two
illustrate Louis's first crusade: one represents the dastardly behavior of the infidels (Fig. 41, assault on a castle by the Tartars); the second represents the response of the Christians (Fig. 42, the pope sends Bishop Odo to Paris; nobles listen to Bishop Odo ― 65 ―
[Full Size] Figure 42 Pope sends Bishop Odo to Paris; Nobles take the cross. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 403. By permission of the British Library. ― 66 ―
[Full Size] Figure 43 Louis receives a letter about the Holy Land. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 426v. By permission of the British Library.
[Full Size] Figure 44 Attack of the Tartars in the Holy Land. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 427. By permission of the British Library. ― 67 ― and take the cross). In the third subdivision in Louis's life a pair of miniatures explains why the French became involved in Louis's second crusade, in which he died. They illustrate the arrival of a letter from the pope and then represent its contents describing attacks by the infidels (Fig. 43, Charles of Anjou in council receives a letter from the pope; Fig. 44, attack of the Tartars in the Holy Land).
Aside from miniatures whose subjects can be classed as administrative (receptions of envoys and meetings with various heads of state; fols. 403v, 405, 406, 407, 407v, 408v), all other pictures of Louis's crusades bring out two themes: his victories in the Holy Land and his sanctity. Miniatures of Louis's triumphs in his first crusade show the battle and capture of Damietta (409v, 410v), but his religious devotion attracts more emphasis in such scenes as the pilgrimage to Nazareth (fol. 415v) or the burial of the dead after the massacre at Sidon (fol. 416v). The miniatures illustrating Louis's second crusade celebrate his sainthood more emphatically. Louis is nimbed throughout this final sequence of 10 pictures, which culminates with his instructions to his son (fol. 443v) and his death (Fig. 45). In keeping with French policy of the 1330s and 1340s, this emphasis on Louis IX's life is less a call to a crusade than a celebration of the saintly king from whom John was descended and of the holy kingship to which John was
[Full Size] Figure 45 Death of Saint Louis. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 444v. By permission of the British Library. ― 68 ― heir. The possibility that this celebration of descent from Louis IX may have had an antiEnglish component is strengthened by John's choice in 1350 to be crowned with the "crown of Saint Louis" rather than that of Charlemagne. This act was simultaneously a sign of his devotion to the saint and an affirmation of his legitimacy as successor to Saint Louis and to Philip of Valois.[44]
The Prerogatives of Holy Kingship Two sets of images in John the Good's copy of the Grandes Chroniques introduce themes that were to become particularly important in the reigns of John and later Valois kings. Images in the life of Clovis refer to the sacre by the holy oil sent from God, and a rare picture in the life of Saint Louis refers to the king's role in the cure for scrofula. Both represent privileges that the French king claimed as the roi très crétien . The right to be anointed with special oil sent from heaven distinguished the French ruler from all other rulers in Christendom and made him the equal, if not the superior, of the Holy Roman Emperor.[45] This right, which originated in the reign of Clovis, the first Christian king of France, is the subject of two large miniatures in John's chronicle. In the first (Fig. 46) Clovis routs the Germans under the protection of Christ, who gazes down at the battle.[46] The
text explains that Clovis won this battle because he vowed to convert if given a victory. In the second large miniature (Fig. 47) Clovis is baptized by the holy oil brought by a dove. The only other large illustration (Fig. 48) in Clovis's life involves another miraculous sign from God. In it, messengers sent to the church of Saint Martin at Tours to ask for a sign of victory were greeted as they entered by the psalm, "Sire thou did gird me with strength for the battle. . . . Thou did make my assailants sink under me."[47] All three of these distinctive pictures celebrate the French kings' close relationship to God. The holiness of Saint Louis's kingship is emphasized by the use of halos that focus particular attention on two sequences from the cycle of 60 pictures illustrating his life. This practice seems deliberate, since the halos have no discernible structural or textual function in these portions of the manuscript. It does not seem to be an artistic trait, since the two artists who painted these sequences did not use halos in other portions of Louis's life that they painted. Neither is it a case of mixing models from varied sources, since the scenes in which Louis wears a halo do not break down into iconographical units whose models could be isolated. The most densely illustrated sequence begins when Louis takes the cross to go on his second crusade (fol. 436v); it continues through the series of 10 pictures that show the events that led to Louis's death in Tunis. In this sequence halos draw attention to a crusading subcycle that culminates in Louis's saintly death (Fig. 45). The use of halos elsewhere in Louis's life is more puzzling. Only two from a series of scenes dedicated to his saintly behavior represent Saint Louis wearing a halo: Louis attending confession and being scourged by his confessor (Fig. 49), and Louis feeding the poor (fol. 423v). Ordinarily the authority of the pictorial model or peculiarities of the artist explain such intrusions, but such is not the case here. One artist painted the whole sequence of scenes dealing with Louis's ― 69 ―
[Full Size] Figure 46 Clovis routs the Germans. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 15. By permission of the British Library.
[Full Size] Figure 47 Baptism of Clovis. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 16. By permission of the British Library. ― 70 ―
[Full Size] Figure 48 Miracle at Saint-Martin of Tours. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 18. By permission of the British Library. holiness, and the two images in which Louis wears a halo do not constitute a distinct subcycle. The best explanation for this phenomenon derives from the relationship of this sequence of miniatures to its text and to the illustrations that precede and follow it. The two pictures precede a miniature (Fig. 50) that occurs in no other copy of the Grandes Chroniques and, to my knowledge, in no manuscript predating the reign of Charles VII.[48] It represents a special prerogative given the French kings after their unction with the holy oil: the ability to cure scrofula, the disease known as "the king's evil." The picture shows Louis IX speaking as he touches the neck of a man who kneels before him; the text emphasizes Louis's devotion by describing how he introduced the sign of the cross into the ritual in order to minimize his own agency in the cure: "King Louis had the custom that while saying the words [of the ritual] he always made the sign of the cross which by the virtue of Our Lord cures the sick more than the royal dignity."[49] It is therefore likely that Louis was given a halo in the two previous scenes to reinforce God's role rather than his own in the third scene. A reader turning the pages in sequence would be struck by the lack of a halo in the picture of the cure for scrofula. The image would reinforce the textual reference to the role of Christ, rather than the king, in
effecting the cure. One of the marginal glosses attests to the continued importance of this point at the time that John's manuscript was annotated: "Why ― 71 ―
[Full Size] Figure 49 Louis IX at confession; Louis disciplined by his confessor. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 423. By permission of the British Library. he [Saint Louis] attributes this virtue to the sign of the cross and not to the royal dignity."[50] This celebration of Louis's miraculous powers as king emphasizes his devotion and humility, but it also has political significance, for the ability of the French kings to cure the "king's evil" was being challenged for the first time. Throughout most of the fourteenth century, the ability of the French and English kings to perform miraculous healing had been accepted as fact and as a gift shared equally by both monarchies.[51] During the Hundred Years' War, however, the ability to cure may have become a sign of legitimacy. In the late 1340s a Frenchman was imprisoned for six years because he asserted that the king of England should be king of France because he cured scrofula better.[52] Perhaps because of the shaky political situation that existed in France, John the Good's Grandes Chroniques de France differs markedly from the book in the royal library that should logically have been its model: Philip III's Grandes ― 72 ―
[Full Size] Figure 50 Cure of scrofula. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 424v. By permission of the British Library. Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782). Philip III's manuscript was commissioned for him by the monks of Saint-Denis during a time of peaceful succession to the throne. Its text celebrates the royal line descended from Troy and the role of the abbey of Saint-Denis in French history. The pictures reinforce these themes in a program of just 36 images that illustrate their own texts carefully, but also establish visual cross-references intended to provide specific models of government for Philip. The circumstances under which John's book was produced affected its content and appearance. Elements of its text and pictorial cycle suggest that it originated in the Parisian court rather than the Dionysian abbey. Its pictures support this interpretation, for their density is analogous to other commissions of John the Good and their form reflects contemporary styles in romances and saints' lives. These pictures function differently from those in Philip III's Grandes Chroniques . Although the 600 scenes relate to their texts as closely as the pictures in the earlier chronicle, the density of the cycle in John's manuscript, which illustrates almost ― 73 ― every chapter of the text, made it impossible to implement the kind of cross-referencing that structures Philip III's book. Instead, the book's designer sought to break up the sequence of pictures by employing variations in scale and by playing on the presence or absence of such iconographic details as halos. Several images featured in this way focus the reader's attention on themes of Christian kingship, particularly on those that would bolster John's shaky position within the new Valois line vis-à-vis his English competitor. ― 74 ―
Chapter Four— The Courtly Response in Manuscripts by the Master of the Roman de Fauvel Most manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques that survive from the mid-fourteenth century were nonroyal copies made by Parisian booksellers for a courtly audience. The owners of these books, unlike the owners of the sophisticated, self-conscious royal manuscripts, did not belong to the long line of kings descended from Troy. Their ancestors had participated in battles, advised kings, or taken part in ceremonies described in the pages of the chronicle, yet rarely had they been protagonists. These courtly patrons therefore commissioned books that reflected their own roles in history by celebrating les français as well as le roy .[1] The earliest owners of these nonroyal books are unknown. It is therefore hard to determine whether a given program of illustration was selected because of its importance to a specific patron. It has been established, however, that many of these manuscripts were painted by the same artists.[2] A careful comparison of their cycles of illustration with those of royal commissions like John the Good's can therefore provide a clear picture of the different perceptions of history—particularly dynastic history like that of the Grandes Chroniques de France —among contemporary audiences. The distinctive perspective of the courtly audience during the reigns of the early Valois kings can be seen in three copies of the Grandes Chroniques (Switzerland, private collection; B.R. 5; and Castres, B.M.) dating from the 1330s. They were illustrated by an artist who belonged to a group of miniaturists known collectively as the Master of the Roman de Fauvel .[3] Working for members of the nobility, this group of artists decorated a wide variety of texts: ancient and French history, romances, moralized Bibles, and saints' lives. Little is known about the earliest provenance of the Grandes Chroniques manuscripts illustrated by the Master of the Roman de Fauvel , although all seem to have been courtly. By the 1340s the manuscript in Castres belonged to the wife of the French chancellor, and in the fifteenth century the chronicles now in Brussels and Switzerland were in the collection of the duke of Burgundy.[4] The libraires who produced them could have had little access to royal models; their lives of Saint Louis, Philip III, and Philip IV are similar to one another but different from those of contemporary royal manuscripts. For example, in all the books from this group the life of Saint Louis incorporates the French translation of the continuation of Guillaume de Nangis used by Thomas of Maubeuge in his manuscript from the 1320s. ― 75 ― Like Thomas of Maubeuge, the designers of these books apparently took the taste of their patrons into account by personalizing both text and pictures. Thus an unedited text describing John of Jerusalem's trip to Rome to ask for papal assistance for the Holy Land was apparently included in the Brussels chronicle to satisfy the requirements of a patron with a particular interest in this incident. Because the pictorial cycles in these manuscripts are as varied as their texts, a comparison of texts and images should cast light on the perceptions of French history by noble audiences in the mid-fourteenth century. In analyzing the nobility's use of history, it is important to take into account the stock illustrations often used in decorating medieval books. For instance, an illustration of the baptism of Clovis, the first Christian king of France, in the manuscript in Brussels (Fig. 51) is quite closely related to a similar illustration in the Castres manuscript (Fig. 52). Although certain figures change—a queen in the Brussels version becomes a monk in the Castres version, a monk in the Brussels illustration becomes a bishop in the Castres miniature—the basic configuration is identical; it is simply expanded from its miniature format in the Castres manuscript to fill an oblong space in the book in Brussels. The similarity between battle scenes painted in the Grandes Chroniques overseen by Thomas of Maubeuge (B.N. fr. 10132) in the 1320s and those in the gathering of the Castres chronicle on which the same artist collaborated demonstrates the continuity of such models.[5] Because so many images in the Master of the Roman de Fauvel's Grandes Chroniques are stock scenes, it may be rash to suggest that their iconography expresses any individual owner's concerns. But we can credit the patron with the
[Full Size] Figure 51 Baptism of Clovis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 13. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. ― 76 ―
[Full Size] Figure 52 Baptism of Clovis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 11. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. selection of subject matter and with the layout of the cycle, and we can feel confident that the patron played a role in including exceptional scenes that appear in no other copies of the chronicle decorated by the Master of the Roman de Fauvel . When considered in this way, these three books demonstrate three very different popular responses to royal history. In the Grandes Chroniques now in Switzerland the text is more revealing than its illustrations. This is one of only five copies of the chronicle to replicate the dedicatory poems that Primat addressed to Philip III in the original presentation copy.[6] Such a feature does not necessarily mean that the manuscript is royal; it may, however, indicate that the patron was particularly interested in the royal associations evoked by the text. The placement and subjects of the illustrations are conventional. All but one picture in the manuscript mark major divisions in the chronicle and draw their subject matter from the paragraphs that follow.[7] One illustration subdivides a book, a picture of Louis VII, Emperor Conrad, and others riding
on crusade (Fig. 53). This one exception, however, illustrates a text that was given special notice from the beginning of the chronicle tradition.[8] The pictures in this manuscript, then, are not used so much to shape the traditional royal history for a noble audience as to reinforce a text selected for its royal overtones. A second chronicle, now in Brussels, is written in three columns and lavishly illustrated by 129 miniatures. It traces the history of France through the death of Philip V in 1321, using distinctive text and illustrations that relate thematically to John the Good's manuscript in their emphasis on dynastic continuity but differ ― 77 ―
[Full Size] Figure 53 Louis VII and Emperor Conrad depart on crusade. Grandes Chroniques de France . Switzerland, private collection, fol. 219v. Photograph: The Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art. significantly in their visual expression. Indeed, most of the images in the book are more closely related, visually, to those in Thomas of Maubeuge's manuscript. And, like Thomas's images, the majority of pictures in the Brussels manuscript derive exclusively from their text. Nor do they participate in an overall restructuring of the manuscript. With the exception of a pair of large miniatures illustrating the prologue and the beginning of Louis the Pious's life, virtually all the pictures in this manuscript are two columns wide and evenly distributed.[9] Thus the special character of this cycle of illustrations is to be found not in the structure of the cycle but in its treatment of subject matter. The most visually striking miniatures in the Brussels manuscript are the pair that introduce the prologue to the Grandes Chroniques and the life of Louis the Pious, the son of Charlemagne. Each picture is three columns wide and fills two-thirds of a page. The first (Plate 2) represents a sequence of pagan and Christian kings of France, illustrating the rubric "Here begins the chronicles of France, first of the dukes who were first there and then of the Saracen kings, and following this, of all the Christian kings and all their deeds up to King Charles, son of King Philip the Fair, and of the ancestry from whom each is descended and of their offspring."[10] This image is comparable in form to that in John's manuscript (Plate 1) but differs significantly in content. In the introductory image of John's manuscript, dukes and kings are presented on pedestals like statues to provide special models of kingship and to emphasize the length of succession to the office of king. Standing in isolation from one another, they flank an image of the ― 78 ―
[Full Size] Figure 54 Charlemagne speaks to barons; Charlemagne supervises the coronation of Louis the Pious. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 151. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. ― 79 ―
[Full Size]
Figure 55 Death of Saint Benedict. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 27v. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. inauguration of Pharamond.[11] In the Brussels manuscript, the kings interact with one another but are indistinguishable as individuals. This portrayal emphasizes ideas of smooth succession and continuity rather than the importance of lineage. These nondynastic concerns also governed the selection of the other three-column miniature in the Brussels chronicle. In this picture (Fig. 54) generational continuity provides good government. On the left Charlemagne, regally enthroned, speaks with his barons; on the right Charlemagne supervises the pope's coronation of Louis the Pious as king of Aquitaine, a position that would provide him an apprenticeship in government. Unique miniatures in the Brussels manuscript represent dramatic or miraculous events that do not involve the French king, scenes as diverse as the death of Saint Benedict (Fig. 55), King Louis of Germany torturing men to determine the justification for Charles the Bald's claim to rule (Fig. 56), or the appearance of Christ to Emperor Maurice of Constantinople (Fig. 57). Such images provide insight into the owner's interest in miracles and religious devotion— and into the personalized character of the illustration program. The popularity of devotion to relics accounts for such scenes as the translation of Christ's robe (fol. 63), Charlemagne's prayers before the Crown of Thorns (Fig. 58), and the earliest representation that I have found in the Grandes Chroniques of the translation of the relics of Saint Louis (Fig. 59) during the reign of Philip IV. The devotional nature of this scene contrasts with the treatment of Saint Louis in John the Good's book, which places Louis's life within a dynastic frame. ― 80 ―
[Full Size] Figure 56 Louis of Germany tortures men. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 184v. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels.
[Full Size] Figure 57 Appearance of Christ to Emperor Maurice of Constantinople. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 72v. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. ― 81 ―
[Full Size] Figure 58 Charlemagne's prayer before the Crown of Thorns. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 128. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels.
[Full Size] Figure 59 Translation of relics of Saint Louis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 327. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. ― 82 ― The special text and image added to this manuscript provide an excellent example of its nondynastic aim. Between the end of the life of Philip Augustus and the beginning of that of Louis VIII is a chapter (fol. 308) illustrated by the arrival of King John of Jerusalem at Rome (Fig. 60), describing how King John came to Rome to seek help and was supported by both the pope and Frederick, the Holy Roman Emperor, whose daughter John married. The following text establishes that John was effectively the last Christian King of the Holy Land. A royal manuscript might suggest that the French king should be the successor to John or, at the very least, might call for a crusade, but the Brussels text does neither. Instead, it changes the subject and describes once again the death and burial of Philip Augustus, perhaps to provide a transition to the life of Philip's son, Louis VIII, which follows the description of Philip Augustus's death.[12] The third manuscript, located in Castres, uses exceptional images to personalize and universalize the Grandes Chroniques . As such it is the most distinctive of the three attributed to the Master of the Roman de Fauvel . Unlike the other two, this Grandes Chroniques was frequently updated, taking its present shape in a series of four or five campaigns over a period of 20 to 25 years. As originally planned, the book was the work of two scribes who wrote the history of France through the death of Philip Augustus, a frequent terminus for the Grandes Chroniques and the endpoint for the manuscript in the Swiss private collection. This section of the chronicle was illustrated by three artists, each of whom worked on separate gatherings: the Master of the Roman de Fauvel painted all but two gatherings, one of which was the work of the first artist from the Grandes Chroniques
[Full Size] Figure 60 King John of Jerusalem arrives at Rome. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 308. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. ― 83 ― commissioned in 1318 from Thomas of Maubeuge. A third scribe subsequently continued the history through the life of Philip V. This section was illustrated by a fourth artist, whose work can be dated to the 1340s and 1350s on the basis of costume.[13] Finally, the book was continued again in one or two stages that extend the history through the life of Philip of Valois. Spaces for illuminations were left in this section but were never filled. This frequent updating suggests that the manuscript in Castres was as vital to its owners as royal copies of the chronicle had been to Philip III and John the Good. Thus, even if we cannot be completely sure of the identity of the original patron of this Grandes Chroniques , we may gain our clearest insights by examining how this highly valued manuscript reflects the historical perspective of its nonroyal audience. The provenance of the Grandes Chroniques in Castres suggests that the earliest owner was a figure at court. An inscription added above the chapter describing the Battle of Courtrai (Plate 3) in the first continuation is the earliest indication of ownership. Written in a different hand from that of the text, the inscription states, "These chronicles belong to Madame Jeanne d'Amboise, lady of Revel and of Tisauges,"[14] thus providing a precise date for the inscription. After the death of her second husband, the Seigneur de Tisauges, Jeanne married Guillaume Flote, Seigneur de Revel and chancellor of France from 1338 to 1348, whose first wife died in 1339.[15] The first owner of the book was probably Jeanne, a member of her family, or her husband. Guillaume Flote may have been the owner, since he commissioned other works decorated by this artist.[16] The placement of Jeanne's ex-libris strengthens the hypothesis that the Grandes Chroniques was given to Jeanne after her marriage. It appears above a miniature that represents one in a series of battles that Philip IV waged against rebellious Flemish forces between 1297 and 1304, when Jeanne was young. These battles were important for her family's history because her grandfather, Anseau de Chevreuse, the bearer of the oriflamme of France, the royal flag associated with Charlemagne, was killed during the campaign.[17] Had this been Jeanne's personal copy of the text, the Battle of Mons-en-Pévèle, where her grandfather was killed, would probably have been illustrated. Since the Battle of Courtrai was the only image in the book to commemorate the Flemish campaign, however, it received her ex-libris . The Battle of Courtrai had special significance for Jeanne's husband. Guillaume Flote's father, Pierre, was one of the few loyal French who remained with Robert of Artois and died at Courtrai after the rest of the French forces fled the field. In a rare illustration to this chapter the miniature below Jeanne's signature glorifies the bravery of men like Robert of Artois and Pierre Flote. It shows the turning point in the battle, when Robert of Artois, resplendent in his arms, rode directly at the Flemish who attacked as most of the French fled.[18] In the
miniature a few soldiers visible beyond Robert fight with him. It is clear that Robert and this noble minority are doomed; they will take their places with the dead soldiers who litter the ground. The illustration to the Battle of Courtrai is thus one of those rare instances when the royal history recorded in the Grandes Chroniques merges with the history of the nobility. Such moments of convergence are rare, and representations of them ― 84 ―
[Full Size] Figure 61 Abbot and monks of Saint-Denis before Dagobert. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 73. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. are exceptional. Programs of decoration for the nobility more frequently sought to illustrate universal rather than personal elements of history. Exceptional miniatures in the pictorial cycle of Jeanne d'Amboise's book provide insight into the perception of past and present French history by the early fourteenth-century court. Of 65 miniatures, 13 are unique among those illustrating the Master of the Roman de Fauvel's manuscripts. These treat three broad themes: the first reveals the extent to which Dionysian legends fascinated a broad audience, the second examines the universal moral applications of French history, and the third concerns the relationship between the king and his vassals. Similar themes are addressed pictorially in John the Good's royal book, but Jeanne d'Amboise's manuscript approaches these themes differently, both in the concerns expressed and in the mode of presentation. The Dionysian imagery in this manuscript centers on the two most famous royal patrons of the abbey: Dagobert and Charles the Bald. In the miniature that ― 85 ―
[Full Size] Figure 62 Fair of Lendit. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 122v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. should represent Dagobert's coronation (Fig. 61) a prominent place is given to a delegation of Benedictine monks led by their abbot to confront the king. The text makes clear that this illustrates the founding of the abbey. A second image represents a later benefice allegedly given to the abbey by Charles the Bald (Fig. 62)—the Fair of Lendit. This picture, representing a shoe merchant, goldsmith, and clothes salesman at the fair, cuts its chapter in two in order to appear directly above the text explaining that Charles the Bald moved the fair from Aix-la-Chapelle to Saint-Denis at the same time that he presented a collection of relics of Christ's passion to the abbey.[19] Those who came to the fair and adored the relics were given a special indulgence. In Jeanne d'Amboise's book the merchants—part of the concrete reality that any visitor to the fair would see—are represented in the miniature rather than the legendary events or the ostentation of the relics that decorated John the Good's book (Fig. 63). Thus the emphasis would seem to be on economic reality rather than devotion to an illustrious ancestor (as in the contemporary royal manuscript). The final Dionysian picture expands the traditional representation of Charles the Bald's vision of hell (Fig. 64), which chastised him ― 86 ―
[Full Size]
Figure 63 Ostentation of the relics. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 163. By permission of the British Library. into leading a good life. A second vision (Fig. 65), in which Charles the Bald appears to a monk of Saint-Denis seven years after his death, is represented less frequently. At this appearance Charles urged the monk to persuade the king of France and the abbot of SaintDenis to move his body to the abbey. These Dionysian images, very different in tone from those included in royal manuscripts, may reflect a popular perception of French history. The Fair of Lendit was an event experienced by many in Paris. Jongleurs sang chansons de geste , which, like the sermons given by the monks at the fair, explained how the relics came to the abbey. Moreover, the kings featured in the Dionysian pictures of Jeanne's Grandes Chroniques —Dagobert and Charles the Bald—were the most visible of Merovingian and Carolingian rulers buried at SaintDenis. Anyone touring the array of royal tombs in the abbey church would be struck by Dagobert's elaborate stone tomb near the altar and Charles the Bald's golden tomb in the place of honor in the choir. The universal moral message of French history is the theme of one of the most interesting of the unique miniatures in this manuscript—a moral exemplum drawn from the life of Charlemagne. This picture (Fig. 66) illustrates the confrontation between Charlemagne and Agolant, a Moslem leader, during Charlemagne's crusade to rid Spain of pagans. One of only two Grandes Chroniques to illustrate this theme, Jeanne's book is the only one in which the picture is carefully placed to subdivide the chapter so that it is near the text that draws a broad Christian moral.[20] The chapter recounts how Agolant decided that it ― 87 ―
[Full Size] Figure 64 Charles the Bald's vision of hell. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 177. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. was expedient to convert to Christianity after a series of defeats at the hands of Charlemagne's armies. He came to Charlemagne to be baptized and arrived just as the French sat down to dinner. Agolant noticed that the diners were seated in groups and inquired about
their identities. Concentrating on the varied religious groups, Charlemagne explained how bishops and priests, monks and abbots, and canons regular, functioned in the religious hierarchy. When asked the identity of 12 scruffily dressed men crouching on the dirt far from him, Charlemagne responded that they were poor men, "messengers of Christ," who were fed every day in memory of the apostles. Agolant was unimpressed by Charlemagne's treatment of Christ's messengers. He refused baptism, withdrew his troops, and recommenced battle. The Grandes Chroniques draws the broad and obvious moral: "If Charlemagne lost King Agolant and his men, who would not be baptized because he saw the poor treated so villainously, what will happen on the day of judgment to those who in this mortal life despised the poor and treated them villainously? . . . Just as the pagan refused baptism because he did not see good deeds in Charlemagne, I ― 88 ―
[Full Size] Figure 65 Vision of a monk of Saint-Denis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 176v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. do not doubt that our Lord will refuse us the faith of baptism on judgment day if he sees no good works."[21] The theme of the relationship between the nobility and the king is expressed in this manuscript through events from the life of Philip Augustus. Two illustrations represent the provisions made for governing the country when the king was absent and the punishment that awaited those vassals who rebelled against the king. The first image (Fig. 67) represents Philip Augustus speaking to councillors and establishing the testament that he made when he left for the Crusades with Richard the Lionheart. Philip's testament designated those who should rule during his absence and made provisions for a regency if he were to die in the Holy Land. The rubric accompanying this picture emphasizes not Philip's wisdom as ruler, but the effect of his action on those left behind. This scene receives a different emphasis in John the Good's book, the only other to illustrate it. Whereas the traditional rubric in John's book reads, "The testament which King Philip established before his death," the rubric in Jeanne d'Amboise's manuscript is expanded to stress the
― 89 ―
[Full Size] Figure 66 Charlemagne and Agolant. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 128. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. theme of good government: "How the king Philip [the] God-given arranged his testament before he left France to go on crusade and how he provided for the needs of the realm and for the profit of all the common people."[22] Philip Augustus's provisions for the common good of his loyal subjects were matched in intensity by his punishment of vassals who broke his oath. The clearest illustration of this theme is an event in the story of the Battle of Bouvines, which pitted the French forces against those of the English king and the Holy Roman Emperor. One of the knights who made the battle possible was Ferrand, count of Hainaut and brother-in-law of the French king, who allowed the English and German forces to assemble at his chateau and allied himself with them against Philip Augustus, his liege lord. Two scenes represent Ferrand's punishment. First a standard workshop scene (Fig. 27) represents the French victory at Bouvines at which he was captured; then an exceptional image (Fig. 68) shows Ferrand being paraded in Philip's triumphal entry into Paris. The text describes the crowds berating the count on his way to Paris; it gives little attention to Philip's welcome.[23] ― 90 ―
[Full Size] Figure 67 Philip Augustus's testament. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 263. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. Ferrand's punishment is the exclusive focus of the miniature, which does not even include the king. John the Good's chronicle was designed to gather suitable models of kingship for the heir to the throne and, in the process, to inspire John to be a good king like Saint Louis, whose reign ends the manuscript. John probably read the book this way. For him the events recorded in the Grandes Chroniques were living history, which affected him and in which he would participate. The books decorated by the Master of the Roman de Fauvel present a very different view. They did not provide a model of living history to their owners, but rather testified to popular reactions to the French past. For the patron of the book now in Switzerland (private collection), possession of the royal text was most important; illustration did little to shape a personal reading of the chronicle. In the chronicle now in Brussels (B.R. 5) pictures reveal an awareness of the importance of succession and the role of such models of kingship as Charlemagne in guaranteeing it. The idea of the miraculous and the devotion to such kings as Saint ― 91 ―
[Full Size] Figure 68 Count Ferrand led to Paris. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol. 288. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. Louis and Dagobert, celebrated in contemporary chansons de geste and hagiography, were, however, much more important to this book than any dynastic theme. Of the three, only Jeanne d'Amboise's chronicle could be termed instructional as John the Good's Grandes Chroniques had been, but it was instructional only on the most popular and universal level. The readers of Jeanne's chronicle knew that they would probably never have a place in its pages, and perhaps as a result even the exceptional pictures in this book reinforce generalized readings of the text.
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PART III— THE GRANDES CHRONIQUES OF KING CHARLES V ― 95 ―
Chapter Five— The First Stage of Execution (before 1375)
During the reigns of the first Valois kings, manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques de France continued to offer different visual solutions to the problem of illustrating the chronicle. This situation changed when Charles V became king in 1364. Charles commissioned a continuation of the Grandes Chroniques that added accounts written at court about his father's and his own reign to the traditional history written by the monks at Saint-Denis about the Merovingians, Carolingians, and Capetians.[1] The copy of the Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 2813) that this continuation expanded became an authoritative manuscript influencing a generation of royal and courtly books. Charles V's manuscript incorporated the history of a new branch of the Capetians—the Valois—into the official history of the French kings at a time when the English crown was challenging the legitimacy of the Valois rulers. The addition of this new illustrated text to the king's copy of the Grandes Chroniques was a timely reaction to contemporary politics and a typical one for this bibliophile king.[2] This version of the Grandes Chroniques took its present form in a series of four distinct campaigns of systematic modification and amendment[3] that enable us to trace the evolution of the complex interplay of words and images that characterizes Charles V's book. During the first stage of execution Henri de Trévou, the first scribe, wrote a two-volume chronicle that ended with the life of Philip of Valois. In the second stage of work Raoulet d'Orléans, the second scribe, introduced running titles, changed the last folios of the life of Philip of Valois, and added the narrative of the lives of John the Good and Charles V up to the events of 1375. During the third stage of production Raoulet d'Orléans recorded events from fall 1375 to spring 1379 and inserted five sets of text and miniatures into the first portion of the manuscript.[4] The fourth and final stage occurred in the fifteenth century when the manuscript was rebound into one volume. Because it dates from three distinct moments in Charles V's reign (before 1375, before 1377, and after 1378), this manuscript offers a rare opportunity to reconstruct the genesis and expansion of a political program. During the second and third stages of production the editors of the manuscript altered the focus of the original decorative program to reflect current political concerns by adding new text and miniatures and, on rare occasions, by substituting new text and illustrations for those in the first section of the manuscript. Pictures added in these stages refer ― 96 ― to miniatures in earlier segments of text, either by adopting parallel formats or by using similar iconographical detail. These references provide secondary levels of interpretation to the text that become comprehensible when we analyze the three different versions of the manuscript as separate entities. Miniatures decorating the first portion of Charles V's book are the least complicated in placement, format, and content. Usually positioned at the head of major divisions in the text, these images are, with few exceptions, one column wide. They depict coronations, battles, or court scenes in a generalized fashion. Perhaps because of their straightforward portrayal of events, these pictures have not been a subject of study. Nevertheless, certain texts and illustrations in the first part of the manuscript are especially noteworthy. The hierarchy of decoration within the pictorial cycle; the relationship of Charles V's manuscript to its textual model, which also doubled as a maquette or dummy for the disposition of miniatures; and the divergences in the program of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques from that of a small group of manuscripts that closely copy it suggest that certain illustrated segments of the text were particularly important to the king. The lives of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious, Philip Augustus, and Saint Louis clearly have special significance, and the history of the early Norman dukes is detailed with a precision found in no other version of the Grandes Chroniques . The format of certain miniatures presented as large double or four-part pictures distinguishes them as more important than other illuminations in the book. For example, the frontispiece to the manuscript (fol. 4) is a large image encompassing four scenes. The first pictures for the lives of Charlemagne (fol. 85v), Louis the Pious (fol. 128), Philip Augustus (fol. 223), and Saint Louis (fol. 266v) are all double miniatures. Double miniatures also illustrate two scenes from the story of Roland (fols. 124, 128). Philip III's Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782), the model for a large portion of the text, provides further evidence for the significance of text, miniatures, and subcycles dealing with the dukes of Normandy, Charlemagne, and the concept of legitimacy. Kept in the royal
library, this manuscript contains fourteenth-century marginal annotations addressed to Henri de Trévou, the scribe of Charles V's manuscript.[5] These dictate the placement or, in one case, the suppression of miniatures in Charles's chronicle and advocate the rearrangement of certain texts. Almost all these dictates were acted upon. Two differences between Philip's Grandes Chroniques and Charles V's are unheralded by the marginal notes directed to Henri. These address the problem of legitimacy; they include the suppression of the chapter on Hugh Capet, the first of the Capetian line, and the introduction from another source of the life of Louis VIII, which had not yet been written when Primat completed his translation. Four later books modeled on Charles V's Grandes Chroniques stress many of the same texts and include miniatures of the same subjects. Yet a comparison of these manuscripts suggests that certain innovations in the program of Charles V's book appealed to a narrow audience. For example, a manuscript of unknown provenance (Lyon, B.M. 880); two texts owned by Charles V's son, Charles VI (B.N. fr. 10135 and fr. 2608); and one owned by Charles VI's chamberlain, John of Montaigu, (Vienna, ÖNB 2564) neither omit Hugh Capet's life nor place great emphasis on the history of the Norman dukes. These features are unique to Charles ― 97 ― V's manuscript.[6] A comparison of these manuscripts also suggests that the dense cycle illustrating the life of Saint Louis may have had a special significance for certain kings of France since it appears only in Charles V's and Charles VI's copies.
Politics in the Duchy of Normandy Charles V's interest in the history of the Norman dukes is not surprising in light of contemporary events. In the mid-1350s John the Good made Charles duke of Normandy.[7] In this capacity he had to contend with the attempts of his cousin, Charles of Navarre, to foment rebellion from his base in Evreux as part of an attempt to win the French throne. The situation was complicated by the activities of the English king, Edward III, a second claimant to the throne who periodically invaded Normandy. Charles V's attempts to gain control of Normandy were successful. With the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360 and Charles of Navarre's homage at Vernon in 1371, Charles V made tentative peace with his rivals. Nevertheless, as the French land closest to England, the duchy of Normandy remained a point of contention throughout Charles V's reign. Charles's role as duke of Normandy may explain the pictorial emphasis on the lives of Norman dukes in his chronicle. By emphasizing a number of events in the history of the early dukes, rubrics and illustrations introduced into the book establish parallels between Charles's ducal predecessors and his royal ancestors. Some of the textual changes specified in the margins of Philip III's Grandes Chroniques highlight the activity of the early Norman rulers. First, they suggest the inclusion of new rubrics that increase the prominence of Dukes Rollo (Robert I) and Raoul of Normandy and Kings Louis, Lothar, Robert II, and Henry of France. In addition, they advocate the subdivision of certain chapters to stress divine intervention in the conquest of Normandy (the appearance of Saint Benedict to Count Sigillophes), emphasize the Christianity of the early dukes (the baptism of Rollo at which he took the name Robert), and discuss treachery against the Normans (the treason of the count of Flanders). They also note the Normans' ability to seek peace (alliance with King Lothar of France) and praise their repulsion of an English invasion (by Ethelred II) and their willingness to go on crusade. The only chapter formed by subdivision that deals with a French king discusses Robert II's generosity to the abbey of Saint-Denis just before his death. The placement of miniatures, also noted in the margins of Philip's Grandes Chroniques , places equal emphasis on the importance of the Norman subcycle. For instance, the only annotation recommending suppression of an image occurs on folio 209 (Figs. 12 and 69), where a note to Henri suggests that he skip a miniature depicting Richard of Burgundy chasing the Normans out of his realm in order to insert a picture of the Normans landing in Neustria, two paragraphs later, at the commencement of the description of Rollo's activities. Three other miniatures illustrate chapters created by the subdivision of this portion of Primat's text.[8] These newly subdivided chapters describe traits in the Norman predecessors of Charles V that were normally attributed to French kings. Chapters focusing on divine sponsorship, the repulsion of an English invasion, and the willingness to crusade illustrate kingly behavior. One
chapter is subdivided to introduce a miniature celebrating the baptism of Rollo (Fig. 70), the first Christian duke of ― 98 ―
[Full Size] Figure 69 Inscription addressed to Henri de Trévou. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782, fol. 209. Photograph by the author. Normandy. This event parallels the baptism of Clovis, the first Christian king of France. Clovis's baptism was especially important to the French kings because, according to legend, the holy unction that distinguished the French rulers from all others first appeared at Clovis's baptism.[9]
Saintly Ancestors as Models of Kingship Charles V's political motives also explain the dense cycles of the lives of Charlemagne and Saint Louis, particularly since no visual models have been found for them. Charlemagne's importance for French kingship and his special significance to Charles V must have been a factor in the elaboration of this sequence of illustrations.[10] Charles had a chambre de Charlemagne in his Hôtel Saint-Pol and was often compared to Charlemagne in the prefaces of works that he commissioned, such as Raoul de Praelles's translation of the City of God in 1375.[11] Charles V was the first French king actively to promote the cult of Charlemagne. In a speech delivered in 1378 Charles even referred to "saint charlemaine," a status that Charlemagne was not usually accorded.[12] As Charles V's only canonized ancestor, Saint Louis also earned a special place in the Grandes Chroniques . Devotion to Louis was widespread, particularly among his Capetian descendants, who commissioned numerous cycles of his life. Charles V's densely illustrated version of Saint Louis's life continues this Capetian tradition but may also assert the legitimacy of the new Valois line, as in John the Good's Grandes Chroniques . ― 99 ―
[Full Size] Figure 70 The baptism of Rollo. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 166v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
The French Kings and the Empire One image in the first version of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques , given special prominence by its format, may express the desire of the French kings to assert their independence of and equality with the Holy Roman Emperor. The four-part miniature (Fig. 71) preceding Book I illustrates the Greeks landing in Troy, their assault on the city, Francion founding Sicambria, and the defeat of the armies of Emperor Theodosius by Trojan descendants. The emperor's defeat is strongly emphasized. As the imperial army flees the Trojan onslaught, the emperor tumbles from his horse to land prominently in the foreground. The miniature clearly celebrates the Trojan ancestry of French kings: in the final, triumphal scene, for example, the Trojan king wears a tunic strewn with fleurs-de-lis, and his horse is richly draped in material of the same pattern. The triumph of the Trojans over the Roman emperor is therefore emblematic of the independence of France from the empire, as stressed in contemporary political theory. Such comparisons of royal and imperial status are restricted to royal manuscripts. The frontispiece to one of Charles VI's Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 10135), which copies Charles V's manuscript (Fig. 72), is identical in composition ― 100 ―
[Full Size] Figure 71 Greeks landing in Troy; Assault on a city; Francion founding Sicambria; Trojans defeat imperial army. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 4. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 101 ―
[Full Size] Figure 72 Greeks landing in Troy; Assault on a city; Francion founding Sicambria; Trojans defeat imperial army. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10135, fol. 3. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 102 ― to this four-part miniature. It includes the image of the fallen emperor and signals the French presence by fleur-de-lis finials atop the towers of Troy. A third frontispiece from a contemporary, nonroyal Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 17270, fol. 2v) also copies the four-part composition of Charles V's manuscript, but it suppresses the fleur-de-lis of France and the tumbling emperor. Although justified by the narrative, the careful equation of the Trojan and French kings and the inclusion of the fallen emperors in the two royal manuscripts elaborate upon their texts. The nonroyal manuscript omits any such elaboration, although the editor would have been familiar with the royal versions.
Dynastic Legitimacy and the Reditus Charles V's concerns with the legitimacy of dynastic succession probably caused the suppression of the chapter on Hugh Capet when Charles's book was copied from Primat's
presentation copy. The first portion of the suppressed text advances the doctrine of the reditus regni ad stirpem Karoli Magni . This was desirable material but could easily be omitted because the interpolated life of Louis VIII reiterates and expands upon the reditus theme. The second portion of Hugh Capet's life may have been the section that led to the chapter's suppression. In describing Hugh's reign, it includes an episode in which Hugh unjustly imprisons Arnoul, the archbishop of Reims, because Arnoul, though a bastard, is descended more directly than Hugh from the line of Charlemagne. As a result of his abuse of kingship, Hugh Capet is excommunicated. Only when Arnoul is freed and restored to his post is the ban lifted. Hugh Capet's fear of an illegitimate descendant of Charlemagne and the implication that Hugh was not a legitimate ruler may have provided sufficient reason for suppressing the passage in Charles V's book; it was uncomfortably close to events surrounding the Valois succession to the Capetians, when English claimants believed that they were more closely related to Saint Louis than were the Valois kings of France. Hugh's life could be skipped without disrupting narrative continuity, because the chapters that precede and follow it provide a smooth transition. Charles of Lorraine's life ends by noting that after Hugh Capet ensured the extinction of Charlemagne's line, he had himself crowned in the city of Reims, and the life of Hugh Capet's son Robert begins with the statement that after Hugh died, Robert became king. Revisions in the text of Charles's chronicle thus ensured that the Capetians succeeded the Carolingians with a minimum of controversy. Notes to Henri de Trévou in Philip's book reinforce the idea that the textual editing deliberately minimized questions about Hugh's legitimacy as ruler. The note to Henri in the margin of Hugh Capet's life in Ste.-Gen. 782 is the only one to show equivocation on the part of the designer. It originally consisted of the word "hyst," meaning "miniature." But "hyst" is crossed out and replaced by the words "une vignette," meaning "historiated initial"—"une" placed to the right of "hyst" and "vignette" to the left, thus downgrading the illustration originally planned for the passage on Hugh Capet.[13] Ultimately the picture was downgraded even further when this note was erased (it is now visible only under ultraviolet light) and the life of Hugh Capet was omitted from Charles V's chronicle. ― 103 ― In Charles's Grandes Chroniques the illustration to the life of Louis VIII, the only other text to deal explicitly with the reditus and with dynastic change also minimizes the turbulence of the transition from Carolingian to Capetian government. Instead of featuring Louis's coronation or his actions in Aquitaine, as do virtually all earlier copies containing this text, this picture (Fig. 73) illustrates a prophecy that fixed a time for the reditus and provided a reason for the transition from Carolingian to Capetian government. According to this prophecy, Saint Valery rewarded Hugh the Great, the father of Hugh Capet, for translating his body and that of Saint Riquier. To thank Hugh the Great, Saint Valery appeared to him in a dream and revealed that Hugh's descendants would reign as kings of France for seven generations— precisely the amount of time between Hugh Capet and Philip Augustus, whose son Louis VIII fulfilled the reditus .[14] By illustrating the Valerian prophecy, the miniature beginning Louis VIII's life leads the reader to skip over the preliminary materials of the chapter, which describe Hugh Capet's usurpation and the reditus , and to dwell on the miraculous promise to Hugh Capet's father, here shown as a king. As the Grandes Chroniques
[Full Size] Figure 73 Saint Valery appears to Hugh the Great. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 261. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 104 ―
[Full Size] Figure 74 Charlemagne receives gifts; battle. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 121. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size] Figure 75 Combat determines Ganelon's guilt; punishment of Ganelon. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 124. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 105 ― states, Saint Valery's promise made it clear that the translation of the realm from Carolingian to Capetian was Hugh's reward for good works: his accession was a gift from God.
Kingly Behavior The ideal of kingly behavior is the final theme featured in the program of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques at the end of the first stage of execution. This theme affected the rearrangement of chapters in the lives of the early dukes of Normandy, discussed earlier in this chapter. It also explains the inclusion of double miniatures in the story of Roland. Two double miniatures from the life of Charlemagne represent a kingly prerogative: meting out justice in a just cause. Charlemagne's life was much more densely illuminated in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques than in its textual model; a cycle of nineteen miniatures replaces the five decorating the earlier book. Of the miniatures in Charles's codex, two in particular were laid out with special care. Twice in Book V of the life of Charlemagne (the story of Roland) a notation dictated that space should be left for a double miniature, a form of decoration that occurs only four times in over 380 folios and that in every other case heads the first chapter of a king's life.[15] These pictures illustrate a crime and its punishment. A double miniature (Fig. 74) represents the gifts sent as a false sign of peace to Charlemagne by Marsile, the Saracen king, with the help of Ganelon, one of Charlemagne's trusted advisors, and the subsequent battle in which Ganelon's treacherous act results in the slaughter of Charlemagne's men. The second pair of miniatures (Fig. 75) shows the just punishment for Ganelon's treason against a king. In one image the outcome of single combat determines Ganelon's guilt; in the second picture Ganelon is quartered by two horsemen. The part of Charles V's manuscript written by Henri de Trévou is illustrated by generalized images, but these pictures nonetheless express ideas that become increasingly important in the formation of the program of illustration in subsequent continuations of this Grandes Chroniques . Through the rearrangement or suppression of texts and the importance accorded certain miniatures by their different formats, the first portion of the Grandes Chroniques focuses attention on Charles V's rights to Normandy, emphasizes the continuous descent of Capetian from Carolingian, and stresses the importance of saintly ancestors and just behavior. Finally, it highlights rulers of France who were also emperors and may assert the power of the French king vis-à-vis the emperor.
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Chapter Six— The Second Stage of Execution (c. 1375—77) In contrast to the first stage of production of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques , which recorded French history from the fall of Troy to the death of Philip of Valois in 1350, the second portion describes only 25 years, from the accession of John the Good in 1350 to the ordinance of 1375, which established the age of majority for French kings at 14. The quarter century recorded in this portion of the Grandes Chroniques was a time of marked change in the political fortunes of France.[1] Early in his reign John the Good, Charles V's father, was captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. Charles then began a gradual consolidation of power, first as lieutenant de roi and regent during his father's captivity and finally as king after John's death in England in 1364. The text reports a string of successes for the French house: the negotiation of a tentative peace with England; the suppression of rebellions fueled by Charles V's relative, Charles of Navarre, in Paris and Normandy; the homage of Charles of Navarre before Charles V; and, most important, the birth of a royal heir to Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon. A cycle of 26 miniatures faithfully mirrors the events recorded in the text. Most of these miniatures depict Charles's struggle with Étienne Marcel, the provost of Paris, or with Charles of Navarre, a claimant to the French throne. A second, smaller group of miniatures celebrates positive events of the reign by depicting important ceremonies. The large scale of these ceremonial pictures and their attention to details of costume and armorial bearings establish their importance. Their images evoke two broad themes: the idea of French supremacy over the English through the glorification of ideals of kingly behavior exemplified by John the Good, and the continuity of the Valois line in Charles's heir, Charles VI. In both cases the miniatures combine with their texts to focus on the past and future of the Valois line.
Kingship and Internal Politics Textual changes in the first continuation of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques promote ideals of kingly behavior in the context of contemporary political rivalries, exaggerating English misconduct and minimizing French deficiencies. When Raoulet d'Orléans continued Henri de Trévou's text, he substituted four rewritten pages for the last few folios of the life of Philip of Valois and made editorial changes in the first part of the same gathering.[2] Almost all the leaves immediately preceding ― 107 ― the substitution are corrected more carefully than in the first portion of the book. In fact, three folios before the change of scribe, a sizable paragraph dealing with the abbey of SaintDenis is crossed out emphatically and a red vacat (void) penned in its margins (fol. 383). This unflattering paragraph refers to Philip of Valois's request for the abbey's gold crucifix as a war subsidy despite a papal inscription on its base threatening excommunication of the person who dared remove it from the abbey.[3] This account of kingly greed, like the account of Hugh Capet's jealousy in the first portion of the chronicle, was probably deemed unsuitable in a royal commission. A few folios later, in the substituted text, an elaborate description of the siege of Calais reveals a more extensive example of pro-French editing. Later versions of the Grandes Chroniques contain the text that probably originally existed in Charles's manuscript. They simply state that Philip of Valois arrived too late to help the residents of Calais, who surrendered because they had nothing to eat.[4] This book, however, stresses the "great care and diligence" with which Philip tried to help the city; the wickedness of the English king, who broke a treaty to continue the siege; and the suffering of the people of Calais, reduced to eating horses, cats, dogs, and rats, before their surrender.[5] Like these texts, prominent images also promote French superiority over the English. They laud the kingly behavior of John the Good and denigrate the English. For example, one of the most striking miniatures in this portion of the Grandes Chroniques , a picture of the meeting and feast of the Order of the Star (Fig. 76), illustrates a chapter that describes the treachery of the English, who broke a treaty with the French to capture the city of Guines.[6] This picture commands the reader's attention by its position and scale; it follows the text that
it illustrates, and it is one of only three miniatures in the whole manuscript that fill threequarters of a page each.[7] The rubric to this chapter suggests that the miniature of the Order of the Star is related to the text that precedes it. In Charles V's manuscript the traditional rubric for the third chapter of John the Good's life, "How the city and castle of Guines were captured by the English, the day that the king of France celebrated with the Order of the Star at Saint-Ouen," is expanded to include the phrase, "which feast is portrayed and illustrated below."[8] The picture illustrates a discussion between the king and several members of the order on the occasion of a feast. Regarding this episode, the text simply states that John the Good founded the order in October 1351 and that the members wore stars on their hoods or mantles. The picture, on the other hand, includes more specific details of costume: white tunics, red mantles, pearl-studded fillets that the participants tied around their foreheads, and complicated stars.[9] Because the order no longer existed in the 1370s, this image is an archaeological reconstruction. Both the royal accounts relating to the execution of elements of costume and John the Good's ordinance sent to a group of nobles and princes in 1351 to recruit members offer proof that the costumes included in the painting were authentic.[10] Thus, when this miniature was painted, more than 20 years after the event, the artist incorporated evidence derived either from an eyewitness account of the events or from court documents.[11] Why lavish so much attention on a miniature that not only departs from traditional placement and scale but also addresses a subject of apparently little ― 108 ―
[Full Size]
Figure 76 Order of the Star. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 394. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 109 ―
[Full Size] Figure 77 John the Good enters London. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 438. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. significance to the text? The answer lies in the motivation for the founding of the order and in the contemporary perception of its goals. The full title of the order, Company of Knights of Our Lady of the Noble House at Saint-Ouen, gives a clue to its purpose.[12] To create a tighter bond between John and members of the nobility, the order intertwined the cult of the Virgin with a series of regulations that restricted the conditions under which a member could do battle. Ties like the one created by this order became increasingly necessary for the French as loyalties shifted during the Hundred Years' War. Even more important to an understanding of this picture, however, is the relationship between the Order of the Star and the English Order of the Garter, founded by Edward III.[13] The rules and goals of these orders changed in response to each monarch's need to ensure the loyalty of his troops and, more important, in response to developments on the other side of the channel. Thus the Order of the Star, founded approximately three years after its English counterpart, was a rallying point for French chivalry—a political statement expressing clear opposition to the English and perhaps responding to the Order of the Garter. The relationship between this miniature and its text confirms the political interpretation of the Order of the Star in France. While the text focuses on the neglect of a treaty by the English and their use of treachery to capture a city, the miniature presents a picture of the victorious French king united with his loyal knights, who stand in opposition to those who threaten the realm. Thus French virtue is contrasted with English decadence. The only other two-column miniature featuring John the Good offers a more specific glorification of kingly behavior. John's royal entry into London in 1363 (Fig. 77) marked his willing return to captivity after Louis, duke of Anjou, ― 110 ―
[Full Size] Figure 78 John the Good enters Paris. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 436v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. John's second son and one of the hostages who had taken the king's place in England in 1360, returned to France without permission. This breach of honor, coupled with France's difficulty in meeting ransom payments, broke the Treaty of Brétigny. For John the Good, the only honorable recourse was to return to London.[14] The scale of this miniature highlights the importance to Charles V of his father's honorable behavior. The miniature depicting John's royal entry into Paris when he was released in 1360 (Fig. 78) is of normal size. Only his voluntary return to captivity, a gesture lauded by the French, is shown in large scale.[15]
The Royal Succession The continuity of the Valois line is the second theme addressed by the ceremonial images in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques . When seen together, miniatures showing the peers supporting the crown at the coronation of Jeanne de Bourbon and Charles V and the baptismal procession of Charles VI assert that the Valois line flourishes in the person of the young heir. The scene that introduces the narrative of Charles V's life, a double miniature of the peers supporting the enthroned king and queen, is one of the most perplexing in this Grandes Chroniques de France (Plate 4). Historians and art ― 111 ―
[Full Size] Figure 79 Coronation of John the Good. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 393. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. historians alike have dismissed it from serious consideration because it copies earlier images.[16] Paradoxically, it is precisely this dependence that makes the scene representing Charles's coronation special. Of the 175 pictures in this manuscript, it is one of only two derivative miniatures, a status that raises questions about its function in the Grandes Chroniques . Though derivative, it is not an exact copy of its model. Subtle changes in composition and heraldry, which alter the image to fit its new setting, can be explained by careful consideration of the specific context of Charles V's manuscript and the more generalized context of contemporary historical events. The image was painted between 1375 and 1377 to decorate a continuation of the Grandes Chroniques , written at court, that ends in a chapter covering two events of 1375: the publication in the Parlement of Paris of the ordinance regulating the majority of the French kings and the making of a treaty with the English at Bruges.[17] Apparently the chronicle was thought complete at this time and was probably bound. This continuation provides the specific context for the miniature. In the detail employed the portrayal of the ceremony in this miniature differs from depictions in the manuscript of the commencement of other kings' reigns. Compare, for example, the details of the illustration of John the Good's coronation (Fig. 79), painted in the same campaign as the double scene of Charles V ― 112 ― and Jeanne of Bourbon. In this image the fleur-de-lis identifies the coronation as French, but it is impossible to identify the king. In the double miniature the king and queen hold recognizable objects: Charles grasps a scepter representing Charlemagne enthroned, which was made for him and is still preserved in the Louvre, and Jeanne of Bourbon holds in her right hand the scepter of Dagobert, known from eighteenth-century drawings by Montfaucon.[18] Scholars have explained the specificity of this picture by citing its models—images from Charles V's commemorative Coronation Book (Plates 5 and 6).[19] The Coronation Book , produced in 1365 under Charles V's direct supervision, was decorated by the same workshop
that later painted the double picture in the Grandes Chroniques . Because it formed part of the royal library, the Coronation Book was an authoritative and convenient model for the images in the Grandes Chroniques . This relationship provides a plausible explanation for the compositional similarity of the images, but it makes their other differences even more problematic. One puzzling difference is the moment chosen to illustrate the beginning of Charles V's reign. Instead of the moment of coronation, the picture in the Grandes Chroniques represents a portion of the ceremony that occurred after the coronation proper—a symbolic expression of support for the new king and queen by the clerical and lay peers. The text of the chronicle does not mention this occurrence. It states that the king and queen were crowned and lists some of the nobles in attendance.[20] Strictly speaking, the miniatures of the coronations of Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon from the Coronation Book would have been more appropriate models if the only goal of this picture were the commemoration of the event recounted in the text.[21] Another significant divergence from the Coronation Book is evident in the placement of the queen's picture next to the king's. As recorded in the Coronation Book , the ceremony of the queen's coronation was begun only after the king's was finished. The double miniature in the Grandes Chroniques thus juxtaposes two pictures that were separated by 11 folios and as many miniatures in the Coronation Book . This representation of parallel moments from the two ceremonies glosses over the temporal separation between them and, in the process, gives more prominence to the queen, presenting her on an almost equal footing with the king. The heraldry of the double miniature in Charles V's chronicle is also subtly different from that of its models. In the Coronation Book's treatment of the king's coronation, one image (Plate 5) shows the king flanked by the count of Flanders, the duke of Bourbon, the count of Toulouse, the duke of Anjou, the archbishop of Reims, and the bishop of Beauvais. The corresponding miniature of the queen's coronation (Plate 6) shows the queen flanked by the count of Toulouse, the count of Étampes, the bishop of Beauvais, and the archbishop of Reims.[22] The positions of three people changed when these scenes were copied into the Grandes Chroniques (Plate 4). In the scene showing the peers supporting the crown after the coronation of the queen, the duke of Burgundy replaced the count of Toulouse, and the duke of Bourbon replaced the count of Étampes.[23] In the scene with the king, the count of Étampes takes the position near the king that the duke of Bourbon held in the Coronation Book . These careful heraldic changes do not increase the historical accuracy of the picture. Of the peers distinguished by heraldry in the miniatures, the Grandes Chroniques only mentions the presence of the archbishop of Reims; the bishop ― 113 ― of Beauvais; Louis, duke of Anjou; and Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy at the ceremony.[24] Although not mentioned specifically in the text of the chronicle, the count of Étampes, the count of Flanders, and the duke of Bourbon were peers at the time of the coronation; they were listed as such in both Charles V's Coronation Book and the conflicting list of peers that appeared in the Traité du sacre , the commentary on the ceremony of coronation commissioned by Charles V from Jean Golein in 1374.[25] Whether the counts of Flanders and Toulouse were really present at the coronation is not germane to this discussion, since the counts appear in both the Grandes Chroniques and the Coronation Book . More intriguing are the differences introduced in the Grandes Chroniques: the duke of Burgundy is brought into the scene of support for the queen, and the positions of the duke of Bourbon and the count of Étampes are changed to place the duke of Bourbon by the queen. Because the dukes of Bourbon and Burgundy and the count of Étampes were present at the coronation, pictorial or written accounts of the ceremony cannot explain discrepancies between these pictures. In fact, the reason may have been Charles V's concerns for the education of his heir. Charles V's first child, who became Charles VI, was born in 1368 during the period between the execution of the Coronation Book and the Grandes Chroniques de France . The birth of a son, which had been eagerly anticipated for 18 years, ensured the continuity of the Valois line. To safeguard this continuity in the event of his death, Charles V promulgated three ordinances in 1374.[26] One concerned the age of majority. Published in the Parlement of Paris in 1375, it was the subject of the last chapter of Charles V's life in this
copy of the Grandes Chroniques . It thus closed the reign that began with the scene of the peers' support. In many ways this ordinance marked a logical ending for this version of the chronicle, which was written and painted between 1375 and 1377, while Charles V was still king. Although it did not complete Charles V's life, it did provide a plan for a smooth transition to his son's government. A second ordinance, which was not included in the chronicle, charged Jeanne of Bourbon with the education and upbringing of her children and provided her with two principal assistants: her brother-in-law, Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy; and her brother, Louis, duke of Bourbon. The association of Philip and Louis with the queen in this special charge must have been reason enough to include them with her in this picture and could help to explain why the queen's picture was placed next to the king's—to demonstrate the provisions for legitimate government. The decision to depict a moment of support rather than the moment of coronation may also reflect Charles V's concern with providing a smooth transition to the government of his heir. A contemporary text, the Traité du sacre by Jean Golein, provides insights into the significance of this ceremony.[27] Completed in the same year as the ordinance on government and contemporary with the painting of the miniature in the Grandes Chroniques , Golein's treatise glosses the events of the coronation with an explanation of their symbolic meaning. In his treatise Golein frequently stresses the peers' role in assisting in the just government of France as defenders of king and realm. According to Golein, "The peers surround the king to signify the forces who surround Solomon, all of them expert with the sword, skilled in battle, because if they [the peers] are not presently holding their swords, they are nearby to be taken when it is time to defend the king and realm."[28] ― 114 ― Perhaps dual images of baronial support were represented in the Grandes Chroniques to show that the peers were ready to defend their present king (Charles V) and to uphold the government of his descendants—a government in which the queen and the peers flanking her were supposed to play an important role. On the most basic level, this picture is a special commemoration of Charles V's and Jeanne of Bourbon's coronations in 1364, deriving its iconography from the official commemorative manuscript of the coronation. However, this commemorative function may be less important than a second function: to introduce Charles V's reign while simultaneously alluding to its conclusion—to the provisions for government under the young dauphin and the peers' duty to protect and defend the realm and their king, no matter what his age. Support for this interpretation is found in an analysis of a miniature representing the baptismal procession of the dauphin (Fig. 80), the only other large ceremonial picture from this version of Charles's life.[29] The theme of dynastic continuity to which the miniature of baronial support only alludes is amplified in the representation of the procession that took place in 1368 when Charles's firstborn son was christened. This illustration reflects its narrative, which describes the order of the large procession and lists the distinguished guests in attendance.[30] Of particular interest is the description of Queen Jeanne of Evreux, widow of Charles IV, carrying the dauphin between his two godfathers, Charles of Montmorency and Charles of Dammartin, in the procession to the church. To increase compositional clarity in the miniature, the queen is placed slightly behind the godfathers, in a position that further emphasizes her important role in the event. Prior to the
[Full Size] Figure 80 Baptismal procession of Charles VI. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 446v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 115 ― sixteenth century, when descriptions of baptisms of dauphins began to specify that the godfather carried the godchild, there seems to have been no fixed protocol governing this aspect of the ceremony.[31] Therefore, Charles V's choice of Jeanne of Evreux, the surviving wife of the last Capetian king and a constant negotiator for peace between Charles V and Charles of Navarre, is particularly significant.[32] Her role in carrying the Valois heir must have been seen at the time as an affirmation of the continuity between Capetian and Valois—of the sanction of the Capetian kings for their Valois successors. A contradiction between the accounts of the Grandes Chroniques and the continuations of Guillaume de Nangis's Chronique abrégée raises a question as to Jeanne of Evreux's actual role in the baptism. Dating from the 1380s, the continuations of the Chronique abrégée include a description of the baptism identical to that of the Grandes Chroniques except that Jeanne of Evreux's part in the ceremony is suppressed, and Charles of Montmorency carries the infant, accompanied by Charles of Dammartin.[33] This deviation is notable in a text that copies Charles V's Grandes Chroniques so carefully that it transcribes one of the marginal notes unique to this royal manuscript.[34] The exact significance of this break from the official account preserved in Charles's manuscript remains undetermined. It may be that Jeanne of Evreux's death in 1371, which ended her negotiations between the houses of France and Navarre, also lessened her utility as a symbol of Capetian support for the Valois line. A second possibility is that the compiler of the Chronique abrégée noted an inconsistency in the Grandes Chroniques , which he rectified. The Grandes Chroniques describes Jeanne of Evreux carrying the dauphin but also includes her among the distinguished guests following behind in the procession, "la royne Jeanne, la Duchesse d'Orliens sa fille."[35] The miniatures that punctuate Raoulet d'Orléans's first continuation of the Grandes Chroniques function differently from those in the earlier portion of the manuscript. Illustrations to the life of John the Good and the first part of the life of Charles V document Charles's gradual consolidation of power. At the same time, a small group of texts and images of ceremony that are unique to this manuscript addresses different issues. Their assertion of French supremacy through illustrations of John the Good's kingship and through the emphasis on the Valois succession in images of Charles VI manifests underlying political and dynastic themes that reach fuller expression in the third part of the manuscript.
― 116 ―
Chapter Seven— The Third Stage of Execution (after 1379) The third stage of production of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques —Raoulet d'Orléans's second continuation—spans the shortest period, beginning with events of fall 1375 and terminating in April 1379.[1] Unlike the second portion of the chronicle, which documents Charles V's consolidation of power, this part describes a difficult time in France's history. With the exception of the state visit of the Holy Roman Emperor, the events of this era were bleak. After the death of the Black Prince in 1376 and Edward III in 1377, an infant, Richard II, assumed the English throne with a government dominated by his uncles. War with England resumed, the confessions of Jacques la Rue and Pierre le Tertre confirmed the long-suspected treachery of Charles of Navarre, and the Papal Schism began.[2] During this stage of production several changes were made to earlier portions of the manuscript, and new material was introduced. A new frontispiece was added to the first volume, and four sets of leaves were excised from the lives of Saint Louis and Philip of Valois, written in the chronicle's first stage, and replaced by illustrated texts addressing the question of Valois legitimacy and thus reinforcing many of the themes present in earlier portions of the book. The miniatures executed in Raoulet's second continuation further promote the theme of French kingship by defining the king's relation to the emperor, with particular emphasis on his primacy in France. Indeed, this is a central focus of this continuation: 17 miniatures portray events from the Holy Roman Emperor's visit to Paris in 1378.
The Five Substitutions The five substitutions of this continuation comprise two texts dealing with homage, illustrated with three miniatures; a third text describing events that surrounded Philip of Valois's succession to the throne of France, illustrated with one miniature; a fourth text, a short prefatory paragraph to the life of Saint Louis, with a full-page frontispiece and author's portrait; and a frontispiece for the whole manuscript. Each of the substituted folios contains textual or visual material unique to Charles V's Grandes Chroniques . Seen together, they constitute a forceful reaffirmation of the legitimacy of the Valois line in response to English claims to the French throne, accomplished in part by the assertion of parallels between Saint Louis and his Valois descendants. The type of homage owed to the French king by the English ruler for his duchies in France had long been an issue between France and England and was ― 117 ― of particular importance to the early Valois rulers.[3] The dispute was rooted in the Treaty of Paris, concluded between Louis IX and Henry III in 1259, which called upon the French king to cede certain lands to the English king in return for his liege homage. Criticized for having alienated important lands in the treaty in exchange for mere homage, Louis retorted, as Joinville notes, "It seems to me that that which I give Henry III, I use well because he was not my vassal, and because of this event he enters into my homage."[4] The English kings grudgingly renewed their homage at each change of reign: Edward I paid homage to Philip IV of France in 1286, and Edward II paid homage to Philip IV (1308) and Philip V (1320). In none of these cases, however, did the king pay liege homage because he did not swear the oath of fidelity.[5] When Philip of Valois came to the throne in 1328 he, like his predecessors, summoned the English king to pay homage for his duchies in France.[6] Edward III arrived at Amiens in 1329 but, like his father and grandfather, pledged a less-binding, conditional homage that omitted the oath of fidelity to the French ruler. Twice in 1330 Edward was summoned to appear in France in order to confirm that the homage of 1329 had been liege and to swear the oath of fidelity. In 1331 Edward sent a letter to Philip stating that he should have performed liege homage in 1329; however, he did not make the trip to France and, in fact, never performed liege homage in person. The issue of liege homage is the focus of two of the four sets of substituted leaves in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques . As Paulin Paris and others have noted, these insertions expand short discussions of homage in the lives of Saint Louis (chapter 84) and Philip of
Valois (chapter 6) with three miniatures and the texts of two documents from the Trésor des chartes: the Treaty of Paris and the letter Edward III sent Philip in 1331.[7] In the first miniature of homage (Fig. 81) Henry III kneels before Saint Louis and clasps his hands while witnesses peer from either side of the royal pair and from the lower margin of the page. Rather than occupying the traditional place at the head of the chapter, this miniature precedes the text of the Treaty of Paris, in which the English king first agreed to pay liege homage to the French king and his heirs for lands in France (Gascony, including Bordeaux and Bayonne, and the channel islands) and to renounce claims to lands held by the French in Normandy, Anjou, Touraine, Maine, and Poitou.[8] Two miniatures in the second insertion (Figs. 82 and 83) illustrate the letter sent to Philip of Valois in 1331, which not only confirmed that Edward should have performed liege homage in 1329, but also described the form that all future ceremonies of homage should adopt.[9] The illustrated texts interpolated into the Grandes Chroniques at this stage of production blur distinctions between the homage that took place in 1329 and that which was described in 1331, distorting the actual ceremony of homage to bolster the French position and promote the legitimacy of the Valois line. Textual changes in the manuscript manipulate the description of the events of 1329 to imply that the English king unequivocally accepted the Valois succession immediately after Philip of Valois's accession in 1328, rather than three years later. In addition, the chapter describing the 1329 ceremony of homage incorporates the letter written in 1331, preceded by a paragraph stating that the plain homage paid in 1329 was just like the liege homage described in the letter. Raoulet writes, "Thus the English ― 118 ―
[Full Size] Figure 81 Henry III's homage to Saint Louis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 290. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. did homage to the king of France in the form and manner contained in the charter sealed with the seal of the king of England, whose content follows."[10] Moreover, to eliminate any shred of doubt, Raoulet further edits the rubric that he had placed at the beginning of the newly-inserted chapter (Fig. 84). The original rubric shows the English king as a less-thanwilling participant: "How the king of England went to sea to go to the city of Amiens where
the above-mentioned king had to pay homage to the king of France for the duchy of Aquitaine and for the county of Ponthieu as vassal of the king of France [my italics]."[11] Its corrected version, "How the king of England went to sea to go to the city of Amiens to pay homage to the king of France . . . ," suggests that the homage was freely offered. The illustration that immediately follows this rubric freezes the English king's action as he prepares to kneel and extend his hands to clasp those of the French monarch. The next picture, at the bottom of the folio on which the letter begins, portrays a later moment of the ceremony, drawing its details directly from the description of homage in the letter. In this two-column miniature Edward kneels and places his hands, which are rendered in a scale larger than the rest of the image, within those of the French king. Aiding the French king is his chamberlain, dressed in a long, side-split mantle or hérigaut marked at the shoulder by three bands of white. ― 119 ―
[Full Size] Figure 82 Edward III prepares for homage before Philip of Valois. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 357. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size]
Figure 83 Edward III's homage before Philip of Valois. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 357v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 120 ―
[Full Size] Figure 84 Edited rubric. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 357. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. The moment represented in the three illustrations reinforces the political content of their texts. The miniature of Henry III's homage and the two miniatures of Edward III's homage all focus on the gesture of immixtio manuum (handclasp)—significantly, the moment at which the vassal was most abject. This may have been the reason for illustrating it rather than another moment, such as the osculum (kiss). Also significant is the chamberlain's action in Edward's homage, for it marks the instant at which the English king swears the oath and thus submits to French authority. The presence of witnesses in all the miniatures verifies this act of submission.[12] Additional visual details further stress the English king's submission to his French lord. In all three miniatures the English king wears a heavy gold crown, although the ceremony demands that the person swearing homage be bareheaded. This deviation was doubtless employed to identify both Henry III and Edward III. Indeed, contemporary illustrations of homage such as those decorating Charles's manuscript of the Homages du comtè de Clermont , known through an eighteenth-century copy made for Roger de Gaigniéres, often identify figures through details of dress.[13] In the depiction of the homage of Louis II of Bourbon from this manuscript, for instance, court personages are easily identified by their arms. Further, Louis is not bareheaded while offering homage but wears a thin circlet. Nonetheless, it is tempting to see the addition of crowns to the standard English arms as yet another way of emphasizing the king's submission.[14] The English monarch paid homage in 1259 and 1329 as duke of Gascony and Poitou, not as king of England. His representation in royal regalia presents the event as the homage of a king rather than a duke. One of a series of contemporary letters documenting the negotiations between Philip of Valois and Edward III, added during the second continuation of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques , describes the ceremonies of plain and liege homage, clearly demonstrating that the only distinction between the two ceremonies was the wording of the oath.[15] The events represented in the added miniatures—the chamberlain's speech for the French king and the immixtio manuum —could therefore have been part of either ceremony. Yet the submission symbolized by the gesture of immixtio manuum seems to have been as important ― 121 ― an issue in the late fourteenth century as the propriety of liege or plain homage had been at the beginning of Philip of Valois's reign. Writers who favored the English side challenged Valois legitimacy by denying that the English king had performed this symbolic gesture, despite the fact that duplicates of the homage documents were available in England. Froissart, in a redaction of his chronicle, possibly identical to that presented in 1361 to the English queen, Philippa of Hainault, included this account of Edward III's homage before Philip of Valois: "The king Edward of England did homage by mouth [i.e., kiss] and words only, without putting his hands between the hands of the king of France."[16] A little later he
asserted, "Many murmur in England that their lord was closer to the heritage of France than was king Philip."[17] The textual source for Book I of Froissart's history—the chronicle of Jean le Bel—gives this account added significance,[18] for the description of homage is one of the few original passages that Froissart interpolated into Jean le Bel's text to produce the first redaction of his chronicle. Since this text was destined for the English queen, the interpolation of an original account questioning the legitimacy of the French ruling house doubtless reflects contemporary English political rhetoric and the importance of the immixtio manuum as a symbol of submission. The inserted miniatures of homage thus function on three levels: they provide a clear illustration of the inserted documents; they underline the French view of the homage by emphasizing the gesture of submission and by identifying the participants through details of costume; and they illustrate Charles V's historic speech before his uncle, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV, in 1378—a summary of which formed part of the continuation of the Grandes Chroniques written at the same time that the insertions were substituted into earlier portions of the manuscript.[19] This speech, given before the royal council and the university community, outlined a litany of English provocations justifying the French resumption of war. Charles V opened his discourse with a description of the two incidents of homage, which are painted with extraordinary care and added to the manuscript. He then discussed the Treaty of Brétigny and the letter of confirmation that outlined the renunciations to which the English agreed. He further explained how, at each turn, the English had broken their word; they aided Charles of Navarre and condoned the Black Prince's atrocities in France. He emphasized that the French continued, despite these breaches of faith, to send messengers beseeching the English to rectify matters. Finally, Charles concluded, his nation had no alternative but to resume war with the English. The summary of Charles's speech places great emphasis on proof of his assertions. References to documents shown to the emperor appear throughout. For example, the emperor was shown the "letters on this matter" (the letter of 1331 on homage); the "other, older charters" in which the "kings of England renounced lands" (Treaty of Paris); and the "treaty of the peace" (Treaty of Brétigny). Almost all these texts either already appeared in the Grandes Chroniques or were inserted into Charles V's personal copy during Raoulet's second continuation. Charles V's speech had an impact on other portions of the manuscript as well. Marginal notes added by Raoulet d'Orléans single out almost all the other events cited by Charles V in his discourse and described earlier in the Grandes ― 122 ― Chroniques . Although notas are the most common form of annotation, detailed marginalia occasionally single out texts because of their relationship to the speech. One annotation even corrects a text (chapter 20) written during the second stage of execution, which states that the Black Prince imprisoned representatives of Charles V for a long time and "still holds them, in great contempt of the king and his sovereignty."[20] Next to this statement is a marginal note, underlined and framed by brown pen lines, which states, "Note: he had them killed."[21] This note updates the earlier continuation to conform with the version of the story given by Charles V in his speech when, in listing the excesses of the Black Prince, he said that the prince "had them taken and murdered evilly, against God and justice and in offense of the king and the realm of France."[22] This example is one of many that prove how carefully the director of the manuscript's layout underscored the relation between portions of text executed during the first and second stages of the manuscript and that portion written after the emperor's visit in 1378. The introduction of new texts containing specific images and the addition of complex marginal notes to texts already present in the manuscript draw attention to events and documents cited in Charles V's speech. The third substitution of texts and images focuses exclusively on the problem of Valois legitimacy. In Charles V's Grandes Chroniques the first chapter of the life of Philip of Valois substitutes, as Paulin Paris and Jules Viard note, a description of Philip's uncontested accession to the throne for the traditional discussion outlining English and Navarrese claims.[23] The care with which this alteration was accomplished is striking. Text, rubric, and illustration differ from their counterparts in all other Grandes Chroniques . The miniature of
the coronation of Philip of Valois at the head of the first chapter initially appears to be a logical choice for the first illustration to a king's reign (Fig. 85) and, understandably, has not attracted attention. Yet almost every other manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques postdating Charles's copy provides a different image and rubric. Instead of the coronation, events such as a discussion between barons, a homage, or a battle are most commonly illustrated.[24] A correction to the list of chapters dealing with Philip of Valois, which has been overlooked by compilers of critical editions of the Grandes Chroniques , suggests that the text surviving in later manuscripts, and most often illustrated by the baronial debate, may also have been the original in Charles V's copy. At the beginning of the chapter list on a folio written by Henri de Trévou (Fig. 86) an unknown rubric for chapter 1 was carefully scraped and the coronation rubric substituted by Raoulet d'Orléans. This new rubric ("How Philip, Count of Valois, received the government of the realm and of his coronation") may in fact have replaced the same rubric as that found in later manuscripts ("The first chapter addresses the question of to whom the government of the realm should be entrusted").[25] Just as the changed rubric and text in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques gloss over the difficult transition from Capetian to Valois, the new miniature also portrays a smooth transfer of power. By illustrating Philip of Valois's coronation, this miniature underlines his continuity with those who had reigned before. Few modern readers looking at the revised account in Charles V's manuscript would suspect that Philip's accession contributed to the Hundred Years' War. ― 123 ―
[Full Size] Figure 85 Coronation of Philip of Valois. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 353v Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
[Full Size] Figure 86 Chapter list, life of Philip of Valois. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 352. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 124 ― The fourth insert, the frontispiece to the life of Saint Louis (Fig. 87), contains six scenes: the nativity of Saint Louis, the education of Saint Louis, Saint Louis's care for the leper monk at Royaumont, Saint Louis washing the feet of the poor, the burial of the crusaders' bones at Sidon, and Saint Louis's submission to scourging by his confessor. These images reflect the Valois interest in the royal saint,[26] glorifying him as the ancestor of the Capetian and Valois lines and thus reinforcing the theme of dynastic legitimacy conveyed by the other inserted texts and illuminations. Like Philip of Valois and John the Good, Charles promoted dynastic legitimacy by invoking his direct Valois ancestors and his saintly Capetian ancestor, Louis.[27] To stress continuity within the new dynasty, Charles decided to be crowned on Trinity Sunday, as his grandfather had been.[28] In another expression of dynastic pride, undertaken shortly after his coronation, he commissioned tombs for both his grandparents, Philip of Valois and his first wife, Jeanne of Burgundy; his father, John the Good; himself; and his queen, Jeanne of Bourbon, to make the first three Valois kings visible near their Capetian, Carolingian, and Merovingian ancestors in the royal necropolis at Saint-Denis.[29] Even Charles's ordinance establishing the age of majority at 14 invoked Louis IX above other French kings. The text, whose publication in Parlement in 1375 was the subject of the last chapter of the second stage of execution of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques , cites Saint Louis among biblical and historical exempla of kings who assumed their majority at 14, even though historical evidence suggests that Louis IX was, in fact, 12 at the time.[30] A long passage in praise of Saint Louis as patron of France and as a model of good kingship follows.[31] The inserted frontispiece to the life of Saint Louis constitutes a part of this pervasive Valois tradition. Like many Capetian commissions and like John the Good's Grandes Chroniques , its textual source is the Vie de Saint Louis by Guillaume de Saint-Pathus. Although most of its imagery derives from Saint-Pathus as well, certain deviations from established iconography are distinctive.[32] The most innovative scene in the frontispiece, the nativity of Saint Louis, is the only miniature with no textual nor pictorial basis. Its inclusion establishes a relationship between the baby Louis and Charles V's infant son, later Charles VI, as he appears in the large twocolumn miniature of his baptismal procession from the chronicle's second stage of execution (Fig. 80). This comparison is relevant because Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon had waited 18 years for the birth of their son. Their desire for an heir was strong enough to cause changes emphasizing fertility in the coronation ordo used in 1364.[33]
Almost every other Grandes Chroniques that illustrates Charles VI as a baby also includes a portrait of his younger brother,[34] nor does any other Grandes Chroniques picture Saint Louis as an infant. By omitting a picture of the birth or baptism of Charles's second son, Louis, in 1372 and including a picture of an infant whose presence is not even demanded by the text, this Grandes Chroniques establishes a connection between the dauphin Charles and Louis IX that underscores the expression of Capetian-Valois continuity in the insertions of homage and of the coronation of Philip of Valois. A second scene in the frontispiece is more concerned with Louis's kingship than with his place in Valois genealogy. An image of Blanche of Castille, enthroned and supervising the education of her son, normally illustrates copies ― 125 ―
[Full Size] Figure 87 Frontispiece to the life of Saint Louis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 265. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
― 126 ―
[Full Size] Figure 88 Blanche of Castile oversees Louis IX's education. Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, Vie de Saint Louis . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 5716, fol. 16. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. of Saint-Pathus's Vie (Fig. 88), which supplied the model for the illustration of the education of Saint Louis in the Grandes Chroniques .[35] In the frontispiece the suppression of the queen and the changed relationship between teacher and pupil transform its tone. The authority of Louis's royal dress, his prominent position under a baldachin with his teacher on a low bench before him, and the absence of his mother shift the emphasis to Louis's kingship and away from the more conventional presentation of the instruction of a prince. This altered focus may reflect a changing ideal of kingship under Charles V, who earned his sobriquet, "the Wise," through his scholarly pursuits and who was often cited along with Saint Louis in discussions of the education of a French king.[36] The fifth and final insert in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques is a miniature long thought to represent the coronation of Charles VI (Fig. 89). Scholars traditionally believed that this image was executed for the section of the manuscript that followed Charles V's life, then cut out and placed at the beginning when the two volumes of Charles V's manuscript were rebound as one in the fifteenth century. The most persuasive argument against this interpretation is that Charles V's Grandes Chroniques ends abruptly in 1379, a full year before Charles's death and his ― 127 ―
[Full Size] Figure 89 Peers support the crown. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 3v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 128 ― son's accession: there could have been no text describing Charles VI's coronation. Moreover, there is no evidence that an account of the coronation was ever there. Over 50 blank pages are ruled at the end of the manuscript with no sign that anything has been cut out. The simplest explanation may therefore be that this coronation scene was inserted, along with the other pages, in the third stage of execution of the manuscript. Indeed, it may have been planned to serve as a full-page frontispiece to the first volume of the Grandes Chroniques , just as the inserted leaf with scenes from the life of Saint Louis acted as an extratextual frontispiece to the second volume of the chronicle. The coronation miniature makes more sense in this context. It represents precisely the same moment chosen to introduce Charles V's life in his manuscript—the moment when the king is supported by the peers—but it serves a slightly different purpose here. In Charles V's life the image is packed with realistic details and heraldic charges, reflecting the specific problems with legitimacy and succession that Charles V faced in the 1370s. This frontispiece is more universal; it even includes spectators in the lower register. The fleur-de-lis drapery in
the image of the monarch and in the background identifies the coronation as French, but no other figure in the scene is identified by heraldry. Instead, 12 blank shields are isolated on the ground in the lower margin, probably designed to receive the arms of the 12 peers who, according to tradition, assist in the ceremony. The image therefore celebrates France's sacred kingship and alludes to the peers' role, specified by Golein, in supporting and defending the king and the realm.
The Visit of the Holy Roman Emperor The description of the emperor's visit to Paris in 1378 is the most densely illuminated segment of text in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques .[37] In this subcycle, 18 miniatures decorate 13 folios. They portray the visit from the arrival of the emperor's letter announcing his impending trip (fol. 464) to letters received at court after his departure (fol. 480). The action between concentrates on ceremony. In this portion of the chronicle, text and image together emphasize the preeminence of the French over the emperor. For example, two miniatures illustrate the chapter in which the emperor stayed in the imperial city of Cambrai at the insistence of Charles's messengers, so that he could play his customary imperial role in the religious ceremony celebrated at Christmas without interfering with Charles's kingly role. The first miniature shows the pomp of his entry into Cambrai and the second his part in the celebration of the Christmas mass. The Grandes Chroniques's text makes the issue clear: "Because the emperor customarily said the seventh lesson at matins, dressed in his imperial clothes and insignia, he was advised by the king's men that he could not and would not be permitted to do this in the king's realm."[38] The second miniature shows the imperial ceremony in such detail that the first few words of the seventh lesson, which the emperor declaimed, are inscribed on the book placed on the podium.[39] Other miniatures in this section of text are notable for their scale as well as for their close relation to their texts. For instance, a sequence of three miniatures (fols. 469, 470, 470v) illustrates the emperor's approach to Paris, the meeting of emperor and king, and their entry into Paris; the miniatures increase in size from ― 129 ―
[Full Size] Figure 90 Entry of Charles V, Charles IV, and Wenceslaus into Paris. Grandes Chroniques de France .Bibliothèque Nationale,
Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 470v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. one and one-half columns, to two columns, to three-quarters of a page.[40] As in the picture of the emperor in Cambrai, these images stress French ascendancy. The Grandes Chroniques records that Charles V, in order to emphasize the ban on imperial signs on French soil, purposefully chose dark horses, rather than the white ones traditionally given to emperors, for Charles IV and his son Wenceslaus when they met the French king outside Paris. In the illustration of the entry (Fig. 90) the emperor and his son ride dark horses while Charles V sits astride a white horse and wears a crown in place of the hat required by the text.[41] It is likely that this detail of costume was introduced to emphasize Charles's equality with the Holy Roman Emperor. The largest and most problematic miniature in the subcycle of the imperial visit is that of the Great Feast (Fig. 91). This picture, along with the Order of the Star miniature discussed in Chapter 6, is one of only two illustrations in Charles V's manuscript referred to directly in its accompanying text. As in the image of the Order of the Star, the passage preceding the miniature of the Great Feast refers explicitly to the picture that follows: "And thus they went without a great hurry . . . to the large dais with the marble table and the grouping of figures and ― 130 ―
[Full Size]
Figure 91 Great Feast. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 473v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 131 ― their positions were as described below and as is figured in the miniature hereafter portrayed."[42] With the exception of a few simplifications required to depict a large crowd in a small area, the illustration conforms to the description of the diners that begins just below the picture. It records the positions of Emperor Charles IV, Charles V, Wenceslaus, and the bishops who dined with them. The representation of the play, which fills the right side and the foreground of the miniature, however, contains elements not specified by the text. The Grandes Chroniques states that the play was about the history of Godfrey of Bouillon and the conquest of Jerusalem. It speaks of Peter the Hermit, of Godfrey, and of the "noble knights who were at the conquest of Jerusalem," but it does not identify these knights. The picture, however, includes four sets of arms, on the boat and on the individual knights who storm Jerusalem: Godfrey of Bouillon's arms are at the stern of the ship at the far left, England's are on a spear, Auvergne's on the mast, and Flanders's at the bow. Contemporary descriptions of this crusade demonstrate that the storming of Jerusalem portrayed in the miniature includes at least two anachronisms. Godfrey was not king during the assault on Jerusalem; he was crowned later.[43] Further, the counts of Flanders and Auvergne participated in the assault, but the king of England was not there. Instead, his brother, Robert of Normandy, took part.[44] Artistic error alone cannot explain the latter discrepancy; besides adding an extra lion to the arms of Normandy, thus transforming Normandy's two lions into England's three, the artist also placed a crown on the head of the figure who bears these arms and stands at the foot of the ladder outside Jerusalem's walls. Clearly the artist intended to portray the king of England.[45] The description that the Grandes Chroniques gives for selecting this play provides a possible explanation for these changes. According to the chronicle, the king chose to have the story of Godfrey of Bouillon performed because he believed that there was no better example to put before the noblest men in Christendom who "were best able, ought, and should undertake such a feat in the service of God."[46] Taken at face value, this statement suggests that the play was intended to kindle crusading fervor in those who watched it. This is difficult to prove, since there is little evidence that Charles V was ever seriously interested in a crusade.[47] A comparison of this image with that of the Order of the Star suggests a different explanation for its prominence in the manuscript. Not only are the miniatures of the Order of the Star (Fig. 76) and the Great Feast (Fig. 91) thematically related, they are also large in scale, occupying three-quarters of a manuscript page; they incorporate elements not described in the chronicle; and they are the only two miniatures in the manuscript to be referred to explicitly by their texts. It is possible that the picture of the Great Feast, painted in the third stage of execution, was designed to refer back to the Order of the Star, painted in the second stage, just as other miniatures and texts from the third stage refer back to the second. As we have seen, the miniature of the Order of the Star celebrates John the Good and French chivalry and, by contrast, denigrates the English whose treachery is the actual subject of the text it illustrates.[48] Given the relationship between these miniatures, it is reasonable to suggest that the Great Feast may have had a similar function within the framework of the imperial visit. The portrayal of the English king in the capture of Jerusalem when it was known that he did not participate ― 132 ― suggests that its function was to convey a message about England similar to the message conveyed in Charles V's speech.[49] One of Charles's goals for the imperial visit was to persuade the Holy Roman Emperor to condemn England's actions in the Hundred Years' War. The plea he delivered before the emperor the night after the state dinner at which the play was performed (and recorded in the text of the Grandes Chroniques two chapters after the description of the dinner), presented a litany of dastardly English deeds that contrasted markedly with the portrayal of the English monarch in the play.[50] Charles described an English king who broke treaties and ordered the murder of emissaries, but the crusading play portrays a heroic English king assisting in a
triumph over the infidel. Whether this idealized king is Richard the Lionheart, a hero of the Third Crusade, or simply an invention of the designer of the play or program of decoration is unimportant. His heroic stature emphasizes the evil of Edward III as Charles described him. This contrast between exemplary and reprehensible behavior in picture and text is very similar to that established by the Order of the Star miniature and text. The portrayal of the arms of Flanders and Auvergne in the Great Feast miniature may constitute an additional contemporary reference. Of all the nobles who were with Godfrey when he stormed the walls of Jerusalem only the counts of Flanders and Auvergne accompany him in this miniature. They may have been selected because the counties of Flanders and Auvergne belonged to Philip, duke of Burgundy, and John, duke of Berry, two of Charles's brothers, who played important roles in the protocol of the emperor's state visit.[51] The depiction of their predecessors as counts in the play may have been a compliment to them. By analyzing the three stages in the production of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques we can thus chart the changing concerns of one French king. As first conceived, the book ended with the life of Philip of Valois and was illustrated with generalized pictures whose images reflect the young king's particular concerns: the history of his ducal predecessors in Normandy; his holy ancestors, Charlemagne and Saint Louis; the concept of legitimacy; and the idea of empire. During the second stage of execution the text was expanded to include the reigns of John the Good and Charles V to the events of 1375. One series of pictures focuses on Charles's difficulties with Étienne Marcel and the Estates General and with Charles of Navarre, carefully incorporating detail drawn from the chronicle into illustrations that relate exclusively to their own texts. A second series of miniatures depicts ceremonies. These pictures not only illustrate events described in the text but also work together to develop dynastic themes—the promotion of John the Good as a model of good kingship and the assurance of Valois continuity in the person of the dauphin Charles. Perhaps as a response to the worsening political situation in France, the use of miniatures of ceremony was more common during the third stage of execution. All but two of these illustrations assert French ascendancy over the empire. Finally, Valois legitimacy is emphasized by four illustrated texts and one full-page miniature executed during the third stage for substitution into the first portion of the manuscript. Charles V's Grandes Chroniques is radically different from those versions that went before. Unlike its predecessors, it includes a continuation written at court that brings it up to the present and describes the acts of its patron. Perhaps ― 133 ― because Charles V was a politically astute monarch as well as a noted bibliophile, pictures and text in his Grandes Chroniques were altered almost every time the political situation changed. His chronicle therefore records events of his reign and reflects his changing political thought and contemporary French propaganda during a stressful time in French history. During Charles V's lifetime the book was probably available only to the king and a select group of courtiers. Nevertheless, this Grandes Chroniques addresses the same issues as the more public celebrations of monarchial authority expressed in speeches, ordinances, or ceremonies. This book, which survives while more ephemeral public art has been destroyed, is thus an important historical document that, as we shall see, had a profound influence on subsequent copies of the text. ― 135 ―
PART IV— MANUSCRIPTS PRODUCED DURING THE REIGN OF CHARLES VI ― 137 ―
Chapter Eight— The Legacy of Charles V After the death of Charles V in 1380 the political situation in Paris changed. Charles VI succeeded to the throne at the age of 12 in a government that violated the ordinance governing the regency drafted by Charles V in 1374. Charles V had planned for a balanced government in which Charles VI's uncles, Philip of Burgundy and Louis of Anjou, would control separate areas and counter each other's ambitions until Charles was 14.[1] Instead, the regency council was dominated by Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy, after Louis of Anjou departed for Naples in 1381. From Charles V's death until Charles VI finally took control in 1388, the French dukes entrusted with the regency concentrated more on promoting their own interests than on serving the state. When Charles attained his majority in 1388, the structure of government changed. The young king turned away from the dukes and toward advisors who had worked for his father; these counsellors began to provide stability and continuity in policy. However, shortly after he began to rule independently, Charles was beset by a bout of mental illness in 1392. This illness was perhaps the most important factor shaping the political climate of Charles VI's reign. He seemed to recover from his first crise by September of 1392 but had a second attack in June of 1393 that lasted until January 1394. This pattern of illness and remission continued; in 30 years Charles had about 43 "absences," as they were euphemistically called in the documents. Charles's mental illness posed special problems for the court and the government of France. Frequently, when he was "absent," Charles did not know himself or his family. The dilemma that the court faced centered on the fact that, at least in the beginning, Charles seemed capable of governing between his attacks.[2] For a period of approximately 20 years— from the onset of the condition in 1392 until around 1414 when it overcame the king—the members of the French court had no way to gauge whether Charles could govern at any given time. The question of who should govern was of central importance, and there were diverse opinions as to the correct answer. One solution would have had the royal heir act as regent, but Charles's sons were sickly. His first son, Charles, died in 1386 at the age of three months; his second son, also called Charles, died in 1401 at the age of 9; a third son, Louis of Guyenne, died in 1415 at 18; and a fourth, John of Touraine, died in 1417 at 17. The only son to survive Charles VI, another Charles, was disinherited in 1420. Thus government by the heir was possible only during the second decade of the fifteenth century, when Louis of Guyenne was dauphin. ― 138 ― After the failure of a series of regency councils that governed for the underage dauphins, France succumbed in 1409 to a civil war.[3] With the exception of Louis of Bourbon, an uncle of Charles VI who remained a royalist, most of the king's relatives and the members of the royal court joined one of two factions: the Burgundian, headed at first by Charles VI's uncle, Philip the Bold, and then, after 1404, by Philip's son, John the Fearless; and the Orléanist, initially led by Charles VI's brother, Louis of Orléans, and, after Louis's assassination in 1407, by Louis's son, Charles of Orléans; by Charles's father-in-law, Bernard of Armagnac; and periodically by John of Berry.[4] By 1404 the political fight for control broadened to include the dauphins—especially Louis of Guyenne, who lived to be almost 19 years old—and the dauphin's mother and primary guardian, Queen Isabeau of Bavaria. Indeed, Louis became so powerful that by 1409 he was empowered to act in the king's stead when Charles was "absent." The pattern of literary patronage also changed when Charles VI succeeded to the throne. Charles V had been a sophisticated literary patron whose commissions for translations or for the composition of new texts reflected his political thought.[5] Charles VI was very different from his father, apparently sharing none of his concern with political theory. As Monfrin notes, patronage at court during Charles VI's reign was more preoccupied with "responding to the private interest of individual patrons than with serving the intellectual formation of a group."[6] Louis of Orléans, Charles VI's brother, was the only member of the royal family whose patronage was influenced by Charles V's example. Louis commissioned copies of many of the political and literary texts translated for his father, in part to present himself as the logical
choice as successor once Charles VI's illness made evident his inability to govern.[7] Even when politically motivated, Louis's commissions also responded to his private interests. Jacques Krynen demonstrates how the model for the production of political literature during the time of Charles V altered under Charles VI. During the reign of Charles V,[8] members of the royal entourage wrote most of the polemical literature, frequently at the express command of the king. While Charles VI reigned, intellectuals outside the court joined those who worked for the court to produce a literature that focused on the person of the king. Especially noteworthy is the consistency of focus that Krynen found in these writings, whether notarial, courtly, or academic. None questioned Charles VI's ability to rule, despite his increasingly obvious insanity and the dire state of the country, where civil war raged and the Hundred Years' War with England dragged on. Rather, most political writers manifested a loyalty toward the monarchy and the person of the king that impelled them to seek new ways to strengthen the Christian kingship of France and to urge the powers who actually governed France—the princes of the blood, the queen, and the dauphin—to do the same. By the early fifteenth century, political theory had become the province of the royal chancery or, less frequently, of the University of Paris. Tracts written by such authors as Jean de Montreuil, a member of the chancery, or by Jean Gerson, chancellor of the university, formulated the political rhetoric of the French government and the factions that battled for power within it.[9] These unillustrated tracts and sermons, rather than contemporary copies of the chronicle, are the successors to the political program of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques . ― 139 ― For example, Jean de Montreuil's Traité contre les anglais of 1413 built upon the political arguments first formulated in Charles V's 1378 speech before the Holy Roman Emperor, adapting almost verbatim its repudiation of English pretensions to the French throne. Summarized in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques and subsequently in families E and F of the Chronique abrégée and Christine de Pizan's biography of Charles V, this speech remained the basis for anti-English treatises throughout the reign of Charles VI. A chancery dossier, the Mémoire grossement abrégée , compiled by Jean de Montreuil in 1390, preserves the inverted chronological structure established by Charles V's speech, discussing Edward III's homage to Philip of Valois before Henry III's homage to Saint Louis. It then cites the "c'est assavoir" clause in the Treaty of Brétigny, which was annotated in Charles V's manuscript, and the Black Prince's killing of Palot and Chaponval, the imprisoned representatives of Charles V. Subsequently, this chancery dossier became one of the sources for the Traité contre les anglais , which exists in two French redactions and one Latin redaction dating between 1413 and 1416.[10] Other authors, like Christine de Pizan or Philip de Mézières, shared Jean Gerson's firm belief in the monarchy.[11] The work of these royalists exhorted the king to encourage good government and counseled the queen and princes of the fleur-de-lis to work for peace and for the good of France. Christine de Pizan's writings in particular focus on themes that became important in copies of the Grandes Chroniques produced during the second half of Charles VI's reign. The pictures in Grandes Chroniques manuscripts produced from the 1380s through the first quarter of the fifteenth century parallel the literary development Krynen describes. After an initial period in which royal and courtly manuscripts imitated the chronicle produced for Charles V, books created for all levels of patronage began to concentrate on the monarchy. The sheer number of manuscripts that survive from this era attests to the transformation of the Grandes Chroniques from royal history to national history. Cycles of illustration range from the mass-produced to the carefully crafted, yet all celebrate the religion royale . Although none question Charles VI's ability to govern, a small group recognize the realities of government during the latter years of Charles VI's reign and introduce pictorial models that establish precedents for the involvement of the dukes, queen, and dauphins in government. A handful of Grandes Chroniques produced in the last quarter of the fourteenth century are conservative, drawing from Charles V's manuscript for both the layout and content of their miniatures.[12] Although closely related, the cycles from these manuscripts differ significantly from Charles V's chronicle. None emulate the sophisticated layering of miniatures that added to the political content in Charles's codex, even though the editor of at least one of them clearly understood the structure of Charles V's book, whose text he copied. The earliest Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 10135) from this group belonged to Charles VI and was probably painted for him during Charles V's lifetime, since the Master of the
Coronation of Charles VI, the artist of the frontispiece of this manuscript, painted several miniatures in the third stage of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques . Its cycle is almost identical to Charles V's as it appeared at the end of the first stage of execution. Of all the manuscripts based on Charles V's book, it alone copies the frontispiece with its anti-imperial overtones and the dense cycle illustrating the life of Saint Louis, the saintly model for French kingship. It thus ― 140 ― shares the emphasis on French independence and on royal models that dominates Charles V's book prior to 1375. Because this chronicle was probably presented to Charles VI while he was dauphin, it provides insights into the education of a prince during the late fourteenth century. Its text offers historical models for the royal heir, while its pictures provide ideological models based on certain concerns of Charles V. These images thus serve a purpose similar to that of Philip de Mézières's Songe du vieil pelerin or Christine de Pizan's Livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roi Charles V , which are in part panegyrics on Charles V written during the early years of Charles VI's reign and designed to encourage good government.[13] Three other copies of the chronicle (B.N. fr. 2608; Vienna, ÖNB 2564; and Lyon, B.M. 880), painted in the 1390s or in the early years of the fifteenth century, show how important the model of Charles V was to Charles VI and the court even 10 to 15 years after his death. On the basis of their iconography, these three books form a group that differs in pictorial content from Charles V's manuscript. The most important manuscript (B.N. fr. 2608) from this group was painted for Charles VI after he became king. Significantly, it is the only chronicle whose text demonstrably copies Charles V's manuscript, but does not do so indiscriminately. Indeed, the way in which the editor incorporates some of the marginal notes relating to Charles V's speech proves that sophisticated readers understood the complex interrelationship of text and images in Charles V's book but did not necessarily find it relevant to their needs.[14] Because Charles VI's manuscript contains the shortened description of the emperor's visit in 1378, omitting the royal speech, the scribe copied only those notes that were comprehensible in the text of the shortened chronicle. He also transcribed marginal annotations commenting on select clauses in a letter from the English king (Charles V, ch. 13) but omitted the charters about homage and their illustrations, the note recording the deaths of the messengers sent to the Black Prince, and the note concluding that the French were justified in recommencing war with England. These notes and the substituted texts and miniatures on homage in Charles V's manuscript had provided documentation for the content of Charles V's speech; in a manuscript without the summary of the speech they would have been superfluous. Although the designer of Charles VI's Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 2608) had access to Charles V's complex program and understood it, he chose to omit much of it and focus instead on Saint Louis, as had Charles VI's earlier chronicle (B.N. fr. 10135). He used Charles V's manuscript as a guide for the layout of illustrations. Of the 76 miniatures in B.N. fr. 2608, only 15 do not copy images in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques . Yet, in many ways, what was left out of this illustrative program is as telling as what was included. Most images dealing with Charles V's rise to power and with English strife were omitted, perhaps because France was negotiating peace with England throughout the 1390s. Indeed, the English scenes that do appear are almost laudatory. They include the English encounter with the French outside Reims (fol. 481v); the Treaty of Brétigny (fol. 483v); and the coronation of Richard II (fol. 521v), Charles VI's future son-in-law.[15] The most innovative aspect of the decorative cycle in Charles VI's second copy of the Grandes Chroniques is its emphasis on Saint Louis, a focus it shares with earlier books produced for Charles V and Charles VI but handles very differently. Two iconic images of Louis IX in this chronicle stress special qualities of French government. The most distinctive is an illustration to the prologue (Fig. 92) in ― 141 ―
[Full Size] Figure 92 Presentation of chronicle to Saints Louis and Denis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2608. fol. 1. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. ― 142 ― which a monk kneels to present the chronicle to Saint Louis and Saint Denis. Although he is not portrayed in the scene of presentation, Charles VI is alluded to on this folio, since the crowned arms of France moderne appear at the bottom of the page supported by two cerfs volants , winged stags, a favorite emblem of the king in the 1380s and 1390s.[16] The scene of presentation to the two saints is one of the few scenes that do not appear in the model. In fact, among all the copies of the Grandes Chroniques that I have inspected, it is the only scene to represent a presentation of the book to someone other than the king. On one level the inclusion of these two saints is not surprising. Throughout the Middle Ages, Saint Denis was both a royal and a national saint.[17] Indeed, the prologue that this scene illustrates represents Saint Denis's protection of France as a reward for France's holiness. Even if Saint Louis failed to achieve the same level of national popularity, his cult was strong in the Parisian basin, and he was a royal model for government.[18] The pairing of these saints can thus be seen as an expression of royal and national devotion.
Yet Louis IX had rarely been associated with Saint Denis in a visual context before this image. To my knowledge, the miniature in Charles VI's Grandes Chroniques constitutes one of the earliest secular examples of Saint Denis and Saint Louis paired alone. When they do appear together, they are most frequently portrayed as protectors of the French royal house in politically charged religious images dating from the reign of John the Good to that of Charles VII.[19] In this miniature, however, the saints replace the king, a substitution that must have been particularly appropriate during Charles VI's absences in the 1390s. Saint Denis had long been considered the protector of royal health, a responsibility in which Saint Louis, as royal saint, participated. As early as 1335 when Charles VI's grandfather, John, duke of Normandy, was ill, relics of Christ and Saint Louis preserved at Saint-Denis were credited with his cure.[20] In 1392 Charles VI himself gave a châsse to house relics of Saint Louis to the abbey of Saint-Denis in thanks for intervention in his illness. Thus while the substitution of these saints for the king in the scene of presentation in Charles VI's book certainly evokes the idea of holy sponsorship of the history contained in the manuscript, it may also evoke the idea of heavenly protection for the king who was so often "absent"— both from this picture of presentation and from his people. The second picture of Saint Louis (Fig. 93) at the beginning of Louis's life simultaneously glorifies the holy patron of France and sacred character of French kingship. Nimbed and crowned, Saint Louis sits on a faldstool and holds a scepter topped by a fleur-de-lis as two praying angels hover to either side. Although it is customary for kings to hold scepters when enthroned in state, the gesture is given special importance in this picture where Saint Louis clasps his scepter in a cloth-draped hand. No precise textual source explains Louis's gesture, which signals the sacredness of the symbol of his rule. Although the second chapter of Louis's life describes his coronation, the description does not explain the presence of the angels, the halo, or the holiness of the symbol of government—the scepter topped by a fleur-de-lis. The closest source in the chronicle for this picture is a passage in Louis's life that explains the significance of the fleurde-lis and describes how crucial the virtues symbolized by its three leaves are for good government: "The leaf which is in the middle symbolizes Christian faith for us, and the other two beside it ― 143 ―
[Full Size] Figure 93 Saint Louis enthroned. Grandes Chroniques de France .
Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2608. fol. 311v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. symbolize learning and chivalry which should always be prepared to defend the Christian faith. And as long as these three—faith, learning, and chivalry—reside in France, the realm of France will be strong and firm, full of wealth and honor."[21] The image at the beginning of Louis's life thus merges two ideas: the concept that the French king was the rex christianissimus who governed a holy realm and the idea that the fleur-de-lis, miraculously given to the French, confirmed God's favor. Both ideas had formed part of French political theory since the reign of the last Capetians, but they emerged with special power in the writings of the university community during the reign of Charles VI, most notably in Jean Gerson's letters and sermons written during the 1390s.[22] The theme of France's holy kingship and the exhortation to good government implicit in this iconic miniature differ from the emphasis on Louis's life as a model of kingship presented by the pictures in Charles V's manuscript and in Charles VI's earlier copy of the Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 10135). Both earlier books present several facets of Louis's life as models. For instance, the inserted frontispiece to the life of Saint Louis in Charles V's manuscript (Fig. 87) presents Louis as a model of kingship, of devotion, and of charity and is thus an appropriate introduction to the pictorial cycle in that chronicle. The iconic picture of Saint Louis from Charles ― 144 ― VI's later copy of the chronicle, on the other hand, draws the reader's attention to the themes of good government and the ideals of kingship that were important in the era when Charles VI took control of the government only to fall ill. A brief consideration of the other two manuscripts from this group of three reinforces the special nature of the representations of Saints Denis and Louis in the king's Grandes Chroniques . One of the manuscripts (Vienna, ÖNB 2564) that copied Charles VI's book belonged to John of Montaigu, the grand-maître of France under Charles VI.[23] The second (Lyon, B.M. 880) was probably also a courtly commission and may have been the direct model for John of Montaigu's book.[24] Although the pictorial layouts of these chronicles are almost identical to that in the king's manuscript, their individual miniatures differ significantly in content. Thus a traditional image of a monk composing the text replaces the presentation miniature with Saint Louis and Saint Denis, and many of the supernatural and holy elements of the miniature from the beginning of Saint Louis's life are suppressed. Clearly, the images featuring Saint Louis were seen as particularly appropriate for the king, since in the rest of their cycles these two manuscripts copied Charles VI's book closely. Indeed, the interrelationship of the cycles in these three copies of the Grandes Chroniques signals the continued authority of royal copies of history early in the reign of Charles VI.
― 145 ―
Chapter Nine— Popular Manuscripts and the Religion Royale While Charles V's and Charles VI's lavish manuscripts were garnering a limited courtly following, less costly copies of the Grandes Chroniques were being produced by booksellers for the growing Parisian book trade. First owners are known with certainty for only two surviving manuscripts: one book (Ste.-Gen. 783) belonged to Regnault d'Angennes, the chamberlain of the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne; and a second (B.N. fr. 6466–67) was presented to John of Berry by Jean de la Barre, the receiver general of finance in Languedoc and the duchy of Guyenne.[1] If these are representative owners, then they did not differ radically from the owners of manuscripts that copied royal models. Illustrations in manuscripts produced for the book trade are independent of royal models and of one another. Perhaps because the royal library was out of bounds for the average Parisian bookseller, each editor seems to have developed new solutions to the problem of
illustrating the Grandes Chroniques . Yet these manuscripts do have some elements in common. They have shorter cycles of decoration, which average between 30 and 50 miniatures and often have a looser relationship to their text than the cycles in royal manuscripts or those based on royal models. Miniatures in these cycles almost always mark the beginning of a king's reign and frequently illustrate a vivid story from one of the chapters. For instance, the beginning of the fifth book of the chronicle is illustrated in two iconographical groups by a picture of King Dagobert supervising the construction of the abbey of Saint-Denis, an event recounted in the ninth chapter. In some groups miniatures have little textual basis; in others they are based on erroneous readings of the text. For instance, certain copies of the Grandes Chroniques transform the Empress Richilda, who presented a sword and scepter to Louis the Stammerer, into an emperor.[2] A comparison of three versions of the Grandes Chroniques —Valenciennes, B.M. 637, W. 138, and B.N. fr. 2604—offers a rare glimpse into the activities of the Parisian book trade at the end of the fourteenth and the beginning of the fifteenth century, when Charles's illness had been recognized but an overt political struggle had not yet developed.[3] These books, whose earliest owners are unknown, include a version of the chronicle that is related to Thomas of Maubeuge's early fourteenth-century manuscript, but they also provide a fully rubricated continuation to the accession of Charles VI in a version that had become ― 146 ―
[Full Size] Figure 94 Charlemagne presents Louis the Pious to a bishop. Grandes Chroniques de France . Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 637, fol. 134. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Valenciennes. standard by the late fourteenth century. Furthermore, they share unconventional iconography whose subjects are described in notes to the illuminator preserved in the margins of the manuscript from Valenciennes.[4] A comparison of individual pictures not derived from their texts demonstrates the close relationship between the three cycles and these directions to the illuminator. For example, the Valenciennes miniature illustrating the life of Louis VII portrays a scene of homage that is never described in the life of that king but nonetheless appears in identical form in the book from Paris. Similarly, a peculiar illustration from the third book of Philip Augustus's life, which
may illustrate the pope ordering Amaury de Bene to cease his heretical preaching, appears only in these three copies of the Grandes Chroniques .[5] Even the textually based pictures in these manuscripts are nearly identical. For instance, the picture introducing the life of Louis the Pious in the manuscripts from Valenciennes and Paris (Figs. 94 and 95) follows the directions recorded in the margins of the former manuscript: "How the king, accompanied by two nobles directly behind him, holds his young son by the hand and presents him to two bishops and the first [bishop] blesses him and behind him [the bishop] ― 147 ―
[Full Size] Figure 95 Charlemagne presents Louis the Pious to a bishop. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2604, fol. 145. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. is a chaplain."[6] Furthermore, all three manuscripts have identical scenes for the first book of the life of Philip Augustus (Figs. 96 and 97), an image that was also described precisely by the marginal note: "An armed king without a helmet sits on a bench; many armed men with shields behind; right in front are three kneeling and bareheaded men who present swords by their points and cry for mercy."[7] The iconographical relationship between the three manuscripts is unquestionable, but the reason for the relationship is not totally clear. For instance, not every illustration in the three chronicles is based upon the Valenciennes notes; in the Valenciennes chronicle itself, 4 of 25 miniatures have no marginal directions; and in the Paris and Baltimore manuscripts 12 of 31 and 5 of 12 pictures, respectively, are independent of the directions preserved in the Valenciennes book.[8] Indeed, even scenes that derive unquestionably from the directions differ in detail from one book to another. This fact clearly rules out the possibility that one book copied another and suggests instead that each responded independently to similar instructions. For example, in the Valenciennes and Paris manuscripts the illustration to Book III of the life of Charlemagne follows a direction that states: "How the king is in front and several nobles before him, and before him ― 148 ―
[Full Size] Figure 96 Surrender of Le Mans or Tours. Grandes Chroniques de France . Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 637, fol. 237v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Valenciennes. [is] a castle and little men who construct around [it] and one is on a ladder and another low [on the ground] who cuts stone."[9] The Valenciennes miniature (fol. 111) represents Charlemagne, the nobles, the castle, and two masons, but omits the ladder. The Paris miniature (fol. 118) includes nobles, the castle with two masons, and a ladder, but omits Charlemagne. Both artists were confronted with the problem of selecting elements from the written direction that would fit within the limited space of the miniature; the Valenciennes artist chose to concentrate on Charlemagne as he commissioned the castle and thus cut back on the scene of construction, whereas the Paris artist focused on the details of construction and therefore had no room for Charlemagne. Because seven different artists worked on these three cycles, it is unlikely that they are based on shared visual models preserved in artists' workshops. Only two ― 149 ―
[Full Size] Figure 97 Surrender of Le Mans or Tours. Grandes Chroniques de France . Walters Art Gallery, W. 138, fol. 15. Photograph: Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. artists worked on more than one book; an artist (W. 138, Artist I) who painted four miniatures in the Baltimore chronicle painted one in the Valenciennes book (Valenciennes, Artist IV), and the artist (Valenciennes, Artist I) who painted 21 images in the Valenciennes manuscript is close if not identical to the painter (B.N. fr. 2604, Artist III) of 26 pictures in the chronicle in Paris. Each of the other five artists worked on one of the three manuscripts: two worked on the chronicle in Valenciennes (Valenciennes, Artists II and III), two on the chronicle in Paris (B.N. fr. 2604, Artists I and II), and one on the chronicle in Baltimore (W. 138, Artist II). With one exception (Valenciennes, B.M. 637, fol. 154, completed by Valenciennes, Artist III), these artists worked in separate gatherings, so it is quite unlikely that they saw one another's work. The similarities in the iconographical programs of the Grandes Chroniques in Valenciennes, Baltimore, and Paris are therefore better interpreted as productions supervised by the same libraire than as productions by artists working in the same workshop. Apparently the libraire who supervised these manuscripts maintained a master list of directions to Grandes Chroniques illuminators, part of which survives in the margins of the Valenciennes manuscript. This libraire seems to have tailored his repertoire to the needs of his patrons. Individual images from these books may be identical, but their cycles are not. The manuscript in Baltimore, a fragment containing the second half of the chronicle, ― 150 ― contains miniatures at the beginning of each book that are as wide as a single column of text. The chronicle in Paris is complete, and its cycle follows a standard pattern with a four-part frontispiece and a single picture at major book divisions. The only deviation occurs within the first book of the chronicle, where a double miniature marks the chapter describing Clovis's baptism. The Grandes Chroniques in Valenciennes is the most elaborate cycle of this group. Its decoration includes two four-part miniatures and a two-column-wide miniature of early Merovingian rulers; it omits several miniatures from the reigns of the last Capetians that appear in the other two chronicles. The pattern of addition and omission in the Valenciennes chronicle places special emphasis on the lives of the early Merovingians and singles out Clovis, the first Christian king of France. Although this unusual emphasis on Merovingian kings is difficult to explain, the emphasis on Clovis can be understood as a manifestation of the religion royale .[10] Exceptional miniatures in the manuscripts in Paris and Valenciennes illustrate events from Clovis's life. A
double picture in the Grandes Chroniques in Paris shows Clovis's battle with the Alemanni and his baptism by Saint Remi (fol.
[Full Size] Figure 98 Baptism of Clovis; Clovis and Clotilda enthroned in the palace; Battle; Clodomir supervises the execution of Sigismund, King of Burgundy(?). Grandes Chroniques de France . Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 637, fol. 14v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Valenciennes . ― 151 ― 12v). Clovis is even more important in the book in Valenciennes; there the battle and baptism scenes are separated from their texts and combined to form a second frontispiece with pictures of Clovis and Clotilda enthroned and of Clovis's son, King Clodomir, supervising the execution of King Sigismund of Burgundy (Fig. 98). This new frontispiece to Book II of the Grandes Chroniques blends narratives from Book I and Book II to present an image of the founding and early years of the Christian kingdom of France. It thus constitutes a visual counterpart to the traditional frontispiece in the manuscript, showing the founding of France by Trojan refugees and the early years of the pagan kings of France (Fig. 99).[11] Clovis's status in the Paris and Valenciennes manuscripts reveals the strength and broad appeal of the religion royale at the turn of the century and emphasizes the importance of Clovis to its dissemination. Although Clovis had been revered as the model of a warrior king as early as 1300, he was more renowned as a model of good and just kingship and as a saint by the late fourteenth century. With the active encouragement of Charles V, Clovis's cult began to flourish. It was most popular during the reign of Charles V's grandson, Charles VII. Histories, poems,
[Full Size] Figure 99 Coronation of Pharamond; Battle between French and Romans; King leaves city in formal procession; King supervises the construction of Sicambria. Grandes Chroniques de France . Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 637, fol. 2. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Valenciennes. ― 152 ― and sermons written in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries promoted the first Christian king, the prototype of the rex christianissimus , as an intercessor.[12] Clovis's universal appeal is one reason that such images decorate the copies of the Grandes Chroniques at Valenciennes and Paris. Besides embodying popular royalist sentiment, Clovis's prominence in the Valenciennes chronicle demonstrates the lack of dynastic focus in the popular versions of the Grandes Chroniques , perhaps the central difference between the illustrations of royal and popular copies of the text. Beginning in the reign of Charles V, pictures in royal copies of the chronicle most frequently stressed the lives of Charlemagne and Louis IX, two saints from whom the Valois proudly claimed descent. Clovis and other Merovingian kings were rarely featured in the dynastic programs of royal manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques or, for that matter, in arguments asserting the legitimacy of the Valois line. For instance, when dynastic arguments are marshaled in Le songe du vergier to prove that France was established "according to God and the Holy Scriptures," the account begins with Pepin. Although the Songe mentions the holy unction, it attempts to prove legitimacy by the sanctity of the Valois kings' Carolingian and Capetian ancestors; thus it omits Clovis.[13] For the Valois kings of the late fourteenth century, Clovis's significance lay predominantly in the fact that the holy unction, which first appeared at his baptism and which signaled divine sanction for his reign, was used at the coronations of later French kings, including the Valois monarchs. Thus in royal texts written at the time of Charles V references to Clovis are confined almost exclusively to discussions of the sacred symbols of French monarchy, as for instance in the preface to the translation of Augustine's City of God or in Jean Golein's Traité du sacre .[14] Conversely, such popular commissions as the Grandes Chroniques in Valenciennes sought to glorify French kingship rather than justify Valois legitimacy. As a result, they broke from the royal dynastic tradition and focused special pictorial attention on Clovis as the first of the long line of Christian kings of France. Image not available Plate 1 Coronation of Pharamond. Grandes Chroniques de France . British Library, Royal 16 G VI, fol. 3. By permission of the British Library.
Image not available Plate 2 Pagan and Christian kings of France. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 5, fol. 1. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. Image not available Plate 3 Battle of Courtrai. Grandes Chroniques de France . Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale, fol 353v. Photograph: Bibliothèque Municipale, Castres. Image not available Plate 4 Peers support the crowns of Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813, fol. 439. Photograph: Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Image not available Plate 5 Peers support the crown of Charles V. Coronation Book . British Library, Cotton Tiberius B VIII, fol. 59v. By permission of the British Library. Image not available Plate 6 Peers support the crown of Jeanne of Bourbon. Coronation Book . British Library, Cotton Tiberius B VIII, fol. 70. By permission of the British Library. Image not available Plate 7 Trojan fugitives at sea (Helenos, Aeneas, and Antenor?); Presentation of book to Charles VI. Grandes Chroniques de France . Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 536, fol. 2. ©The Pierpont Morgan Library 1991. Image not available Plate 8 Abduction of Helen; Punishment of Troy; Flight of the Trojans; Presentation of book to Charles VI. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliotek, Phill. 1917, fol. 1. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliotek Berlin. ― 153 ―
Chapter Ten— Advice to the Nobility in Manuscripts Produced in the Style of the Master of the Cité des Dames A second group of manuscripts, painted for the nobility and members of the court in the style of the Master of the Cité des Dames [1] during the early fifteenth century, are noteworthy for their response to contemporary events rather than any generalized ties to the religion royale . Their designers seem to have taken the admonition of the prologue to heart; in a pictorial program tied strongly to the complex and unsettled history of early fifteenth-century France, they guide the reader to "find good and evil, the beautiful and ugly, sense and folly, and to profit from all [this] through the example of history."[2] The Master of the Cité des Dames popularized a new mode of courtly illustration during the latter part of the reign of Charles VI. One reason for his popularity in courtly circles was probably his realistic style; he could evoke the interiors where the courtiers lived and the clothing and political emblems that they loved to wear,[3] yet he could also strip settings and costumes to their essential elements if that was more appropriate to the cycle. Books produced by the Master of the Cité des Dames are an ideal source for exploring the kind of political guidance given to the nobility during the period of the French civil war. Four cycles by this artist survive, dating approximately from 1405 to 1415: Mazarine 2028, c. 1405–08; Phillipps 1917, c. 1409–10/15; M. 536, c. 1410–12; and B.R. 3, c. 1410–15.[4] The number of cycles in this style makes it relatively easy to screen out stock workshop scenes and concentrate instead on pictures that were specially tailored for one or more of these
manuscripts. Analyzed in this way, the pictures clearly offer varied but timely advice to those charged with ensuring stable government in France—advice similar to that written by partisans of the political parties and by moderates like Christine de Pizan and Jean Gerson. Manuscripts produced for the court by the Master of the Cité des Dames diverge from the pattern of illustration in such royal copies as Philip III's, John the Good's, or Charles V's, whose carefully coordinated pictures and texts together convey a political message. They differ too from courtly commissions whose pictures bear a looser relationship to their text and work to reinforce general royalist or universal themes in the chronicle. In the new mode, important political commentary appears in manuscripts made for the princes of the blood or for their supporters. ― 154 ― In the most sophisticated of these books, exemplified here by a chronicle in New York (M. 536), the text is edited to emphasize Burgundian interests, and the pictures form a tightly woven cycle that provides an independent counterpoint to the text. This appropriation of an illustrational mode hitherto restricted to royal copies of the chronicle provides an interesting parallel to political developments in France, where the queen and the princes of the blood were increasingly involved in royal government (and thus in the kind of history traditionally recorded in the Grandes Chroniques ) and where writers independent of the court sought to preserve the monarchy. The Grandes Chroniques now in Berlin (Phillipps 1917) differs radically from that in New York. Its text is conventional, and its illustrations incorporate fifteenth-century political devices and emblems into historical images to provide a commentary on the present. This method of glossing illustration to make a political statement is only as sophisticated as the editor of the book chooses to make it.[5] Not all the manuscripts painted by the Master of the Cité des Dames are illustrated in such innovative ways. Some, like the manuscripts in Paris (Mazarine 2028) and Brussels (B.R. 3), have more in common with courtly books from earlier periods. They contain some illustrations whose unusual subject matter relates to contemporary politics, but even these show the concern with preserving the monarchy that characterizes political literature of the early fifteenth century.
The Role of the Princes of the Blood The Grandes Chroniques of circa 1410–12 in New York (M. 356) has the most secure connections with one of the two partisan groups, the Burgundian and the Orléanist parties, as textual evidence demonstrates. Although this Grandes Chroniques has no ex libris and is not listed in any surviving inventory from royal or ducal collections, certain textual peculiarities find their closest analogies in an unillustrated copy of the chronicle (B.R. 4) that belonged to Philip the Bold of Burgundy and remained in the Burgundian library after his death in 1404.[6] Both the illustrated chronicle in New York and the unillustrated one in Brussels incorporate a Latin poem at the end of Saint Louis's life that occurs elsewhere only in royal copies of the chronicle. Further, both extend the Grandes Chroniques past its usual ending by appending a continuation of Guillaume de Nangis. In this pair of manuscripts alone, the chronicle ends with a description of the death in 1384 of the count of Flanders, the Burgundian dukes' predecessor as ruler of Flanders. Finally, both these books and no others condense the description of one of the most important royal events of the late fourteenth century—the visit of the Holy Roman Emperor to Charles VI's father, Charles V—from 12 chapters to 20 lines of text.[7] Although the manuscript from Berlin (Phillipps 1917) contains the standard version of the text of the Grandes Chroniques , its provenance suggests that it too was made in a Burgundian milieu. Arms added to the initial on folio 1 are those of a member of the Rolin family, which was active in Burgundian service. The most prominent member of this family, Nicholas Rolin, was employed by Philip the Bold; entered the service of Philip's son, John the Fearless, in 1408, working as counsellor, lawyer, and maître des requêtes ; and became chancellor of Burgundy under John's son, Philip the Good, in 1422.[8] ― 155 ― The pictures in these Burgundian Grandes Chroniques emphasize the governmental role of the French dukes—Charles VI's brother and uncles—and stress dynastic themes. These
concerns are most evident in the frontispiece shared by M. 536 and Phillipps 1917 and in the distinctive form in which both manuscripts represent coronations. It is striking, then, that while pictures may convey parallel messages in these chronicles, they do so through two distinct modes of illustration. Most frequently, frontispieces to the Grandes Chroniques portray stories from the fall of Troy and the foundation by Trojan refugees of the kingdom that later became France. Visual solutions to the problem of illustrating these stories vary even in the oeuvre[*] of the Cité des Dames shop. For instance, the frontispiece (Fig. 100) from a copy of the Grandes Chroniques in Paris, which will be discussed in more detail later, concentrates exclusively on the flight from Troy. Frontispieces from M. 536 (Plate 7) and Phillipps 1917 (Plate 8) break from this tradition by making allusions that have no textual basis but are decidedly biased toward the Burgundian party. Both frontispieces contain three scenes from the Trojan story that at first glance seem identical but are not. In Phillipps 1917 the abduction of Helen and the punishment of Troy are in the upper register. At the lower left the flight of Aeneas to Rome represents the survivors of Troy who scatter all over the earth. In contrast, the frontispiece in M. 536 concentrates exclusively on the aftermath of the destruction. It makes no reference to the abduction of Helen and does not represent the destruction of the city. Instead it shows a diverse group of fugitives at sea (Helenos, Aeneas, and Antenor?), ranging from a king and queen to members of the nobility and soldiers. The fourth frames jump forward in time to show the presentation of a manuscript to Charles VI, an event with no textual basis. By juxtaposing the reigning king with scenes from Trojan history, these pictures promote the Trojan origin of the French line, which was accepted throughout the fifteenth century.[9] Further, since the text of the chronicle describes the exploits of French rulers in an unbroken chain stretching from Priam of Troy to Charles VI, these frontispieces introduce the whole book by giving visual form to the beginning and the end of this chain. It is unlikely that either of these manuscripts was destined for Charles VI, even though they show him enthroned in the frontispiece. Indeed, in both images (Figs. 101 and 102) Charles is shown nostalgically, sitting on a throne under a canopy decorated in red, green, and white, the emblematic colors that Charles bore until 1392, the year his madness struck.[10] By the time these two manuscripts were made, Charles VI's colors were white, green, red, gold, and black, the colors represented in such presentation scenes as the frontispiece to the Dialogues of Pierre Salmon , a manuscript presented to Charles VI in 1411. Thus, instead of being shown in these Grandes Chroniques as he was in 1410–12, the approximate date for these manuscripts, Charles VI is shown as he was before his illness became debilitating, during the golden period of his reign.[11] Although these frontispieces derive from the same iconographic source, their iconography is used in very different ways. As we will see later, Phillipps 1917 further glosses the frontispiece and miniatures through the manuscript by including political devices. Perhaps because the text is more conventional in this book, its pictures had to carry the full weight of its message. On the other hand, the designer of M. 536, with its Burgundian version of the text, stripped scenes of all ― 156 ―
[Full Size] Figure 100 Flight from Troy. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028, fol. 2. Photograph: Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris. ― 157 ―
[Full Size] Figure 101 Presentation of book to Charles VI. Grandes Chroniques de France . Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 536, fol. 2. Photograph courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library.
[Full Size] Figure 102 Presentation of book to Charles VI. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 1. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin. ― 158 ―
[Full Size] Figure 103 Coronation of Charlemagne. Grandes Chroniques de France . Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 536, fol. 83v. Photograph courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library. devices and emblems and relied instead on the cumulative effect of the whole cycle to convey its pictorial message. In M. 536 broad themes organize the pictures. The reader is not led to recognize themes and interpretations of history by the nonverbal yet explicit use of emblems or devices. Instead his perception is formed subtly by an insistent repetition of subjects and, in a few miniatures, by the use of something as understated as a particularly striking background motif. In this way M. 536 promotes its timely theme—the return of France to good government—and presents the French dukes as the agents who will accomplish this feat. Two miniatures in M. 536, central to the content of the program, are the coronation of Charlemagne by Pope Leo (Fig. 103) and the coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile (Fig. 104). Charlemagne's coronation is a standardized scene, identical iconographically to that in Phillips 1917 (Fig. 105). The most innovative feature of the version in the Morgan Library is its background, where an elaborate checkerboard pattern is formed by blue lozenges, each containing a tiny fleur-de-lis. Although variations on this pattern were common in French book illumination in the fifteenth century, it is rare in this manuscript; its only other occurrence is in the miniature illustrating the coronation of Louis VIII.[12] This visual ― 159 ―
[Full Size] Figure 104 Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile. Grandes Chroniques de France . Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 536, fol. 224. Photograph courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library.
[Full Size] Figure 105 Coronation of Charlemagne. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 114. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin. ― 160 ―
[Full Size] Figure 106 Coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028, fol. 263. Photograph by the author. connection between Charlemagne and Louis VIII reinforces a textual connection recorded in the life of Louis VIII, which includes the reditus regni ad stirpem Karoli Magni , the prophecy that the line of Charlemagne would return to power in France seven generations after the usurpation of power by Hugh Capet. Louis VIII was descended from Charlemagne on both his mother's and his father's sides and thus fulfilled the prophecy. In M. 536 the miniature showing the coronation of Louis VIII and Blanche of Castile reinforces this dynastic theme by departing from the workshop's stock patterns, exemplified by Louis VIII's coronation from the Grandes Chroniques in Paris (Fig. 106). In the stock scene the clergy alone perform the coronation, but in M. 536 King John of Jerusalem and a duke have prominent places in the scene. Even though the presence of King John is noted in the text, he is rarely included in miniatures showing the event.[13] Thus the inclusion of these two figures in the miniature may convey the support or even, considering John's gesture, the blessing of the secular realm for the return of a ruler of Carolingian descent. Beginning with the miniature illustrating the life of Louis VIII, the kinds of illustrations in M. 536 change. In the second portion of the book the lively narratives that characterize the illustration of Merovingian, Carolingian, and early ― 161 ―
[Full Size] Figure 107 Coronation of Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon. Grandes Chroniques de France . Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 536, fol. 353v. Photograph courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan Library. Capetian history intermingle with distinctive coronations that prominently feature the dukes of France. Thus, in the coronations of Philip V, Charles V (Fig. 107), and Charles, VI, French dukes assume active roles as king-makers. The power of the ducal presence intensifies with each repetition of the basic composition in a cumulative and deliberate effect. The stress on dukes in coronations in this manuscript differs from that given the same scenes in the Parisian copy of the Grandes Chroniques (Fig. 108) where, for instance, the illustration of Charles V's coronation, like that of Louis VIII, emphasizes the agency of the clergy. Miniatures in M. 536 differ from those in the Brussels manuscript, where, instead of a coronation, a picture like that introducing the life of Charles V (Fig. 109) emphasizes both the king's power and a moment of Burgundian history in which Charles invested his brother, Philip the Bold, with the duchy of Burgundy. The Burgundian manuscript in the Morgan Library may have a partisan text, but its pictorial message is moderate, claiming only that the dukes have a role in governing France. Pictures in Phillipps 1917 convey a similar message but are more biased. This manuscript, executed in the first decade of the fifteenth century, predates Louis of Guyenne's assumption of power and contains pictures glossed with references to the Burgundian-Orléanist conflict that take a decidedly Burgundian stance. ― 162 ―
[Full Size] Figure 108 Coronation of Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028, fol. 427v. Photograph by the author.
[Full Size] Figure 109 Charles invests Philip the Bold with the duchy of Burgundy. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 3, fol. 414v. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. ― 163 ― The difference between the Burgundian chronicles in New York and Berlin is most clear in the frontispiece. In the frontispiece of M. 536, history and current events are separated; Charles VI takes his place in the fourth frame, and the Trojan story fills the other three frames. Images in Phillipps 1917 do not preserve this distinction of eras. Rather the fifteenth-
century emblems and devices introduced in three of the four frames overtly merge different historical periods and refer explicitly to other members of the royal family. The designer is thus able to gloss history without changing the text. Only one of the scenes in the frontispiece to the Phillipps manuscript is set totally in the early fifteenth century. In the fourth frame of the frontispiece (Fig. 102), the counsellor who stands next to Charles VI is John the Fearless, Charles VI's cousin, who became duke of Burgundy in 1404. John carries a hammer comparable to those he holds in other portraits dating from the first two decades of the fifteenth century.[14] At the same time, details in the Trojan story portrayed in the other frames gloss John's political opponent negatively. In the first frame of the same frontispiece (Fig. 110) Paris's gold collar of mail equates him with Louis of Orléans, Charles VI's brother and John's political rival who was assassinated in 1409. This is a simplified version of the collar of the Order of the Porcupine, which appears in greater detail in a portrait of Louis (Fig. 111) from Christine de Pizan's collected works in London, a contemporary manuscript painted by the same artists.[15] The Order of the Porcupine, sometimes called the Order of the Mail, was founded in 1393 by Louis of Orléans, who often wore the collar with or without its dangling porcupine. Thus Louis of Orléans is identified with Paris, whose passion for Helen of Troy started the Trojan war. Additional details in the frontispiece may reinforce this negative interpretation. The second frame (Fig. 112) portrays the Greek king Menelaeus who, like John the Fearless, does not appear in M. 536 (Plate 7). Even though his presence is justified by the text of the chronicle, Menelaeus evokes the French king because he wears a blue robe decorated with gold—the heraldic colors, if not the precise emblems, of France. These details of costume added to the pair of miniatures in the upper register provide an extratextual commentary suggesting that, just as Paris stole Helen from King Menelaeus, Louis of Orléans stole Isabeau from Charles VI. If such a reading of the frontispiece was intended, this could be one of the first images to refer to the rumor widely disseminated in Burgundian literature of the 1420S that Louis of Orléans and his sister-in-law, Isabeau of Bavaria, had an illicit relationship.[16] The differences between the New York and Berlin frontispieces demonstrate the flexibility of the Master of the Cité des Dames's mode of glossing. By adding a few details, he could transform a politically neutral image like the frontispiece to M. 536 into a polemical one. Other emblematic elaborations in Phillipps 1917 reinforce the role of the duke of Burgundy as an especially trusted assistant to King Charles VI. For instance, in the image of the coronation of Charlemagne as emperor (Fig. 105), both the pope and a spectator wear emblems that were popular in the early fifteenth century. The pope's robe is sprinkled with blazing suns that evoke the arms of Pope Alexander V (1409–10), who was supported by the French and elected to end the schism; the most prominent spectator to the left wears a robe covered with schematic planes, emblems of John the Fearless.[17] No complex message is hidden in this scene; rather, the reference to Alexander V situates the ― 164 ―
[Full Size]
Figure 110 Abduction of Helen. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 1. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin.
[Full Size] Figure 111 Christine presents her book to Louis of Orléans. Christine de Pizan, L'Épistre Othéa . British Library, Harley 4431, fol. 95. By permission of the British Library. ― 165 ―
[Full Size] Figure 112 Punishment of Troy. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 1. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin. pictorial gloss in the present, after 1409 when Alexander took office, and the portrayal of John the Fearless assisting at Charlemagne's coronation reiterates the message of the frontispiece—John's loyalty to Charlemagne's namesake, Charles VI.[18] Phillipps 1917 shares with M. 536 the innovative representation of coronations in which the dukes take an active role. Their basic pictorial vocabulary can be seen, for instance, in
representations of the coronation of Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon (Figs. 107 and 113). Dukes wearing circlets of gold are prominent in each image, and the message—that the dukes contribute significantly to making a king—is clear, particularly when this type of coronation is compared to the Master of the Cité des Dames' s stock scene (Fig. 108). Although the form and content of individual coronation pictures may be identical in M. 536 and Phillipps 1917, their function in the program of miniatures is not. The Morgan Library's Grandes Chroniques uses such scenes sparingly. The first royal coronation, at the life of Louis VIII, appears within the framework of the reditus , and subsequent scenes of royal coronation (at the lives of Philip V, Charles V, and Charles VI) were doubtless intended to recall that dynastic structure by echoing its compositional type. Coronations in Phillipps 1917 are not so tightly woven into a dynastic framework; rather they are unified by the concept of the Christian kingship of France. This theme, which found broad popularity in the fifteenth century through the religion royale , is initiated by the first coronation scene in this manuscript, the coronation of Clovis (Fig. 114). Most of the following coronation sequences assume this form, but the coronations of Saint Louis (Fig. 115) and Louis IV (Fig. 116) are more complex compositions. The importance given Louis IX's coronation ― 166 ―
[Full Size] Figure 113 Coronation of Charles V and Jeanne of Bourbon. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 484. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin.
[Full Size] Figure 114 Coronation of Clovis. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 7v. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin. ― 167 ―
[Full Size] Figure 115 Coronation of Louis IX. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 308v. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin.
[Full Size] Figure 116 Coronation of Louis IV. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 199. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin. ― 168 ― through Louis's halo and the elaborate dress of the attending dukes makes sense both within the context of Christian kingship that governed the form of coronations in this book and within the broader context of devotion to Saint Louis at the French court. Louis's sainthood confirmed the Christian kingship of France that Clovis had initiated, and, as we have seen, Capetian and Valois kings descended from Louis were quick to promote his sanctity. Louis IV's coronation is the second to represent barons in distinctive costumes. This picture does not celebrate Christian kingship so much as the role of the barons in ensuring continuity. It commemorates the return of the legitimate king to the throne by the barons of France, who brought the young Louis IV back to France after his mother had fled with him to England. Like the distinctive coronation type that occurs throughout M. 536 and Phillipps 1917, this image concentrates on the support of the barons for the monarchy and their action on its behalf. It is tempting to see this image as a reference to a contemporary event in French history. In 1405 John the Fearless and his supporters brought the dauphin back to Paris when his mother, Isabeau of Bavaria, and his uncle, Louis of Orléans, sought to remove him from the capital and free him from Burgundian control. The frontispiece, the illustration of Charlemagne's coronation, and the generalized representations of coronation demonstrate how pictures in this specific chronicle work as contemporary glosses to establish independent parallels between French history and events from the time of Charles VI. The pro-Burgundian, anti-Orléanist message of this manuscript is cumulative, as in M. 536, but it operates on a simpler level. The pictures and text of M. 536 are so closely interwoven that the message of its pictorial program depends upon a consideration of all its parts. In Phillipps 1917, however, the accumulation of information from a sequence of images may refine the political message, but each individual image contains enough information to convey its message independently. What is most striking about these two copies of the Grandes Chroniques is that, no matter how the message is conveyed, the underlying call for ducal or baronial responsibility is pervasive. This emphasis on noble support for the king had more parallels in contemporary royalist political writings than in pictorial cycles illustrating previous Grandes Chroniques . Such authors as Christine de Pizan and Jean Gerson realized the dukes' powers and exhorted them to work for the good of the monarchy. Christine dedicated her works first to Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy; then to Louis, duke of Orléans; and finally to John, duke of Berry, reflecting her changing opinions about who would be best equipped to govern the
realm as custodian for the young dauphin during Charles VI's madness. In times of crisis, Christine and Gerson directly addressed the dukes to encourage them to place the French realm above their own ambitions. After the aborted kidnapping of the dauphin Louis by Louis of Orléans in 1405, Christine's Lettre à la reine and Gerson's sermon, Vivat rex , called for peace and emphasized the importance and the responsibilities of the king and his counsellors, a theme to which Gerson returned again in the sermon, Veniat pax of 1408, and which Christine addressed in Lamentacion sur les maux de la guerre civile in 1410.[19] These texts, like the pictures in the Morgan Library's Grandes Chroniques , expressed the hope current in the first decades of the fifteenth century that the dukes of France would responsibly safeguard the French monarchy rather than expand their own power. ― 169 ― The insistent presence of the dukes in the Grandes Chroniques also mirrors political reality. When these manuscripts were painted, the princes of the blood were actively involved in the government of France, and Burgundian power seemed to be at its strongest. By the end of December 1409, John the Fearless had become sole guardian of Louis of Guyenne and was thus in a position to influence the dauphin, the virtual ruler of France, during Charles VI's attacks.[20] John shared the regency briefly with the duke of Berry in 1410, but by the end of the civil war in 1412, John the Fearless was in a strong position in the government and at the height of his power.
The Role of the Queen and the Dauphin Equally concerned with contemporary problems, other manuscripts of the chronicle painted by the Master of the Cité des Dames focus on the queen and the dauphin rather than the dukes. The pictures in a Grandes Chroniques now in Paris (Mazarine 2028), which predates the assassination of Louis of Orléans in 1407, provide nonpartisan commentary on the conflict between Louis of Orléans and John the Fearless and the importance of Queen Isabeau of Bavaria's role in politics. A second chronicle, in Brussels (B.R. Ms. 3), dates from the second decade of the fifteenth century when the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne, approached his maturity; some of its images refer to the importance of his education. Together these books address additional issues of concern to the court and to Parisian intellectual circles in the first part of the fifteenth century. Like the chronicles in Berlin and New York, they could be termed royalist books. They support those who sought to preserve the French monarchy but concentrate on different agents of preservation. An imposing frontispiece and three rare subjects gloss French history with contemporary commentary in the Grandes Chroniques from the Bibliothèque Mazarine. As in Phillipps 1917, pictures in this chronicle include arms and devices that identify figures from French history with contemporary personages. They celebrate the French dynasty and comment on the civil war in France. The Trojan frontispiece (Fig. 100) embodies a dynastic theme. Within this miniature, two boats fleeing the burning city of Troy display the arms of France and Brittany. This juxtaposition is perplexing at first, because the text of the chapter describes the refugees from Troy but does not mention the Bretons. Instead, the chronicle notes three major countries founded by Trojan refugees: Italy, founded by Aeneas; Britain, by Brut; and France, by Francion. This use of Breton arms becomes clear when we consider the source for the description of Brut's life in the Grandes Chroniques , Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Kings of Britain .[21] Geoffrey's text stresses the interrelated histories of Britain and Brittany, which was colonized by the descendants of Brut. When Britain was in difficulty, the Bretons sent armies to aid their island relatives. War, pestilence, and famine, however, eventually defeated the Britons, who emigrated as a nation to Brittany. Thus, as Geoffrey of Monmouth describes it, "From that time, the power of the Britons ceased in the island, and the Angles began their reign."[22] Although the Grandes Chroniques never refers explicitly to the history of Brittany, it does echo Geoffrey: "From this Brut descended all the kings who were in the land [Britain] up until the time when the English, who came from one of ― 170 ―
[Full Size] Figure 117 Queen Clotilda divides the realm among her sons. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028, fol. 14. Photograph by the author. the countries of Saxony called Angle, took the land for which [reason] it is called England."[23] We could say, then, that the Trojan refugees in this miniature bear Breton arms because the Bretons, rather than their English supplanters, were of Trojan descent. Contemporary history provides another motive for the use of Breton arms. In 1396, Jeanne of France, third daughter of Charles VI and Isabeau of Bavaria, married John of Montfort, heir to the duchy of Brittany.[24] The alliance of these two houses was politically motivated. Notoriously independent, Breton dukes placed the security of their duchy before their duties as vassals of the French king. By securing a marriage tie with the Breton house, the French sought to strengthen relations between the Bretons and the French. The heraldic display in the frontispiece thus implies that the recent connection of the two houses has its roots in their shared Trojan ancestry. Other pictures in the chronicle refer to internal French politics. For example, the illustration to the second book (Fig. 117) shows Queen Clotilda dividing the realm among her four sons, pictured as kings. Two of these kings have special attributes: the king at the far right clasps a stick, and the king at the far left holds a schematized hammer. These are generalized references to the political emblems of Charles VI's brother and cousin—the bâton noueux or knotty stick of Louis, ― 171 ―
[Full Size] Figure 118 Queen Clotilda divides the realm among her sons. Grandes Chroniques de France . Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917, fol. 14. Photograph: Deutsche Staatsbibliothek Berlin. duke of Orléans, and the hammer of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy.[25] The history of Queen Clotilda's sons clarifies the references to these noble cousins.[26] After Clotilda partitioned the realm, two of her sons formed a greedy alliance to battle one of their brothers. Only Queen Clotilda's active intervention prevented fratricide. The use of Burgundian and Orléanist emblems in a scene of Clotilda and her sons may therefore comment on the deadly rivalry between these blood relations of Charles VI. The timeliness of this image is confirmed by representations in the two later manuscripts of the Master of the Cité des Dames , neither of which includes the simplified hammer. In the pro-Burgundian manuscript, Phillipps 1917, for example (Fig. 118), Clotilda's son at the far left is the only one to retain his emblem. Without the opposing hammer, the baton loses its overlay of political meaning and serves as a neutral sign of office.[27] The inclusion of Clotilda with her sons may also address a second theme that permeated royalist, as opposed to Burgundian or Orléanist, political writings of the early fifteenth century—the importance of the queen in governing the realm. Certainly the theme of queenly power is expressed in two other pictures from the Paris manuscript: the coronation of Charlemagne's son, Louis the Pious, as King of Aquitaine (Fig. 119) and the discussion of the royal succession after the death ― 172 ―
[Full Size] Figure 119 Coronation of Louis the Pious as king of Aquitaine. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028, fol. 131. Photograph by the author. of the last Capetian king (Fig. 120). Never before had queens been included in these scenes. The second in particular shows the queen, an expectant mother, as an important protagonist in discussions about the future government of France. Probably because of the short lives of French dauphins (three had died by 1397), the image recalls an important theme in contemporary politics and literature—Queen Isabeau of Bavaria's role in the government of France and the hope that she would interfere to regulate the chaos caused by the rivalry of the dukes. The major source of Isabeau's power was her role as one of the regents charged with the tutelle , or education, of the dauphin in case the king should die or be absent from the realm.[28] Charles V had been the first king since Saint Louis to give such a prominent role to the queen. His laws were adopted by Charles VI and his council in 1393—right after Charles's first attack of insanity—and remained in effect until 1407.[29] Under their provisions, Louis of Orléans became regent if the king died or was "absent," and Isabeau of Bavaria and the dukes of Burgundy and Berry were charged with the education of the prince. As royalist writers like Christine de Pizan recognized, Isabeau's role as guardian of the dauphin and peacemaker in a regency government became especially important once the dukes of Burgundy and Orléans became openly hostile in 1405.[30] ― 173 ―
[Full Size] Figure 120 Discussion of the royal succession. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028, fol. 354v. Photograph by the author. The close relationship between royalist sentiment and pictorial imagery in the Grandes Chroniques in Paris continues in later chronicles by artists from the Cité des Dames workshop. The Grandes Chroniques in Brussels (B.R. 3) dates from the second decade of the fifteenth century when Charles VI's heir, Louis of Guyenne, was in his early teens. Perhaps as a result of the dauphin's maturity, distinctive miniatures in this book focus exclusively on the importance of the education of dauphins. Three pictures in this book show the interaction of a king and his son. One shows King John the Good, Charles VI's grandfather, investing his young son, Charles, with the Dauphiné (Fig. 121). Two others offer examples of good and bad kingship that were especially appropriate to a dauphin named Louis. The miniature beginning Louis the Stammerer's life (Fig. 122) shows Louis compromising himself to gain power; he gives the barons anything they want in order to win their favor. In the process, Louis grasps his son's wrist to compel him to participate. A complementary image from another section of the chronicle shows the prince's willing compliance when his father is a positive influence. In this picture from the beginning of the life of Saint Louis (Fig. 123), the young Louis sits next to his father, Louis VIII, and helps supervise the burning of heretics. ― 174 ―
[Full Size] Figure 121 John the Good invests Charles with the Dauphiné. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 3, fol. 373. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. Neither miniature faithfully reflects the chronicle's text.[31] Louis the Stammerer had two sons—Louis and Carloman—neither of whom was mentioned in the chapter that this picture illustrates. Further, Saint Louis did not take part in his father's persecution of heretics; his father was in the south of France and Louis was in Paris. By departing from the text in representing kings with heirs named Louis, the artist created compositional and thematic analogies. They were apt choices for exempla at the time when Charles VI's son, Louis of Guyenne, was dauphin. Like the emphasis on queenship in the Grandes Chroniques now in Paris, the focus on the dauphin in B.R. 3 paralleled contemporary historical events and reflected concerns expressed in contemporary literature. The ordinance of 1407 empowering Louis of Guyenne to rule during his father's "absences" made the dauphin the most important person in the realm besides the king. His education was addressed by Christine de Pizan in several works and by Jean Gerson in a treatise sent to the tutor of the dauphin, Jean d'Arsonval, and dated between 1408 and 1414.[32] These writings discussed the religious, moral, and intellectual formation of the future king and frequently cited examples of past kings, most notably Louis of Guyenne's famous ancestor, Saint Louis, as models of government. ― 175 ―
[Full Size] Figure 122 Louis the Stammerer and his son Louis accede to barons. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 3, fol. 147v. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. Manuscripts decorated by the Master of the Cité des Dames provide insights into a special kind of courtly reaction to the French civil war. Like the illustrations in royal manuscripts before them, these images of history form a private complement to more overt political writings, featuring images of the contemporary powers in France—the dukes and the queen—and representing themes like the role of the dukes in governing France, the Burgundian-Orléanist conflict, the importance of the queen as mediator and peacemaker, and the education of the dauphin. As in the political literature of the time, these images offer an important perspective on the political climate of fifteenth-century France. The Master of the Cité des Dames used various methods of illustration to gloss the chronicle and express his political message. The simpler way is to elaborate an individual picture that, when read with its own text, comments on contemporary events. This sort of elaboration ranges from the inclusion of characters described in the text but rarely visualized (as in Jeanne of Evreux's presence at the discussion of the royal succession in Mazarine 2028), to the addition of historical characters who contradict their text (Saint Louis happily burning heretics in B.R. 3), to the insertion of anachronistic emblems and devices into stock scenes (as in the Burgundian hammer and the Orléanist Order of the Porcupine in the frontispiece ― 176 ―
[Full Size] Figure 123 Louis VIII and his son Louis supervise the burning of heretics. Grandes Chroniques de France . Bibliothèque Royale, Ms. 3, fol. 248. Copyright Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Brussels. of Phillipps 1917). In these glosses, immediately perceptible to a careful reader of one chapter or the whole manuscript, the overarching message of the program of decoration conveys the same message as each individual part. The Master of the Cité des Dames' s more complicated method of glossing encompasses the whole program of decoration. In this system, most commonly seen in kings' books, individual pictures carry only a portion of the message. Images work in sequences, building a message through repeated compositions (as in the series of coronations in M. 536) or through visual cross-referencing (as in the pair of exempla for the education of the dauphin in B.R. 3). The message of the whole is much more than a sum of its parts—and often is very subtle, perhaps explaining why this kind of cycle occurs most frequently in manuscripts like that in New York where the text has been edited to promote a partisan view. These manuscripts provide important evidence for a changing view of history in the fifteenth century. In the late fourteenth and the early fifteenth century the princes of the blood emerged simultaneously as major participants in government and as important patrons of the arts,[33] and during the reign of Charles VI the blood relations of the king began to assume a special status—to share, in a sense, some of the holiness of the French king, as they shared some of the responsibilities ― 177 ― of government. At this time, therefore, the decorative programs in the Grandes Chroniques worked to extend to the king's blood relations the prologue's directive that the king should seek models in its pages. The conviction, held by the princes of the blood and the court, that the blood relations of the king also had a mandate to govern inspired the creation of such advice books as the Grandes Chroniques decorated by the Master of the Cité des Dames . ― 179 ―
EPILOGUE— THE GRANDES CHRONIQUES IN THE LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY The fortunes of France took a turn for the worse after about 1415.[1] Just as it became evident that Charles VI's mental illness would no longer permit him to take an active role in government, the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne, died. The next dauphin, John of Touraine, was returning to Paris in 1417 when he became ill and also died. Armagnacs who controlled the capital and the government of Charles VI named the new dauphin, Charles (later Charles VII), lieutenant general of the king. At the same time Queen Isabeau, who had fled Paris in 1417, established a provisional government at Troyes and appointed Duke John the Fearless of Burgundy governor general of the realm. Both Armagnacs and Burgundians sought to guarantee their legitimacy by gaining control of King Charles VI and the city of Paris. In 1418 when the Burgundians staged a successful coup, the dauphin Charles fled to Bourges and established a government-in-exile there. Despite the assassination of John the Fearless in 1419, Burgundian forces were sufficiently powerful to retain control of the capital and negotiate the Treaty of Troyes with the English in 1420. This treaty ostensibly ended the Hundred Years' War, because it provided that Henry V of England would drop his claim to French territories during Charles VI's lifetime if Charles would designate Henry and his heirs as successors to the kingdom of France. Shortly after the signing of the treaty, the dauphin Charles was summoned to a lit-de-justice , a judicial session of Parlement, investigating his role in the murder of John the Fearless. When the dauphin did not appear, he was formally disinherited and banished. Henry V became king of France after Charles VI died in 1422, but Henry died shortly thereafter, and his infant son, Henry VI, succeeded to the dual monarchy. France was governed on his behalf by a regent, the duke of Bedford, who resided in Paris. Because the dauphin Charles also claimed the throne from his court in the Loire valley, civil war resumed. Charles VII was crowned king in Reims in 1429 with the help of Joan of Arc, and by 1437 he and his successful forces entered Paris. By 1453 Charles VII's army had reconquered France. The lack of a French royal presence in the capital from about 1420 to 1440 helps explain the dearth of illustrated manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques after the first quarter of the fifteenth century. Because the chronicle had been popular among a Parisian audience intimately associated with the Capetian and Valois kings of France, there was little place for the Grandes Chroniques as an expression of French national pride once the English took control of the government in Paris. ― 180 ― The English rulers did not patronize illustrated copies of the chronicle, preferring dynastic imagery that centered on Saint Louis, an ancestor that Henry V and Henry VI shared with the French. The duke of Bedford and members of his Anglo-French chancery promoted dynastic ideas in coinage, in posters hung in the city of Paris, and in public ceremonial.[2] The religion royale was renewed in Paris only after the restoration of the Valois to the throne in the mid–fifteenth century, and it was strongest during the reigns of Louis XI and Charles VIII, the last Valois kings.[3] Although the Grandes Chroniques was revived at the late fifteenth-century French court, it had lost its position as the preeminent royal history, probably because its content was out of date. The account recorded in the Grandes Chroniques ended early in Charles VI's reign; it was superseded by a Latin chronicle and a complete life of Charles VI written by Michel Pintoin, the religieux of Saint-Denis, and Pintoin's chronicle was continued with a Latin life of Charles VII written by Jean Chartier.[4] The lives of Charles VI and VII were translated into French; Juvenal des Ursins translated Charles VI's life in the early 1430s, and Jean Chartier revised and updated his Latin life of Charles VII in a French translation. These translations were paired most frequently with Pintoin's Latin chronicle rather than with the Grandes Chroniques . Two groups of Grandes Chroniques exemplify the different functions of the chronicle in Parisian circles after the mid–fifteenth century. The first group consists of unillustrated texts on paper or on mixtures of parchment and paper that belonged (when provenance is known) to secretaries and notaries and to members of the Parlement.[5] These inexpensive books filled a practical need; they provided a chronology for persons charged with maintaining the state
archives and doubtless also assisted them in their increasingly common role as writers of history. A second illustrated group of Grandes Chroniques reflects the Parisian nobility's increased interest in the expression of dynastic issues in public ceremonial. The most famous of these is the copy of the Grandes Chroniques completed in the mid–fifteenth century by Jean Fouquet for Charles VII (B.N. fr. 6465), a chronicle illustrating such ceremonies as sacres , entries, and funerals that paid special attention to the pomp surrounding the visit of the Holy Roman Emperor to Charles V in 1378.[6] Two other manuscripts in Paris (B.N. fr. 5729 and Arsenal 5128) with identical layouts document the continuing interest in this ceremonial genre during the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Their text consists of an excerpt from the Grandes Chroniques describing the visit of the Holy Roman Emperor to Charles V in Paris in 1378 and is decorated by a miniature of the meeting of Charles V and Charles IV outside Paris. The concentration on Charles V in this pair of abridged texts may have royal and imperial connotations; these books glorify Charles V, the last direct royal ancestor of Louis XII, who was king when they were produced.[7] The interest manifested in the visit of the Holy Roman Emperor may also relate to the imperial aspirations of the French monarchs in the late fifteenth century.[8] In this late period illustrated Parisian copies of the Grandes Chroniques most commonly commemorated ceremonies that provided precedents for the public celebrations increasingly popular under the last Valois kings. In this respect, these manuscripts relate more closely to contemporary books like those that memorialized the tableaux from royal entries than to earlier copies of the Grandes Chroniques .[9] ― 181 ― Courts outside of Paris seem to have been the primary audience for illustrated manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques in the second half of the fifteenth century. Guillaume Fillastre commissioned a Grandes Chroniques (Leningrad, Public Library, Saltykov-Schedrin Er. fr. 88) decorated by Simon Marmion, for presentation in the 1450s to Duke Philip the Good of Burgundy. A manuscript dated 1471 now in Paris (B.N. fr. 2609), is attributed to Robinet Testard and was probably executed in the Loire valley near Poitiers where Testard was active. Even Thomas Thwaytes, the English king Henry VII's "tresorier de ses ville et marches de Calays," commissioned a multivolume manuscript (B.L. Royal 20 E I–20 E VI) produced in Calais in 1487 as a gift for the English monarch.[10] These non-Parisian manuscripts contain updated texts and extensive narrative cycles that illustrate French history without the stress on ceremonial evident in many contemporary Parisian copies of the chronicle. They seem to have met a new regional taste for dynastic and courtly literature that is especially well-documented for the Burgundian court.[11] By the late fifteenth century, the Grandes Chroniques seems to have been considered one history among many—and it was not the most important. Although Vérard printed specially illuminated royal versions of the Grandes Chroniques on vellum, French kings of the late fifteenth century were interested in more modern histories.[12] Thus Louis XI carried with him in his travels the mid-fifteenth-century Abrégé de l'histoire de France by Noël de Fribois rather than the Grandes Chroniques .[13] Although the royal myths described in the chronicle continued to be popular into the sixteenth century, other, more contemporary, histories incorporated them and these, rather than the Grandes Chroniques de France , shaped the royal image.
― 183 ― Notes PREFACE 1. The impetus for the translation of the Latin histories probably came during the reign of Saint Louis, because the translation of the text was completed in the 1270s and the Latin recueil , one source for it, was completed in the first half of the thirteenth century. Further, a reference in the prologue that the translator undertook the work "at the command of a man whom he neither could nor should refuse" . . . (enprist il ceste ouvre à fere par le commandement de tel home que il ne pout ne ne dut refuser) has led some to postulate the direct patronage of Saint Louis. For this, see Gabrielle Spiegel, The Chronicle Tradition of Saint-Denis: A Survey (Brookline, Mass., and Leyden, 1978), 78-87. For further discussion of the text, see text pages 3-6.
2. For studies dealing with vernacular historiography that give priority to Latin historiography, see Bernard Guenée, Histoire et culture historique dans l'occident médiéval (Paris, 1980); Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition ; and Jules Viard, ed., Les Grandes Chroniques de France , (Paris, 1920-53). 3. For examples of the interest in new texts, see Guenée, Histoire et culture historique ; Bernard Guenée, ed., Le métier d'historien au Moyen-Âge: Étude sur l'historiographie médiéval (Paris, 1977); Jacques Krynen, Idéal du prince et pouvoir royal en France á la fin du Moyen-Âge (1380-1440): Étude de la littérature politique du temps (Paris, 1981); and Colette Beaune, Naissance de la nation France (Paris, 1985). 4. Gabrielle Spiegel has studied the origins of vernacular historiography in a series of articles: "Genealogy: Form and Function in Medieval Historical Narrative," History and Theory 22 (1983): 43-53; idem, " Pseudo-Turpin , the Crisis of the Aristocracy and the Beginnings of Vernacular Historiography in France," Journal of Medieval History 12 (1986): 207-23; and idem, "Social Change and Literary Language: The Textualization of the Past in Thirteenth-Century Old French Historiography," Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 17 (1987): 129-48. 5. See Nicole Pons, "Latin et français au XV e siècle: Le témoignage des traités de propagande," Le moyen français. Actes du V e colloque international sur le moyen français, Milan, 6-8 mai 1985 (Milan, 1986), vol. 2, 67-81; and Serge Lusignan, Parler vulgairement: Les intellectuels et la langue française aux XIII e et XIV e siècles (Montreal, 1987). 6. This discussion of audiences is based upon Bernard Guénee, "Les Grandes Chroniques de France : Le roman aux rois (1274-1518)," in La nation , vol. 1, pt. 2, Les lieux de mémoire , ed. Pierre Nora (Paris, 1986), 189-214; and idem, "Histoire d'un succès," in François Avril, Marie-Thérèse Gousset, and Bernard Guenée, Les Grandes Chroniques de France. Reproduction intégrale en facsimilé des miniatures de Fouquet. Manuscrit 6465 de la Bibliothèque Nationale de Paris (Paris, 1987), 83-138. 7. Two surviving manuscripts from the abbey of Saint-Denis contain the Latin texts later translated in the Grandes Chroniques de France . These books from the early (Vat. Reg. 550) and mid-thirteenth centuries (B.N. lat. 5925) are illustrated only by initials. For further discussion of them, see the Introduction of this book. break In a section of his book devoted to "aids to readers," Guenée attempts to describe in general terms the role of pictures in manuscripts. Although his discussion remains broad, he is one of the few historians to suggest that illustrations of historical accounts may contribute to an understanding of their text. See Guenée, Histoire et culture historique , 237-41. 8. In contrast, most other vernacular histories seem to have been illustrated with limited pictorial cycles. Thus the earliest surviving manuscript of the chronicle of the Anonymous of Chantilly (Vat. Reg. 624) is unillustrated; only the late fifteenth-century version (Musée Condé, Ms. 869) has a pictorial cycle. Further, although the Johannes translation of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle was illustrated from the mid-thirteenth century with one to three historiated initials, the most densely illuminated copies of the text are a pair dating from the early fourteenth and mid-fifteenth centuries and illustrated by 15 miniatures. See Ronald Walpole, ed., The Old French Johannes Translation of the Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle: A Critical Edition (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1976); and Rita Lejeune and Jacques Stiennon, La légende de Roland dans l'art du Moyen-Âge (Brussels, 1969), 1:270-75, 2: plates 265-79, XXXVII. The only complete surviving manuscript (B.N. n. a. fr. 6295) of the Anonymous of Béthune is a late thirteenth-century book illustrated by a series of historiated initials. 9. Although Paulin Paris, Jules Viard, and Roland Delachenal note variants in their editions of the Grandes Chroniques , they give priority to royal copies of the manuscript. Viard and Delachenal use as their base manuscripts the first Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782) for text through the life of Saint Louis and Charles V's book (B.N. fr. 2813) for the life of Louis VIII and for the lives of Philip III to the beginning of Charles VI. Because Charles V's manuscript ends abruptly in 1379, the edition was completed by a transcription from B.N. fr. 17270. Their selection of texts presents a somewhat lopsided view of what constitutes a typical copy of the Grandes Chroniques . For instance, priority is given to the translation of Louis IX's life added in the fourteenth century to the first Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782) although an earlier translation of Guillaume de Nangis's Gesta Ludovici IX existed in John the Good's manuscript (B.L. Royal 16 G VI), and a different translation taken from Guillaume de Nangis's amplified chronicle (of c. 1316-18) appears in a series of manuscripts made by Parisian libraires (B.N. fr. 10132; Castres, B.M.; Grenoble, 407 Rés.). Of these earlier translations, the version in John's manuscript is published in an appendix to Viard's edition in which footnotes describe different readings from B.N. fr. 10132. In addition, the life of Charles V recorded in Delachenal's edition corresponds to that in Charles V's manuscript (B.N. fr. 2813), which differs significantly from that in virtually every other manuscript containing the text (here Delachenal gives variant readings in his footnotes). For editions of the Grandes Chroniques de France , see Paulin Paris, ed., Les Grandes Chroniques de France (Paris, 1836-38); Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques ; and Roland Delachenal, ed., Les Grandes Chroniques de France: Chroniques des règnes de Jean II et de Charles V (Paris, 1910-20). For dates of the versions of Saint Louis's life, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:xvii, vol. 10; and Léopold Delisle, "Mémoire sur les ouvrages de Guillaume de Nangis," in Mémoires de l'Académie des inscriptions et belles-lettres 27, pt. 2 (1873): 353.
INTRODUCTION— VERNACULAR HISTORY, LATIN HISTORIOGRAPHY, ROYAL PATRONAGE, AND THE GRANDES CHRONIQUES 1. See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques ; Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 72. 2. See Joseph Strayer, "France: The Holy Land, the Chosen People, and the Most Christian King," in Medieval Statecraft and the Perspectives of History: Essays by Joseph R. Strayer , ed. John F. Benton and Thomas N. Bisson (Princeton, 1971), 299-314; John Baldwin, The Government of Philip Augustus: Foundations of French Royal Power is the Middle Ages (Berkeley continue and Los Angeles, 1986), 362-93; Andrew Lewis, Royal Succession in Capetian France: Studies on Familial Order and the State (Cambridge, Mass., 1981); Marc Bloch, The Royal Touch: Sacred Monarchy and Scrofula in England and France , trans. J. E. Anderson (Montreal, 1973); Frank Barlow, "The King's Evil," English Historical Review 95 (1980): 3-27; Richard A. Jackson, Vive le Roi! A History of the French Coronation from Charles V to Charles X (Chapel Hill, 1984); and William Chester Jordan, Louis IX and the Challenge of the Crusade: A Study in Rulership (Princeton, 1979). 3. See Jordan, Louis IX . Jordan believes that Louis's failure in the crusade of 1248-1254 shaped the rest of his reign. For Jordan, Louis's subsequent actions—his subjugation of the barons, his active role in bringing peace to the Christian West, and his public manifestations of royal charity and devotion—were motivated by a desire to become worthy to succeed in his next crusade. For further discussion and for support of the theory that Louis's actions were intended to demonstrate that the Capetians were legitimate kings because they merited kingship, see Robert J.
Schneider, "Vincent of Beauvais on Political Legitimacy and the Capetian Dynasty: The Argument of the De Morali Principis Institutione ," forthcoming. More recent studies of Saint Louis are Jean Richard, Saint Louis, roi d'un France féodale, soutien de la Terre Sainte (Paris, 1983), and Gérard Sivéry, Saint Louis et son siècle (Paris, 1983). 4. For the following, see Jackson, Vive le Roi! , 31-33, 222-23. 5. For its use during Philip of Valois's coronation and probable use for earlier kings' ceremonies, see Jackson, Vive le Roi! , 223, 227 n. 3. 6. Bloch traces the origin of the belief that the French kings were able to cure disease back to the reign of Robert the Pious, the second Capetian king. He suggests that beginning with Robert's grandson, Philip I, the kings specialized in miraculous cures for scrofula. See Bloch, Royal Touch , 12-21, 74. Barlow reads the texts and documents more conservatively, concluding that evidence concerning the practice of touching for scrofula is more substantial from the mid-thirteenth century on. See Barlow, "King's Evil." 7. Barlow, "King's Evil," 21-22. 8. See Marcel Aubert et al., Les vitraux de Notre-Dame et de la Sainte-Chapelle de Paris , Corpus Vitrearum Medii Aevi (Paris, 1959), 1, pt. 1: 71-334; for a convenient summary, see Louis Grodecki, Sainte-Chapelle , Short Notes on Great Buildings, 6 (Paris, 1979). 9. See Harvey Stahl, "The Iconographic Sources of the Old Testament Miniatures, Pierpont Morgan Library M. 638" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1974); and idem, "Old Testament Illustration during the Reign of Saint Louis: The Morgan Picture Book and the New Biblical Cycles," in Il Medio Oriente e l'Occidente Nell'arte del XIII Secolo (Atti del XXIV Congresso Internazionale di Storia dell'Arte) (Bologna, 1982), 79-93. 10. For the importance of royal coinage as an assertion of sovereignty over the French barons and as a reference both to Louis's crusader past and to his religious devotion, see Jordan, Louis IX , 206-12. See as well Ernst Kantorowicz, Laudes Regiae: A Study in Liturgical Acclamations and Medieval Ruler Worship , University of California Publications in History, no. 33 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1946), 4-5, 11-12, 222-30. 11. For the tomb program, see Georgia Sommers, "Royal Tombs of Saint-Denis in the Reign of Saint Louis" (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1966); Georgia Sommers Wright, "A Royal Tomb Program in the Reign of Saint Louis," Art Bulletin 56 (1974): 224-43; and Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, Le roi est mort: Étude sur les funérailles, les sépultures, et les tombeaux des rois de France jusqu'à la fin du XIII e siècle, Bibliothèque de la Société française d'archéologie, no. 7 (Geneva, 1975). 12. That visitors came to see the tombs is attested to by a guidebook, the Abbreviated Chronicle , written by Guillaume de Nangis in the late thirteenth century. See Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 103-5, and Chapter 1 of this book. break 13. For discussion of early vernacular histories, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 72-76; idem, "Genealogy: Form and Function"; idem, " Pseudo-Turpin "; and idem, "Social Change and Literary Language." 14. For an outline of the audience for historical accounts in the Middle Ages, see Guenée, Histoire et culture historique , 364. For a discussion of the audience for certain vernacular works, see Diane Tyson, "Patronage of French Vernacular History Writers in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries," Romania 100 (1971): 180-222; Bernard Guenée, "La culture historique des nobles: Le succès des Faits des Romains (XIII e -XV e siècles)" in La noblesse au Moyen-Âge XI e -XV e siècles: Éssais à la mémoire de Robert Boutruche, ed. Philippe Contamine (Paris, 1976), 261-88; idem, " Grandes Chroniques "; idem, "Histoire d'un succès"; Spiegel, " Pseudo-Turpin "; and idem, "Social Change and Literary Language." 15. For a discussion of how this works in the Johannes translation of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle, one of the earliest translations of a Latin chronicle into French, see Walpole, ed., Old French Pseudo-Turpin , 1:94. For a study that considers a broad range of vernacular chronicles, see Spiegel, "Social Change and Literary Language." 16. See Spiegel, "Social Change and Literary Language." 17. Ibid., 148. 16. See Spiegel, "Social Change and Literary Language." 17. Ibid., 148. 18. On Primat's originality, see Guenée, " Grandes Chroniques ." For his Latin sources, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques . Although studies have suggested that Primat drew from epics and earlier vernacular histories, no one has yet undertaken a systematic analysis of Primat's reliance on them. Mandach cites a few examples to show that Primat consulted epics, and Pierre Botineau has shown that Primat used the vernacular chronicle of the Anonymous of Chantilly as a reference when he had difficulty translating his Latin sources. For a limited discussion of French sources, see André Mandach, Chronique dite Saintongeaise , Beiheft zur Zeitschrift für Romanische Philologie, no. 120 (Tübingen, 1970), 154. Spiegel cites Botineau's unpublished article, "Une source des Grandes Chroniques de France : L'histoire de France en prose française de Charlemagne à Philippe Auguste," in "Social Change and Literary Language," 142 n. 34. The popularity of the Grandes Chroniques is demonstrated by the large number of surviving manuscripts. The Johannes translation of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle survives in 32 copies, the chronicle of the Anonymous of Chantilly in 2 manuscripts, the Chronique des rois de France of the Anonymous of Béthune in one complete manuscript, and the Abrégé de l'histoire de France of the Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers in 11 manuscripts. In contrast, the Grandes Chroniques survive in at least 130 copies. See Walpole, ed., Old French Pseudo-Turpin , 1:xv; Spiegel, "Social Change and Literary Language," 134-35; and the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. For comparable statistics for Latin and other French histories, see Guenée, Histoire et culture historique , 250-52. 19. For an interpretation of the vernacular translations of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle as partisan texts that originated in northern France and Flanders among a group of nobles opposed to Philip Augustus's centralizing policies, see Spiegel, " Pseudo-Turpin ." She examines the motives for sponsoring translations as professed in the prologues of the six independent versions of the French Pseudo-Turpin chronicle and analyzes these motives in relation to the historical circumstances faced by the patrons of the translations in early thirteenth-century France and Flanders. Although the origins of the translations seem to be political on at least one level, the popularity of the French PseudoTurpin chronicle may have persisted because of the popularity of legends of Charlemagne. For this view, see Walpole, ed., Old French Pseudo-Turpin , 1:xv-xxii. 20. As early as the first quarter of the thirteenth century during the reign of Philip Augustus, the monks of SaintDenis compiled a Latin volume that assembled texts tracing French history from the fall of Troy through the life of Louis VI. This volume (Vat. Reg. lat. 550) later served as a model for a second compilation (B.N. lat. 5925) made during Louis continue
IX's reign. B.N. lat. 5925 included the life of Philip Augustus as well and was probably the Latin basis for the translation of the Grandes Chroniques . Both these books remained in the abbey's library at least until the fourteenth century. For discussion of these manuscripts, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 72-89, 117-26; Bernd Schneidmüller, "Ein Geschichtskom-pendium des frühen 13. Jahrhunderts aus Saint-Denis (Vat. Reg. lat. 550) als Vorläufer der Grandes Chroniques ," Quellen und Forschungen aus Italienischen Archiven und Bibliotheken 67 (1987): 447-61; and Donatella Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, La bibliothèque de l'abbaye de Saint-Denis en France du IX e au XVIII e siècle (Paris, 1985), 216, no. 111, and 232, no. 165. 21. Little is known about Primat beyond the fact that he was a monk at Saint-Denis and a historian; he wrote at least one other history—a life of Saint Louis, which was continued through the life of Philip the Bold. For a summary of the literature on Primat, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 83-92. Although Primat's chronicle, the original draft of the Grandes Chroniques , is of primary concern for the moment, it should be noted that the Grandes Chroniques was continued through the reign of Philip of Valois (1328-50), with a life of Louis VIII and translations from the Latin chronicle and continuations of Guillaume de Nangis (for the era to 1340), and an original French text (for 1340 to 1350). In the 1370s authorship of the Grandes Chroniques definitely shifted from monastery to court, when Pierre d'Orgement probably wrote the account of the reigns of John the Good and Charles V. Shortly after Charles V's death in 1380, two chapters describing the accession of Charles VI were added. This is the most common terminus for the Grandes Chroniques , although at least two other manuscripts (M. 536 and B.R. 4) have texts that continue past the traditional stopping point to end in 1384. See Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 117-26, and Chapters 3, 5-7, and 10 of this book. 22. Léopold Delisle, "Notes sur quelques manuscrits du Musée Britannique," Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France 4 (1878): 206-7. This observation, and the fact that the earlier Dionysian compilation (Vat. Reg. lat. 550) did not contain the life of Philip Augustus that was in B.N. lat. 5925 and translated in Primat's Grandes Chroniques , makes it likely that Primat used B.N. lat. 5925 rather than Vat. Reg. lat. 550, the earlier Dionysian anthology, as a source for the Grandes Chroniques . 23. For a discussion of the ways in which Johannes, one of the earliest translators of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle, modified his Latin source, see Walpole, who contends that Johannes "made the structure more orderly and clear, the style more natural and convincing." Walpole, ed., Old French Pseudo-Turpin , 1:xvi. 24. A few texts translated in the Grandes Chroniques were not included in the Latin compilation. One of these, the Descriptio qualiter , seems to have been copied from a manuscript of the same textual family as B.N. lat. 12710. See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:xii-xiii, 155, 160-61, 197. For a discussion of the popularity of the Descriptio qualiter and an analysis of a cycle of stained glass at Saint-Denis based upon the text, see Elizabeth A. R. Brown and Michael W. Cothren, "The Twelfth-Century Crusading Window of the Abbey of Saint-Denis: Praeteritorum Enim Recordatio Futurorum est Exhibitio," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 49 (1986): 11-40. A second text not present in B.N. lat. 5925 was the life of Louis VII, a copy of which was intercalated into B.N. lat. 5925 in the late thirteenth or early fourteenth century (after the Grandes Chroniques was translated) by a second scribe who also continued the manuscript with the lives of Louis VIII, Saint Louis, and Philip III. See Delisle, "Notes sur quelques manuscrits," 206-10; and Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 68-71. Spiegel argues convincingly that this historical recueil was not compiled as a draft for the Grandes Chroniques , but was simply a copy of texts including "the best of what was known to deal with French history." Schneidmüller's demonstration that B.N. lat. 5925 depends on Vat. Reg. 550, a historical compendium from the first portion of the thirteenth century, supports her conclusion. See Schneidmüller's "Ein Geschichtskompendium." break 25. The differences between B.N. lat. 5925 and Ste.-Gen. 782 are most clearly expressed in tabular form. (Only texts distinguished by decoration [in B.N. lat. 5925] or chapter lists and rubrics [in Ste.-Gen. 782] are listed.)
B.N. lat. 5925 (textual hierarchy expressed through decorated initials in the manuscript as it was c. 1274)
Ste.-Gen. 782 (translations of many of the texts listed under lat. 5925 in which textual hierarchy is expressed through chapter lists and rubrics in the manuscript as it was when first written c. 1274)
Aimoin of Fleury, Epistula in librum de gestis francorum ad Abbonem abbatem Aimoin of Fleury, Praefatio Prologue Aimoin of Fleury, Historia Francorum divided into 4 books
Lives of Merovingians divided into 5 books
Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni
Life of Charlemagne
Pseudo-Turpin, Chronicon
5 books (includes translation of the Descriptio not present in B.N. lat. 5925)
Gesta Ludovici pii imperatoris
Life of Louis the Pious
Life of Charles the Bald Life of Louis the Stammerer Prologus Suger, Vita Ludovici VI Grossi
Life of Louis VI Life of Louis VII (no chapter list) not present in B.N. lat. 5925 until later
Prologus Rigord Gesta Philippi Augusti
Life of Philip Augustus divided into 3 books
26. For these sources, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:1 n. 1; 4 n. 2; 5 n. 1. For discussion of the prologues of the Grandes Chroniques and of the Ménestrel's Chronique abrégée , see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 8183; and Natalis de Wailly, "Examen de quelques questions relatives à l'origine des chroniques de Saint-Denys," Mémoire de l'Académie royale des inscriptions et belles-lettres 17, pt. 1 (1847): 379-407. For the text of the prologue to the Grandes Chroniques , see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:1-6. For the text of the Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers's prologue, see de Wailly, "Examen de quelques questions," 405-7; and for the dedicatory letter to Aimon's chronicle, see RHF , 3:28. 27. Compare de Wailly, "Examen de quelques questions," 406-7 with Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:2. 28. Compare Primat's opening, "Pour ce que pluseurs genz doutoient de la genealogie des rois de France de quel origenal et de quel lignie ils ont descendu ," with the Ménestrel's, "Por ce que je véoie et ooie moult de gens douter, et presques toutes genz, des gestes des rois de France." (The italics are mine.) Andrew Lewis suggests that Primat's passage "reorders royalist historiography" to emphasize dynastic concerns in a way that parallels the contemporary rearrangement of royal tombs. See Lewis, Royal Succession , 115-16. The origin of this dynastic elaboration would seem to be Dionysian, since it was not included continue in the book for Alphonse of Poitiers although Alphonse, the patron of the Ménestrel's work, had problems with legitimation and centralization of power in his territories in the south of France similar to those of his brother, Louis IX. 29. Compare the following passages from the Ménestrel's and Primat's texts in which I italicize Primat's changes. Ménestrel: "Ceste parole et autres vilaines que je en oï dire me contraignent à faire ceste oeuvre * por faire conoistre as vaillanz genz la geste des rois de France et por monstrer à toz dont vient la hautèce du monde, et por ce que c'est essample de bone vie mener. Car i. vaillanz mestres dist que ceste estoire est mireor de vie. Ci porra chascuns trover et bien et mal et bel et let; et de toutes ces choses que l'en lira en cest livre, s'èles ne profitent pas toutes, totevoies la plus grant partie en peut aidier." Primat: " Si peut chascuns savoir que ceste ouvre est profitable à fere pour fere cognoistre aus vaillanz genz la geste des rois et por mostrer à touz dont vient la hautece dou monde; car ce est examples de bone vie mener, meismement aus rois et aus princes qui ont terres à gouverner ; car I vaillans mestres dit que ceste estoire est mireors de vie. Ci pourra chascuns trover bien et mal, bel et lait, sens et folie, et fere son preu de tout par les examples de l'estoire ; et de toutes ces choses que on lira en ceste livre, se eles ne profitent toutes, toutevoies la plus grant partie en peut aider." For these texts, see de Wailly, "Examen de quelques questions," 406; and Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:23. 30. "Enprist il [Primat] ceste oeuvre à fere par le commandement de tel home [Louis IX? Abbot Matthew of Vendôme?] que il ne pout ne ne dut refuser. Mais pour ce que sa lettreure et la simplece de son engin ne souffist pas à tretier de ouvre de si haut estoire, il proie au commencement à touz ciaus qui cest livre liront que ce que il i troveront à blasmer que il le seuffrent pacianment sanz vileine reprehension, car, si com il a dit devant, li defaut de lettreure et de loquence qui en li sont et la simplece de son engine le doivent escuser par raison." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:1-2. For the literary topos, see Lusignan, Parler vulgairement , 131. 31. For these texts, see Aimoin de Fleury, De Gestis Regum Francorum , in RHF , ed. Dom Martin Bouquet, (Paris, 1741) 3:22-28. 32. Primat omitted the final section of the Proemium , which dealt specifically with Clovis's deeds, perhaps because, as the Proemium itself stated, "sed haec proprio digesta referentur in loco." For the Proemium , see ibid., 2829. 31. For these texts, see Aimoin de Fleury, De Gestis Regum Francorum , in RHF , ed. Dom Martin Bouquet, (Paris, 1741) 3:22-28. 32. Primat omitted the final section of the Proemium , which dealt specifically with Clovis's deeds, perhaps because, as the Proemium itself stated, "sed haec proprio digesta referentur in loco." For the Proemium , see ibid., 2829. 33. For the text, see the passage from "Certain chose" to "la seigneurie terriene" in Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:4-5. 34. "Si li a Nostre Sires doné par sa grace une prerogative et une avantage seur toutes autres terres et seur toutes autres nations, car onques puis que ele fu convertie et ele commença à servir à son creatour, ne fu que la foi n'i fust plus fervemment et plus droitment tenue que en nule autre terre; par lie est moutepliée, par lie est soustenue, par lie est deffendue. Se nule autre nation fait à sainte Eglise force ne grief, en France en vient fere sa complainte, en France vient à refui et à secors; de France vient l'espée et li glaives par quoi ele est vengiée, et France comme loiaus fille secourt sa mere en touz besoinz; si a touz jors la sele mise pour li aidier et secorre." Ibid., 5. 35. "Se la foi i est donques plus fervenment et plus droitement tenue, ce n'est mie sanz raison. La premiere si est que messires sains Denis li glorieus martyrs et apostres de France, par cui mistere ele fu premierement convertie, la soustient et garentist come sa propre partie, qui pour entroduire en la foi li fu livrée. La seconde reson si puet estre tele, car la fonteine de clergie, par cui sainte Eglise est soustenue et enluminée, florist à Paris. Si com aucun veulent dire, clergie et chevalerie sont touz jors si d'un acort, que l'une ne peut continue
sanz l'autre; touz jors se sont ensemble tenues, et encores, Dieu merci, ne se departent eles mie. En III regions ont habité en divers tens: en Grece regnerent premierement, car en la cité d'Athenes fut jadis le puis de philosophie et en Grece la flors de chevalerie. De Grece vindrent puis à Rome. De Rome sont en France venues." Ibid., 5-6. 36. "Diex par sa grace vuelle que longuement i soient maintenues à la loenge et à la gloire de son nom, qui vit et regne par touz les siecles des siecles. Amen." Ibid., 6. 33. For the text, see the passage from "Certain chose" to "la seigneurie terriene" in Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:4-5. 34. "Si li a Nostre Sires doné par sa grace une prerogative et une avantage seur toutes autres terres et seur toutes autres nations, car onques puis que ele fu convertie et ele commença à servir à son creatour, ne fu que la foi n'i fust plus fervemment et plus droitment tenue que en nule autre terre; par lie est moutepliée, par lie est soustenue, par lie est deffendue. Se nule autre nation fait à sainte Eglise force ne grief, en France en vient fere sa complainte, en France vient à refui et à secors; de France vient l'espée et li glaives par quoi ele est vengiée, et France comme loiaus fille secourt sa mere en touz besoinz; si a touz jors la sele mise pour li aidier et secorre." Ibid., 5. 35. "Se la foi i est donques plus fervenment et plus droitement tenue, ce n'est mie sanz raison. La premiere si est que messires sains Denis li glorieus martyrs et apostres de France, par cui mistere ele fu premierement convertie, la soustient et garentist come sa propre partie, qui pour entroduire en la foi li fu livrée. La seconde reson si puet estre tele, car la fonteine de clergie, par cui sainte Eglise est soustenue et enluminée, florist à Paris. Si com aucun veulent dire, clergie et chevalerie sont touz jors si d'un acort, que l'une ne peut continue sanz l'autre; touz jors se sont ensemble tenues, et encores, Dieu merci, ne se departent eles mie. En III regions ont habité en divers tens: en Grece regnerent premierement, car en la cité d'Athenes fut jadis le puis de philosophie et en Grece la flors de chevalerie. De Grece vindrent puis à Rome. De Rome sont en France venues." Ibid., 5-6. 36. "Diex par sa grace vuelle que longuement i soient maintenues à la loenge et à la gloire de son nom, qui vit et regne par touz les siecles des siecles. Amen." Ibid., 6. 33. For the text, see the passage from "Certain chose" to "la seigneurie terriene" in Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:4-5. 34. "Si li a Nostre Sires doné par sa grace une prerogative et une avantage seur toutes autres terres et seur toutes autres nations, car onques puis que ele fu convertie et ele commença à servir à son creatour, ne fu que la foi n'i fust plus fervemment et plus droitment tenue que en nule autre terre; par lie est moutepliée, par lie est soustenue, par lie est deffendue. Se nule autre nation fait à sainte Eglise force ne grief, en France en vient fere sa complainte, en France vient à refui et à secors; de France vient l'espée et li glaives par quoi ele est vengiée, et France comme loiaus fille secourt sa mere en touz besoinz; si a touz jors la sele mise pour li aidier et secorre." Ibid., 5. 35. "Se la foi i est donques plus fervenment et plus droitement tenue, ce n'est mie sanz raison. La premiere si est que messires sains Denis li glorieus martyrs et apostres de France, par cui mistere ele fu premierement convertie, la soustient et garentist come sa propre partie, qui pour entroduire en la foi li fu livrée. La seconde reson si puet estre tele, car la fonteine de clergie, par cui sainte Eglise est soustenue et enluminée, florist à Paris. Si com aucun veulent dire, clergie et chevalerie sont touz jors si d'un acort, que l'une ne peut continue sanz l'autre; touz jors se sont ensemble tenues, et encores, Dieu merci, ne se departent eles mie. En III regions ont habité en divers tens: en Grece regnerent premierement, car en la cité d'Athenes fut jadis le puis de philosophie et en Grece la flors de chevalerie. De Grece vindrent puis à Rome. De Rome sont en France venues." Ibid., 5-6. 36. "Diex par sa grace vuelle que longuement i soient maintenues à la loenge et à la gloire de son nom, qui vit et regne par touz les siecles des siecles. Amen." Ibid., 6. 33. For the text, see the passage from "Certain chose" to "la seigneurie terriene" in Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:4-5. 34. "Si li a Nostre Sires doné par sa grace une prerogative et une avantage seur toutes autres terres et seur toutes autres nations, car onques puis que ele fu convertie et ele commença à servir à son creatour, ne fu que la foi n'i fust plus fervemment et plus droitment tenue que en nule autre terre; par lie est moutepliée, par lie est soustenue, par lie est deffendue. Se nule autre nation fait à sainte Eglise force ne grief, en France en vient fere sa complainte, en France vient à refui et à secors; de France vient l'espée et li glaives par quoi ele est vengiée, et France comme loiaus fille secourt sa mere en touz besoinz; si a touz jors la sele mise pour li aidier et secorre." Ibid., 5. 35. "Se la foi i est donques plus fervenment et plus droitement tenue, ce n'est mie sanz raison. La premiere si est que messires sains Denis li glorieus martyrs et apostres de France, par cui mistere ele fu premierement convertie, la soustient et garentist come sa propre partie, qui pour entroduire en la foi li fu livrée. La seconde reson si puet estre tele, car la fonteine de clergie, par cui sainte Eglise est soustenue et enluminée, florist à Paris. Si com aucun veulent dire, clergie et chevalerie sont touz jors si d'un acort, que l'une ne peut continue sanz l'autre; touz jors se sont ensemble tenues, et encores, Dieu merci, ne se departent eles mie. En III regions ont habité en divers tens: en Grece regnerent premierement, car en la cité d'Athenes fut jadis le puis de philosophie et en Grece la flors de chevalerie. De Grece vindrent puis à Rome. De Rome sont en France venues." Ibid., 5-6. 36. "Diex par sa grace vuelle que longuement i soient maintenues à la loenge et à la gloire de son nom, qui vit et regne par touz les siecles des siecles. Amen." Ibid., 6. 37. For the importance of the concept of merit to Louis IX in the latter part of his reign and the emphasis laid on the idea in a treatise written for Louis in 1263 by Vincent of Beauvais, see Schneider, "Vincent of Beauvais." The textual emphasis of this treatise, the De morali pricipis institutione , has close analogies to the illustrative program of the first Grandes Chroniques (Ste.-Gen. 782).
Chapter One— Philip III's Grandes Chroniques 1. For a history of the last Capetian kings and the problems with royal succession, see Raymond Cazelles, La société politique et la crise de la royauté sous Philippe de Valois (Paris, 1958), 35-70; and Paul Lehugeur, Histoire de Philippe le Long roi de France (1316-22) , (1897-1931; reprint, Geneva, 1975), 1:10-105. 2. Indeed, even the pope made biblical references when seeking to persuade the French king. See Hervé Pinoteau, "Autour de la Bulle ' Dei Filius .'" Itinéraires 147 (1970): 99-123. 3. Adolf Katzenellenbogen, The Sculptural Program of Chartres Cathedral: Christ, Mary, Ecclesia (New York, 1964), 27-36. Katzenellenbogen dates these galleries to the thirteenth century and cites examples at Notre-Dame in Paris, at Amiens, at Reims, and in the thirteenth-century additions to Chartres. See as well Johann Georg Prinz von Hohenzollern, Die Königsgalerie der französischen Kathedrale (Munich, 1965).
4. The gallery of kings on the facade of Notre-Dame in Paris was thought to represent the succession of the kings of France as early as the thirteenth century and as recently as the French revolution. See Ferdinand Lot, Étude sur le règne de Hugues Capet et la fin du X e siècle (Paris, 1903), 342. 5. For prior discussion of the ceremony of coronation, see János Bak, ed., Coronations: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990). 6. Cited by Donna Sadler in her work in progress, Art and Politics in Reims . 7. For these commissions, see Hugo Buchthal, Historia Troiana: Studies in the History of Medieval Secular Illustration , Studies of the Warburg Institute, 32 (Leyden, 1971), 11-13; Grodecki, Les vitraux , 71-334; and especially Stahl, "Old Testament Illustration." 8. Stahl, "Iconographic Sources," 88. 9. Numerous commissions executed for members of the Capetian family focus on the private devotions of the royal saint. Painting, stained glass, and manuscripts are the most popular media for these Capetian commissions. They have been extensively studied. For images from the altar in the lower church of Sainte Chapelle, see Auguste Longnon, Documents parisien sur l'iconographie de Saint Louis d'après un manuscrit de Peiresc conservé à la bibliothèque du Carpentras (Paris, 1887), 3-7. For the Convent des Cordeliers, commissioned by Saint Louis's widow and decorated with a fresco cycle, see ibid., 2-3. For the window in the chapel of Saint Louis (often called the Old Sacristy) at Saint-Denis, see Longnon, 11 n. 2; Bernard de Montfaucon, Les monuments de la monarchie françoise . . . (Paris, 1729-33), 2:158; Georgia Sommers Wright, "The Tomb of Saint Louis," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 34 (1971): 65-82; and Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "The Chapels and Cult of Saint Louis at Saint-Denis," Mediaevalia 10 (1984): 279-331. break For cycles in manuscripts, see Marcel Thomas, "L'iconographie de Saint Louis dans les Heures de Jeanne de Navarre ," Septième centenaire de la mort de Saint Louis. Actes des colloques de Royaumont et de Paris. 21-27 mai 1970 (Paris, 1976), 209-231. For the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, see James Rorimer, The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux at the Cloisters (New York, 1957); Jeffrey M. Hoffeld, "An Image of Saint Louis and the Structuring of Devotion," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 29 (1971): 216-66; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, La librairie de Charles V (Paris, 1968), 69-70, no. 133. For sculpted portraits and programs, see Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "Philippe le Bel and the Remains of Saint Louis," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 95-96 (1980): 175-87; Wright, "Royal Tomb Program"; and idem, "Tomb of Saint Louis." 8. Stahl, "Iconographic Sources," 88. 9. Numerous commissions executed for members of the Capetian family focus on the private devotions of the royal saint. Painting, stained glass, and manuscripts are the most popular media for these Capetian commissions. They have been extensively studied. For images from the altar in the lower church of Sainte Chapelle, see Auguste Longnon, Documents parisien sur l'iconographie de Saint Louis d'après un manuscrit de Peiresc conservé à la bibliothèque du Carpentras (Paris, 1887), 3-7. For the Convent des Cordeliers, commissioned by Saint Louis's widow and decorated with a fresco cycle, see ibid., 2-3. For the window in the chapel of Saint Louis (often called the Old Sacristy) at Saint-Denis, see Longnon, 11 n. 2; Bernard de Montfaucon, Les monuments de la monarchie françoise . . . (Paris, 1729-33), 2:158; Georgia Sommers Wright, "The Tomb of Saint Louis," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 34 (1971): 65-82; and Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "The Chapels and Cult of Saint Louis at Saint-Denis," Mediaevalia 10 (1984): 279-331. break For cycles in manuscripts, see Marcel Thomas, "L'iconographie de Saint Louis dans les Heures de Jeanne de Navarre ," Septième centenaire de la mort de Saint Louis. Actes des colloques de Royaumont et de Paris. 21-27 mai 1970 (Paris, 1976), 209-231. For the Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, see James Rorimer, The Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux at the Cloisters (New York, 1957); Jeffrey M. Hoffeld, "An Image of Saint Louis and the Structuring of Devotion," Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 29 (1971): 216-66; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, La librairie de Charles V (Paris, 1968), 69-70, no. 133. For sculpted portraits and programs, see Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "Philippe le Bel and the Remains of Saint Louis," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 95-96 (1980): 175-87; Wright, "Royal Tomb Program"; and idem, "Tomb of Saint Louis." 10. For commissions of Philip III and Philip the Fair, see Alain Erlande-Brandenburg, "Le tombeau de Saint Louis," Bulletin Monumental 126 (1968): 7-36; Wright, "Tomb of Saint Louis"; Brown, "Philippe le Bel"; and Elizabeth Hallam, "Philip the Fair and the Cult of Saint Louis," Studies in Church History 18 (1982): 201-14. 11. For commissions of Philip V, see Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "The Ceremonial of the Royal Succession in Capetian France: The Double Funeral of Louis X," Traditio 34 (1978): 227-71; and Chapter 2 of this book. 12. For the achievements of Abbot Suger, see Gabrielle Spiegel, "The Cult of Saint Denis and Capetian Kingship," Journal of Medieval History 1-2 (1975-76): 46-69; idem, Chronicle Tradition , 11-38; and Paula Gerson, ed., Abbot Suger and Saint-Denis: A Symposium (New York, 1986). On the oriflamme , see Philip Contamine, "L'oriflamme de Saint-Denis aux XIV e et XV e siècles," Annales de l'Est , 25 (1973): 179-244. 13. See Félix Olivier-Martin, Étude sur les régences: I. Les régences et le majorité des rois sous les Capétiens directs et les premiers Valois (1060-1375) (Paris, 1931), 94-108. 14. No documents concerning this commission survive. Wright believes that Matthew of Vendôme was solely responsible for the tombs, whereas Erlande Brandenburg speculates, on the basis of passages describing the renovation of the choir and the translation of the royal ashes in Guillaume of Nangis's Life of Saint Louis , that Louis IX played an active role in the commission as well. Sources give conflicting dates for translation of the bodies and hence for the completion of the project. These range from 1263-64 in the Annales Sancti Dionisii to 1267 in Guillaume of Nangis's text. For the program of tombs and the date of completion of the project, see Sommers, "Royal Tombs of Saint-Denis"; Wright, "Royal Tomb Program"; and Erlande-Brandenburg, Le roi est mort , 80-81, nos. 145, 150. 15. On Giles of Pontoise and his manuscript commissions, see Charlotte Lacaze, The "Vie de Saint Denis" Manuscript (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. fr. 2090-2092) (New York, 1979), 57-65; Ingeborg Bähr, Saint Denis und seine Vita im Spiegel der Bildüberlieferung der französischen Kunst des Mittelalters (Worms, 1984), 133-200, lxxxciv; and Bernard Grémont, "La chronique d'Yves de Saint-Denis," in École Nationale des Chartes. Positions des thèses (Paris, 1952), 61-62. 16. Wright, "Royal Tomb Program," 224. 17. Lacaze, Vie de Saint Denis , 64-65. 18. The arrangement of tombs completed between 1264 and 1267 emphasized two points central to French political theory: first, that the Carolingian and Capetian races were founded by members of families that each had a tradition of governance in France, and second, that by virtue of their Carolingian blood, Louis VIII and Philip Augustus accomplished the Reditus regni Francorum ad stirpem Karoli Magni , the return of France to Carolingian rule, and thus
were legitimate rulers, descendants of both the Carolingian and Capetian lines. The inclusion of Louis IX's tomb and subsequent rearrangement during the reign of Philip the Fair neglected these familial divisions and placed the tombs of Philip the Fair continue and his parents on the Carolingian side of the choir, in close proximity to the tomb of Saint Louis. For this, see Gabrielle Spiegel, "The Reditus Regni ad Stirpem Karoli Magni : A New Look," French Historical Studies 7 (1971-72): 145-74; Lewis, Royal Succession 104-22; Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "The Prince is Father of the King: The Character and Childhood of Philip the Fair of France, Medieval Studies 49 (1987): 317; and idem, "Chapels and Cult of Saint Louis," 279. 19. For further discussion of the tomb arrangement and of Ivo's recueil in a dynastic context, see text pages 25, 35-36. 20. This manuscript has been published most extensively in Amedée Boinet, Les manuscrits á peintures de la Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève de Paris (Paris, 1921), 39-47; Leopold Delisle, Recherches sur la librairie de Charles V (Paris, 1907), 1:309-11; and with reproductions of all the miniatures, François Garnier, Le language de l'image au Moyen-Âge (Paris, 1982), commentary and plates 106-43. In its original form, the manuscript contained the Grandes Chroniques through the life of Philip Augustus. Sometime in the early fourteenth century one folio (presumably blank) was excised following fol. 326, and the life of Louis IX was added. Still later, probably in the reign of Charles V, who signed the chronicle (fol. 374v), a map of the world with Jerusalem at its center was painted on fol. 374v at the end of the manuscript. 21. Branner identified one of the artists who worked on the manuscript (Artist I in my Catalogue of Manuscripts) as an artist based in Paris, a member of the Main Line of the Sainte-Chapelle group. This group painted a number of religious books, ranging from an Evangeliary used in the Sainte-Chapelle and a Sequentiary for the king's capella , to Decretals and texts by Aristotle. For discussion of this style, see Robert Branner, Manuscript Painting in Paris during the Reign of Saint Louis: A Study of Styles (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977), 129, 236-37. For the argument that Philip III's copy of the Grandes Chroniques was made at the abbey of Saint-Denis, see Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, La bibliothèque , 48-49, 310. I question the validity of Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda's attribution of Philip III's book to Saint-Denis because of the location of the artist's workshops in Paris. It seems much more likely that Matthew of Vendôme would have had the presentation manuscript made by the best scribes and artists who worked for the court, as Giles of Pontoise did later for the Vita et Passio of Ivo of Saint-Denis. For the presentation manuscript, see Lacaze, Vie de Saint Denis . 22. I would like to thank James M'Kenzie-Hall for drawing my attention to the affinity between the panel of glass from Saint-Denis and the Grandes Chroniques . For the similarity of compositional types (but not subjects) at SaintDenis and Chartres, see Brown and Cothren, "Twelfth-Century Crusading Window" 38 n. 152. For reproductions of these images, see Garnier, Language de l'image , pl. 139; Brown and Cothren, "Twelfth-Century Crusading Window," pl. 7a, no. 6; and Clark Maines, "The Charlemagne Window at Chartres: New Considerations on Text and Image," Speculum 52 (1977): fig. 3, no. 11. 23. For a reproduction of the representation of Charlemagne's Dream on the Châsse of Charlemagne, see Centrum voor Kunst en Cultuur, Abbaye Saint Pierre Gand, Santiago de Compostela: 1000 ans de pèlerinage européen (Ghent, 1985), 188; and for a general introduction to the reliquary, see Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 169-77 and pls. 143-50. For representations of imagery from the four twelfth- and fourteenth-century copies of the Codex Calixtinus , see Alison Stones, "Four Illustrated Jacobus Manuscripts," in The Vanishing Past: Studies of Medieval Art, Liturgy, and Metrology Presented to Christopher Hobler , ed. Andrew Martindale and Alan Borg (Oxford, 1981), 167-222. For the Dream of Charlemagne, see pls. 14.6-14.10. 24. A consideration of vernacular copies of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle supports this hypothesis. A review of the 32 thirteenth- to fifteenth-century copies of the Johannes translation of the Pseudo-Turpin chronicle reveals that the scene of the vision of the starry continue sky was fairly rare in vernacular copies of the chronicle. None of the nine illuminated books in that group incorporates this scene in its program. See Warpole, ed., Old French Pseudo-Turpin . 25. See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:9-10. 26. On the Roman de Troie , see Buchthal, Historia Troiana , 3-19; and Fritz Saxl, "The Troy Romance in French and English Art," Lectures (London, 1957) 1:125-38. 27. See B.N. fr. 1610. Four leaves excised from this book are in the collection of Mr. J. H. A. van Heek at Stichting Huis Bergh in s'Heerenburg, Holland. Buchthal described this Roman de Troie as executed in Burgundy or Lorraine and suggested that it may be a "bad copy of a much better model"—a manuscript like the Old Testament Picture Book (M. 638). Buchthal, Historia Troiana , 9-11. 28. For the Histoire ancienne , see Buchthal, Historia Troiana , 16-19. For an illustration pairing the rape of Helen and the slaughter of Greeks, see pl. 13, an image from B.L. Royal 20 D I (fol. 49v), the earliest surviving manuscript of the second recension (which first included the Roman de Troie en prose and illustrations of the Trojan story) dating to the mid-fourteenth century and executed in Naples. 29. Quoted in the Introduction to this book. 30. "Et pour ce que III generacions ont esté des rois de France puis que il commencierent à estre, sera toute ceste hystoire devisée en III livres principaus: ou premier parlera de la genealogie Merovée, ou secont de la generation Pepin, et ou tierz de la generation Hue Chapet. Si sera chascuns livres souzdevisez en divers livres, selonc les vies et les fais des divers rois; ordené seront par chapitres, por plus pleinement entendre la matiere et sanz confusion. Li commencemenz de ceste hystoire sera pris à la haute lignie des Troiens, dont ele est descendue par longue succession." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:3-4. For further discussion of this prologue, see text pages 4-6, 37. 31. This French poem and its accompaniment (a second Latin poem) are preserved in a very small group of manuscripts: B.L., Add. 38128, an unillustrated manuscript written sometime after the death of Philip III in 1385 (poems at the end of the life of Philip Augustus—and the end of the manuscript); Cambrai, B.M. 682, an illustrated manuscript dating from the early fourteenth century (poems between the lives of Louis VII and Philip Augustus); Switzerland, Private Collection, an illustrated manuscript of c. 1330 (poems between the lives of Louis VII and Philip Augustus); and B.N. fr. 2813, Charles V's luxurious manuscript, written and painted in the 1360s and 1370s (poems between the lives of Philip Augustus and Louis VIII). For the French poetic colophon and the Latin poem that accompanies it, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:376-77. In Ste.-Gen. 782 these poems are written on the verso of fol. 326, the last leaf of text in the book as it existed in the late thirteenth century, by a different scribe from the one who did the rest of the gathering. They were almost
certainly an integral part of the original commission, however, because the picture that accompanies them is painted by one of the two artists who painted pictures in the rest of the manuscript. 32. On the Mirror of Princes, see Wilhelm Berges, Die Fürstenspiegel des hohen und späten Mittelalters Schriften des Reichsinstituts für ältere deutsche Geschichtskunde. Monumenta Germaniae historica (Leipzig, 1938); Josef Röder, Das Fürstenbild in des mittelalterlichen Fürstenspiegeln auf französischen Boden (Emsdetten, 1933); L. K. Born, "The Perfect Prince: A Study in Thirteenth- and Fourteenth-Century Ideals," Speculum 3 (1928): 470-504; and Dora Bell, L'idéal éthique de la royauté en France au Moyen-Âge: D'après quelques moralistes de ce temps (Geneva, 1962). For a reference to the Grandes Chroniques as a Mirror of Princes, see Lewis, Royal Succession , 139. 33. Genet argues for a more restricted definition of Mirrors of Princes and for consideration of the political contexts that generated them. His preliminary findings suggest that continue the court of Henry II in England was the first to have a "renaissance" of political literature, but the French Mirrors of Princes seemed closely linked to Saint Louis. Most were written in Latin in the second half of the thirteenth century by mendicants who moved in the circle of scholars close to Louis IX. Though Genet's definition of a Mirror of Princes is narrow, his observations demonstrate at the very least that this class of text was quite popular in France during the latter half of the thirteenth century. See Jean-Philippe Genet, ed., Four English Political Tracts of the Later Middle Ages , Camden Fourth Series (London, 1977) 18:ix-xix. 34. Jean, sire de Joinville, Histoire . . . de Saint Louis , ed. Natalis de Wailly (Paris, 1867), 291 n. 689, quoted by Brown, "Character and Childhood of Philip the Fair," 328. 35. The poem begins: "Phelippes, rois de France, qui tant i es renomez,/ Ge te rent le romanz qui des rois est romez./ Tant a cis travallié qui Primaz est nomez/ Que il est, Dieu merci, parfaiz et consummez." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:376. For further discussion of this picture and poem, see Guenée, " Grandes Chroniques ," 190. 36. This structure, which gives special importance to Charlemagne and Philip Augustus, was introduced in Primat's translation. As discussed in the introduction to this book, the secondary decoration in his Latin source (B.N. lat. 5925) expressed a different textual hierarchy. 37. Compare miniatures in Ste.-Gen. 782 with the scenes of Charlemagne's vision of the starry sky, the apparition of Saint James, and the founding of Aix-la-Chapelle on the châsse of Charlemagne reproduced in Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , pl. 145; Gand, Centrum voor Kunst en Cultuur, Santiago de Compostela , 188; and Garnier, Language de l'image , pls. 116-17. For comparable cycles in later copies of the Grandes Chroniques see the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. 38. Ste.-Gen. 782 is not unique in this precision; pictures in at least one other manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques make the same distinction (See Grenoble, 407 Rés.), and the illustrations of the Latin Pseudo-Turpin chronicle and its French translations, as well as monuments derived from it, present Charlemagne as king as well. 39. Gaston Zeller, "Les rois de France, candidats à l'empire: Essai sur l'idéologie imperiale en France," Revue historique 173 (1934): 273-311, 497-534. 40. For Charlemagne's importance to the French kings, see Zeller, "Rois de France," 280; and Robert Folz, Le souvenir et la légende de Charlemagne (Paris, 1950). 41. For the abbey's interest in Charlemagne, see Spiegel, "The Cult of Saint Denis," 59-60; Contamine, "L'oriflamme," 3-68; Joseph Bédier, Les légendes épiques: Recherches sur la formation des chansons de geste (Paris, 1913) 4:121-79; Philippe Ménard, "Les Jongleurs et les chansons de geste," La chanson de geste et le mythe Carolingian: Mélanges René Louis (Saint-Père-sous-Vézelay, 1982), 1:33-47; and Annie Triaud, "Observations sur l'anonymat des plus anciennes chansons de geste." La chanson de geste et le mythe Carolingian: Mélanges René Louis (Saint-Père-sous-Vézelay, 1982), 2:755-74. 42. For this interpretation of Philip Augustus's devotion to Charlemagne, see Spiegel, " Reditus ," 164-71. Spiegel examines the function of the cult of Charlemagne at the court of Philip Augustus. She notes its intrusion into an official register where, she suggests, the juxtaposition of the Sibylline and Valerian prophecies with an account of Philip's conquest of Bouvines was intended to legitimate Philip's conquests. Spiegel sees the presence of these texts in a royal register as a sign that "the cult of Charlemagne has passed from the level of poetry to that of politics." For further discussion of this register, see Baldwin, Government of Philip Augustus , 384-86; and Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "La notion de la légitimité et la prophétie à la cour de Philippe Auguste," in La France de Philippe Auguste. Le temps des mutations , ed. Robert-Henri Bautier, Colloques internationaux du CNRS, no. 602 (Paris, 1982), 77-110. break 43. Léon Gauthier, "L'idée politique dans les chansons de geste," Revue des questions historiques 7 (1869): 84 n. 3; cited by Zeller, "Rois de France," 275. 44. Charles of Anjou supported Philip III for emperor in 1272 but did not secure the election for him. See Zeller, "Rois de France," 287. 45. The first quotation comes from the Speculum juridicale of Guillaume Durant, the second from the Établissements de Saint Louis . Both were dated early in the reign of Philip III. Ibid., 292. 46. Ibid., 292. Zeller cites as his source the chronicle of Guillaume of Nangis, which did not mention the use of Charlemagne's sword in previous coronations. Schramm contends that Pseudo-Turpin traced the sword back to the time of Charlemagne, because his text says of Charlemagne, "Ante eius tribunal spata nuda, more imperiali, efferebatur." Schramm reports that this sword was carried in 1179 and 1180 in both coronations of Philip Augustus and cites the Gesta regis Heinrici II , and Gislebertus of Mons, both of whom describe the "king's sword," not the emperor's. See Percy Ernst Schramm, Der König von Frankreich. Das Wesen der Monarchie vom 9. zum 16. Jahrhundert, ein Kapital aus der Geschichte des abendlandischen Staates , (Weimar, 1939), 1:167, 2:81 ns. 4-8. The sword seems to be first identified as Charlemagne's in the description of Philip III's coronation by Guillaume of Nangis. From there it entered the Grandes Chroniques , where Primat took the opportunity to promote the abbey, guardians of the royal regalia, in describing the coronation. Shortly after outlining the custom (Les roys de France ont accoustomé dès le temps Charlemaine, le grant roy de France et emperere, de faire porter Joieuse devant eulz le jour de leur coronement, en l'honneur et la puissance du roy Charlemaine qui tant de terres conquist et tant Sarrazins mata.) Primat added, "Celle espée qui a nom Joieuse et la corone et le ceptre royal et les autres aornements sont gardés ou tresor Saint Denis moult chierement." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 8:39. 44. Charles of Anjou supported Philip III for emperor in 1272 but did not secure the election for him. See Zeller, "Rois de France," 287. 45. The first quotation comes from the Speculum juridicale of Guillaume Durant, the second from the Établissements de Saint Louis . Both were dated early in the reign of Philip III. Ibid., 292.
46. Ibid., 292. Zeller cites as his source the chronicle of Guillaume of Nangis, which did not mention the use of Charlemagne's sword in previous coronations. Schramm contends that Pseudo-Turpin traced the sword back to the time of Charlemagne, because his text says of Charlemagne, "Ante eius tribunal spata nuda, more imperiali, efferebatur." Schramm reports that this sword was carried in 1179 and 1180 in both coronations of Philip Augustus and cites the Gesta regis Heinrici II , and Gislebertus of Mons, both of whom describe the "king's sword," not the emperor's. See Percy Ernst Schramm, Der König von Frankreich. Das Wesen der Monarchie vom 9. zum 16. Jahrhundert, ein Kapital aus der Geschichte des abendlandischen Staates , (Weimar, 1939), 1:167, 2:81 ns. 4-8. The sword seems to be first identified as Charlemagne's in the description of Philip III's coronation by Guillaume of Nangis. From there it entered the Grandes Chroniques , where Primat took the opportunity to promote the abbey, guardians of the royal regalia, in describing the coronation. Shortly after outlining the custom (Les roys de France ont accoustomé dès le temps Charlemaine, le grant roy de France et emperere, de faire porter Joieuse devant eulz le jour de leur coronement, en l'honneur et la puissance du roy Charlemaine qui tant de terres conquist et tant Sarrazins mata.) Primat added, "Celle espée qui a nom Joieuse et la corone et le ceptre royal et les autres aornements sont gardés ou tresor Saint Denis moult chierement." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 8:39. 44. Charles of Anjou supported Philip III for emperor in 1272 but did not secure the election for him. See Zeller, "Rois de France," 287. 45. The first quotation comes from the Speculum juridicale of Guillaume Durant, the second from the Établissements de Saint Louis . Both were dated early in the reign of Philip III. Ibid., 292. 46. Ibid., 292. Zeller cites as his source the chronicle of Guillaume of Nangis, which did not mention the use of Charlemagne's sword in previous coronations. Schramm contends that Pseudo-Turpin traced the sword back to the time of Charlemagne, because his text says of Charlemagne, "Ante eius tribunal spata nuda, more imperiali, efferebatur." Schramm reports that this sword was carried in 1179 and 1180 in both coronations of Philip Augustus and cites the Gesta regis Heinrici II , and Gislebertus of Mons, both of whom describe the "king's sword," not the emperor's. See Percy Ernst Schramm, Der König von Frankreich. Das Wesen der Monarchie vom 9. zum 16. Jahrhundert, ein Kapital aus der Geschichte des abendlandischen Staates , (Weimar, 1939), 1:167, 2:81 ns. 4-8. The sword seems to be first identified as Charlemagne's in the description of Philip III's coronation by Guillaume of Nangis. From there it entered the Grandes Chroniques , where Primat took the opportunity to promote the abbey, guardians of the royal regalia, in describing the coronation. Shortly after outlining the custom (Les roys de France ont accoustomé dès le temps Charlemaine, le grant roy de France et emperere, de faire porter Joieuse devant eulz le jour de leur coronement, en l'honneur et la puissance du roy Charlemaine qui tant de terres conquist et tant Sarrazins mata.) Primat added, "Celle espée qui a nom Joieuse et la corone et le ceptre royal et les autres aornements sont gardés ou tresor Saint Denis moult chierement." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 8:39. 47. For Philip Augustus's importance to his descendants, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:iv; Lewis, Royal Succession , 284, n. 171, and 121-33; and for early attempts to promote Philip Augustus's sanctity, see Baldwin, Government of Philip Augustus , 389-93. 48. "Fist norrir saintement et entroduire plainement en la foi Jhesu Crist et es commandemenz de sainte Eglise. Et quant il fu en aage convenable, il le fist coroner à Rains." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:90. 49. "Sire aies merci de moi, selonc ta grant misericorde, et me done fil, hoir de mon cors, noble governeor dou roiaume de France." Ibid. 48. "Fist norrir saintement et entroduire plainement en la foi Jhesu Crist et es commandemenz de sainte Eglise. Et quant il fu en aage convenable, il le fist coroner à Rains." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:90. 49. "Sire aies merci de moi, selonc ta grant misericorde, et me done fil, hoir de mon cors, noble governeor dou roiaume de France." Ibid. 50. On the reditus , see Spiegel, "Reditus" ; and Lewis, Royal Succession , 114-22. 51. For this passage, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 5:1. Copies of the chronicle made after Philip III's manuscript include the life of Louis VIII, which commences with an expanded version of the reditus . For the date of the redaction of the life of Louis VIII to c. 1286-87, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 96-97. 52. For this text, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:2-4. 53. Viard quotes Rigord's text as "Qui [Philip of Flanders] ea die, prout moris est, ensem ante dominum Regem honorifice portavit." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:103 n. 6. The French text of the Grandes Chroniques states: "Phelippe de Flandres, qui en ce jor porta devant le roi Joieuse, l'espée le grant roi Karlemene, si come il est droiz et costume au coronemenz des rois." Ibid., 103-4. 54. This argument appears at the end of Book V, chapter 28: "Li princes Pepins, qui bien vit que li roi de France qui lors estoient ne tenoient nul porfit au roiaume, envoia donc à l'apostoile Zacarie messages Bulcart, l'arcevesque de Borges, et Furre, son chapelain, pour demander conseil de la cause des rois de France, qui en ce temps estoient, liquiex devoit mieuz estre rois, ou cil qui nul pooir n'avoit ou roiaume, ne n'en portoit fors le non tant seulement, ou cil par cui li roiaumes estoit governez et qui avoit le pooir et la cure de totes continue choses? Et li apostoiles li remanda que cil devoit estre rois apelez qui le roiaume governoit et qui avoit le soverain pooir; lors dona sentence que li princes Pepins fust coronez come rois. . . . Childeris [Childeric III] qui rois estoit apelez fu tonduz et mis en une abbaïe." Ibid., 2:242-43. 55. "Puis que li dux Hues vit que tuit li hoir et la lignie du grant Challemaine fu destruite et ausi come falie, et que il n'i ot mais nuli qui li contredeist, si se fist coroner en la cité de Rains." Ibid., 4:366-67. 52. For this text, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:2-4. 53. Viard quotes Rigord's text as "Qui [Philip of Flanders] ea die, prout moris est, ensem ante dominum Regem honorifice portavit." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:103 n. 6. The French text of the Grandes Chroniques states: "Phelippe de Flandres, qui en ce jor porta devant le roi Joieuse, l'espée le grant roi Karlemene, si come il est droiz et costume au coronemenz des rois." Ibid., 103-4. 54. This argument appears at the end of Book V, chapter 28: "Li princes Pepins, qui bien vit que li roi de France qui lors estoient ne tenoient nul porfit au roiaume, envoia donc à l'apostoile Zacarie messages Bulcart, l'arcevesque de Borges, et Furre, son chapelain, pour demander conseil de la cause des rois de France, qui en ce temps estoient, liquiex devoit mieuz estre rois, ou cil qui nul pooir n'avoit ou roiaume, ne n'en portoit fors le non tant seulement, ou cil par cui li roiaumes estoit governez et qui avoit le pooir et la cure de totes continue choses? Et li apostoiles li remanda que cil devoit estre rois apelez qui le roiaume governoit et qui avoit le soverain pooir; lors dona sentence que li princes Pepins fust coronez come rois. . . . Childeris [Childeric III] qui rois estoit apelez fu tonduz et mis en une abbaïe." Ibid., 2:242-43.
55. "Puis que li dux Hues vit que tuit li hoir et la lignie du grant Challemaine fu destruite et ausi come falie, et que il n'i ot mais nuli qui li contredeist, si se fist coroner en la cité de Rains." Ibid., 4:366-67. 52. For this text, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:2-4. 53. Viard quotes Rigord's text as "Qui [Philip of Flanders] ea die, prout moris est, ensem ante dominum Regem honorifice portavit." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:103 n. 6. The French text of the Grandes Chroniques states: "Phelippe de Flandres, qui en ce jor porta devant le roi Joieuse, l'espée le grant roi Karlemene, si come il est droiz et costume au coronemenz des rois." Ibid., 103-4. 54. This argument appears at the end of Book V, chapter 28: "Li princes Pepins, qui bien vit que li roi de France qui lors estoient ne tenoient nul porfit au roiaume, envoia donc à l'apostoile Zacarie messages Bulcart, l'arcevesque de Borges, et Furre, son chapelain, pour demander conseil de la cause des rois de France, qui en ce temps estoient, liquiex devoit mieuz estre rois, ou cil qui nul pooir n'avoit ou roiaume, ne n'en portoit fors le non tant seulement, ou cil par cui li roiaumes estoit governez et qui avoit le pooir et la cure de totes continue choses? Et li apostoiles li remanda que cil devoit estre rois apelez qui le roiaume governoit et qui avoit le soverain pooir; lors dona sentence que li princes Pepins fust coronez come rois. . . . Childeris [Childeric III] qui rois estoit apelez fu tonduz et mis en une abbaïe." Ibid., 2:242-43. 55. "Puis que li dux Hues vit que tuit li hoir et la lignie du grant Challemaine fu destruite et ausi come falie, et que il n'i ot mais nuli qui li contredeist, si se fist coroner en la cité de Rains." Ibid., 4:366-67. 52. For this text, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:2-4. 53. Viard quotes Rigord's text as "Qui [Philip of Flanders] ea die, prout moris est, ensem ante dominum Regem honorifice portavit." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:103 n. 6. The French text of the Grandes Chroniques states: "Phelippe de Flandres, qui en ce jor porta devant le roi Joieuse, l'espée le grant roi Karlemene, si come il est droiz et costume au coronemenz des rois." Ibid., 103-4. 54. This argument appears at the end of Book V, chapter 28: "Li princes Pepins, qui bien vit que li roi de France qui lors estoient ne tenoient nul porfit au roiaume, envoia donc à l'apostoile Zacarie messages Bulcart, l'arcevesque de Borges, et Furre, son chapelain, pour demander conseil de la cause des rois de France, qui en ce temps estoient, liquiex devoit mieuz estre rois, ou cil qui nul pooir n'avoit ou roiaume, ne n'en portoit fors le non tant seulement, ou cil par cui li roiaumes estoit governez et qui avoit le pooir et la cure de totes continue choses? Et li apostoiles li remanda que cil devoit estre rois apelez qui le roiaume governoit et qui avoit le soverain pooir; lors dona sentence que li princes Pepins fust coronez come rois. . . . Childeris [Childeric III] qui rois estoit apelez fu tonduz et mis en une abbaïe." Ibid., 2:242-43. 55. "Puis que li dux Hues vit que tuit li hoir et la lignie du grant Challemaine fu destruite et ausi come falie, et que il n'i ot mais nuli qui li contredeist, si se fist coroner en la cité de Rains." Ibid., 4:366-67. 56. For the effect of this idea on genealogy, see Bernard Guenée, "Les généalogies entre l'histoire et la politique: La fierté d'être Capétien, en France, au Moyen-Âge," Annales. Économies, sociétés, civilisations 33 (1978): 450-77. 57. For the tombs, see text pages II, 35-36. For a discussion of the Latin Abbreviated Chronicle by Guillaume de Nangis as a guide to the tombs and for additional bibliography, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 103-5. Andrew Lewis interpreted Guillaume de Nangis's text as a Mirror of Princes because the dedication to Philip IV states that the tales of his ancestors in the Abbreviated Chronicle were to be "a mirror for a model of virtue" presented "both for living and for reading" and showing his "true descent" from the Trojan line. Lewis, Royal Succession , 139-40. The Latin text of Guillaume de Nangis's Abbreviated Chronicle , written sometime between 1286 and 1294, includes short descriptions of the kings of France, starting with Priam and tracing their descent to Philip IV. The earliest surviving copy (B.N. lat. 6184) has in its margins a sketchy genealogical tree designed to guide the reader through the often multicolumned text by concentrating on the royal line and on important events and people. As in the program of tombs, the Latin chronicle presents the Carolingians and Merovingians as a continuous line, because Pepin was descended from Blitildis, a legendary daughter of the Merovingian king, Clotaire II (fol. 8). The Abbreviated Chronicle also, like the tombs, presents Hugh Capet's line as separate and promotes the reditus as a means of returning the Capetians to the "progeny of Charlemagne" (fols. 11-12). It resembles the Grandes Chroniques in introducing the reditus at the beginning of Hugh Capet's life. 58. For a striking parallel to the importance of good government, see Schneider, "Vincent of Beauvais." 59. The identification of the subject of this image differs from those of Boinet, Les manuscrits , and Garnier, Language de l'image , who describe the picture as representing Pepin's coronation by Pope Stephen and Carloman (Pepin's brother) renouncing his royal status and entering a monastery. Since Pepin's brother ruled as mayor of the palace, not king, before becoming a monk, he cannot be the person in the miniature who has lost a crown. See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:8. The scene makes more sense as an illustration of the passage in the chapter stating that Pope Stephen ordered Childeric III deposed, tonsured, and put in an abbey. See ibid., 6. 58. For a striking parallel to the importance of good government, see Schneider, "Vincent of Beauvais." 59. The identification of the subject of this image differs from those of Boinet, Les manuscrits , and Garnier, Language de l'image , who describe the picture as representing Pepin's coronation by Pope Stephen and Carloman (Pepin's brother) renouncing his royal status and entering a monastery. Since Pepin's brother ruled as mayor of the palace, not king, before becoming a monk, he cannot be the person in the miniature who has lost a crown. See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:8. The scene makes more sense as an illustration of the passage in the chapter stating that Pope Stephen ordered Childeric III deposed, tonsured, and put in an abbey. See ibid., 6. 60. A picture of the coronation of Pepin by the pope does recur in isolation in cycles, but it never appears in combination with the deposition of Childeric III. 61. Pinoteau lists two ceremonies that took place at Saint-Denis: the sacre of Pepin and his sons Charlemagne and Carloman in 784 and the sacre of Elizabeth of Hainaut in 1180, accompanied by a coronation ceremony for her husband, Philip Augustus, whose sacre had already taken place at Reims in 1179. See Félibien, Histoire de l'abbaye royale , unpaginated introduction. 62. Ste.-Gen. 782 is mentioned in inventories dating from the reigns of Charles V and Charles VI in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries. It was a well-used reference containing the signature of Charles V and serving as the textual model for his luxurious copy of the Grandes Chroniques . See text pages 96-97, 102 and the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. break
Chapter Two— Manuscripts Produced during the Reigns of the Last Direct Capetians 1. Only one of the manuscripts that contain the prologue and poetic colophon has them frame the text as they did in Ste.-Gen. 782. This manuscript (B.L. Add. 38128) is unillustrated. 2. For book production in Paris, see Paul Delalain, Étude sur les libraires Parisiens du XIII e au XV e siècle (Paris, 1891); Mary A. Rouse and Richard Rouse, "The Book Trade at the University of Paris, c. 1250-c. 1350," in La production du livre universitaire au Moyen-Âge: Exemplar et pecia , ed. Louis J. Bataillon, Bertrand G. Guyot, and Richard H. Rouse (Paris, 1988), 41-114. For studies of artists' roles in Parisian book production, see Patricia Stirnemann, "Nouvelles pratiques en matière d'enluminure au temps de Philippe Auguste," in La France de Philippe Auguste: Le temps des mutations , ed. Robert-Henri Bautier, Colloques internationaux du Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, no. 602 (Paris, 1982), 955-80; Branner, Manuscript Painting , 1-21; and for a later period Sandra L. Hindman, "The Role of Author and Artist in the Procedure of Illustrating Late Medieval Texts," Acta 10 (1986): 27-62, expanded in idem, Christine de Pizan's "Épistre Othéa: Painting and Politics at the Court of Charles VI (Toronto, 1986), 61-77. 3. In their concentration on succession to office rather than heredity, the libraires relate closely to the phenomenon that Guenée describes in "Les généalogies." 4. In suggesting that the Grandes Chroniques in Cambrai was a royal recension, I do not mean to imply that it was based upon Philip III's copy, which was preserved in the royal library, because at least one other contemporary draft of the chronicle containing the poems survives in London (B.L. Add. 38128). An addition to the genealogy in ch. 16 of the first book of the life of Philip Augustus (fol. 270) of that unillustrated manuscript refers to the death of Philip III in 1285 but not to that of Philip IV in 1315. The textual filiation between Ste.-Gen. 782; Cambrai, B.M. 682; and B.L. Add. 38128 has not been fully explored, but there is evidence that none of the three is totally dependent on either of the others. For example, Cambrai, B.M. 682 includes the Latin and French poems that appear in Ste.-Gen. 782 but places them in a different position in the text (fols. 289-290, before the life of Philip Augustus) from that of either B.L. Add. 38128 (fol. 308) or Ste.-Gen. 782 (fol. 326v), where the poems appear at the end of Philip Augustus's life. But B.L. Add. 38128 and Ste.Gen. 782 are not identical either, because B.L. Add. 38128 and Cambrai, B.M. 682 include interpolated rubrics that were not present in Ste.-Gen. 782. Apparently these rubrics were a late thirteenth-century addition to the text of the chronicle; a later hand added them to the margins of Ste.-Gen. 782 when it served as a textual model for Charles V's Grandes Chroniques . For this, see Chapter 5 of this book. 5. Lacaze identified one artist who painted a single folio in B.N. fr. 2615 (fol. 252) as Painter D (the Sisinnius Master) in the Vie de Saint Denis , which forms one part of Ivo of Saint-Denis's Vita et Passio . See Lacaze, Vie de Saint Denis , 268 and fig. 222. Joan Udovitch identified a second artist as the Royal Master who decorated court documents and a number of books whose coats of arms attest to his popularity at court between 1320 and 1330. See Joan Diamond Udovitch, "The Papeleu Master: A Parisian Manuscript Illuminator of the Early Fourteenth Century," (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1979), 1:172-82, 2:Appendix B, 247-80. François Avril identified the production of a third hand as the early work of the Master of the Roman de Fauvel (perhaps Geoffroy de Saint-Léger). For manuscripts associated with him, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique: Le siècle de Charles V , ed. Françoise Baron et al. (Paris, 1981), 284-85, 255-56, 298; and François Avril's contribution to Edward H. Roesner, ed., Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, MS fonds français 146 (The Roman de Fauvel in the Edition of Mesire Chaillou de Pesstain): A Facsimile of the Manuscript with an Introduction by François Avril, Nancy Freeman Regalado, and Edward H. Roesner (New York, forthcoming). break 6. For the style of B.N. fr. 2615, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 284-85. Earlier, Avril dated B.N. fr. 2615 c. 1315-25. For this see Carla Lord, "Three Manuscripts of the Ovide Moralisée ," Art Bulletin 57 (1975): 163. Textual evidence confirms this dating, because an interpolation in the genealogy in ch. 16 of the life of Philip Augustus (fol. 189) mentions the death of Philip IV in 1315. 7. For a listing of all the miniatures in B.N. fr. 2615, see the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. In the original portion of the manuscript there were 52 coronations and 8 miniatures depicting other subject matter. 8. For the division of hands in B.N. fr. 2615, see the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. 9. This inclusion of the correct number of brothers happens twice: at the coronations of Childebert (fol. 12v) and Caribert (fol. 24). 10. Pepin's lion migrated from early histories into chansons de geste and then spread from popular literature into the representational arts. Thus Pepin stands on a lion in the galleries of kings at Notre-Dame, Chartres, and SaintDenis. For the origin of Pepin's lion, see Gaston Paris, "La légende de Pepin 'Le Bref,'" Mélanges Julien Havet (Paris, 1898), 603-32. 11. For an excellent historiographic study and analysis of the meaning of the montjoies , see Anne LombardJourdan, "'Montjoies' et 'Montjoie' dans la plaine Saint-Denis," Mémoires de la Federation des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France 25 (1974): 141-81, which refutes Branner's interpretation of the montjoies as propaganda for Louis IX's canonization. For Branner's discussion, see Robert Branner, "The Montjoies of Saint Louis," in Essays in the History of Architecture Presented to Rudolf Wittkower , ed. Douglas Fraser, Howard Hibbard, and Milton J. Lewine (London, 1967), 13-16. 12. The exact number of montjoies was never mentioned by the sources that describe them. See LombardJourdan, "'Montjoies,'" 163-66. 13. For a discussion of the statues in the Grande Salle of the Palais de la Cité, see Claire Richter Sherman, The Portraits of Charles V of France (1338-1380) (New York, 1969), 57-58, and Brown, "Character of Philip the Fair," 31415. Evrard d'Orléans, the peintre du roi , supervised the execution of the kings. All that remains of this program of sculpture is an engraving made by Jacques Andrenet de Cerceau before the destruction of the hall by fire in 1618. For this, see André Linzeler, Inventaire du fonds français, graveurs du seizième siècle (Paris, 1932-35) 1:16, 70-71; Noël Valois, address in Bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France 30 (1903): 81-90; and Jean Guerout, "Le Palais de la Cité . . . ," Mémoires de la Féderation des sociétés historiques et archéologiques de Paris et de l'Ile-deFrance 2 (1950): 131-38. 14. "Par honneur pour leur glorieuse mémoire, les statues de tous les rois de France qui, jusqu'à ce jour, ont occupé le trône sont réuni en ce lieu; elles sont d'une ressemblance si expressive qu'à première vue on les croirait vivant." For this translation from the Latin, see Jean de Jandun, "Éloge de Paris" in Paris et ses historiens aux XIV e et XV e siècles: Documents et écrits originaux, ed. Antoine Jean Victor Leroux de Lincy and Lazare-Maurice Tisserand
(Paris, 1867), 5, 49, cited by Raymond Cazelles, Nouvelle histoire de Paris de la fin du règne de Philippe Auguste à la mort du Charles V: 1223-1380 (Paris, 1972), 165. 15. See Lewis, Royal Succession , 142-43, and Brown, "Character of Philip the Fair," 312-13. 16. For a discussion of the complicated evolution of the presentation manuscript (now split into B.N. fr. 2090-92 and B.N. lat. 13836), see Lacaze, Vie de Saint Denis , 57-87. Lacaze believes that the manuscript was executed c. 1314-19 in its Latin form and that the French translations were added in the margins c. 1319-22 when the book was prepared for Philip V. 17. The Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii of Ivo of Saint-Denis existed in at least two manuscripts that were available in the Parisian area in the early fourteenth century: one continue version was split into two (B.N. fr. 2090-2092 and B.N. lat. 13836), and a second remained whole (perhaps B.N. lat. 5286). Both were cited by the monks of Saint-Denis in 1410 in the trial over the relic of Denis's head, which has led Delaborde to suggest that B.N. lat. 13836 was from the royal library and B.N. lat. 5286 from the abbey library. See Henri-François Delaborde, "Le procès du chef de Saint Denis en 1410," Mémoires de la Société de l'histoire de Paris et de l'Ile-de-France 11 (1884): 352-53. Lacaze believes that B.N. lat. 5286 was a draft for the king's presentation manuscript. Bähr's position is diametrically opposed to that of Lacaze, suggesting that B.N. lat. 5286 postdates 1322 and copies the royal manuscript. For this, see Lacaze, Vie de Saint-Denis , 57-87; and Bähr, Saint Denis und seine Vita , 133-200, lxx-xciv. In an analysis of the history that forms the third part of the Vie de Saint Denis , Grémont suggested that B.N. lat. 5286 was an early fourteenth-century copy after B.N. fr. 2090-2092 and lat. 13836. For a summary of his findings, see Grémont, "Yves de Saint-Denis." A comparison of the illustration of the historical portion of B.N. lat. 13836 and the portions of B.N. lat. 5286 that correspond to it led me to disagree with Lacaze. The style of the miniatures in B.N. lat. 5286 is related generically to that of Artist I in John the Good's Grandes Chroniques (B.L. Royal 16 G VI), a manuscript painted c. 1335-40, so it is unlikely that this manuscript was the model for B.N. lat. 13836. To try to establish whether B.N. lat. 5286 copied B.N. lat. 13836, I compared the texts of 10 folios in B.N. lat. 13836 (fols. 87-97) with their equivalents in B.N. lat. 5286 (fols. 199-203). The results of this comparison make it unlikely that B.N. lat. 5286 copied the royal manuscript (B.N. lat. 13836) as Bähr and Grémont would have it. The Latin texts of the two manuscripts are not identical. However, because marginal corrections written in light brown ink in B.N. lat. 5286 relate to the text in B.N. lat. 13836, it is possible that the later copy was corrected after the royal manuscript. If this is true, then B.N. lat. 5286 is an important witness to the original cycle of B.N. lat. 13836, since some of the notes in B.N. lat. 5286 describe miniatures where pages are currently missing from B.N. lat. 13836 and where there is no illustration in B.N. lat. 5286. These notes and the pictures that illustrate the first portion of B.N. lat. 5286-a portion now lacking from B.N. lat. 13836-provide valuable insights into the appearance of the complete pictorial cycle of the copy presented to Philip V. 18. The marginal notes of the Vita et Passio (B.N. lat. 5286) include representations of the fleur-de-lis (now excised, formerly between fols. 31 and 32 of B.N. lat. 13836), of Charlemagne offering four gold besants to Saint Denis (now excised, formerly between fols. 38 and 39 of B.N. lat. 13836), and of Saint Louis (B.N. lat. 13836, fol. 101v, illustrating his enseignments ). For discussion of changes to the text and for analysis of some of these changes to the pictorial cycle, see Lacaze, Vie de Saint Denis , 374-76. 19. B.N. lat. 5286, fol. 194v. The note that begins "hic deficit arbor" specifies that the genealogical tree preserved in the royal copy is missing in the later monastic copy being collated with it. 20. For discussion of the diagram of Hugh Capet's descent, see Hervé Pinoteau, "Les origines de la maison Capétienne," in Vingt-cinq ans d'études dynastiques (Paris, 1982), 157. 21. Fol. 75v: "Quomodo iste hugo de progenie karoli magni descendit et quomodo regni non fuerit usurpator," and "Comment cestui hue descendi de la droite lignie charlemaigne et comme [ sic ] il ne fu mie exurpeour du roiaume." 22. The information regarding Thomas of Maubeuge's commission, appearing on fol. 1 in the introductory materials (fols. 1-6), is transcribed in the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. Thomas of Maubeuge was well-known as an editor and as one of the few libraires jurés at Paris in 1316 and 1323. See Paul Delalain, Libraires Parisiens , 10-14, 18, 27; and Rouse, "Book Trade," 53-54, 102. His patrons came from the university and the nobility and even included continue one king. Thomas sold books to Mahaut of Artois in 1313 and received a quittance from her in 1329. See Chrétien César Auguste Dehaisnes, Histoire de l'art dans la Flandres, l'Artois, et le Hainaut avant le XV e siècle (Lille, 1886), 432-33. Thomas sold a romance to the Count of Hainaut in 1323 and may have sold a "rommant de moralité sur le bible" to King John the Good in 1349. See Leopold Delisle, Le cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Imperiale (Paris, 1868-81), 1:15 n. 9, 3:304 n. 2; and Rouse, "Book Trade," 53-54. Elizabeth A. R. Brown's observation (letter of November 1989) that the colophon is written in the past tense raises some questions about the date of the manuscript's completion. The colophon refers to "Philip [V] who was the son of Philip the Fair and brother of Louis [X]" ( philippe qui fu filz phelippe li biaux ), and mentions the commission in the past tense as well, "Pierre Honnorez of Neufchâtel in Normandy had [this book] written [ fist escrire ]. . . . by Thomas of Maubeuge . . . the year of grace of our Lord 1318." This colophon is written by the scribe (who completed the book through the life of Louis X) as the introduction to a genealogically structured table of contents on a gathering (fols. 1-6) added to the beginning of the book. Thus it is quite possible that the scribe might describe the task of producing the book, which was finished as he wrote the colophon, in the past tense. The reference in the past tense to Philip V, who died in 1322, may indicate that the book was not completed until after the king's death. This date may be supported by artistic evidence, because the artist who painted the first part of B.N. fr. 10132 also collaborated with the Master of the Roman de Fauvel on a Grandes Chroniques (Castres, B.M.) that can be dated to the 1330s. See text pages 82-90. 23. B.N. fr. 10132 was later continued with a French translation and continuation of the chronicle of Jean de Saint-Victor for events from 1316 to 1329. The version of Guillaume of Nangis's Life of Saint Louis that Thomas of Maubeuge uses in Pierre Honnorez's manuscript is different from that used in a contemporary courtly manuscript (B.N. fr. 2615), or slightly later in the manuscript made in the 1330s for John the Good when he was still dauphin (B.L. Royal 16 G VI), or in the continuation added to Cambrai, B.M. 682. See Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 86 n. 157. For the identification of the text in B.N. fr. 10132 as the continuation of Guillaume de Nangis, see Delisle, "Guillaume de Nangis," 353. For the translation and continuation of Jean de Saint-Victor, see RHF , 21:676-89.
24. For the relationship between the Grandes Chroniques and the Abrégé de l'histoire de France , see text pages 4-5. 25. Fol. 2v: "Et pour avoir connoissance de trouver les generaciones p[ar] le nombre vous trouverez en la premier generacion en chascun fueillet .i. p[ar] nombre. En la second .ii. et en la tierce .iii. et ainsi trouverrez les choses qui i sont." 26. The earliest copies of the Abrégé de l'histoire de France that I have consulted are from the thirteenth century; they include B.N. fr. 5700, whose text dates before 1285 (it contains a reference to Philip III, "Philippe qui ores et sera roi"); B.N. fr. 13565; and B.N. fr. 4961, which probably predates 1297, the date of the canonization of Saint Louis about whom it says, "et dist on qu'il est sainz." Fourteenth-century copies consulted include B.N. fr. 2815 (which contains the text of the Grandes Chroniques for descriptions of kings from Philip I to Philip III) and B.N. n. a. fr. 10043. 27. When other illustrations are included in the Abrégé de l'histoire de France , they either reinforce the divisions of the text into three dynasties or focus on Clovis, the first Christian king of France. Thirteenth-century examples are simply illustrated. B.N. fr. 4961 begins with the genealogical diagrams. It has no illuminations, but vignetted initials mark the beginnings of the lives of Clovis (fol. 9), Pepin and Charlemagne (fol. 31), and Hugh Capet (fol. 67). B.N. fr. 13565 has a sequence of genealogical diagrams at the end of the manuscript and limits its illustration to an enthroned king at the prologue (fol. 1). B.N. fr. 5700 begins with genealogical charts, then prefaces the prologue with a full-page miniature continue of four kings. This faces the page on which the prologue actually begins, which is illustrated by the baptism of Clovis. In the fourteenth century, manuscripts of the Abrégé de l'histoire de France were revised to suppress a paragraph in the prologue that identifies the Ménestrel and to include a text close to the Grandes Chroniques for descriptions of reigns from Philip I through Philip III. For this, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 82; and Mandach, Chronique , 148-51. Both fourteenth-century copies that I consulted suppress the genealogical charts common in the thirteenthcentury redaction. One (B.N. n. a. fr. 10043) is an unillustrated book of small format. The other (B.N. fr. 2815) is of larger format and illustrated to reflect the two sources for its text. In the portion containing the Ménestrel's chronicle, combinations of miniatures and historiated initials mark the prologue (fol. 1, four kings) and the three races: the Merovingians (fol. 7, miniatures of Clovis's battle and baptism; historiated initial of an enthroned king), the Carolingians (fol. 25, miniature of the pope receiving a letter; historiated initial of King Pepin standing on a lion), and the Capetians (fol. 58v, miniature of Hugh Capet enthroned). In the portion derived from the Grandes Chroniques are miniatures for the lives of Philip I (fol. 60v), Louis VI (fol. 74v), Louis VII (fol. 101v), Philip Augustus (fols. 118v, 136, 156, 163v), Louis VIII (fol. 172v), Louis IX (fol. 174v), and Philip III (fol. 182). None of these pictorial cycles have affinities with Thomas of Maubeuge's Grandes Chroniques . 28. For the location and content of the directions to the illuminator, which appear scattered from the second book of Charlemagne's life into the second book of Philip Augustus's life, see the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. Directions to the rubricator survive in margins from the third book of the life of Charlemagne to the third book of the life of Philip Augustus on fols. 165, 174, 219v, 236, 237, 240v, 252, 255, 256, 273v, 275, 299, 300v, 313v, 314, 329v, 347, 347v, and 354. 29. For a discussion of explanatory rubrics in the prose Lancelot , see Alison Stones, "Written Guides and Pictorial Models in Secular Manuscript Illumination c. 1300," Artistes, artisans et production artistique au Moyen-Âge (Rennes, 1983), 2: 1571-79; and idem, "The Illustrations of the French Prose Lancelot in Flanders, Belgium, and Paris 1250-1340," (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1970). 30. Thomas of Maubeuge's first model was a copy of the Grandes Chroniques , which terminated at the end of Philip Augustus's life, where B.N. fr. 10132 now has a red "Éxplicit" (fol. 362). This "Éxplicit" seems to have been the terminus for the model alone, since B.N. fr. 10132 continues to fol. 400 with discussions of the events of 1223 to 1316 taken from the amplified chronicle of Guillaume de Nangis. In the mid-fourteenth century another scribe appended a translation and continuation of Jean de Saint-Victor's text to describe events from the accession of Louis X to 1330. Though illuminated, this later section has no directions to the illuminator and is unrubricated. 31. Directions to the rubricator and illuminator survive on fols. 159v (scraped), 160 (scraped), 168v (scraped?), 219v-20, 237, 240v-41, 252-52v, 255 (2 miniatures), 255-55v, 256, 299, 300v-301, 314, and 329v. 32. See Samuel Berger and Paul Durrieu, "Les notes pour l'enlumineur dans les manuscrits du Moyen-Âge," Bulletin et mémoires de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France 53 (1892): 18-20. 33. Gilbert Ouy made these observations in a conversation on December 12, 1980. He also noted that when the directions to the rubricator were copied into the text, the scribe often made the forms more archaic. Thus on fol. 255 the marginal note reads, "Ci commence la vie au roi hue chapet," but the rubric that copies it states, "Ci commence la vie le roy hue chapet." These archaic literary forms are also used in the colophon identifying Thomas of Maubeuge. break 34. "Ci commence la vie le roi robert qui fu filz hue chapet qui tant estoit bons clers," and "Comment il asist clos et fors murs et diave tout entour et avec lui plent— —[trimmed]." 35. In all but one case (fol. 299) where directions to the illuminator and rubricator appear on the same folio, the direction to the illuminator employs "il" to refer to "le roy," as described in the note to the rubricator, but the artist, who only read the direction addressed to him, neglected to include the king. See fols. 237, 256, 314, and 329v. 36. One such direction survives on fol. 220: "Une grant bataille de chevaliers & de rois & d'autre gent." 37. See for instance fol. 240v, "Ci commence l'istoire du roi qui fu filz loys le barbe qui out a non charlemaine." 38. Several copies of the Grandes Chroniques incorporate into their texts four extra passages, which I have transcribed from B.N. fr. 10132: I. Fol. 29v between Book I, chs. 15 and 16: "Ci devant raconte comment le roi cloovis fu Roys et comment il conquist soissons et mist empes tout son Royaume et comment .s. Remi li envoia .i. mesage pour requerre lui .i. ourcel que cil de soissons li avoient tolu par force et par mauvestie et comment li rois li envoia lourcel arrieres par son mesage. Et li apres raconterons comment il envoia au Roy gondebout querre sa niece pour avoir a fame & comment aureliens iala & laporta ioiaux de par le roy cloovis et comment la damoiselle les recut et comment elle sen vint en France et comment li rois cloovis l'espousa a soissons et ni ot onquel nullui de parente a la pucele." This rubric has no miniature, but it does have an elaborate five-line decorated initial. II. Fol. 32 before Book I, ch. 20: "Ci apres devise comment le Roi cloovis fu baptisiez de mesire saint Remi de Rains et une partie du peuple qui la estoit et comment nostre sire li envoia le saint cresme par le saint esperit en semblance de coulon en .i. vessel qui portoit a son bec. et comment il fonda sainte genevieve du mont a la requeste crotilde sa fame." This rubric is illustrated by the baptism of Clovis. III. Fol. 36 before Book II, ch. 1: "Ci devise comment le Roy cloovis et sa fame crotilde sont en leur pales et comment les iiij fils sont devant euls et comment le roy devisa le royaume en .iiij. parties se que chascun sot a sener an sien royaume." This rubric is illustrated by Clovis and Clotilda standing in the presence of their four sons.
IV. Fol. 57 before Book III, ch. 1: "Ci endroit raconte comment le Roy chilperich espousa la suer brunechaut mes a ce temps tenoit il pluseurs fames en soingnantage dont il avint que lune de ses soingnans fist tent envers le Roy desus dit quil estrangla en son lit sa fame quil avoit espousee en son dormant." This rubric is illustrated by King Chilperic strangling his wife in her bed.
These passages appear either as rubrics or as texts that precede or follow rubrics between Book I, chapters 15 and 16; and preceding Book I, chapter 20; Book II, chapter 1; and Book III, chapter 1. They first survive in Thomas of Maubeuge's manuscript and never appear in royal copies of the text, although they are quite common in books produced by the late fourteenth- and early fifteenth-century book trade. Thus far I have seen combinations of these passages in Besançon, B.M. 863 (passages I-III, fols. 7v, 9-9v, 12v); B.R. 1 (passages I, IV, fols. 8, 24); B.R. 2 (passage IV, fol. 27v); B.R. 3 (passages I, II, IV, fols. 8v, 10, 26); Musée Condé, 867 (passages I-II, fols. 24, 25v, 27v); Geneva, B.M. Comites Latentes 182 . . . (passages I-IV, fols. 8, 8v, 9, 16v); Phillipps 1917 (passage II, fol. 10v); B.L. Add. 15269 (passages I-II, fols. 8v, 10v), Add. 21143 (passages I-IV, fols. 7v, 9v, 12v, 29v), Cotton Nero E II (passages I, II, IV, fols. 9v, 11v, 31), Sloane 2433 (first half of passage I, fol. 10v); Guildhall 244 (passages I-IV, fols. 8v, 10v, 14, 29v); Lyon, P.A. 30 (passages I-IV, fols. 9-9v, 11, 14, 29); Munich Cod. Gall. 4 (passage IV, fol. 31v); Oxford Douce 217 (passages I-IV, continue fols. 8, 9v, 12v, 26v); B.N. fr. 73 (passages I-III, fols. 8v, 10, 13v), fr. 2597 (passages I, II, IV, fols. 2, 4, 24v), fr. 2604 (passages I-IV, fols. 10v, 12v, 16v, 34), fr. 2606 (passages I, II, fols. 8v, 10-10v), fr. 2616-20 (passages IIV, fols. 10, 12, 15, 30), fr. 6466-67 (passage II, fol. 25), fr. 20352-53 (passages I, II, IV, fols. 4v, 5v, 26v [in the lower margin as a direction to the rubricator that was ignored]), fr. 10132 (passages I-IV, fols. 29v, 32, 36v, 57); Ste.-Gen. 783 (passages I, II, fols. 8, 9v); Toulouse, B.M. 512 (passages I, II, IV, fols. 8, 9v, 26); and Valenciennes B.M. 637 (passages I-IV, fols. 9, 11, 14v, 31v). 39. Fol. 19: "Ci commence la genialogye des dux qui regnerent avant que il eust onq[ue]s Roy en France et puis apres des rois ensuiant qui apres eulz [two words are blotted out] regne." 40. Fol. 20v: "Ci commence la genialogie des Rois de france et comment il descendirent premierement des fuitis de troies la grant." 41. For discussion of the reditus , see Chapter 1 of this book. 42. "Comment i rois espeuse une dame et la pluiseurs chevaliers et plente de clergie." 43. For this text written c. 1286-87, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7: 2-7. It begins with a description of the death of Louis VII and the coronation of Louis VIII and then interjects an extensive passage that describes the reditus , provides a detailed genealogy of the French kings, and recounts the Valerian prophecy certifying that the translation of the realm was accomplished as the will of God. The version of the reditus included in this text depends heavily on Vincent of Beauvais. On this, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 96-98; and Brown, "Notion de la légitimité." 44. The life of Louis VIII in this manuscript discusses the reditus very briefly: "Apres le roy phelippe dit auguste qui conquist normendie regna en france loys son filz qu'il avoit engendre en la royne ysabel fille le conte baudouin de henaut qui estoit descendue de la lignie charlemainne le grant iadis roy de france & emperiere de rome si comme nous avons dits desus (B.N. fr. 10132, fol. 362). 45. They are fol. 23, King Clodion besieges a city (Book I, ch. 5); fol. 32, baptism of Clovis (Book I, ch. 20); fol. 102v, Dagobert cuts the beard of his teacher (Book V, ch. 3); fol. 127v, three barons kneel before Pepin, who stands on the back of a lion (Book V, ch. 28); fol. 159v, emperor of Constantinople sends messages to Charlemagne (Charlemagne, Book III, ch. 4); fol. 160, Charlemagne receives the messages (Charlemagne, Book III, ch. 5); fol. 165, Charlemagne leaves Constantinople with relics (Charlemagne, Book III, ch. 10); fol. 233v, vision of Charles the Bald (Charles the Bald, ch. 13); and fol. 301, departure for crusade (Louis VII, ch. 3). 46. For later manuscripts that have a comparable focus, see those painted by the Master of the Roman de Fauvel in Chapter 4 of this book.
Chapter Three— Textual and Pictorial Innovation in John the Good's Grandes Chroniques 1. For more detail on the problem of the French succession, see Ralph Giesey, "The Juristic Basis of Dynastic Right to the French Throne," Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 51, pt. 5 (1961), 3-47; Cazelles, La société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 35-71; Pierre Chaplais, "Un message de Jean de Fiennes à Édouard II et le project de démembrement du royaume de France (janvier 1317)," Revue du nord 43 (1961): 145-48; and Lehugeur, Philippe le Long , 1:28-50, 79-92. 2. Apparently the English accepted Philip of Valois's claim to the throne or realized that they could do nothing to dislodge him. Most of their energies went into ensuring that the Valois line did not succeed Philip VI. For further discussion of English efforts, see text pages 62-68. break 3. For John the Good's patronage, see Delisle, Recherches , 1:326-36; Raymond Cazelles, Société politique, noblesse et couronne sous Jean le Bon et Charles V , Mémoires et documents publiés par la Société de l'École des chartes, no. 28 (Geneva, 1982) 42-44; Jacques Monfrin, "Les traducteurs et leur public en France au Moyen-Âge," Journal des savants (1964): 10-11; idem, "Humanisme et traductions au Moyen-Âge," Journal des savants (1963): 172-73; François Avril, "Un chef-d'oeuvre * de l'enluminure sous le règne de Jean le Bon: La Bible moralisée (Ms. fr. 167 de la Bibliothèque Nationale)," Monuments et mémoires publiés par l'Académie des inscriptions (Fondation Piot) 58 (1972): 95-125; and Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 296, 298-99, 319-21, 323-26. John seems to have been very interested in the vernacular. Among his commissions for religious texts translated into French are the Bible of Jean de Sy (B.N. fr. 15397) and the densely illuminated Bible moralisée (B.N. fr. 167). For these, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 319-21, 325-26, nos. 272, 280; and Avril, "Un chef-d'oeuvre." Among secular works John commissioned a translation of Livy's Decades (I, III, and IV) to serve, as the prologue states, as a treatise of "political, military, and moral education." See Monfrin, "Humanisme et traduction," 172. Jean de Vignay's translation of the Échecs moralisés of Jacques de Cessoles, done between 1337 and 1350, before John was king, translates Cessoles's text but introduces strictly political interpolations into John's copy. For this, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 268. John's literary program was expanded and refined by his son, Charles V. 4. On this chronicle, see Julius Gilson and George Warner, Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and Kings Collections (London, 1921), 2:209-12, 4: pls. 99-100; Lejeunne and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 1:28187; and Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 293-96, 299-300. 5. For the inventories of the royal library and of John's possessions when captured, see Delisle, Recherches , 1:326-36. The arms ( France ancient, a border gules ) are in the border of fol. 5. John's signature, visible under ultraviolet light on fol. 445v, reads, "Jehan. Ce rommant est monss. le Duc." John was named duke of Normandy in 1332, but it was essentially an honorary title; he received the administration of Normandy only in 1347. For a description of John
the Good's activities as duke of Normandy, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 193-231; and Georges Bordonove, Jean le Bon et son temps 1319-1364 (Paris, 1981), 1-102. 6. Avril dates John the Good's Grandes Chroniques to 1335-40 in discussions of two artists who collaborated on it: the Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai and Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ). The Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai was active in the late 1330s and worked in collaboration with other Parisian artists on such commissions as a Miroir historial (two of four volumes surviving in Leyden, Bibl. Univ. ms. voss. Gall. fol. 3A, and Arsenal, 5080) commissioned for John by his mother, Jeanne de Bourgogne, and a missal (Cambrai, B.M. 157) for Robert de Coucy, canon of Cambrai. Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ) was active from the 1320s to the 1340s and collaborated on a range of courtly commissions: the Belleville Breviary (B.N. lat. 10483-10484), the Miroir historial for John, the Hours of Jeanne of Navarre (B.N. n. a. lat. 3145), Saint-Pathus's Vie et miracles de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 5716), and Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 13568). Avril speculated that this artist might have been a libraire , perhaps Mathieu le Vavasseur, a Norman clerk charged as a libraire juré at the University of Paris in 1342, who died in 1350. For this, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 293-96 no. 240; 298-300 nos. 245-47; 312-14 no. 265. 7. See, for example, a mistranslation of the Gesta Dagoberti in the early portion of the manuscript. In attributing to Dagobert 36 years of governance, the chronicle in London agrees with an error of B.N. lat. 5925 that is not present in other translations of the Grandes Chroniques . Cf. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:176 and n. 3. For the suppression of continue a text added by Primat in his translation of Rigord's life of Philip Augustus, see ibid., 5:335 n. 6. For the presence of B.N. lat. 5925 in the abbey's library, see Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, La bibliothèque , 216; and for prior discussion of B.N. lat. 5925, see the Introduction to this book. The anonymous translator added a phrase to the prologue to lend authority to his translation, "Si que cil qui ceste euvre fait n'i met rien de soi, mès conqueut et atrait les divers volumes as anciens aucteurs ce qu'il met en ceste present euvre." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:3 n. 4. 6. Avril dates John the Good's Grandes Chroniques to 1335-40 in discussions of two artists who collaborated on it: the Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai and Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ). The Master of the Crucifixion of Cambrai was active in the late 1330s and worked in collaboration with other Parisian artists on such commissions as a Miroir historial (two of four volumes surviving in Leyden, Bibl. Univ. ms. voss. Gall. fol. 3A, and Arsenal, 5080) commissioned for John by his mother, Jeanne de Bourgogne, and a missal (Cambrai, B.M. 157) for Robert de Coucy, canon of Cambrai. Mahiet (the Master of the Vie de Saint Louis ) was active from the 1320s to the 1340s and collaborated on a range of courtly commissions: the Belleville Breviary (B.N. lat. 10483-10484), the Miroir historial for John, the Hours of Jeanne of Navarre (B.N. n. a. lat. 3145), Saint-Pathus's Vie et miracles de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 5716), and Joinville's Vie de Saint Louis (B.N. fr. 13568). Avril speculated that this artist might have been a libraire , perhaps Mathieu le Vavasseur, a Norman clerk charged as a libraire juré at the University of Paris in 1342, who died in 1350. For this, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 293-96 no. 240; 298-300 nos. 245-47; 312-14 no. 265. 7. See, for example, a mistranslation of the Gesta Dagoberti in the early portion of the manuscript. In attributing to Dagobert 36 years of governance, the chronicle in London agrees with an error of B.N. lat. 5925 that is not present in other translations of the Grandes Chroniques . Cf. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:176 and n. 3. For the suppression of continue a text added by Primat in his translation of Rigord's life of Philip Augustus, see ibid., 5:335 n. 6. For the presence of B.N. lat. 5925 in the abbey's library, see Nebbiai-Dalla Guarda, La bibliothèque , 216; and for prior discussion of B.N. lat. 5925, see the Introduction to this book. The anonymous translator added a phrase to the prologue to lend authority to his translation, "Si que cil qui ceste euvre fait n'i met rien de soi, mès conqueut et atrait les divers volumes as anciens aucteurs ce qu'il met en ceste present euvre." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:3 n. 4. 8. After the death of Elizabeth of Hainaut, Philip Augustus established chaplaincies at Notre-Dame in her memory. In conformity with the cartularies of Notre-Dame, John the Good's copy of the chronicle records that Philip Augustus paid 25 livres for this endowment. All the other translations of the Grandes Chroniques record that he paid 15 livres. For this, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:184 n. 6. 9. The practice of suppressing references to the abbey continued in the independent "official" translation later added to Ste.-Gen. 782. For this, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 119-20 n. 268; and Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:xvii-xviii. 10. See, for instance, the erroneous classification of Vitry as near Paris. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:225 n. 1. 11. See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:27 and n. 1, fol. 7v, "Ainsi et plus largement le porrés trouver, se il vous plaisoit à veoir plus largement ou plus certainnement, en la vie du beneuré confessor monsieur saint Aignien;" 1:193 and n. 2, story of St. Florentine, fol. 41, "les fès duquel et la vie vous poés trouver plus largement leens que je ne vous ay commencié;" 2:126 and ns. 1 and 2, references drawn from the life of St. Leu. 12. For these revisions, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques . 13. A note in the margin of B.N. lat. 5925 discovered by Delisle ("vide in cronicis sanctigermani") makes clear that B.N. lat. 12711, a chronicle from the abbey of Saint-Germain, was the text used to supplement B.N. lat. 5925 by the editor of John's book. On Vat. Reg. lat. 550, see note 20 of the Introduction to this book. For the relationship between B.N. lat. 5925, lat. 12711, and B.L. Royal 16 G VI, see Delisle, "Notes sur quelques manuscrits," 191-212. 14. For Charles V's patronage of the Grandes Chroniques , see Chapters 5-7 of this book. 15. Cursive annotations appear on fols. 299 and 324v of B.L. Royal 16 G VI and throughout Ste.-Gen. 782. For more on the latter, see Chapter 5 of this book. 16. Du Pouget (followed by Guenée) suggests that Richard Lescot, a historian at Saint-Denis c. 1329-60, undertook this revision. Du Pouget bases his attribution on a paleographical comparison between marginal notes in B.N. lat. 5925 and other manuscripts that he attributes to Lescot: B.N. lat. 5286, a copy of Ivo of Saint-Denis's Vita et Passio ; B.N. lat. 5005C, the chronicle and continuation of Géraud de Frachet; and Archives Nationales LL 1157, the "cartulaire blanc." See Marc Du Pouget, "Recherches sur les chroniques latines de Saint-Denis: Édition critique et commentaire de la Descriptio Clavi et Corone Domini et de deux séries de textes relatifs à la légende Carolingienne," École Nationale des Chartes. Position de thèses (1978): 41-46; Guenèe, "Les Grandes Chroniques de France ," 197-98; and idem, "Histoire d'un succès," 99-101.
17. Fol. 365: "Et pour ceste cause le roy phelippe le recut a homme lige perpetuelment." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:261 n. 5. 18. For the history of conflicting claims and the publication of surviving court documents, see Delaborde, "Le procès du chef." 19. Philip of Valois was not known as a literary patron, but his wife, Jeanne de Bourgogne, was. For instance, Jean de Vignay worked for John the Good's mother before working for him. He translated for her in 1332-33 the Speculum of Vincent of Beauvais, perhaps for continue presentation to John. John owned a four-volume set of the Miroir historial (Arsenal 5080) that was made c. 1335 and painted by many of the same artists who decorated the Grandes Chroniques . For this, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 298-99 no. 245. 20. For a description of the historiography, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 35-40; and Bordonove, Jean le Bon , 15-20. Cazelles was one of the first to question this interpretation of John. See Raymond Cazelles, "Jean II le Bon: Quel homme? Quel roi?" Revue historique 251 (1974): 5-26. 21. For their analysis of the derivation of the Roland cycle from the chansons de geste , see Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 281-87. 22. See Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 299. 23. For the Vita et Passio , see text pages 35-36. 24. B.N. lat. 5286 was illustrated by an artist whose style relates generically to John's chronicle. For a discussion of the relationship between the royal and Dionysian copies of Ivo's texts, see text pages 35-36. 25. For instance, Lejeune and Stiennon describe a miniature from John's chronicle that represents Roland killing the giant Ferragut's white horse, which they describe as a detail "proving that the artist is following not the text of the Grandes Chroniques but a literary tradition of which the Entrée d'Espagne provides an example." They are wrong, since the killing is described in the text of the chronicle. See Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 282; and Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:242. 26. Only five chapters are subdivided by illustrations. These occur once in Book III of the lives of the Merovingians (fol. 62, miracle at mass/ baptism of Jews/ death of Pricus/ Aetherius and the criminous clerk), twice in the life of Louis the Pious (fol. 203v, Louis receives a present of plate/ Saint Hilduin, abbot of Saint-Denis, translates the relics of Saints Peter, Paul, and Marcellus, and fol. 208, meeting of Louis the Pious and Pope Gregory), and three times in the life of Saint Louis (fol. 400v, assault on a castle by Tartars; fol. 403, the pope sends Bishop Odo to Paris where he preaches the crusade; and fols. 426v-427, Louis receives a letter from the pope that describes a series of attacks on the Holy Land). The illustration of chapters by multiple miniatures takes two forms: in six cases a pair of miniatures precedes a chapter, and in ten cases miniatures bracket their chapter—that is, one picture illustrating events from the first portion of the chapter precedes it, and a second picture illustrating an event described toward the end of the chapter follows it. With the exception of two instances (marked with question marks in the following list) the placement of rubrics in the chapter clarifies whether a sequence of pictures at the beginning of a chapter represents a double miniature (when both pictures follow the rubric) or bracketing miniatures (when a rubric follows the miniature that illustrates the end of the preceding chapter). Double miniatures include: fols. 151-151v, Charlemagne builds Aix-la-Chapelle/ the bridge over the Rhine burns, and Charlemagne gives orders to a bishop; fols. 158v-159, Charlemagne in council and the Crown of Thorns divided for Charlemagne; fols. 171-171v, a battle in which Agolant was killed, and a battle; fols. 251v-252 (?) the murder of Duke William, and King Louis IV takes custody of young Duke Richard; fol 306, the murder of Charles, Count of Flanders, and the murderers hanged; fols. 426v-427, Saint Louis in council receives a letter from the pope, and the battle of Tartars in the Holy Land (the event described in the letter). Bracketing miniatures include: fols. 118v, 119v, the siege of Avignon by Charles Martel, and the death of Charles Martel; fols. 130v, 131v, Charlemagne holds a Parlement/ Saxons submit/ Saxons baptized and submission of Hildebrans, Duke of Spoleto?; fols. 132, 133, continue Charlemagne and Hildegarde at mass said by the pope/ the pope crowns Charlemagne's sons, and the beheading of Charlemagne's enemies; fols. 177, 178, Ganelon before Kings Marsile and Bagliant/ Ganelon brings gifts to Charlemagne, and the battle of Roncevaux; fols. 181v, 182, the funeral of Roland/ the punishment of Ganelon, and the burial of the dead; fols. 206v, 207v, the purgation of Judith/ traitors pardoned, and Louis's sons set Pope Gregory against him; fols. 221v, 222v, Charles the Bald sets out on a journey, and messengers ride; fols. 243v, 244v (?), Carloman returns from Vienne/ the defeat of Normans, and the translation of saints' relics; fols. 255, 255v, Bishop Ansegius expelled from the See of Troyes, and Duke Richard gives presents to messengers; fols. 256v, 257v, arrival of the Danes, and King Lothaire drives Otho's army into the Aisne. 27. The new sentence reads: "Li commencemenz de ceste hystoire sera pris à la haute lignie de Troiens, dont ele est descendue par succession de temps." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:4 and n. 1. Viard does not note the deletion of the word "longue" in John's manuscript. 28. For Edward's campaign against the Valois, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 193-231. 29. For this letter, see A. Guesnon, "Documents inédits sur l'invasion anglaise et les états au temps de Philippe VI et Jean le Bon," Bulletin historique et philologique (1898), 208-59, cited by Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 204; and for the Latin and French texts of Edward's declaration, see Thomas Rymer and Robert Sanderson, comp., Foedera, conventiones litterae et cujuscunque generis acta publica, inter reges Angliae et alios quosvis imperatores, reges, pontifices, principes, vel communitates (London, 1821), 2, pt. 2:1108-11. 30. For Bridget's anti-French visions, see Eric Colledge, " Epistola solitarii ad reges : Alphonse of Pecha as organizer of Brigittine and Urbanist Propaganda," Medieval Studies 18 (1956): 19-49, cited in Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 204-05. Colledge proves that the description of the vision that was sent to the French and English kings in 1348 by the king of Sweden was very different from that of the version edited in the 1370s by Alphonse of Pecha. He suggests that this was because the version drafted in 1348 was highly political and needed to be modified to fit the political situation of the 1370s. 31. According to Colledge, the English cited Bridget's Revelations in 1435 and 1439. Colledge, " Epistola ," 32. 32. Ibid., 32-33. 31. According to Colledge, the English cited Bridget's Revelations in 1435 and 1439. Colledge, " Epistola ," 32. 32. Ibid., 32-33. 33. For a discussion of the difficulty of living up to Saint Louis's reputation, see Lewis, Royal Succession , 12245; Hallam, "Philip the Fair and the Cult of Saint Louis," 201-14; and Brown, "Character of Philip the Fair," 310-15.
34. For these cycles, see Chapter 1, note 9. 35. Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 96-97. 36. Ibid., 98. 37. Ibid. 35. Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 96-97. 36. Ibid., 98. 37. Ibid. 35. Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 96-97. 36. Ibid., 98. 37. Ibid. 38. The passage in the French translation of Edward's letter reads, "Et n'est mie nostre entencion de vous tollir non duement voz droitures mes pensons de faire droit a touz & de reprendre les bones leis & les custumes que furent au temps nostre auncestre progenitour Saint Lowys Roi de France." For this, see Rymer and Sanderson, comps., Foedera , 2, pt. 2:1111. For a discussion of the role that these same claims played in forming a political myth used by the French nobility, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 140-41. 39. "Vous dirons adettens que nous deserons sovereinement que Dieux par travail de nous, & de bones gentz, meister pees & amour entre Cristiens, & nomement entre vous, issint que les armes des crestiens se purroit faire en haste devers la Terre Sainte, pur la deliverer continue des mains des mescreantz, a quele chose, od l'aide de Dieu, nous asperons." For this, see Rymer and Sanderson, comps., Foedera , 2, pt. 2:1111. 40. For the development of these ideas during the reign of Charles VI (1380-1422), see Philippe de Mézières, Letter to King Richard II. A Plea Made in 1395 for Peace between England and France , trans. G. W. Coopland (Liverpool, 1965); and M. Chaume, "Une prophétie relative à Charles VI," Revue du Moyen-Âge Latin 3 (1947): 27-42. 41. For Philip's negotiations for a crusade, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 97, 139; Christopher Tyerman, "Philip VI and the Recovery of the Holy Land," English Historical Review 100 (1985): 25-52; and Elizabeth A. R. Brown, "Customary Aides and Royal Fiscal Policy under Philip VI of Valois," Traditio 30 (1974): 193-244. 42. For Philip's fiscal difficulties, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 437; and Tyerman, "Recovery of the Holy Land," 44-50. 43. The other three pictures in John the Good's manuscript are found in Book III, fol. 62 (miracle at the altar/ baptism of Jews/ death of Pricius/ Aetherius and the criminous clerk), and in the life of Louis the Pious, fol. 203v (Louis receives a present of plate/ Saint Hilduin, Abbot of Saint-Denis, translates Saints Peter, Paul, and Marcellus), and fol. 208 (meeting of Louis and Pope Gregory). 44. For a discussion of John's choice of the crown of Saint Louis, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 114-15, where she cites D. Gabourit-Chopin, "Les couronnes du sacre des rois et des reines au trésor de Saint-Denis," Bulletin monumental 133 (1975): 165-81. Beaune observes that John the Good did not use the "crown of Charlemagne," which his father had used and which was available at Saint-Denis. She believes that his choice was a deliberately anti-English gesture that promoted John, rather than Edward III, as legitimate successor to Louis IX. She supports her argument with the fact that the next use of Louis's crown came during another trying time in France's relations with England when the legitimacy of a French king was threatened: the coronation of Charles VII. 45. For a discussion of the meanings of the holy oil used to anoint French kings, see Bloch, The Royal Touch , 262-82. 46. This is one of the few miniatures with pentimenti . As originally planned, Clovis's triumph was not as forcefully portrayed; the original composition showed two confronting armies with God peeping down. The changes to the composition emphasize the rout of the enemy, intensifying Clovis's victory. 47. "Sire tu m'as ceint et armé de vertu à bataille et m'as doné les dos de mes anemis." This is from Psalm 17, verses 40-41, cited in Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:81. 48. For previous discussions of the iconography of the royal touch, see Bloch, Royal Touch , 253-59; and Peter S. Lewis, "Two Pieces of Fifteenth-Century Political Iconography," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 27 (1964): 317-20. 49. The whole passage contrasts Louis's devotion with that of his predecessors: "Comme les autres rois de France qui furent rois devant lui, en touchant le lieu de la maladie, aus malades deissent seulement les paroles appropiées et accoustumées à ce faire, lesqueles paroles sont saintes et chrestiens, et ne feissent pas le signe de la sainte croiz, li rois Looys acoustuma que en distant les paroles il faisoit touz jours la signe de la sainte croiz qui par la vertu Nostre Seigneur guerist les malades miex que la dignité roial." See Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 10:121-22. In fact, the touch was combined with the sign of the cross as early as Louis VI's reign. See Bloch, Royal Touch , 74. 50. "Pourquoy il attribuoit ycelle vertu au signe de la croix et non pas à la royale dignité." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 10:122 n. 1. 51. See Bloch, Royal Touch , 83. 52. In Andelys, Jean de Lyon was imprisoned from 1347 to 1353. Cited by Cazelles, Société politique . . . Philippe de Valois , 204. break
Chapter Four— The Courtly Response in Manuscripts by the Master of the Roman de Fauvel 1. For this analysis of nonroyal manuscripts, see Guenée, "Les Grandes Chroniques ." 2. For a complete list of artistically related manuscripts, see Appendix I. 3. Avril provides the most comprehensive list to date of works grouped around artists collectively known as the Master of the Roman de Fauvel . Known patrons include royalty (Queen Jeanne de Bourgogne, wife of Philip of Valois), government offices (the royal archives), and courtiers (Louis, duke of Bourbon; Guillaume Flote, chancellor of France). Avril associates the style employed in these books with Geoffroy of Saint-Léger who, like Thomas of Maubeuge, operated a shop on the Rue Neuve Nostre-Dame in Paris. Geoffroy was documented as both a bookseller and an illuminator. Avril speculates that the location of Geoffroy's shop in the Rue Neuve Nostre-Dame rather than in the university quarter may reflect a desire for a bourgeois audience. For this, see Avril's contribution in Roesner, ed., Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, MS fonds français 146 . The three copies of the Grandes Chroniques (B.R. 5; Castres, B.M.; and Switzerland, private collection) that I am discussing here are closest stylistically to the manuscripts that Avril groups as the late work of the Master of the Roman de Fauvel , datable in the 1330s.
For further discussion of Geoffroy of Saint-Léger, see Rouse, "Book Trade," 43, 53; and, for an analysis of notations made by Geoffroy in manuscripts that have made scholars question his role as illuminator, see Maurits Smeyers and Bert Cardon, "Brabant of Parijs? Aantekeningen bij een handschrift met vrome legenden, afkomstig uit het kartuizerklooster te Zelen, bij Diest," Handschriften uit Diestse Kerken en Kloosters , Dietsche Cronycke, no. 6 (Diest, 1983), 55-56. Joan Diamond argues for a more restricted division of hands in the work attributed to the Master of the Roman de Fauvel . She identifies one artist whom she dubs the Royal Master (after a royal missal, B.L. Harley 2891), whose oeuvre * corresponds in large part to the work that Avril describes as early Fauvel. See Udovitch, "The Papeleu Master." She believes the painter of the Roman de Fauvel to be a follower of the Royal Master's style (letter of July 16, 1983). Her division of hands seems to be confirmed by the activity of both the Royal Master and the Master of Fauvel in separate gatherings of B.N. fr. 2615, a Grandes Chroniques of c. 1315 discussed in Chapter 2 of this book. The closeness of style among different artists placed in this group is an example of what Joan Diamond describes as a period style. She demonstrates that individual artists worked together on temporary collaborations in styles that seemed to crystalize around particular text types. For example, she points out that the loose, rapid manner of the Royal Master seemed to be seen as particularly suited to vernacular books with text miniatures. See Joan Diamond, "Manufacture and Market in Parisian Book Illumination around 1300," Europäische Kunst um 1300. Akten des XXV Internationalen Kongresses für Kunstgeschichte Wien 4-10 september 1983 , ed. Elisabeth Liskar (Vienna, 1986), 6:101-10. 4. For the provenance of the 1330s manuscripts, see the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. 5. For the use of stock scenes in the Thomas of Maubeuge manuscript, see Chapter 2 of this book. 6. For the other manuscripts that include the French and Latin poems, see Chapter 1, note 31. Of these, the placement and form of the poems in Cambrai, B.M. 682 is closest to those of the manuscript in Switzerland. 7. The only exception to the practice of drawing the subject matter of illustrations from the text is the illustration to the last book of Philip Augustus's life. This puzzling scene in which an emperor supervises the coronation of a king has absolutely nothing to do with its text but may be an illustration for the life of Louis VIII, a text that follows the life of Philip Augustus in manuscripts that continue past 1223. If this image does represent John continue of Brienne, king of Jerusalem and emperor of Constantinople, assisting at the coronation of Louis VIII, its use as an illustration for the third book of Philip Augustus's life would be a mistake on the part of the book's designer and might indicate the use of standardized models in this program. 8. The text describing Louis VII, Emperor Conrad, and others riding on a crusade had special rubrics in Ste.-Gen. 782 and in many of the other early manuscripts of the Grandes Chroniques . 9. There are 44 illustrations of Merovingian, 33 of Carolingian, and 52 of Capetian history. 10. Fol. 1: "Ci commence les croniques de France. premierement des dux qui premier y furent. Et puis des Rois Sarrazins. Et après ensuivant de tous les Roys crestiens. Et tous leurs fais iusques au Roy charles fils le Roy Phelippe le Bel. et la descendue dont chascuns est descendus et leurs generacions." 11. For the miniature in John the Good's manuscript, see text pages 61-62 and color plate 1. 12. The description of Philip Augustus's death in B.R. 5 is very close to that given in B.N. fr. 2600, an unillustrated copy of the Grandes Chroniques that contains the continuation of Guillaume de Nangis similar to that in B.R. 5 and is dated by Guenée to the second quarter of the fourteenth century. See Guenée, "Les Grandes Chroniques ." 196: and, for the second description of Philip Augustus's burial, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 4:375. 13. Men wear long hoods and tunics, combined with low-slung belts. For discussion and dating of comparable costumes, see Stella Mary Newton, Fashion in the Age of the Black Prince (Totowa, N.J., 1980). 14. Fol. 353v: "Ces croniques sunt Madame Jeanne d'Amboise, dame de Revel et de Thyphauges." 15. Père Anselme, Histoire généalogique et chronologique de la maison royale de France, des pairs, grandes officiers de la couronne, et de la maison du roy (Paris, 1726-33), 4:276. 16. For other works commissioned by Guillaume Flote, see Avril's contribution in Roesner, ed., Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale MS fonds français 146 . 17. For a discussion of Anseau de Chevreuse, see Contamine, "L'oriflamme," 21-22; and Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 399. 18. Robert of Artois's arms were azur semé de fleurs-de-lis à un lambel rouge de trois pièces, chaque pièce chargée de trois châteaux d'or . 19. For the fair of Lendit, see Léon Levillain, "Essai sur les origines du Lendit," Revue historique 155 (1927): 241-76; and Anne Lombard-Jourdan, "Les foires de l'Abbaye de Saint-Denis: Revue des données et révision des opinions admises," Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 145 (1987): 273-338. For popular songs about the relics, see Bédier, Les légendes épiques , 4:121-79; Ménard, "Les jongleurs"; and Triaud, "Observations." 20. The other illustration, at the beginning of the chapter in B.N. fr. 10132 (fol. 174), represents Agolant standing before Charlemagne. The meeting of Charlemagne and Agolant was a popular illustration in the French translation of the PseudoTurpin chronicle, which also moralized the events at the banquet. Like B.N. fr. 10132, these manuscripts illustrate the meeting of the two leaders without evoking the dinner. See the entries on Bern, Burgerbibliothek Ms. 115, Paris, B.N. fr. 573, and Florence, Biblioteca Medicae Laurenziana Ashburnham Ms. 125 in Walpole, ed., Old French Pseudo-Turpin , vol. 2. 21. "Se Karlemaines perdi ensi le roi Aygolant et sa gent que il ne fu baptiziez, pour ce que il vit les povres laidement traiter, que sera-il au jour de joise de ceus qui en cest mortel vie ont les povres en despit et malement les auront traitiez? . . . Et ausi come li rois païens refusa baptesme pour ce que il ne vit pas en Karlemaine droites ovres, ausi me dout-je que Nostre Sires ne refuse en nous la foi du baptesme au jour du joise, pour ce que il n'i trovera pas les ovres." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:235-36. break 22. Castres. B.M. fol. 263: "Comment le roi phelippe dieu donne ordena de son testament avant qu'il partist de france pour aler ou voyage d'outremer et comment il ordena des besoignes du roiaume au proffit de tout le commun pueple." 23. For the text of the commentary on Ferrand's capture and punishment, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 4:360-62.
Chapter Five— The First Stage of Execution (before 1375) 1. For a history of Charles V, see Christine de Pizan, Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roi Charles V , ed. Suzanne Solente (Paris, 1936-40); Roland Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , (Paris, 1909-31); Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V ; Schramm, König von Frankreich , 1:236-45; and Joseph Calmette, Charles V (Paris, 1979). For previous discussions of Charles V's lavish manuscript, see Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, La librairie de Charles V (Paris, 1968), 112-13, no. 195; Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 329-31, no. 284; Sherman, Portraits , 41-44; and Marcel Thomas, "La visite de l'Empereur Charles IV en France d'après l'exemplaire des Grandes Chroniques executé pour le roi Charles V," Congrès international des bibliophiles, Vienna 29 septembre à 5 octobre, 1969 (Vienna, 1971), 85-98. Portions of this chapter appear in Anne D. Hedeman, "Valois Legitimacy: Editorial Changes on Charles V's Grandes Chroniques de France ," Art Bulletin 66 (1984): 97-117; idem, "Restructuring the Narrative: The Function of Ceremonial in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques de France ," Studies in the History of Art 16 (1985): 171-81; and idem, "Copies in Context: The Coronation of Charles V in his Grandes Chroniques de France ," Coronations: Studies in Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual , ed. Jànos Bak (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1990), 72-87. For ease of reference, I have assigned chapter numbers to the unnumbered rubrics for the lives of John the Good and Charles V published in the chapter list in Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:1-24. In both lives the coronation is the first chapter. 2. For Charles V's role as literary patron, see Delisle, Recherches , 1:1-124; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie ; François Avril, Manuscript Painting at the Court of France: The Fourteenth Century (New York, 1978), 24-30; Lusignan, Parler vulgairement , 133-38; Sherman, Portraits; and Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 324-34. Specialized studies include: Claire Sherman, "The Queen in Charles V's Coronation Book: Jeanne de Bourbon and the Ordo ad Reginam Benediendem ," Viator 8 (1977): 155-98; idem, "Some Visual Definitions in the Illustrations of Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics and Politics in the French Translation of Nicole Oresme," Art Bulletin 59 (1977): 320-31; idem, "A Second Instruction to the Reader from Nicole Oresme, Translator of Aristotle's Politics and Economics ," Art Bulletin 61 (1979): 468-69; Sharon Off Dunlap Smith, "Illustrations of Raoul de Praelle's Translation of Saint Augustine's City of God between 1375 and 1420, Vols. I and II" (Ph.D. diss., New York University, 1975); and Donal Byrne, " Rex Imago Dei: Charles V of France and the Livre des propriétés des choses ," Journal of Medieval History 7 (1981): 97-113. 3. For a diagrammatic analysis of the evolution of Charles V's manuscript, see Hedeman, "Valois Legitimacy," 108-15. 4. Although Henri de Trévou did not sign his name in B.N. fr. 2813, comparison of the scribal hand with that in a manuscript of 1379 that he did sign, Jean Golein's Livre des information des princes (B.N. fr. 1950, signed in a colophon, fol. 148v), makes it almost certain that he was the first scribe in B.N. fr. 2813. In both books the aspect of the script and the letter forms are identical, and such secondary details as the decoration for catchwords (a flourished box) and the abbreviation for nota are the same. These stylistic comparisons are confirmed by the fact that marginal notes to the scribe in Ste.-Gen. 782, the textual model continue for B.N. fr. 2813, are addressed to "Henri." Compare as well B.N. fr. 1728 (fols. 161-end) and B.N. fr. 24287 (fols. 85v-270), attributed to Henri de Trévou in Avril, Librairie , 119-20, no. 206. The characteristics of Raoulet d'Orléans's hand (the aspect of the script and the tendency to flourish both catchwords and notas with flourished "u"s) are evident in the latter portion of B.N. fr. 2813 and in a number of manuscripts signed by Raoulet: B.N. fr. 12465 (colophon, fol. 147v), B.N. fr. 312 (1396, colophon, fol. 394v), B.N. n. a. fr. 1982 (signed in poem, fol. 86v), and B.N. fr. 5707 (name in corrector's note, fol. 39). See as well Ex-Bute Grandes Chroniques (on deposit in the Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris) and B.N. fr. 24287 (fols. 1-85v), attributed to Raoulet in Paris, Bibliothéque Nationale, Librairie , 93-94, no. 167; 113, no. 196; 119-20, no. 206. I would like to thank François Avril for calling the unpublished manuscripts to my attention. 5. Delisle, Recherches , 1:312-14; see also Boinet, Les manuscrits à peintures , 39-47. Some of the rubrics added in the margins for Henri had already been incorporated into early fourteenth-century copies of the chronicle. See Chapter 2, note 4. 6. For further discussion of the manuscripts dependent on Charles V's chronicle, see Chapter 8 of this book. 7. For the discussion of conflicts in Normandy, see Calmette, Charles V , 62-65; and Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 421-22. 8. Charles the Simple, chapter 2+, "The Baptism of Rollo" (fol. 166v); Louis IV, chapter 2+, "The Treason of Arnoul, the Count of Flanders" (fol. 169); and Henry, chapter 3, "The Miraculous Feat of the Chief of the Norman Soldiers" (fol. 179v). 9. For the unction and the other sacred symbols of royalty associated with Clovis, see Bloch, The Royal Touch , 130-137. For Clovis's popularity in the Middle Ages, see Colette Beaune, "Saint Clovis: Histoire, religion royale et sentiment nationale en France à la fin du Moyen-Âge," in Le métier d'historien au Moyen-Âge: Étude sur l'historiographie médiévale , ed. Bernard Guenée (Paris, 1977), 13:139-56; and idem, Naissance de la nation France , 55-74. For the representation of Clovis's baptism in art, see Benedicta I. H. Rowe, "Notes on the Clovis Miniature and the Bedford Portrait in the Bedford Book of Hours," Journal of the British Archaeological Association , 3rd series, 25 (1962): 56-64; Sandra Hindman and Gabrielle Spiegel, "The Fleur-de-lis Frontispiece to Guillaume of Nangis's Chronique abrégée: Political Iconography in Late Fifteenth-Century France," Viator 12 (1981): 381-407; and Janet Backhouse, "A Reappraisal of the Bedford Hours," The British Library Journal 7 (1981): 47-70. 10. See Robert Folz, L'idée d'empire en occident de V e au XIV e siècles (Paris, 1953); Speigel, " Reditus "; M. Louis Carolus-Barré and Paul Adam, "Contributions à l'étude de la légende carolingienne: Les armes de Charlemagne dans l'héraldique et l'iconographie médiévales," Mémorial d'un voyage en Rhenanie de la Société nationale des antiquaires de France (1953): 289-308; Jacques Monfrin, "Le figure de Charlemagne dans l'historiographie du XV e siècle," Annuaire-bulletin de la Société de l'histoire de France (1964-65): 67-78; and Zeller, "Les rois de France." 11. For the decoration in the Hôtel Saint-Pol, see Paul Durrieu, "La peinture en France de Jean le Bon à la mort du Charles V (1350-1380)," in André Michael, Histoire de l'art depuis les premiers temps chrétiens jusqu'à nos jours . . . (Paris, 1905-[29]), 3, pt. 1:101-137. Charles was compared to Charlemagne in the prefaces of at least three works that he had commissioned: Raoul de Praelles's preface to his translation of the City of God (1375), the preface of Denis Foullechat's Polycraticus (1372), and Jean Corbechon's translation of De proprietatibus rerum (1372), cited by Smith, "St. Augustine's City of God ," 288.
12. For a discussion of Charles's 1378 speech, see text pages 121-22. Although Charle-magne had been canonized at Aix-la-Chapelle in 1165, his cuit was not popular in France until the reign of Charles V. For more on the cult of Charlemagne, see Robert Folz, continue "Aspects du culte liturgique de Saint Charlemaine en France," in Karl der Grosse , ed. W. Braunfels and P.E. Schramm (Düsseldorf, 1967), 4:77-99. 13. In interpreting vignette as representing a historiated initial, I am following the usage in the marginal notes of Ste.-Gen. 782 that dictate the layout of miniatures in B.N. fr. 2813. These notes indicate that either a histoire or a vignette should appear in B.N. fr. 2813. The only other place where vignettes are called for in Charles V's chronicle is on fol. 219 (see Fig. 13) of Ste.-Gen. 782. There a note in the margin calls for vignettes and specifies their height (" vignettes vi [cut by margin] poins" ); two historiated initials were painted in the appropriate space in B.N. fr. 2813 (fol. 173v). This is the only surviving note calling for vignettes in the margins of Ste.-Gen. 782, and the initials executed in B.N. fr. 2813 are the only historiated initials in that manuscript. 14. For the text of Hugh the Great's dream, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:5-7. 15. The notes regarding double miniatures in Ste.-Gen. 782, fols. 152 and 155V, occur in the fifth book of the life of Charlemagne, chapters 1 and 5.
Chapter Six— The Second Stage of Execution (c. 1375—77) 1. For the text added in the second stage of execution, see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2: 1-179. For a discussion of the events from 1350 to 1375, see Calmette, Charles V; and Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V. 2. For a detailed codicological discussion of Raoulet's changes in Henri de Trévou's text, see Hedeman, "Valois Legitimacy." 3. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 9:288 and n. 4. 4. The abbreviated version is most common, appearing in 21 of the 23 Grandes Chroniques whose texts I examined. It is edited in Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 9:310. 5. The only other manuscript to include the elaborate passage on the siege of Calais—a crudely decorated book in Brussels dating from the late fourteenth century (B.R. 2)—omits the discussion of the negotiation and the breaking of the treaty, thus mitigating the anti-English stance of the paragraph. 6. For the text describing the capture of Guines, see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:33-34. 7. The other two miniatures to take up three-quarters of a page in this Grandes Chroniques are the Great Feast (fol. 473v) and the entry of Charles V, Charles IV, and Wenceslaus into Paris (fol. 470v), both in the third portion of the manuscript. 8. "Comment la ville et la chastel de Guynes furent pris des Anglois le jour que le roy de France faisoit la feste de l'Etoile à Saint-Oyn. Laquelle feste est cy après pourtraite et ymaginée." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:33. 9. The elaborate stars worn on the chests of the participants in the feast of the Order of the Star have been enlarged by blue repainting, but the original gold stars are visible beneath them. 10. Leopold Pannier, La noble maison de Saint-Ouen . . . et l'Ordre de l'étoile (Paris, 1872) 63-74, 88-90, cited in Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:34. 11. The Order of the Star was short-lived; its only official assembly was in 1352. War in Brittany and the capture of John the Good and other French nobles at Poitiers in 1356 contributed to its demise. See Pannier, Noble maison , 111-40; and David Bessen, "Wishing upon a Star: King John, the Order of the Star, and Politics," in Proceedings of the Illinois Medieval Association , ed. Ruth Hamilton and David Wagner (Dekalb, 1986), 3:193-206. 12. For a discussion of this order, see Cazelles, "Jean II le Bon," 14. break 13. For a discussion of the relationship between the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Star, see Yves Renouard, "L'Ordre de la jarretière et l'Ordre de l'estoile," Moyen-Âge 55 (1949): 281-300. 14. John's return to England was also the only way to avoid rekindling the war with England while waging war against rebellious Charles of Navarre. See Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 447-49. 15. French chroniclers most frequently presented the need to regulate the question of hostages and the dishonorable behavior of the duke of Anjou as reasons for King John's return to England. Ibid. 14. John's return to England was also the only way to avoid rekindling the war with England while waging war against rebellious Charles of Navarre. See Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 447-49. 15. French chroniclers most frequently presented the need to regulate the question of hostages and the dishonorable behavior of the duke of Anjou as reasons for King John's return to England. Ibid. 16. Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 4:27-28 identifies the heraldry in the miniatures from the Grandes Chroniques and cites the Coronation Book as the model for the double picture in the chronicle. In addition, Sherman discusses the artistic relationship between the Grandes Chroniques and the Coronation Book . She does not note the heraldic discrepancies. See Sherman, Portraits , 37. 17. A document of 1377 commissioned bindings for two volumes containing the " croniques de France and those which Pierre d'Orgement had made." For this, see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:xii. No such order survives for the version of the text ending in the life of Philip of Valois. Nevertheless, a codicological study of the manuscript suggests that Charles V's Grandes Chroniques was considered completed at that state as well. 18. For the scepter of Charlemagne, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 32, 249, no. 202. For the scepter of Dagobert, see Montfaucon, Les monuments de la monarchie françoise , 1:xxxv and pl. 1. 19. On the Coronation Book , see E. S. Dewick, ed., The Coronation Book of Charles V of France (Cottonian Ms. Tiberius B. VIII) , Henry Bradshaw Society, no. 16 (London, 1899); Richard A. Jackson, ed., "The Traité du sacre of Jean Golein," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 113, no. 4 (1969): 305-24; idem, "Les manuscrits des ordines de couronnement de la bibliothèque de Charles V, roi de France," Moyen-Âge 82 (1976): 76-88; idem, Vive le Roi! , 26-33; Sherman, Portraits , 34-37; and especially idem, "The Queen." 20. For the text of the description of the coronations, see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:1-5. 21. Dewick reproduces the images of coronation in Dewick, ed., Coronation Book , pls. 23 and 35. 22. The arms of those who participated in the king's and queen's coronations are as follows: count of Flanders— or, a lion rampant sable; duke of Bourbon— azur, semé with fleurs-de-lis or, a bendelet gules; count of Toulouse— gules, a cross argent voided sable; count of Étampes— azur, semé with fleurs-de-lis or, a bendelet company gules and
ermine; duke of Anjou— azur semé with fleurs-de-lis or, a border gules; archbishop of Reims— azur semé with fleursde-lis or, a cross argent; and bishop of Beauvais— or, a cross between four keys paleways, a ward in chief gules . 23. The arms of the duke of Burgundy are: quarterly 1 and 4—azur, semé with fleurs-de-lis or, a border company white and gules; 2 and 3—banded with or and azur, a border gules . 24. Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:2-3. 25. Two of the peers included in these pictures may have been represented only by proxy. Although the county of Toulouse had reverted to the throne by the time of Charles V's reign, it is possible that Charles appointed someone to represent this ancient peerage. The chronicles of Charles V's coronation are silent on this point, but representation by proxy was a practice in the coronations of Charles VII in 1429 and of subsequent kings. If scholars are correct in asserting that Louis of Male, count of Flanders, did not attend Charles's coronation, he may have been represented by proxy as well. For the list of peers in the Coronation Book , see Dewick, ed., Coronation Book , cols. 13-14. For the list in the Traité du continue sacre , see Jackson, " Traité du sacre ," 312. For discussion of representation by proxy, see Jackson, Vive le Roi! , 161-62; and Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , 3:88-89. 26. Sherman, "The Queen," 288. Sherman concentrates on the queen's role in the third ordinance. For the texts of these documents, see D. F. Secousse, Ordonnances des roys de France de la troisième race recueillies par ordre chronologique (Paris, 1723-1849), 6:26-32 (the majority), 45-49 (regency conditions), 49-54 ( tutelle ). For discussion of them, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 579-81. 27. For discussion of the Traité du sacre and its relation to the coronation ceremony, see Jackson, " Traité du sacre ," 306-8. See also Sherman, "The Queen," for a discussion of the relationship between the Traité du sacre and the representations of the queen in the Coronation Book . 28. Les pers de france qui sont entour en signifiance des fors qui estoient entour salemon omnes tenentes gladios et ad bella doctissimi . car sil ne tiennent la presentement les espees si sont il pres pour les prendre quant temps en est pour deffendre le Roy et le Royaume en grant hardement." Jackson, " Traité du sacre ," 317. 29. See Hedeman, "Restructuring the Narrative," 173-74. 30. Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:63-65. 31. Cf. B.N. fr. 4324, a seventeenth-century recueil of royal baptismal accounts. It includes a brief Latin description of the baptism of the future Charles VI in 1368 and French accounts of the baptism of his brother, Louis, in 1371, and of the baptismal processions and ceremonies for Charles Orland, son of Charles VIII, in 1492, and for Henry's eldest son in 1543. 32. For Jeanne's role in negotiating peace, see Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , 3:177-200. 33. Delisle, "Guillaume de Nangis." Delisle divides the Chronique abrégée into families on the basis of the date of the latest event recorded in the continuations of the manuscripts that survive. Family E, stopping in 1381, and family F, 1383, are the only continuations to incorporate the reigns of John the Good and Charles V. The text for the Chronique abrégée of the reigns of Philip the Bold to Charles VI is based almost exclusively on the Grandes Chroniques and, more specifically, on the copy belonging to Charles V. See also Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:64. In the Grandes Chroniques the text describing the baptism reads, "Et après estoit la royne Jehanne d'Evreux, qui portoit le dit enfant sur ses bras, et monseigneur Charles, seigneur de Montmorenci, et monseigneur Charles, conte de Dampmartin, estoient de costé lui." See Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:64. The Chronique abrégée was amended to read, "Et après estoit messire Charles, seigneur de Montmorency qui portoit le dit enfant sur ses bras, et monseigneur Charles, conte de Dampmartin, estoient de costé de lui." This text occurred in each copy of the Chronique abrégée that I consulted—B.N. fr. 17267 and fr. 2816 of family E and fr. 23138 and fr. 20351 of family F. 34. One of the five elaborate marginal notes (see text pages 121-22) and a notarial signature, present only in B.N. fr. 2813, are included in the Chronique abrégée . The text given in the Grandes Chroniques in chapter 20 of the live of Charles V, ends "le XI e jour de mai l'an mil CCCLXIX." This chapter continues in the Chronique abrégée 's family E with: "Et nota que pour les choses dessus dictes recommenca guerre entre les deux roys de france et d'angleterre yvo" (B.N. fr. 17267, fol. 272v), and in family F with "Yvo Nota que pour les choses dessus dictes recommenca guerre entre les deux roys de france et d'angleterre." Charles V's Grandes Chroniques is the only manuscript to transcribe the signature of the notary named Yvo at the end of the treaty and to include in its lower margin the note "que pour ces chose" that was incorporated into the text of the Chroniques abrégée . For a discussion of the treaty, see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:76, and n. 2. break 35. Charles IV's and Jeanne of Evreux's daughter Blanche married Philip of France, the Duke of Orléans. See Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:64.
Chapter Seven— The Third Stage of Execution (after 1379) 1. For the text of the third stage of Charles V's Grandes Chroniques , see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:180-360. For a discussion of these events, see Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V; Calmette, Charles V; and Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , vol. 5. 2. The text in this section of the Grandes Chroniques is so detailed that subsequent copies of the chronicle contain an abridged version, omitting from the description of the emperor's visit chapters 62-65, the second half of 66, and 67-79 of the life of Charles V. They also omit chapter 89, the transcription of the testimony of Jacques la Rue, who confessed to an attempt to poison Charles V. Delachenal notes some, but not all, of these textual omissions. Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:239, 289. 3. For a discussion of the importance of homage to the Capetian and Valois kings, see Michel Gavrilovitch, Étude sur la traité de Paris de 1259 entre Louis IX, roi de France, et Henri III, roi d'Angleterre , Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes-Études, 125 fasc. (Paris, 1899), 49-53; and Eugène Déprez, Les préliminaires de la Guerre de Cent Ans: La papauté, la France et l'Angleterre 1328-1342 , Bibliothèque des Écoles français d'Athènes et de Rome, fasc. 86 (Paris, 1902), 1-82; Georges Cuttino, English Medieval Diplomacy (Bloomington, 1985); Pierre Chaplais, "Le duché-pairie de Guyenne: L'hommage et les services féodaux de 1259 à 1303," Annales du midi 69 (1957): 5-38; and idem, "Le duché-pairie de Guyenne: L'hommage et les services féodaux de 1303 à 1337," Annales du midi 70 (1958): 135-60. 4. Joinville, Vie de Saint Louis , quoted by Gavrilovitch, Étude , 49. 5. Chaplais, "1259 à 1303"; idem, "1303 à 1377". The homage before Philip IV is the most common representation of this ceremony in copies of the Grandes Chroniques . It occurs in 31 of the illuminated copies that I consulted. To my knowledge, no other manuscript pictures Henry III's homage before Saint Louis. Only two other royal
manuscripts (B.N. fr. 10135 and B.L. Royal 20 C VII) include the homage of Edward III before Philip of Valois as the miniature for chapter 6 of Philip of Valois's life. In addition a small group of manuscripts with related iconography (B.N. fr. 2606; B.L. Add. 15269; Oxford, Douce 217; and Guildhall 244) begin the life of Philip of Valois with a scene of homage. The moment of the ceremony chosen in these images of homage varies, ranging from the osculum , or kiss; to variants of the immixtio manuum; to transitional movements (for instance, advancing toward the king, extending a hand, or beginning to kneel). As we shall see, some of these pictures are comparable to the smaller images of homage appearing in the lives of Saint Louis and Philip of Valois in Charles V's Grandes Chroniques , but none are as detailed as the two-column miniature in Charles V's manuscript. 6. For a discussion of Philip of Valois's summons to the English king, see Chaplais, "1303 à 1337," 159. 7. Paris, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 6:192-93; Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:xi; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie , 112; and Thomas, "La visite," 88. 8. For the full text of the added treaty, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:208-16. 9. For the text of the letter from Edward III to Philip of Valois, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 9:101-4. 10. "Adonc fist le roy d'Angleterre hommage au roy de France, en la forme et manière que contenu est en la chartre seellée du seel du roy d'Angleterre dont la teneur s'ensuit." Ibid., 101. break 11. "Comment le roy d'Angleterre se mist en mer pour venir en la cité d'Amiens ou le Roy d'Angleterre dessus dit devoit faire hommage au roy de France de la duchié d'Aquitaine et de la conté de Pontieu comme homme du roy de France." Ibid., 99. The portion of the rubric that I have italicized was crossed out in red in the manuscript and is omitted from the critical edition. 9. For the text of the letter from Edward III to Philip of Valois, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 9:101-4. 10. "Adonc fist le roy d'Angleterre hommage au roy de France, en la forme et manière que contenu est en la chartre seellée du seel du roy d'Angleterre dont la teneur s'ensuit." Ibid., 101. break 11. "Comment le roy d'Angleterre se mist en mer pour venir en la cité d'Amiens ou le Roy d'Angleterre dessus dit devoit faire hommage au roy de France de la duchié d'Aquitaine et de la conté de Pontieu comme homme du roy de France." Ibid., 99. The portion of the rubric that I have italicized was crossed out in red in the manuscript and is omitted from the critical edition. 9. For the text of the letter from Edward III to Philip of Valois, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 9:101-4. 10. "Adonc fist le roy d'Angleterre hommage au roy de France, en la forme et manière que contenu est en la chartre seellée du seel du roy d'Angleterre dont la teneur s'ensuit." Ibid., 101. break 11. "Comment le roy d'Angleterre se mist en mer pour venir en la cité d'Amiens ou le Roy d'Angleterre dessus dit devoit faire hommage au roy de France de la duchié d'Aquitaine et de la conté de Pontieu comme homme du roy de France." Ibid., 99. The portion of the rubric that I have italicized was crossed out in red in the manuscript and is omitted from the critical edition. 12. Le Goff has studied the ritual of homage from an anthropological perspective, and although he points out that no medieval documents interpret the role of homage symbolically, he isolates components of the ritual: the homage (a verbal expression of willingness to serve and the immixtio manuum ), the fealty (an oath), and the investiture of the fief (the presentation by the lord to the vassal of a symbolic object). He analyzes the immixtio manuum, osculum , and investiture in terms of the relationship that they embody between lord and vassal. He concludes that the immixtio manuum creates an unequal relationship between lord and vassal, the osculum makes them equal, and the investiture involves the lord and vassal in a reciprocal arrangement. See Jacques le Goff, "The Symbolic Ritual of Vassalage," in Time, Work, and Culture in the Middle Ages , trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago, 1980), 237-87. 13. Several of the detached drawings in Gaignières's copy (B.N. fr. 20082) are reproduced by Sherman, Portraits , pls. 28-30. 14. The English arms ( three gold leopards passant on a red ground ) include leopards without crowns in every other copy of the Grandes Chroniques that illustrates arms. The traditional English heraldry also appears in Charles V's book in the illustration of the Great Feast, the only miniature besides the pictures of homage to include the English arms. 15. The ceremony of liege homage described by the letter of 1331 can be contrasted with a letter of 1329, describing the simple homage actually performed at Amiens in 1329, reproduced in Rymer and Sanderson, comps., Foedera , 2, pt. 2:765. 16. "Et me samble que li rois Edouwars d'Engleterre fist adonc hommage, de bouce et de parolle tant seulement, sans les mains mettre entre les mains dou roi de France, ou prince ou prelat deputé de par lui." Jean Froissart, Chronique de Froissart , ed. Simeon Luce (Paris, 1869), 1, pt. 2:95. 17. "Car jà murmuroient li pluiseur en Engleterre que leurs sires estoit plus proçains de l'iretage de France que li rois Phelippes." Ibid., 97. Recent research by Palmer has made interpretation of these passages and analysis of Froissart's work as a whole more difficult. Palmer demonstrates that all existing manuscripts of Froissart's chronicle contain references to historical events that date their composition to the 1390s at the earliest. In addition, he shows that no purely first or second editions of the text exist; each manuscript contains a mixture of what may originally have been first and second redactions. Until further research is accomplished, we will not know with certainty whether the passage on homage was present in the earliest redaction, presumably identical to that given to the English queen in 1361. It is likely that this passage was part of the original version. The text on homage appears in each version of the chronicle except the Amiens manuscript (which Palmer has shown was edited to be pro-French and whose authenticity as a work of Froissart's needs further exploration). The version in the manuscript in Amiens states simply that Edward paid homage: "Et fist là li roys d'Engleterre hommage au roy de Franche de la conté de Ponthieu qu'il tenoit, et de la terre de Gascoingne de tout ce qu'il en appertenoit au roy." See J[ohn] J[oseph] N[orman] Palmer, "Book I (1325-78) and its Sources," in Froissart: Historian , ed. J.J.N. Palmer (Totowa, N.J., 1981), 7-24; and, for the text of the version of the chronicle in Amiens, Baron J.B.M.C. Kervyn de Lettenhove, OEvres * de Froissart (1876; reprint Osnabruck, 1967), 2:231. 16. "Et me samble que li rois Edouwars d'Engleterre fist adonc hommage, de bouce et de parolle tant seulement, sans les mains mettre entre les mains dou roi de France, ou prince ou prelat deputé de par lui." Jean Froissart, Chronique de Froissart , ed. Simeon Luce (Paris, 1869), 1, pt. 2:95. 17. "Car jà murmuroient li pluiseur en Engleterre que leurs sires estoit plus proçains de l'iretage de France que li rois Phelippes." Ibid., 97.
Recent research by Palmer has made interpretation of these passages and analysis of Froissart's work as a whole more difficult. Palmer demonstrates that all existing manuscripts of Froissart's chronicle contain references to historical events that date their composition to the 1390s at the earliest. In addition, he shows that no purely first or second editions of the text exist; each manuscript contains a mixture of what may originally have been first and second redactions. Until further research is accomplished, we will not know with certainty whether the passage on homage was present in the earliest redaction, presumably identical to that given to the English queen in 1361. It is likely that this passage was part of the original version. The text on homage appears in each version of the chronicle except the Amiens manuscript (which Palmer has shown was edited to be pro-French and whose authenticity as a work of Froissart's needs further exploration). The version in the manuscript in Amiens states simply that Edward paid homage: "Et fist là li roys d'Engleterre hommage au roy de Franche de la conté de Ponthieu qu'il tenoit, et de la terre de Gascoingne de tout ce qu'il en appertenoit au roy." See J[ohn] J[oseph] N[orman] Palmer, "Book I (1325-78) and its Sources," in Froissart: Historian , ed. J.J.N. Palmer (Totowa, N.J., 1981), 7-24; and, for the text of the version of the chronicle in Amiens, Baron J.B.M.C. Kervyn de Lettenhove, OEvres * de Froissart (1876; reprint Osnabruck, 1967), 2:231. 18. Palmer, "Book I," xviii. For the chronicle of Jean le Bel, see le Bel, Chronique . break 19. For a full transcription of the description of Charles V's speech and an outline of its relationship to marginal annotations and to substituted texts and miniatures, see Hedeman, "Valois Legitimacy," 116-17. 20. "Et encores detient en tres grant contempt et mesprisement du Roy et de sa souveraineté, et en actemptant et entreprenant contre ycelles souverainetez." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:99. 21. "Nota qu'il les fist mourir." 22. "Les fist prendre et murtrier mauvaisement, contre Dieu et justice, et en offense du Roy et du royaume de France." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:254. 23. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 9:71-72. 24. The group of courtly manuscripts that copy Charles V's chronicle does not even include a miniature for the beginning of the life of Philip of Valois. This group raises the question of whether Charles V's Grandes Chroniques had a miniature before this new leaf was substituted. For this group of closely related manuscripts, see Chapter 8 in this book. 25. Charles V's Grandes Chroniques alone includes as the first chapter's heading, "Le premier chapitre. Comment Philippe conte de Valois ot le gouvernement du royaume et de son courronnement." More frequently, the first chapter's rubric is "Le premier chapitre parle des questions auquel devoit estre commis le gouvernement du royaume." The latter rubric was omitted from the critical editions of Delachenal and Paris. No surviving manuscripts predate Charles V's Grandes Chroniques and end with the life of Philip of Valois. Nevertheless, several later manuscripts contain evidence for the existence of a version of the Grandes Chroniques terminating with the life of Philip of Valois. Both B.N. fr. 17270 and B.N. fr. 10135 close in 1350, and B.N. fr. 20350, though continuing through the life of Charles V to the coronation of Charles VI, ends the life of Philip of Valois with the rubric, "Ci fenissent les croniques de France." See Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 122. 26. The fourth insert comprises a full-page frontispiece with six scenes, a short prefatory paragraph, and an author portrait of a monk. For the text, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:25. 27. For Philip of Valois's and John the Good's use of Saint Louis, see text pages 63-68. 28. Sherman, "The Queen," 257 n. 5. 29. Charles may have been spurred to commission this group of tombs by his father. In his testament, made when he was dying in London in 1364, John the Good ordered that he be buried in Saint-Denis: "Nous ordenons et elisons nostre sépulture en l'église de Mons. Saint Denis en France au lieu et place ou noz devanciers Roys de France l'ont acoustumé à estre." For this, see Germain Bapst, Testament du roi Jean le Bon et inventaire de ses joyaux (Paris, 1884), 14. 30. See Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , 4:532. For the question of the age of Saint Louis at his majority, see Olivier-Martin, Études sur les régences , 78. 31. Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , 4:533. Delachenal loosely translates the Latin passage dealing with Saint Louis as follows: C'est en traits indélébiles, dit le Roi, que reste gravé dans notre coeur * l'exemple de notre saint aïeul et prédécesseur, notre patron, notre défenseur et notre special seigneur, le bienheureux Louis, fleur, honneur, lumière, et miroir, non seulement de la race royale, mais de tous les français, dont la mémoire est en benediction et vivra à jamais de cet homme qui, par une protection divine, n'a été touché par la contagion d'aucune faute mortelle et a gouverné de façon si exemplaire son royaume et l'état que ses actes, objet de l'admiration du monde tant que le soleil suivra sa route dans le ciel, doivent inspirer notre conduite et celle de nos successors, de façon que sa vie soit pour nous un constant enseignement. break
Descent from Saint Louis remained a popular theme in Valois programs throughout the reigns of the last Valois kings at the end of the fifteenth century. During this late period it found expression in public celebrations rather than chronicle illustration or political treatises. For example, tableaux vivants in royal entries often depicted a royal version of the tree of Jesse, with Saint Louis as originator of the line. For studies of royal entries, see Bernard Guenée and Françoise Lehoux, Les entrées royales françaises de 1328 à 1515 (Paris, 1968); and Lawrence Bryant, The King and the City in the Parisian Royal Entry Ceremony: Politics, Ritual, and Art in the Renaissance , Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, no. 216 (Geneva, 1986). For a discussion of the popularity of Saint Louis in the late fifteenth century, see Hindman and Spiegel, "Fleur-de-lis Frontispiece," 381-407. 32. Written early in the fourteenth century, Saint-Pathus's text focuses exclusively on the youth and charitable acts of Saint Louis as pictured in the frontispiece. The eleventh chapter discusses his charity toward the poor and the sick and his care for the dead and cites among other examples Saint Louis's custom of washing the feet of several poor monks each Saturday, his kindness toward the leper monk of Royaumont, and his burial of the decomposed bodies at Sidon. Chapter 14 describes Louis's penitence and cites as one instance his submission to scourging by his confessor. The Vie de Saint Louis by Guillaume de Saint-Pathus established the order of the pictures in the frontispiece. See Saint-Pathus, Vie de Saint Louis , 80, 94-95, 99-102, 122-23. The illustrations of Saint Louis's care for the leper of Royaumont, Saint Louis washing the feet of the poor, the burial of the Crusaders' bones at Sidon, and Saint Louis's submission to scourging by his confessor are identical in iconography to many Capetian images. The iconography of the miniature depicting the education of Saint Louis, to be discussed below, is not as close. For these Capetian commissions see Chapter 1, note 9. The Vie de Saint Louis does not describe the birth of Louis IX. To my knowledge, no other commission based on Saint-Pathus's text illustrates this scene. 33. Sherman, "The Queen," 262, 291-93. 34. Cf. B.N. fr. 20350, fols. 412v and 487; and B.L. Sloane 2433, vol. C, fols. 128v and 137, which represent the baptisms of the dauphin and of Louis, duke of Orléans, in identical fashion. See also B.L. Royal 20 C VII, fols. 172 and
189, which leave a blank for the baptism of Charles VI and include an image of the nativity of Louis, duke of Orléans. To my knowledge the only manuscript that illustrates the baptism of Charles VI and does not include an illustration of his brother's birth or baptism is B.N. fr. 2608, a manuscript based on Charles V's, whose arms suggest that it belonged to Charles VI before passing into the collection of John, duke of Berry, who signed it. 35. For a description of this manuscript from Charles V's library, see Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie , 81; and Thomas, "L'iconographie," 209-31. 36. The issue of the proper education of a prince, important to Charles V, was the subject of literary discussion during his son's reign. Philip de Mézières, appointed tutor to the dauphin by Charles V, expressed his own views on the education of princes in a book, Le songe du vieil pelerin , addressed to the young Charles VI in the 1390s. It stresses the importance of education as one of many themes and cites Louis IX and Charles V as two kings who took an active role in educating themselves and their children. A second text to laud Charles V is Christine de Pizan's Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roi Charles V , commissioned by Charles's brother Philip the Bold of Burgundy in 1404. This eulogistic biography puts great stress on the king's intellectual accomplishments and his good government. Numerous books, sermons, and letters written by members of the court and university community during the last portion of the fourteenth century and the early fifteenth century focus, as do Philip de Mézières's and Christine de Pizan's works, on the important problem of a prince's education. For discussion of these texts and of the ideal education for a prince in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries, and for reference to the influence of the models of Saint Louis and Charles V, see Krynen, Idéal du prince , continue 230; and Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , 5:59-62. For the text, see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:193-277. 37. The subcycle dealing with the emperor's visit has been discussed by Thomas, "La visite"; Sherman, Portraits , 42; Krynen, Idéal du prince , 230; and Delachenal, Histoire de Charles V , 5:59-62. For the text, see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:193-277. 38. "Et, pour ce que de coustume l'Empereur dit la VII e leçon à matines, revestus de ses habiz et enseignes imperiaulz, il fu advisé par les gens du Roy que, ou royaume, ne le pourroit il faire, ne souffert ne li seroit." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:199. 39. For these illustrations of the imperial ceremony, see ibid., 4:pls. xxxii-xxxiii. 40. Reproduced in ibid., pls. xxxv, xxxvi, xxxviii. 41. For the text describing the entry of the emperor, see ibid., 210-19. Sherman, Portraits , 43 n. 3, was the first to discuss the crown as an extratextual detail. 42. "Et ainsi alerent sanz grant presse . . . jusques au hault dayz de la table de marbre, et fu l'ordenance et l'asiette tele comme il s'ensuit, et comme il est figuré en l'ystoire, ci après pourtraite et ymaginée." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:235-36. For the full text of the chapter, see ibid., 236-44. For previous discussions of this miniature, see Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Secular Dramatics in the Royal Palace, Paris, 1378, 1389 and Chaucer's 'Tregetoures,'" Speculum 33 (1958): 242-55; David A. Bullough, "Games People Played: Drama and Ritual as Propaganda in Medieval Europe," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 24 (1974): 97-122; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie , 112; and Avril, Manuscript Painting at the Court of France , 104. 38. "Et, pour ce que de coustume l'Empereur dit la VII e leçon à matines, revestus de ses habiz et enseignes imperiaulz, il fu advisé par les gens du Roy que, ou royaume, ne le pourroit il faire, ne souffert ne li seroit." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:199. 39. For these illustrations of the imperial ceremony, see ibid., 4:pls. xxxii-xxxiii. 40. Reproduced in ibid., pls. xxxv, xxxvi, xxxviii. 41. For the text describing the entry of the emperor, see ibid., 210-19. Sherman, Portraits , 43 n. 3, was the first to discuss the crown as an extratextual detail. 42. "Et ainsi alerent sanz grant presse . . . jusques au hault dayz de la table de marbre, et fu l'ordenance et l'asiette tele comme il s'ensuit, et comme il est figuré en l'ystoire, ci après pourtraite et ymaginée." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:235-36. For the full text of the chapter, see ibid., 236-44. For previous discussions of this miniature, see Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Secular Dramatics in the Royal Palace, Paris, 1378, 1389 and Chaucer's 'Tregetoures,'" Speculum 33 (1958): 242-55; David A. Bullough, "Games People Played: Drama and Ritual as Propaganda in Medieval Europe," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 24 (1974): 97-122; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie , 112; and Avril, Manuscript Painting at the Court of France , 104. 38. "Et, pour ce que de coustume l'Empereur dit la VII e leçon à matines, revestus de ses habiz et enseignes imperiaulz, il fu advisé par les gens du Roy que, ou royaume, ne le pourroit il faire, ne souffert ne li seroit." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:199. 39. For these illustrations of the imperial ceremony, see ibid., 4:pls. xxxii-xxxiii. 40. Reproduced in ibid., pls. xxxv, xxxvi, xxxviii. 41. For the text describing the entry of the emperor, see ibid., 210-19. Sherman, Portraits , 43 n. 3, was the first to discuss the crown as an extratextual detail. 42. "Et ainsi alerent sanz grant presse . . . jusques au hault dayz de la table de marbre, et fu l'ordenance et l'asiette tele comme il s'ensuit, et comme il est figuré en l'ystoire, ci après pourtraite et ymaginée." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:235-36. For the full text of the chapter, see ibid., 236-44. For previous discussions of this miniature, see Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Secular Dramatics in the Royal Palace, Paris, 1378, 1389 and Chaucer's 'Tregetoures,'" Speculum 33 (1958): 242-55; David A. Bullough, "Games People Played: Drama and Ritual as Propaganda in Medieval Europe," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 24 (1974): 97-122; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie , 112; and Avril, Manuscript Painting at the Court of France , 104. 38. "Et, pour ce que de coustume l'Empereur dit la VII e leçon à matines, revestus de ses habiz et enseignes imperiaulz, il fu advisé par les gens du Roy que, ou royaume, ne le pourroit il faire, ne souffert ne li seroit." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:199. 39. For these illustrations of the imperial ceremony, see ibid., 4:pls. xxxii-xxxiii. 40. Reproduced in ibid., pls. xxxv, xxxvi, xxxviii. 41. For the text describing the entry of the emperor, see ibid., 210-19. Sherman, Portraits , 43 n. 3, was the first to discuss the crown as an extratextual detail. 42. "Et ainsi alerent sanz grant presse . . . jusques au hault dayz de la table de marbre, et fu l'ordenance et l'asiette tele comme il s'ensuit, et comme il est figuré en l'ystoire, ci après pourtraite et ymaginée." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:235-36. For the full text of the chapter, see ibid., 236-44.
For previous discussions of this miniature, see Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Secular Dramatics in the Royal Palace, Paris, 1378, 1389 and Chaucer's 'Tregetoures,'" Speculum 33 (1958): 242-55; David A. Bullough, "Games People Played: Drama and Ritual as Propaganda in Medieval Europe," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 24 (1974): 97-122; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie , 112; and Avril, Manuscript Painting at the Court of France , 104. 38. "Et, pour ce que de coustume l'Empereur dit la VII e leçon à matines, revestus de ses habiz et enseignes imperiaulz, il fu advisé par les gens du Roy que, ou royaume, ne le pourroit il faire, ne souffert ne li seroit." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:199. 39. For these illustrations of the imperial ceremony, see ibid., 4:pls. xxxii-xxxiii. 40. Reproduced in ibid., pls. xxxv, xxxvi, xxxviii. 41. For the text describing the entry of the emperor, see ibid., 210-19. Sherman, Portraits , 43 n. 3, was the first to discuss the crown as an extratextual detail. 42. "Et ainsi alerent sanz grant presse . . . jusques au hault dayz de la table de marbre, et fu l'ordenance et l'asiette tele comme il s'ensuit, et comme il est figuré en l'ystoire, ci après pourtraite et ymaginée." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:235-36. For the full text of the chapter, see ibid., 236-44. For previous discussions of this miniature, see Laura Hibbard Loomis, "Secular Dramatics in the Royal Palace, Paris, 1378, 1389 and Chaucer's 'Tregetoures,'" Speculum 33 (1958): 242-55; David A. Bullough, "Games People Played: Drama and Ritual as Propaganda in Medieval Europe," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 24 (1974): 97-122; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Librairie , 112; and Avril, Manuscript Painting at the Court of France , 104. 43. For an account of Godfrey of Bouillon, see John Andressohn, The Ancestry and Life of Godfrey of Bouillon (1947; reprint Freeport, 1972); Jacques A. S. Collin de Plancy, Godefroid de Bouillon, croniques et légendes du temps des deux premières croisades 1095-1180 (Brussels, 1842); idem, La chronique de Godefroid de Bouillon (Paris, 1853). 44. See Charles W. David, Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy (Cambridge, Mass., 1920), for a description of Robert of Normandy's role in the First Crusade. Fourteenth-century accounts of the capture of Jerusalem do not describe the English king as being (or having been) present. For instance, a manuscript of the Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon dated 1337 that compiles the first and second cycles of the crusades (B.N. fr. 22495) specifies who was with Godfrey: "asses tost empres le duc entrent eu li cuens de flandres, li ducs de normandie, Tancred le vailla[n]s, hue li cuens de saint-paul, bauduin de borc, Gascel de bediers & mainte autre bon chevalier que l'en ne peust pas toz nommer" (fol. 70). For this manuscript, see Paris, Grand Palais, Les fastes du gothique , 410, no. 350. 45. The English king's presence was noted as anachronistic by Loomis, "Secular Dramatics," 251. However, she viewed the inclusion of the English king, whom she identified as Richard the Lionheart from the Third Crusade, as a mistake occasioned by the influence of "a familiar representation of the Pas Saladin ." I believe that the fidelity with which extratextual detail is presented in this manuscript makes her interpretation unlikely. Loomis's own observation (based on a comparison of the description of the play in 1378 with a description of a play of the Pas Saladin [1389] in Froissart's chronicle) that the same set may have been used in both plays supports an interpretation of the details in the miniature as realistic. 46. "Et fist le roy faire à propos ceste histoire, que il lui sembloit que devant plus grans en la Chrestienté ne povoit on ramentevoir, ne donner exemple, de plus notable fait, ne à gens qui mieulx peussent, deussent et feussent tenus tele chose faire et entreprendre, ou service de Dieu." Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:238-40; cited in Bullough, "Games," 100. 47. For a discussion of the attitudes of Charles V and Edward III to crusading, see Christopher Tyerman, England and the Crusades 1095-1588 (Chicago, 1988), 288-94. 48. See text pages 107-109. break 49. Other anachronisms—the use of the arms of Jerusalem, which were not yet extant at the time of the First Crusade, and the representation of a crowned Godfrey before he had captured the city and been crowned—might be caused by a need to identify Godfrey with an attribute of kingship (a crown) and reference to his domain (Jerusalem). 50. For the speech given by Charles before the emperor, see text pages 121-22. 51. The county of Auvergne was made a "duché-pairie" and given to John of Berry in 1360, and Philip the Bold, duke of Burgundy became count of Flanders when he married Margaret of Flanders in 1369. For these, see Raoul de Warren, "Les pairs de France sous l'ancien régime," Les cahiers nobles 15 (1958): nos. 5, 28. For the role of the dukes of Berry and Burgundy in the protocol of the state visit see Delachenal, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 2:203-4 (they head the delegation sent to greet the emperor when he arrives on French soil), 221 (they are in a privileged position in the state entry into Paris), 236-37 (they are among those who sit with the dauphin at the state dinner), and 193-274 passim .
Chapter Eight— The Legacy of Charles V 1. On history and politics during the reign of Charles VI, see Françoise Autrand, Charles VI: La folie du roi (Paris, 1986); Jacques d'Avout, La querelle des Armagnacs et des Bourguignons (Paris, 1943); Henri David, Philippe le Hardi, duc de Bourgogne et co-regent de France de 1392 à 1404: Le train somptuaire d'un grand Valois (Dijon, 1947); Richard C. Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue: Crisis at the Court of Charles VI 1392-1420 (New York, 1986): Eugène Jarry, La vie politique de Louis de France, duc d'Orléans 1372-1407 (Paris, 1889); Léon Mirot, "L'enlèvement du dauphin et la prise d'armes entre Jean sans Peur et le duc d'Orléans," Revue des questions historiques 95 (1914): 328-55; 96 (1914): 47-68, 367-449; 97 (1914): 53-55, 396-97; Michel Nordberg, Les ducs et la royauté: Études sur la rivalité des ducs d'Orléans et de Bourgogne 1392-1407 , Studia Historica Upsaliensia, no. 12 (Uppsala, 1964); J[ohn] J[oseph] N[orman] Palmer, England, France, and Christendom 1377-1399 (Chapel Hill, 1972); Richard Vaughan, Philip the Bold: The Formation of the Burgundian State (Cambridge, Mass., 1962); idem, John the Fearless: The Growth of Burgundian Power (New York, 1966). On the regency established for Charles VI, see text page 113; and Cazelles, Société politique . . . Jean le Bon et Charles V , 579-81. 2. Famiglietti's analysis of Charles's madness raises the question of whether he was ever fully sane after the onset of his illness in 1392. See "The Mental Disorder of Charles VI," in Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue , 1-21. 3. Although the structure of these regency councils varied, they generally included, among others, the Queen, Louis of Orléans, John of Berry, Philip the Bold, and, after 1404, John the Fearless. Different provisions for the regency were established in 1393, 1402, 1403 (at least two), 1405, 1406, 1407, and 1409. For the most comprehensive discussion of these, see Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue .
4. For discussion of the civil war, see Famiglietti, Royal Intrigue ; Jarry, La vie politique , 257-359; and Autrand, Charles VI , 425-501. Famiglietti pays close attention to the roles of Queen Isabeau and the dauphin Louis and gives a balanced view of the role of John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy, in the dauphin's government. See Royal Intrigue , especially 73-75, 82-84. 5. For Charles V's commissions, see Monfrin, "Humanisme et traduction"; idem, "Les traducteurs"; and text pages 95-133. 6. Monfrin, "Humanisme et traduction," 178. Monfrin discusses the literary patronage of Charles VI, Louis of Bourbon, and John of Berry, among others. 7. The theory that Louis of Orléans used his commissions in an attempt to present himself as a successor to Charles VI is advanced in Christopher Ronald Schultz, "The Artistic and continue Literary Patronage of Louis of Orléans and his Wife, Valentine Visconti, 1399-1408" (Ph.D. diss., Emory University, 1977). For other political ambitions of Louis of Orléans, see Gilbert Ouy, "Humanisme et propagande politique en France au début de XIV e siècle: Ambrogio Migli et les ambitions impériales de Louis d'Orléans," Culture et politique en France à l'époque de l'humanisme et de la Renaissance. Atti del Convegno internazionale promosso dall'Accademia delle scienze di Torino in collaborazione con la Fondazione Giorgio Cini di Venezia, 29 marzo-3 aprile 1971 , ed. Franco Simone (Turin, 1974), 13-42. 8. For a summary of his view on the political literature produced during Charles VI's reign, see Krynen, Idéal du prince , 42-48. 9. On the role of the royal chancellery and the University of Paris in political theory, see Lewis, "War Propaganda and Historiography in Fifteenth-Century France and England," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 5th series, 15 (1965): 1-21; Krynen, Idéal du prince ; Jean de Montreuil, L'oeuvre * historique et polémique , in Opera , vol. 2, ed. Nicole Grévy, Ezio Ornato, and Gilbert Ouy (Turin, 1975); idem, Textes divers, appendices et tables , in Opera , vol. 3, ed. Nicole Grévy-Pons, Ezio Ornato, and Gilbert Ouy (Paris, 1981); Nicole Grévy-Pons, "Propagande et sentiment national pendant le règne de Charles VI: L'exemple de Jean de Montreuil," Francia 8 (1980): 127-45; Pons, "La propagande"; and idem, "Latin et français au XV ème siècle." 10. Jean de Montreuil's treatise, following in its broad outline the structure of Charles V's tirade, became an integral part of an unillustrated fifteenth-century manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 4983). It is ironic that an argument once viewed as too specialized for inclusion in the Grandes Chroniques should later rejoin its original text—albeit in a different guise. For the date of Montreuil's texts, see Montreuil, L'oeuvre historique , 9, 17-18. For the texts, see ibid., 159-261; and idem, Textes divers , 53-110. For discussion of Charles V's speech, see text pages 121-22. 9. On the role of the royal chancellery and the University of Paris in political theory, see Lewis, "War Propaganda and Historiography in Fifteenth-Century France and England," Transactions of the Royal Historical Society , 5th series, 15 (1965): 1-21; Krynen, Idéal du prince ; Jean de Montreuil, L'oeuvre * historique et polémique , in Opera , vol. 2, ed. Nicole Grévy, Ezio Ornato, and Gilbert Ouy (Turin, 1975); idem, Textes divers, appendices et tables , in Opera , vol. 3, ed. Nicole Grévy-Pons, Ezio Ornato, and Gilbert Ouy (Paris, 1981); Nicole Grévy-Pons, "Propagande et sentiment national pendant le règne de Charles VI: L'exemple de Jean de Montreuil," Francia 8 (1980): 127-45; Pons, "La propagande"; and idem, "Latin et français au XV ème siècle." 10. Jean de Montreuil's treatise, following in its broad outline the structure of Charles V's tirade, became an integral part of an unillustrated fifteenth-century manuscript of the Grandes Chroniques (B.N. fr. 4983). It is ironic that an argument once viewed as too specialized for inclusion in the Grandes Chroniques should later rejoin its original text—albeit in a different guise. For the date of Montreuil's texts, see Montreuil, L'oeuvre historique , 9, 17-18. For the texts, see ibid., 159-261; and idem, Textes divers , 53-110. For discussion of Charles V's speech, see text pages 121-22. 11. For a discussion of Christine de Pizan's views on the monarchy, see Claude Gauvard, "Christine de Pisan, a-telle eu une pensée politique?" Revue historique 253 (1973): 417-30; Hindman, Épistre Othéa ; Krynen, Idéal du prince ; Gianni Mombello, "Quelques aspects de la pensée politique de Christine de Pizan d'après ses oeuvres * publiées," Culture et politique en France à l'époque de l'humanisme et de la Renaissance. Atti del Convegno internazionale promosso dall'Accademia delle scienze di Torino in collaborazione con la Fondazione Giorgio Cini di Venezia, 29 marzo3 aprile, 1971 , ed. Franco Simone (Turin, 1974), 43-152; and Josette Wisman, "L'éveil du sentiment nationale au Moyen-Âge: La pensée politique de Christine de Pisan," Revue historique 257 (1977): 289-97. For the views of Philip de Mézières, see Nicolas Iorga, Philippe de Mézières 1327-1405 et la croisade au XIV e siècle (Paris, 1896), Bibliothèque de l'École des Hautes-Études, Sciences philologique et historique, 110 fasc.; Mézières, Letter to King Richard II; idem, Le songe du vieil pelerin , ed. George W. Coopland (Cambridge, 1969). On illustrations to his autograph manuscripts, see Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 144-56; and Margaret V. Clarke, "The Wilton Diptych," Burlington Magazine 58 (1931): 283-94. 12. The conservative manuscripts include Lyon, B.M. 880; B.N. fr. 2608 and B.N. fr. 10135; and Vienna, ÖNB 2564. 13. See Mézières, Songe ; and Christine de Pizan, Livre des fais . 14. For the marginal notes transferred from Charles V's copy to Charles VI's, and the speech they annotate in Charles V's chronicle, see text pages 121-22; and Hedeman, "Valois Legitimacy," 116-17. 15. A diplomatic base, established as early as 1393, was cemented in 1396 when Isabel, Charles VI's daughter, was engaged to Richard II, king of England. See Autrand, Charles VI , 330-31; and Palmer, England, France and Christendom , 173-74. break 16. On the cerf volant , see Beaune, "Costume et pouvoir en France à la fin du Moyen-Âge; Les devises royales vers 1400," Revue des sciences humaines 183 (1981): 138 especially; and Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 146-52. Beaune's examination of royal accounts for payments for cerfs volants suggests that they were most popular from 1382 to 1390 and that they scarcely ever appeared after 1394. 17. On St. Denis's successful transition to national saint, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 83-125. 18. For a fuller discussion of the prologue, see the Introduction to this book, and for a discussion of the cult of Saint Louis, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 126-64. 19. The earliest known instance of the pairing of Saints Denis and Louis in a secular celebration occurred in a mystère at the entry of Charles VII into Paris in 1437. Even in this entry, Saints Denis and Louis appeared in a quasireligious context; they were grouped in one scene with other saints popular in Paris—Thomas, Maurice, and Geneviève—as one of a series of mystères that included the seven deadly sins, the seven virtues, and scenes from the life of Christ. Bryant considers that their presence at the Painter's Gate refers to the king's juridical obligations. On this
entry, see Guenée and Lehoux, Entrées royales , 26-27, 70-79; and Bryant, King and the City , 158-59. A painting of circa 1350 from Saint Michael's chapel in the royal palace commemorated the attachment of the Dauphiné to France in a picture that showed Blanche of Navarre; Philip of Valois; and the dauphin, Charles, at the crucifixion, under the protection of Saint Louis and Saint Denis. In the reign of Charles VII (circa 1450) a painting done for the Parlement of Paris showed Saint Louis (a portrait of Charles VII), Saint Denis, Saint Charlemagne, and Saint John the Baptist flanking a crucifixion. On these paintings, see Jean Bernard de Vaivre, "Sur trois primitifs français du XIV e siècle et le portrait de Jean le Bon," Gazette des Beaux-Arts 97 (1981): 131-56; and Charles Sterling and Hélène Adhemar, Peintures: École française XIV e , XV e , et XVI e siècles, (Paris, 1954), 17-18 no. 43, and pls. 120-27. 20. For a discussion of Saint Denis's role as a protector of royal health, see Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 96. For a description of the cure of John, duke of Normandy, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques 9:148-50, cited in Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 97. According to the Grandes Chroniques , Philip of Valois and his son, John, went on foot to Saint-Denis to give thanks for the cure to Saint Denis, "their patron." 21. "La fueille qui est ou mileu nous segnefie la foy crestienne, et les autres II du costé senefient le clergié et la chevalerie qui doivent estre touz jourz apareillié de deffendre la foy crestienne. Et tant comme ces III demorront en France, foy, clergié et chevalerie, le reanme de France sera fort et ferme et plain de richece et d'onneur." Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 7:61. This text appears in chapter 13 of the life of Saint Louis. For the cult of the fleur-de-lis and the literary antecedents for this passage, see Hindman and Spiegel, "Fleur-delis Frontispiece," 385-93. 22. The Christian kingship of the French ruler and the symbolism of the fleur-de-lis were part of the theory of sacred kingship first formulated during the reign of Philip the Fair. See Strayer, "France, the Holy Land"; and Beaune, Naissance de la nation France , 237-64. For its popularity in political theory during Charles VI's reign, see Krynen, Idéal du prince , 207-39. Gerson in particular echoed the Grandes Chroniques and promoted the fleur-de-lis as a sign of good government in a sermon of 1392: "Et vous, très noble et excellent prince metez y diligence; ne souffres point que la noble louenge de vos predecesseurs qui est que on les apelle roys très créstiens, en vous defaille ou diminue. Prenes et constamment recepvues cet éscu d'armes à trois fleurs de liz pour la créance de la trinité en l'unité de la divinité." Cited in Krynen, Idéal du prince , 225. For the full text of the sermon, see Jean Gerson, L'oeuvre * poétique , vol. 4 of OEuvres * complètes , ed. Palemon Glorieux (Paris, 1960-73), 113-14. break 23. For John of Montaigu, who owned Vienna, ÖNB 2564, see L. Merlet, "Biographie de Jean de Montagu, GrandMaître de France (1350-1409)," Bibliothèque de l'École de Chartes 3 (1852): 248-84. 24. These versions of the Grandes Chroniques incorporate the same mistake in their texts—both jump within one folio from the end of chapter 72 of the life of Philip IV into the middle of chapter 1 of the life of Louis X, thus omitting five chapters of text. This error went unnoticed in the manuscript from Lyon; an unsuccessful attempt was made to correct it in John of Montaigu's book.
Chapter Nine— Popular Manuscripts and the Religion Royale 1. On the Parisian book trade in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, see Delalain, Étude sur les libraires ; Schultz, "Artistic and Literary Patronage," 181; Françoise Baron, "Enlumineurs, peintres, et sculpteurs Parisiens des XIV e et XV e siècles d'après les Archives de l'Hôpital Saint-Jacques-aux-Pèlerins," Bulletin archéologique du comité des travaux historique et scientifique 6 (1970): 77-116; Patrick M. de Winter, "Copistes, éditeurs, et enlumineurs de la fin du XIV e siècle: La production à Paris de manuscrits à miniatures," Actes du 100 e congrès national des sociétés savantes (1975) (Paris, 1978): 173-98; idem, La bibliothèque de Philippe le Hardi, duc de Bourgogne 1364-1404: Étude sur les manuscrits à peintures d'une collection princière à l'époque du "style gothique international" (Paris, 1985); Hindman, "Role of Author and Artist"; and idem, Épistre Othéa , 61-77. Although only two identifiable manuscripts produced for the book trade survive, other sources enable us to construct a broader picture of ownership for these books. Guenée rightly suggests that surviving inventories and other marks of ownership point to a restricted audience of kings and princes of France, close counsellors to the king, and nobles. Of those in government service, only members of the chancery demonstrated an interest in the Grandes Chroniques , and that was mostly in the late fifteenth century. Members of other governmental groups seem not to have owned these chronicles. Thus, in a study of libraries of members of Parlement during the reign of Charles VI, Autrand found only compendia (like that of Vincent of Beauvais), ancient history, and Trojan history. See Guenée, Histoire et culture historique , 321-23; idem, "Les Grandes Chroniques ;" and Françoise Autrand, "Culture et mentalité: Les librairies des gens du Parlement au temps du Charles VI," Annales. Économies, sociétés, civilisations 30 (1973): 1219-44. 2. For the displacement of the scene of Dagobert's patronage of Saint-Denis, see Guildhall 244, fol. 65v; Oxford Douce 217, fol. 57v; B.N. fr. 2597, fol. 65; W. 139, fol. 83v; Besançon, B.M. 863, fol. 56v; and Musée Condé 867, fol. 63v. The misrepresentation of Empress Richilda as an emperor occurs in four manuscripts: Guildhall 244, fol. 169v; Oxford Douce 217, fol. 153; Arsenal 5223, fol. 161; and B.N. fr. 2597, fol. 179. One book from this iconographical group suggests a possible textual source for this error; in the manuscript in the Arsenal Library, rubrics and text are changed to describe the emperor who presents the sword. 3. On W. 138, fol. 269, a rubric describes Charles VI, "qui a present regne m.cccc." For this, see Lilian M. C. Randall, France, 875-1420, Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the Walters Art Gallery , vol. 1 (Baltimore, 1989), 213-15, no. 80. 4. The two manuscripts from this group that include the beginning of the Grandes Chroniques (Valenciennes, B.M. 637 and Paris, B.N. fr. 2604) incorporate the four directions to the illuminator that first survive in Thomas of Maubeuge's Grandes Chroniques and that persistently appear in nonroyal copies of the text. See Chapter 2, note 38. The notes to the illuminator in the Grandes Chroniques in Valenciennes were first published by J. Mangaert, Catalogue descriptif et raisonné des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de Valenciennes continue (Paris, 1860), 512-16. These are transcribed in the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. For discussion of notes to the illuminator in an earlier copy of the Grandes Chroniques , see the discussion of B.N. fr. 10132 in Chapter 2. 5. See Valenciennes, B.M. 637, fol. 214v; and B.N. fr. 2604, fol. 236, both described by the note: "Comment le roy siet en une chere et pluseurs nobles deriere li et oussi devant lui et at un jeune homme en genoulz sans chapperon a cui il prent la main," and see Valenciennes, B.M. 637, fol. 252v; B.N. fr. 2604, fol. 278; and W. 138, fol. 31v,
described by the note: "Le pape seant en une haulte chere engourdinée devant lequel il at un homme agnulie sur lequel il met sa main sur sa teste et est vestu d'une house et devant ledit pape at pluiseurs clers vestus de housses avec bonnets siur les testes." 6. Fol. 134: "Comment le roy est tout droit accompaignies de deux nobles devant li tient son petit fils par la main et le present a ij evesque et le premier le benit et at deriere un chappellain." 7. Fol. 237v: "Un roy tout armé sans heaume assis sur un peton plusieurs gens d'armes a tous leurs escus derriere li tous drois et iij hommes en genoulz nue les testes en presentant leur espée par les points en criant merci." B.N. fr. 2604, fol. 248v, illustrates this scene as well. 8. Valenciennes, B.M. 637 does not have directions for the pictures on fols. 2, 14, 32, and 154. Miniatures in Paris, B.N. fr. 2604 (on fols. 1, 2v, 12v, 16v, 34, 145, 168v, 205, 330v, 349, 374, and 381) and in W. 138 (on fols. 87v, 107, 132, 133v, and 138v) illustrate scenes that either were not illustrated or did not have marginal directions in Valenciennes B.M. 637. For the subjects of these pictures, see the Catalogue of Manuscripts in this book. 9. Valenciennes, B.M. 637, fol. 111: "Comment le roy est tout droit et plusieurs nobles devant lui et devant li un chastiaulx et petites gens qui machonnant a tour, et en at un sur une eschiele et lautre bas qui taille pierre." Both pictures illustrate the rubric, "Li premiers parole des eglises et des autres edifices que li empereres edifia; de ses fames et de ses enfanz, et comment il furent norri et entroduit, et puis parole d'un sien fil de bast, qui avoit non Pepins, coment il fist conspiration contre son pere et de la venjance des traitors," equally well. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 3:140. 10. On the role of Clovis in the religion royale , see Bloch, Royal Touch , 77, 130-36; Beaune, "Saint Clovis"; idem, Naissance de la nation France , 55-77; Hindman and Spiegel, "Fleur-de-lis Frontispiece"; and Krynen, Idéal du prince , 214-15. 11. The change of iconography for Clovis in this frontispiece may result from the separation of text and image. In the image of Clovis's baptism from the manuscript in Paris, the unction is brought to St. Remi by the dove described in the text of the Grandes Chroniques . In the manuscript in Valenciennes, an angel brings the unction. These interpretations were viewed as alternate solutions as early as the time of Charles V, when a document describes the unction as brought by "the Holy Spirit, or it may be an angel, appearing in the form of a dove." For this document, see Bloch, Royal Touch , 77. Varied readings continued in the fifteenth century when these manuscripts were produced. See Krynen, Idéal du prince , 221. Only two other copies of the Grandes Chroniques contain two frontispieces. In B.N. fr. 17270 the second frontispiece marks the beginning of the life of Charlemagne, and in B.R. 5 it marks the beginning of the life of Louis the Pious. 12. For a discussion of Clovis as a model king and saint, see Beaune, "Saint Clovis." Beaune cites texts from the late fourteenth century that are as diverse as a universal chronicle written by the abbot of Moissac, Aimeri de Peyrac, and a poem written by Jean Gerson. Ibid., 148. 11. The change of iconography for Clovis in this frontispiece may result from the separation of text and image. In the image of Clovis's baptism from the manuscript in Paris, the unction is brought to St. Remi by the dove described in the text of the Grandes Chroniques . In the manuscript in Valenciennes, an angel brings the unction. These interpretations were viewed as alternate solutions as early as the time of Charles V, when a document describes the unction as brought by "the Holy Spirit, or it may be an angel, appearing in the form of a dove." For this document, see Bloch, Royal Touch , 77. Varied readings continued in the fifteenth century when these manuscripts were produced. See Krynen, Idéal du prince , 221. Only two other copies of the Grandes Chroniques contain two frontispieces. In B.N. fr. 17270 the second frontispiece marks the beginning of the life of Charlemagne, and in B.R. 5 it marks the beginning of the life of Louis the Pious. 12. For a discussion of Clovis as a model king and saint, see Beaune, "Saint Clovis." Beaune cites texts from the late fourteenth century that are as diverse as a universal chronicle written by the abbot of Moissac, Aimeri de Peyrac, and a poem written by Jean Gerson. Ibid., 148. 13. The passage in the Songe du vergier used to legitimize Valois rule reads as follows: "Or est vray comme il a esté touchée, que le roy Pypin a esté esleü par le pueple, ne n'a pas, pour sez demerites, deservi estre deposé, ne aussi ceulx qui sont, jusques au jour d'uy, descendus de luy, mez sont lez roys de France oyns de la Saincte Ampoule envoïee par continue l'Angre dez Cieulx. Et que dirons nous plus? Considerons la saincteté de ceste benoite lygnie; et premierement, lez fés et lez miracles de monsiegneur saint Charlemaigne, de monsiegneur saint Louys, roy de France, saint Louys de Marseille, saint Charles de Blais, jadiz duc de Bretaingne, et de plusieurs aultres Sainz qui sont descendus de ceste lygnie; considerons aussi lez graces, les vertus et lez miracles que Dieex a fais et ottroïés a Charles, le Quint de ce nom, qui a present regne; et certes nous trouverons, et pourons seürement conclurre, que le royaume de France qui a present est si est vary et naturel royaume, sanz violance, sanz force et sanz tyrannie, et de la volanté de Dieu establi." See Marion Schnerb-Lièvre, ed., Le songe du vergier (Paris, 1982), 1:153-54. 14. See Smith, "Saint Augustine's City of God "; and Jackson, Traité du sacre .
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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 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 . 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. 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 JeanBernard 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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 MoyenÂge et de la Renaissance offerts à Monsieur Charles Foulon par ses collègues, ses élèves, et ses amis (Rennes, 1980), 177-85. 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 MoyenÂge et de la Renaissance offerts à Monsieur Charles Foulon par ses collègues, ses élèves, et ses amis (Rennes, 1980), 177-85. 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.
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). 22. Geoffrey of Monmouth, British History , 254. break 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. 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). 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. 26. For the relevant text, see Book II, chapter fourteen of the chronicle. Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 1:14852. 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. 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. 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. 30. See de Pizan, "Christine de Pisan to Isabelle of Bavaria." 31. For the text, see Viard, ed., Grandes Chroniques , 4:263-70; 7:32. 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. 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
EPILOGUE— THE GRANDES CHRONIQUES IN THE LATE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 1. For the history of France in the fifteenth century, see Autrand, Charles VI , 538-600; M. G. A. Vale, Charles VII (Berkeley, 1974); and G. du Fresne de Beaucourt, Histoire de Charles VII (Paris, 1881-91). 2. When the Valois came to the throne, they promoted themselves as Capetians. English successors to the Valois employed the same tactics, even to the sleight-of-hand necessary to make Henry V both a direct descendant of Saint Louis and a legitimate king of England. Henry's father, Henry IV, had deposed the legitimate king, Richard II, in 1399. See Benedicta J. H. Rowe, "King Henry VI's Claim to France in Picture and Poem," The Library , 4th series, no. 13 (1933): 80-81. For earlier Plantagenet propaganda, see text pages 62-68. For adaptations of traditional forms of French coinage for the new government, see J. W. McKenna, "Henry VI of England and the Dual Monarchy: Aspects of Royal Political Propaganda 1422-32," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes , 28 (1965): 145-62; for genealogical posters displayed in public in Paris, see McKenna, "Henry VI," 151-55; and Rowe, "King Henry VI's Claim," 77-88. For public celebrations (coronations, entries, pageants), see McKenna, "Henry VI," 156-61; Mary Floran, "Document relatif à l'entrée du roi d'Angleterre Henri VI à Paris en 1431," Revue des études historique 75 (1909): 411-15; Guenée and Lehoux, Entrées royales , 59-70; and Bryant, The King and the City , 84-88, 158-59, 178-80. 3. Programs ranging from public ceremony to private manuscript commissions testify to the dynastic concerns of these late Valois monarchs. For a discussion of literature and manuscript commissions that promoted the religion royale , see Hindman and Spiegel, "The Fleurs-de-lis Frontispiece," 405-7; and Robert Scheller, "Imperial Themes in Art and Literature of the Early French Renaissance: The Period of Charles VIII," Simiolus 12 (1981-82): 5-69. For discussions of royal entries, see Guenée and Lehoux, Entrées royales , 70-136, 156-306; and Bryant, The King and the City . 4. For a sketch of fifteenth-century historiography, see Spiegel, Chronicle Tradition , 123-36. 5. Of the approximately 30 copies of the Grandes Chroniques that survive from the mid-fifteenth century, at least 20 were unillustrated; of these 20, 18 were written on paper or on paper gatherings with outer leaves of parchment. Colophons provide an idea of the audience for these books. They seem to have been written by notaries for their own use or by scribes for the use of other bureaucrats. Thus on the last page of B.N. fr. 4955 is a signature by a notary and secretary to Charles VII: "Escript par moy, Pierre de Taise. 1460.—de Taise." B.N. fr. 2612, fol. 319v, contains the inscription: "Ces croniques ont estre escriptes de la main de Nahei Fertuag pour maistre Jehan Blondeau praticien en la court de perlement. Et contiennent deux volumes, le quel blondeau, les vendra a qui vouldrea bailler
argent content paix et accord ainsi que en tel cas appartient." In B.N. fr. 4984, fol. 227 is: "Explicit jusques cy en cest jour qui est le vi e jour de decembre, l'an mil iiii c lxix, et escript à Callac de la main Grest, qui avoit lxxii an d'age à janvier ensuyvant." For discussion of these and others, see Guenée, "Les Grandes Chroniques ," 206-7. 6. On Fouquet's copy of the Grandes Chroniques , see François Avril, "Jean Fouquet, illustrateur des Grandes Chroniques de France ," in François Avril, Marie-Thérèse Gousset, and Bernard Guenée, Les Grandes Chroniques de France. Reproduction intégrale en facsimilé des miniatures de Fouquet. Manuscrit français 6465 de la Bibliothèque nationale de Paris (Paris, 1987), 13-70. Avril demonstrates by a codicological study of the book that Fouquet was given an unfinished manuscript from the first third of the fifteenth century to complete. This explains the change in pictorial format to large-scale miniatures halfway through the chronicle. See also Nicole Reynaud, Jean Fouquet , Les dossiers du département des peintures, no. 22 (Paris, 1981): 60-61 no. 21. 7. Although Saint Louis and Charlemagne were the most popular, Charles V was also used as an exemplum of kingship in entries, particularly in Louis XII's entry into Paris in continue 1498. See Guenée and Lehoux, Entrées royales , 28-29, 130, 132; and Bryant, The King and the City , 128. 8. For the political ambitions of the last Valois kings and of Louis XII, see Scheller, "Imperial Themes;" and idem, "Ensigns of Authority: French Royal Symbolism in the Age of Louis XII," Simiolus 13 (1983): 75-141. 9. See, for instance, the ceremonial books commemorating the entry of Francis I into Lyons in 1515 (Wolfenbuttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf 86.4) and of Claude of France and Anne of Brittany into Paris in 1517 (B.N. fr. 5758). These are discussed and representative miniatures published in Hindman and Spiegel, "Fleursde-lis Frontispiece," 405-7 and figs. 9-10. For specific analyses of French ceremony in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, see Ralph Giesey, The Royal Funeral Ceremony in Renaissance France , Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, no. 37 (Geneva, 1960); Jackson, Vive le Roi! ; Sarah Hanley, The "Lit de Justice" of the Kings of France: Constitutional Ideology in Ceremonial, Legend, and Discourse (Princeton, 1983); and Bryant, The King and the City . For a discussion of later commemorative art, see Louis Marin, Le portrait du roi (Paris, 1981); and idem, "Inscription of the King's Memory." 10. For reproductions of the images from Philip the Good's manuscript in Leningrad, see G. A. Tchernova, Miniatury Bolsih Francuzkih Hronik (Moscow, 1960); and Salomon Reinach, "Un manuscrit de la bibliothèque de Philippe le Bon à Saint-Petersbourg," Monuments et mémoires publiées par l'Académie des inscriptions (Fondation Piot) , 11 (1904). For further discussion of this manuscript, see Salomon Reinach, "Un manuscrit de Philippe le Bon à la Bibliothèque de Sainte-Petersbourg," Gazette des Beaux-Arts , no. 29 (1903): 265-78; no. 30 (1903): 53-65, 371-80; and Alphonse Bayot, "Sur l'exemplaire des Grandes Chroniques offert par Guillaume Filastre à Philippe le Bon," Mélanges Godefroid Kurth (Paris, 1908), 2:183-90. Ownership of the manuscript in Paris is not as securely established; all but the date was erased from its colophon. For the attribution of this manuscript to Robinet Testard, see Avril, "Jean Fouquet, illustrateur des Grandes Chroniques de France ," 281; and for information on other commissions given this artist, also called the Master of Charles of Angôuleme, see John Plummer, The Late Flowering: French Painting in Manuscripts 1420-1530 (New York, 1982), 46-47 no. 62. Henry VII's manuscript in London is unfinished; only 39 of the 211 miniatures planned were completed. See Gilson and Warner, Old Royal and Kings Collections , 2: 387-88. 11. B.N. fr. 2609 shares with two copies of the Grandes Chroniques painted by the Master of Marguerite of Orléans (B.N. fr. 2605 and Châteauroux, B.M. 5) a version of the prologue of the Grandes Chroniques that suppresses particularly royalist Paris-oriented portions of the text. These suppressions include references to the commissioning of the text, the division of the text into three parts corresponding to the three races of France, and the translatio studii . König dated B.N. fr. 2605 to the mid-1420s and Châteauroux B.M. 5 to c. 1460, and he described the artist's activity in Rennes, Angers, and Poitiers. For König's discussion, see Eberhard König, Französische Buchmalerei um 1450: Der Jouvenal-Maler, der Maler des Genfer Boccacio und die Anfange Jean Fouquets (Berlin, 1982); and for further discussion of B.N. fr. 2605, see Anne D. Hedeman, "The Clovis-Charlemagne Frontispiece to the Grandes Chroniques de France (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2605)," in The Politics of Myth , ed. Christopher Basewell and Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski (Ithaca, forthcoming). The chronicle in Leningrad contains a variety of texts. To the Grandes Chroniques through the life of Philip Augustus, it appends a version of Guillaume of Nangis's life of Saint Louis and a chronicle by Guillaume Fillastre. See Tchernova, Miniatury Bolsih Francuzkih Hronik . For patronage at the Burgundian court of Philip the Good, see Georges Doutrepont, La littérature française à la cour des ducs de Bourgogne (Paris, 1909); Brussels, Bibliothèque continue Royale, La miniature flamande: Le mécenat de Philippe le Bon (Brussels, 1959); and Jeffrey Chipps Smith, "The Artistic Patronage of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy 1419-67" (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1979). 12. For Verard's royal exemplars (B.N. Rés. vélins 725-27 and 728-30), see Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 290-94. Only four editions of the Grandes Chroniques were printed: in 1477 (Paris: Paquier Bonhomme), 1493 (Paris: Antoine Vérard), 1514, 1518 (both, Paris: Guillaume Eustache). For these, see Guenée, "Les Grandes Chroniques de France ," 206-08; idem, "Histoire d'un succès," 138; Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 1:281, 290-94; Joseph Basile Bernard van Praet, Catalogue des livres imprimés sur vélin de la Bibliothèque du Roi (Paris, 1822), 5:8792; M. Pellechet, Catalogue générale des incunables des bibliothèques publiques de France (1905; reprinted ed., Nedeln, 1970), 407-8, 469-70; and London, British Museum, Catalogue of Books Printed in the Fifteenth Century Now in the British Museum , pt. 8 (London, 1949), 80-81. These books usually included the Grandes Chroniques to the 1380s and supplemented the chronicle with other histories to continue it to the late fifteenth century. Although the first edition was unillustrated, the 951 woodcuts from Antoine Vérard's edition in 1493 established the pictorial cycle for subsequent printed versions of the text. Few of the pictures in Vérard's densely illustrated book relate closely to their texts. Original pictures created for the book are repeated several times without alteration within the cycle of illustrations, but the majority of the images were adapted without change from sources that had absolutely no relationship to the chronicle. Illustrations come from sources as diverse as the Old Testament (Samson, or Absalom hanging from a tree by his hair), ancient history (Battle of Amazons), or Josephus. Even the title to the last printed edition of the chronicle confirms that Guillaume Eustache viewed it in a different light. He sought to present the chronicle as a universal history; the title includes a list of nations whose histories were described in the Grandes Chroniques . In place of Vérard's, "Le premier volume Des croniq[ue]s de france. nouuellement. Imprimez a paris," Eustache puts "Le premier volume Des grans croniq[ue]s de France. Nouuellement imprimees a Paris Avecques plusieurs incidences survenues durant les regnes des trescrestiens roys de
France tant es royaulmes dytallie/ Dalmaigne/ Da[n]gleterre/Despaigne/ Hongrie/ Jherusalem/ Escoce/ Turquie/ Flandres et autres lieux circonvoisins. Avecques la Cronique frere Robert Gaugin contenue la cronique Martinienne." For these see Praet, Catalogue des livres imprimés , 5:88, 90-91. 13. B. N. fr. 4943, cited in Lejeune and Stiennon, Légende de Roland , 280.
APPENDIX I— ARTISTS IN GRANDES CHRONIQUES PRODUCED C. 1274–1422 1. Among books illustrated by one artist are Besançon, B.M. 863; B.R. Mss. 2 and 5; Cambrai, B.M. Ms. 682; Phillipps 1917; Geneva, B.M. Comites Latentes; London, B.L. Add. Mss. 15269, 21143, and Sloane 2433; Arsenal 5223; Paris, B.N. Mss. fr. 73, 2597, 2613, 2814, 6466-67, 17270, and 23140; Paris, Institut 324; Ste.-Gen, 783; Prague, Ms. 23 A 12; Reims, B.M. 1469; Switzerland, Private Collection; Toulouse, B.M. 512; and Vienna, ÖNB 2547 and 2564. I do not have enough information to classify Lyon 880. 2. By the libraires described by Rouse, "Parisian Book Trade," and the scribes and authors by Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 63-68. 3. Books in which artists worked independently include Ste.-Gen. 782; B.N. fr. 2615; B.N. fr. 10132; Castres, B.M.; Grenoble 407 Rés. (although two artists collaborated in one gathering and a new artist and scribe continued the manuscript in a second gathering); Valenciennes, B.M. 637 (although in one gathering one miniature was completed and a second executed by a later artist); B.N. 2604; W. 138; Guildhall 244; Oxford, Douce 217; Lyon continue P.A. 30; Musée Condé 867; B.N. fr. 2606; B.N. fr. 2616-20; Mazarine 2028; B.R. 3; and B.R. 1. Other manuscripts may belong in this first group. For instance, Royal 16 G VI, John the Good's Grandes Chroniques , contains 412 miniatures painted by at least six artists. Only once do two artists work in one gathering; Artist VI paints a bifolium in a gathering decorated by another artist. Similarly, Cotton Nero E II (a book from the early fifteenth century that contains the royal arms) contains only one gathering (no. 22) in which artists collaborated. A third manuscript from this group may well belong in the other. The Virgil Master and a close follower collaborated on two gatherings in W. 139, a manuscript in which several different artists were at work. If the artist who collaborated with the Virgil Master (and emulated his style) was an assistant, they may have worked in the same shop. 4. The group of manuscripts in which artists collaborated on gatherings also includes B.N. fr. 20350, a late fourteenth-century manuscript whose arms suggest that it may have been royal, and B.N. fr. 20352-53, an early fifteenth-century book. 5. The artists of the highest caliber are published by Meiss, Boucicaut ; idem, Fourteenth Century ; Avril, Manuscript Painting ; and Paris, Grand Palais, Fastes du gothique . For discussion of some of the more summary styles, see Diamond, "Manufacture and Market." 6. On the Épistre Othéa in Cambridge, see Hindman, Épistre Othéa , 141-42. 7. For the Boucicaut Master, see Meiss, Boucicaut . 8. For the Egerton Workshop, see Meiss, Limbourg Brothers , 384-88. 9. On B.N. fr. 6465, see Avril, Gousset, and Guenée, Les Grandes Chroniques de France ; and Reynaud, Jean Fouquet , 60-64. 10. For Oxford, Douce 217, see O. Pächt and J. J. G. Alexander, Illustrated Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library Oxford (Oxford, 1966) 1:48; and for Jehan de Niziéres, see Boinet, Manuscrits à peintures , 122. 11. See Paris, Grand Palais, Fastes du gothique , 299-300 no. 247. 12. See Meiss, Fourteenth Century , 354; and idem, Limbourg Brothers , 368. 13. See Paris, Grand Palais, Fastes du gothique , 325-26 no. 247. 14. See Paris, Grand Palais, Fastes du gothique , 299. 15. See Meiss, Fourteenth Century , 356-57; and idem, Limbourg Brothers , 377-82. 16. See Avril, Manuscript Painting , 92-95. 17. See Avril, Manuscript Painting , 108-9. 18. See Meiss, Fourteenth Century , 358; and idem, Limbourg Brothers , 358-89. 19. See Avril's contribution in Roesner, ed., Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale MS fonds française 146 ; Smeyers and Cardon, "Brabant of Parijs?" and Chapter 4 of this text. 20. For the Luçon Master, see Meiss, Fourteenth Century , 358-59; and idem, Limbourg Brothers , 393-97. 21. See König, Französische Buchmalerei , 255; and John Plummer, Last Flowering , 19-20. 22. See Lacaze, Vie de Saint Denis , 237-39. 23. See François Avril, "Trois manuscrits Napolitains des collections de Charles V et de Jean de Berry," Bibliothèque de l'École des Chartes 127 (1969): 307-8; and Paris, Grand Palais, Fastes du gothique , 338-39 no. 294. 24. On the second artist of B.N. fr. 823, whom Avril suggests may be the illuminator Remiet, see Avril, "Trois manuscrits Napolitains." 25. On the Royal Master, see Udovitch, "The Papeleu Master," 172-73 and 247-48; and Diamond, "Manufacture and Market." 26. Branner, Manuscript Painting , 129, 236-38. 27. Meiss, Fourteenth Century , 359; and idem, Limbourg Brothers , 406-7. 28. Meiss, Fourteenth Century , 360; and idem, Limbourg Brothers , 408-12. break
APPENDIX II— SURVIVING MANUSCRIPTS OF THE GRANDES CHRONIQUES AND THEIR PROVENANCE Notations within the following lists specify provenance based on the examination of inscriptions, colophons, or heraldry in the manuscripts and the comparison of the incipits and explicits of manuscripts with those listed in published inventories. For further information on these attributions, see the Catalogue of Manuscripts.
I— Manuscripts Consulted for This Study A— Illustrated Copies Dates are provided when textual or artistic information permits. These manuscripts are arranged chronologically. Before 1350 Ste.-Gen. 782 (c. 1274) Philip III, Charles V, Charles VI B.N. fr. 2615 (after 1314 and probably 1320s) Cambrai, B.M., Ms. 682 (1320s) "Raoul le Prêtre" (died 1443) B.N. fr. 10132 (1318) Pierre of Neufchâtel in Normandy B.R. 14561–64 (c. 1320) Charles V, Charles VI Switzerland, Private Collection (1320s–30s) John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy B.R. 5 (1330s) Castres, B.M. (1330s) Jeanne d'Amboise B.L. Royal 16 G VI (1335–40) John the Good; John Chandos, lord of Fownhope; Humphrey, duke of Gloucester 1350–80 Grenoble, 407 Rés. (1350s) B.N. fr. 2813 (c. 1360–80) Charles V; John of Berry Ex-Bute (1360s–70s) plus excised pages in B.L. Cotton Vitellius E II John of Berry ― 188 ― B.N. fr. 10135 (1370s) Charles VI; John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy; Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy B.N. fr. 17270 (1370s) Tanguy de Chastel, governor of Cerdagne and Rouissilon in 1468, chamberlain of Louis XI 1380–1422 Paris, Bibl. de l'Institut, Ms. 324 (late fourteenth century?) B.N. fr. 2608 (c. 1390s) Charles VI Lyon, B.M. 880 (c. 1390s?) Vienna, ÖNB Hs. 2564 (c. 1390–1410) John of Montaigu (died 1409) Guildhall Ms. 244 (c. 1390s) B.N. fr. 2613–14 (last quarter of century) Frederic Linange, married in 1337 to member of Châtillon family B.N. n.a. fr. 3372 (c. 1390s?) Oxford, Douce 217 (c. 1390s) W. 138 (1400) B.N. fr. 2814 (c. 1400) Valenciennes, B.M. 637 (c. 1400) Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy B.N. fr. 2604 (c. 1400) B.L. Sloane 2433 (c. 1400) B.R. 2 (c. 1400–1410) Governor of Lille; Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy B.N. fr. 23140 (c. 1400–1410) Munich, Cod. Gall. 4 (c. 1400–1410) Belgium, Private Collection (c. 1400–1410) B.L. Add. 15269 (c. 1400–1410) B.N. fr. 2606 (c. 1400–1410) B.N. fr. 2616–20 (c. 1400–1410) Ste.-Gen. 783 (c. 1400–1410) Regnault d'Angennes, chamberlain of Louis, duke of Guyenne Turin, B.N. L. II. 8 (c. 1400–1410) B.L. Add. 21143 (c. 1390–1410) Arsenal 5223 (c. 1390–1410) John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy; Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy Vienna, ÖNB 2547 (c. 1390–1410) ― 189 ―
Reims, B.M. 1469 (c. 1390–1410) Lyon, P.A. 30 (c. 1400–1410) B.N. fr. 2597 (c. 1400–1410) B.R. 1 (c. 1400–1410) B.L. Cotton Nero E II (c. 1415) Charles VI? Mazarine 2028 (c. 1405–08) Phillipps 1917 (c. 1408–10/15) Member of Rolin family M. 536 (c. 1410–12) B.R. 3 (c. 1410–15) Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy B.N. fr. 6466–67 (c. 1400–1415) John of Berry B.N. fr. 20352–53 (c. 1400–1415?) Besançon, B.M. 863 (c. 1407–15) Prague, Ms. 23 A 12 (c. 1407–15) W. 139 (c. 1400–1405?) B.L. Royal 20 C VII (c. 1400–1405?) Richard Gloucester (King Richard III) Musée Condé 867 (c. 1400–1405) Geneva, B.M., Comités Latentes, 182 . . . (c. 1410–12) B.N. fr. 73 (c. 1400–1405?) Robert Joliver, abbot of Mont-Saint-Michel (purchased 1438) B.N. fr. 20350 (c. 1400–1405?) Charles VI? Toulouse, B.M. Ms. 512 (c. 1400–1410) 1425–1500 B.N. fr. 6465 (begun c. 1420–30, completed c. 1450–60) B.N. fr. 2605 (c. 1425) Charles VII? Châteauroux, B.M. 5 (c. 1460) plus excised miniatures in B.N. Estampes Add. 133 rés. Ex-duke of Hamilton (mid-fifteenth century) No. 13 in the Hamilton Palace sale (23 May 1889) B.N. fr. 2610 (late fifteenth century) B.N. fr. 6468–69 (mid-to-late fifteenth century) B.N. fr. 2609 (1471) Grenoble, 408 rés. (1477) B.L. Royal 20 E I–20 E VI (1487) ― 190 ― B.N. fr. 5729, excerpt (late fifteenth century) Arsenal 5128, excerpt (late fifteenth century)
B— Unillustrated Copies Dates are provided when possible. This section is subdivided by centuries, because there is less information on which to base a date. Thirteenth Century B.L. Add. 38128 (after 1285 and probably before 1314) B.R. 4 (after 1285 and probably before 1314) John the Fearless, duke of Burgundy; Philip the Good, duke of Burgundy Fourteenth Century Musée Condé, Ms. 868 B.N. fr. 10136 B.N. fr. 24433 (flyleaves are fragments of the chronicle) B.N. fr. 2600 (second quarter of the fourteenth century) Fifteenth Century B.L. Add. 15303 (early fifteenth century) B.N. fr. n.a. 6225 (early fifteenth century) B.N. fr. n.a. 6776 (extract) B.N. fr. n.a. 10043 B.N. fr. n.a. 21876 B.N. fr. 1986 (extract) B.N. fr. 2601–2602 B.N. fr. 2611–12
B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N.
fr. fr. fr. fr. fr. fr. fr. fr. fr.
4933–35 4936 4937–38 4955 (1460) 4984 (1469) 4956 (extract) 4957 (extracts) 4979–83 (second half of fifteenth century) 15484 ― 191 ―
B.N. fr. 17271 B.N. fr. 23141 B.N. fr. 23142 B.N. fr. 23143 Turin, B.N. L.V. 12 Vienna, ÖNB 3431 Vienna, ÖNB 3300 Sixteenth Century B.N. fr. 2846 (extract)
II— Manuscripts not Consulted Since catalogues do not always note whether manuscripts are illustrated, those manuscripts that I know to be decorated are marked by an asterisk. It should be kept in mind that others may be illustrated as well. Fourteenth Century Chartres, B.M. 271 (312) *Genoa, Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini, Ms. 168 (before 1350) *Oxford, Bodleian Library, Rawlinson B 170 (fragment) B.N. fr. 15486–87 Vat. Reg. 744St.-Omer, B.M. 707 Fifteenth Century Aix-en-Provence, Bibl. Méjanes, 426 (1460) Angers, B.M. 903 Cambridge, Mass., Harvard College Library, Ms. fr. 27 Dijon, B.M. 228 (after 1461) Geneva, B.M., fr. 82 *Glasgow, Hunternian Museum, Ms. Hunter 203 (U.1.7) Glasgow, Hunternian Museum 235–236 (U.3.8–U.3.9) *Leningrad, Bibl. pub. Saltykov-Schedrin, fr. F.v.iv.1 *Leningrad, Bibl. pub. Saltykov-Schedrin Erm fr. 88 (c. 1450–60) Madrid, Bibl. nat. vitr. 24–12 (second half of the fifteenth century) ― 192 ― *Manchester, John Rylands Library, fr. 62 (R. 18106) *Marburg, Westdeutsche Bibliothek (formerly East Berlin, Staatsbibliothek, Hamilton 150) Orléans, B.M. 513–14 Oxford, laud. misc. 745 (extract) Vat. Reg. 689 Vat. Reg. 721 *Vat. Reg. 725 (extract) Vat. Otto 2635 Rouen, B.M. Ms. 1145 Valenciennes, B.M. 636 Seventeenth Century B.N. fr. 3952 (extract)
B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N.
fr. fr. fr. fr.
4310 (extract) 18542 (extract) 20351 (extract) 23153 (extract)
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY A— Manuscripts and Early Printed Books[fn1]A— Manuscripts and Early Printed Books[1] Anonymous of Béthune, Chronique des rois de France B.N. n. a. fr. 6295 Collection of Texts B.N. lat. 5925 Coronation Book of Charles V London, B.L. Cotton Tiberius B VIII Gaignières, Hommages du Comté de Clermont B.N. fr. 20082 Giles of Paris, Karolinus B.N. lat. 6191 Grandes Chroniques de France See list of manuscripts in Appendix II Grandes Chroniques de France Vol. 1 (Paris: Guillaume Eustache, 1514) Vols. 2 and 3 (Paris: Jean Morand for Antoine Verard, 1493) Chicago, Newberry Library, Inc. f. 8291
B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N.
Guillaume de Nangis, Chronique abrégée des rois de France lat. 6184 fr. 17276 fr. 2816 fr. 23138 fr. 20351
Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, Vie de Saint Louis B.N. fr. 5719 Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sanctii Dionysii B.N. fr. 2090–92 B.N. lat. 5286 B.N. lat. 13836
B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N. B.N.
Ménestrel d'Alphonse de Poitiers, Abrégé de l'histoire de France fr. 2815 fr. 4961 fr. 5700 fr. 13565 n. a. fr. 10043
Recueil of Baptismal Accounts B.N. fr. 4324 Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon B.N. fr. 22495
― 322 ―
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Paris, Paulin, ed. Les Grandes Chroniques de France . 6 vols. Paris, 1836–38. Pizan, Christine de. "Christine de Pisan to Isabelle of Bavaria, Paris, October 5, 1405." In Anglo-Norman Letters and Petitions from All Souls Ms. 182 , edited by Mary Dominica Legge, 144–150. Oxford, Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1941. ———. "La lamentacion sur les maux de la France de Christine de Pisan." Edited by A. J. Kennedy, in Mélanges de langue et littérature françaises du Moyen-Âge et de la Renaissance offerts à Monsieur Charles Foulon par ses collegues, ses élèves et ses amis , 177–85. Rennes, 1980. ———. Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roi Charles V . Edited by Suzanne Solente. 2 vols. Paris, 1936–40. Rymer, Thomas, and Sanderson, Robert, comp. Foedera,[*] conventiones, literae et cujuscunque generis acta publica inter reges angliae et alios quosvis imperatores, reges, pontifices, principes, vel communitates, 4 vols. in 7. London, 1816–69. Saint-Pathus, Guillaume de. Vie de Saint Louis . Edited by Henri-François Delaborde, Paris, 1899. Schnerb-Lièvre, Marion, ed. Le songe du vergier . 2 vols. Paris, 1982. Secousse, D. F. Ordonnances des roys de France de la troisième race recueillies par ordre chronologique . 21 vols. Paris, 1722–1849. Viard, Jules, ed. Les Grandes Chroniques de France . 10 vols. Paris, 1920–53.
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― 329 ―
INDEX A Abbreviated Chronicle (Guillaume de Nangis), 25 , 282 n.57 Abrégé de l'histoire de France (Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers), 3 , 286 –87 n.27; as model for Thomas of Maubeuge, 37 ; prologue as a source for Grandes Chroniques , 4 –5. See also Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Mss. fr. 2815, fr. 4961, fr. 5700, fr. 13565, n.a. fr. 10043 Abrégé de l'histoire de France (Noël de Fribois), 181 Aeneas, 155 , 169 , color plate 8 Agolant, 86 –87, fig. 66 Aimoin of Fleury: continuation of (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 12711), 52 ;
Epistula in librum de gestis Francorum ad Abbonem abbatem , 4 ; Historia Francorum , 4 Aix-la-Chapelle, châsse of Charlemagne, 12 Alexander V (pope), 163 , fig. 105 devices of, 163 Alix (queen of France), 20 , fig. 7 Amaury de Bene, 146 Amplified Chronicle (Guillaume de Nangis), 37 , 38 Angennes, Regnault d', 145 Anjou, 117 Anonymous of Béthune, Chronique des rois de France , 3 Anonymous of Chantilly, Chronique des rois de France , 3 , 270 n.8 Armagnac party, 179 Arsonval, Jean d', 174 Augustine, Saint, City of God , 152 Avril, François, 31
B Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, W. 138 (Grandes Chroniques ), 145 –47, 149 –50, 194 – 95, fig. 97 Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, W. 139 (Grandes Chroniques ), 194 –95 Barre, Jean de la, 145 Bayonne, 117 Belgium, private collection, excised miniatures (Grandes Chroniques ), 195 Benedict XII (pope), 64 Benedict, Saint, 79 ; death of, fig. 55 Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie , 12 –13, fig. 2 Berger, Samuel, 38
Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917 (Grandes Chroniques ), 153 –69, 176 , 195 –96, figs. 102 , 105 , 110 , 112 –16, 118 , color plate 8 ; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Bernard VII (count of Armagnac), 138 Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 863 (Grandes Chroniques ), 196 –97; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Black Prince, 116 ; mentioned in Charles V's speech (1378), 121 , 122 , 140 ; mentioned in Jean de Montreuil's Mémoire grossement abrégée , 139 Blanche of Castile (queen of France), 124 –26, 158 , figs. 87 , 88 , 104 , 106 Bordeaux, 117 Bourges, dauphin Charles flees to, 179 Bouvines, Battle of, 89 , figs. 26 , 27 Brétigny, Treaty of, 97 , 110 , 140 ; mentioned in Charles V's speech, 121 ; mentioned in Jean de Montreuil's Mémoire grossement abrégée , 139 Bridget of Sweden, Saint, 62 Brittany, arms of, 169 –70, fig. 100 Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms. 1 (Grandes Chroniques ), 197 –98; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms. 2 (Grandes Chroniques ), 198 –99; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms. 3 (Grandes Chroniques ), 153 , 154 , 169 – 76, 199 –200, figs. 109 , 121 –23; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms. 4 (Grandes Chroniques ), 154 ; condensation of imperial visit in, 154 ; continuation to 1384 in, 154 ; Latin poem in, 154 , 313 n.7
― 330 ― Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms. 5 (Grandes Chroniques ), 74 , 76 –82, 90 – 91, 200 –202, figs. 51 , 54 –60, color plate 2 ; structure of cycle in, 77 Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Ms. 14561–64 (Grandes Chroniques ), 203 Brut, 169 Burgundian party, 138 , 154 , 179
C Calais, siege of, 107 Cambrai, 128 Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 682 (Grandes Chroniques ), 30 –31, 204 –205, figs. 16 –17; dedicatory poems, 31 , 283 n.4, 295 n.6 Carloman, 174 , fig. 9 Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale (Grandes Chroniques ), 74 , 82 –91, 205 –206, figs. 26 , 27 , 52 , 61 , 62 , 64 –68, color plate 3 Cerfs volants , 142 , fig. 92 Chanson de Roland , 20 Chantilly, Musée Condé, Ms. 867 (Grandes Chroniques ), 206 –207; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Charlemagne, 86 –88, 147 –48, 152 , 158 , 160 , figs. 5 , 6 , 17 , 54 , 58 , 63 , 66 , 74 , 94 , 95 , 103 , 105 , 119 ; as model for Charles V, 98 , 105 ; as model for Philip III, 17 –22; as model for Philip IV, 35 ; as model for Philip V, 35 Charles IV (Holy Roman Emperor), figs. 90 , 91 ; hears speech given by Charles V (1378), 121 –22; promises aid to John the Good, 62 ;
visits Paris (1378), 116 , 128 –32, 180 Charles IV (king of France), 9 Charles V (king of France), 95 –133, 137 , 138 , 161 , 165 , figs. 90 , 91 , 107 –109, 113 , 121 , color plates 4 –6; crowned on Trinity Sunday, 124 ; devoted to Clovis, 151 ; invested with the Dauphiné, 173 ; as model for Charles VI, 140 ; Norman ducal models for, 97 –98; provides for education of Charles VI, 113 ; promulgates ordinance on education of dauphin, 113 , 172 ; promulgates ordinance on majority of dauphin, 113 , 124 ; speech before Holy Roman Emperor of (1378), 121 –22, 132 , 139 , 140 ; state dinner of, 129 –32; tomb of, 124 ; visit of Holy Roman Emperor to (1378), 128 –32, 180 Charles VI (king of France), 96 , 106 , 113 , 124 , 137 –44, 153 –77, figs. 80 , 101 , 102 , 112 , color plates 7 , 8 ; baptismal procession, 114 , 124 ; devices of 142 , 155 , 314 n.11; literary patronage of, 138 ; majority of, 137 ; as Menelaeus, 163 ; mental illness of, 137 , 169 Charles VII (king of France), 137 , 142 , 179 ; Clovis as model for, 151 Charles VIII (king of France), 180 Charles, duke of Orléans, 138 Charles Martel, major of the palace, 22 , fig. 18
Charles of Anjou, figs. 24 , 25 Charles of Dammartin, 114 –15, fig. 80 Charles of Lorraine, fig. 13 Charles of Montmorency, 114 –15, fig. 80 Charles of Navarre, 51 , 97 , 116 ; homage before Charles V, 106 ; mentioned in Charles V's speech (1378), 121 Charles the Bald, 84 –86, figs. 31 , 64 , 65 Charles the Simple, king of France, 24 , fig. 13 Chartier, Jean, 180 Chartres, Cathedral of Notre-Dame: glass, 12 ; sculpture, 9 Châteauroux, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 5 (Grandes Chroniques ), textual editing of, 318 n.11 Chevreuse, Anseau de, 83 Childeric III (king of France), 28 , fig. 15 Chilperic II, fig. 8 Chronicle. See Pseudo-Turpin, chronicle of Chroniqué. See Jean le Bel, chronicle of Chronique abrégée (Guillaume de Nangis): continuations of, 115 , 139 , 154 , 301 n.33; marginal notes (of Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Ms. fr. 2813) incorporated into continuations of, 301 n.34 Chronique des rois de France (Anonymous of Béthune), 3 Chronique des rois de France (Anonymous of Chantilly), 3 ; Rome, Vatican Reg. 624, 270 n.8; Chantilly, Musée Condé, Ms. 869, 270 n.8 Cité des Dames , Master of. See Illuminators
City of God (Saint Augustine), 152 Civil war, 138 , 169 Clement VI (pope), 64
― 331 ― Clodomir, figs. 98 , 150 Clotaire (king of France), 57 –59, figs. 35 , 37 , 39 , 40 Clotilda (queen of France), 150 , 170 –71, figs. 51 , 98 , 117 , 118 Clovis (king of France), 68 , 98 , 150 –52, 165 , figs. 2 , 16 , 46 , 47 , 51 , 52 , 98 , 114 ; as saint, 151 Codex Calixtinus , 12 Coinage, of Louis IX, 2 Collected Works (Christine de Pizan), London, British Library, Harley 4431, 163 , fig. 111 Conradin, fig. 25 Coronation, figs. 6 , 8 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 18 –20, 79 , 85 , 89 , 99 , 103 –108, 113 –16, 119 , color plates 1 , 4 –6; of Charles V, 110 –14, 161 , 165 , 180 dukes' roles in, 155 , 158 , 160 –61, 165 ordines for, 1 –2, 10 peers' roles in, 112 –14 of Philip of Valois, 122 regalia for, 10 , 20 , 68 , 112 , 281 n.46 Coronation Book. See London, British Library Cotton Tiberius B VIII Courtrai, Battle of, 83 , color plate 3 Crown: of Saint Louis, 68 ; of Charlemagne, 68 Crusades, 63 –67, figs. 41 –45
D Dagobert (king of France), 56 –59, 84 –86, 145 , figs. 32 –40, 61 Dedicatory poems of Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève Ms. 782, 14 –15, 279 n.31, 283 n.4, 295 n.6; in Switzerland, private collection (Grandes Chroniques ), 76 Delisle, Léopold, 52 Denis, Saint, 2 , 5 , 142 , 144 , figs. 31 , 36 , 92 ; appearance to Dagobert, 58 ; discovery of tomb of, 57 ; Parisian iconography of, 53 –54; as protector of royal health 142 Descriptio qualiter , 4 Devices (emblems), 154 , 155 , 163 , 169 , 170 –71, 175 , figs. 92 , 102 , 105 , 110 , 111 , 117 ; of Pope Alexander V, 163 ; of Charles VI, 142 , 155 , 314 n.11; of John the Fearless, 163 , 170 , 314 n.11; of Louis of Orléans, 163 , 170 , 316 n.25 Dialogues of Pierre Salmon (Pierre Salmon), Charles VI's devices in, 155 Directions to the illuminator, 149 , figs. 12 , 13 , 22 , 23 , 69 , 96 ; for Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Ms. fr. 2813, 96 , 97 , 102 ; in B.N. fr. 10132, 37 –41, 287 n.33; in Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 637, 146 –48 Directions to the rubricator, figs. 22 , 23 ; in B.N. fr. 10132, 37 –41, 287 n.28, 287 n.33 Directions to the scribe, figs. 12 , 13 , 69 ; for B.N. fr. 2813, 97 , 102 Durrieu, Paul, 38
Dynastic continuity, 22 –27, 30 , 102 –105, fig. 21 Dynastic legitimacy: established through reference to Louis IX, 63 –68, 124 ; established through the reditus , 102 –105
E Edward I (king of England), homage to Philip IV, 117 Edward II (king of France): homage to Philip IV, 117 ; homage to Philip V, 117 Edward III (king of England), 51 , 97 , 116 , figs. 82 –84; anti-Valois propaganda of, 62 –68; homage to Philip of Valois, 117 –21; sends letter to Philip of Valois (1331), 117 Einhard, Vita Caroli Magni , 4 Elizabeth of Hainaut (queen of France), fig. 30 ; as agent of reditus , 22 , 45 Emblems. See Devices Empire, relations with: as expressed in B.N. fr. 2813, 99 –102; as expressed in the late fifteenth century, 180 Entries, 180 , figs. 77 –78, 90 ; of Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor Charles IV and Wenceslaus, 128 –29; of John the Good, 109 –10 Epistula in librum de gestis Francorum ad Abbonem abbatem (Aimoin of Fleury), 4
F Fair of Lendit, 85 , figs. 62 , 63 Ferrand (count of Hainaut), 89 –90, figs. 27 , 68
Fillastre, Guillaume, 181 Fleur-de-lis, 142 –43, 158 Flote, Guillaume, 83 Fouquet, Jean, 180 France moderne , 142
― 332 ― Francion (son of Hector), 12 , 169 , figs. 71 , 72 Frederick I Barbarossa, 19 Froissart, Jean, Chroniques , 121
G Gaignières, Roger de, 120 Ganelon, 105 , fig. 75 Gascony, 117 , 120 Genealogy, 30 , fig. 21 Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Comites Latentes Ms. A and B (Grandes Chroniques ), 207 –208; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain , 169 Gerson, Jean, 138 , 139 , 143 , 153 , 168 , 174 ; Veniat pax , 168 ; Vivat rex , 168 Gesta Dagoberti regis , 4 Gesta Ludovici Pii imperatoris , 4 Gesta Philippi Augusti (Rigord), 4 , 22 Giles of Pontoise (abbot of Saint-Denis), 10 –11 Godfrey of Bouillon, 131 , fig. 91 Golein, Jean, Traité du sacre , 113 –14, 128
Grandes Chroniques de France. See : Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, W. 138, W. 139; Belgium, private collection, excised miniatures; Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Phill. 1917; Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 863; Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert Ier, Mss. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 14561–64; Cambrai, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 682; Castres, Bibliothèque Municipale; Chantilly, Musée Condé, Ms. 867; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 5; Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, Comites Latentes Ms. A and B; Grenoble, Bibliothèque Hoche, Ms. 407, Rés.; Leningrad, Public Library, Saltykov-Schedrin, Er. fr. 88; London, British Library, Add. Mss. 15269, 21143, 38128, Cotton Nero E II, Cotton Vitellus E II, Royal 16 G VI, Royal 20 E I-20 E VI, Sloane Ms. 2433, vols. A, B, and C; London, Guildhall, Ms. 244; Lyon, Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon, Mss. 880, P.A. 30; Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Gall. 4; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 536; Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce Ms. 217; Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Mss. 5128, 5223; Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Institut, Ms. 324; Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028; Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. fr. 73, fr. 2597, fr. 2600, fr. 2604, fr. 2605, fr. 2606, fr. 2608, fr. 2609, fr. 2615, fr. 2616–20, fr. 2813, fr. 2814, fr. 5729, fr. 6465, fr. 6466–67, fr. 10132, fr. 10135, fr. 17270, fr. 20350, fr. 20352–53, fr. 23140, n.a. fr. 3372; Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Mss. 782, 783; Paris, Société des Autographs des Manuscrits Français, Ex-Bute Manuscript; Prague, National Library, Kynzvarte[*] Ms. 23 A 12; Reims, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 1469;
Switzerland, private collection; Toulouse, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 512; Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, Ms. L. II. 8; Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 637; Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Hs. 2547, 2564 Grenoble, Bibliothèque Hoche, Ms. 407, Rés. (Grandes Chroniques ), 208 –209 Guillaume de Nangis, 20 Abbreviated Chronicle (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 6184), 25 , 282 n.57 amplified chronicle , 37 , 38 Chronique Abrégée , continuations of, 115 , 139 , 154 , 301 n.33 Vita Sancti Ludovici , 20 Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, Vie de Saint Louis , 126 , fig. 88
H Helen of Troy, 12 , 13 , 14 , 155 , figs. 1 , 2 , 110 , color plate 8 ; glossed as Isabeau of Bavaria, 163 Henri de Trévou, 95 , 105 , 122 , fig. 69 ; manuscripts attributed to, 297 –98 n.4; notes addressed to, 97 , 102 Henry III (king of England), fig. 81 ; homage before Louis IX, 117 ; Treaty of Paris, 117 Henry V (king of England), 179 Henry VI (king of England), 179 Henry VII (king of England), 181 Henry of Spain, fig. 25 Histoire ancienne , 13 Historia Francorum (Aimoin of Fleury), 4
History of the Kings of Britain (Geoffrey of Monmouth), 169 Holy unction, 2 , 68 , 70 , 98 , 152 , fig. 47
― 333 ― Homage, 140 , figs. 81 –84; conditional, 117 , 120 ; immixtio manuum in, 120 –21; liege, 117 , 120 ; of Edward I to Philip IV, 117 ; of Edward II to Philip IV, 117 , 302 n.5; of Edward II to Philip V, 117 ; of Edward III to Philip of Valois, 63 , 117 –21, 139 ; of Henry III to Louis IX, 117 , 139 ; osculum in 120 ; owed by England to France, 116 –17 Homages du comté de Clermont , 120 Honnorez, Pierre, of Neufchâtel in Normandy, 37 , 43 Hugh Capet (king of France), 24 –25, 96 , 102 –105, 160 , figs. 14 , 21 ; genealogy of, fig. 21 Hugh of Fleury, 4 Hugh the Great, fig. 73 ; and Valerian prophecy, 103 Hundred Years' War, 51 , 71 , 122 , 179
I Illuminators, 183 –86; Jean Fouquet, 180 ; Simon Marmion, 181 ; Master of the Cité des Dames , 153 –77;
Master of the Roman de Fauvel , 74 –91; Robinet Testard, 181 . See also Directions to the illuminator Immixtio manuum , 120 –21 Isabeau of Bavaria (queen of France), 138 , 168 , 169 , 179 ; charged with the education of the dauphin, 172 Ivo of Saint-Denis, Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii. See Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Mss. fr. 2090–92, lat. 5286, lat. 13836
J Jacques la Rue, 116 James (apostle), 12 , 18 , fig. 5 Jean de Jadun, 35 Jean de Montreuil, 138 ; Memoire grossement abrégée , 138 ; Traité contre les anglais , 139 Jean le Bel, chronicle of, 121 Jeanne d'Amboise, 74 , 83 –85, color plate 3 ; ex-libris , 83 Jeanne of Bourbon (queen of France), 106 , 124 , figs. 107 , 108 , 113 , color plates 4 – 6; tomb of, 124 Jeanne of Burgundy (queen of France), 54 tomb of, 124 Jeanne of Evreux (queen of France), 114 –15, 175 , figs. 80 , 120 Jeanne of France, marriage to John of Montfort, 170 Jerusalem, conquest of, 131 Joan of Arc, 179 John XXII, pope, 64
John (duke of Bedford): as promoter of political propaganda in Paris, 180 ; as regent of France, 179 John (duke of Berry), 138 , 145 , 169 ; charged with education of dauphin, 172 ; as count of Auvergne, 132 John (king of Jerusalem), 82 , 160 , figs. 60 , 104 John of Montaigu, 96 , 144 John of Montfort (duke of Brittany), marriage to Jeanne of France, 170 John of Touraine (dauphin), 137 , 179 John the Fearless (duke of Burgundy), 138 , 154 , 163 , 165 , 168 , 169 , 179 , figs. 102 , 105 , color plate 8 ; devices of 163 , 170 , 314 n.111 as son of Clotilda, fig. 117 John the Good, king of France, 51 –73, 142 , 173 , figs. 76 –79, 121 ; cured by relics, 142 ; founded Order of the Star, 107 –109; as model for Charles V, 107 –10; tomb of, 124 Joinville, Jean de, 15 , 117 Joyeuse , sword of Charlemagne, 20 Juvenal des Ursins, Jean, 180
K "King's Evil." See Scrofula Krynen, Jacques, 138 , 139
L Lamentacion sur les maux de la guerre civile (Christine de Pizan), 168 Lejeune, Rita, 54 , 59 –60
Legitimacy established through blood, 35 ; established through cure of scrofula, 71 ; established through just government, 25 ; Valois problems with, 51 , 61 –71, 116 –26 Leningrad, Public Library, Saltykov-Schedrin, Er. fr. 88 (Grandes Chroniques ), 181 Leo III (pope), figs. 6 , 103 , 105 Lettre à la reine (Christine de Pizan), 168 Libraires , 30 ; use of master list of directions to illuminators by, 149 ; use of textual exemplaires by, 37 , 43 , 74
― 334 ― Lit-de-justice , 179 Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V (Christine de Pizan), 139 , 140 , 305 n.36 Livre des information des princes (Jean Golein), 297 n.4 London, British Library, Add. Ms. 15269 (Grandes Chroniques ), 209 –10; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 London, British Library, Add. Ms. 21143 (Grandes Chroniques ), 210 ; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 London, British Library, Add. Ms. 38128 (Grandes Chroniques ), dedicatory poems in, 283 n.4 London, British Library, Cotton Nero E II (Grandes Chroniques ), 210 –12; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 London, British Library, Cotton Vitellus E II (Grandes Chroniques ), 212 London, British Library, Cotton Tiberius B VIII (Coronation Book ), 112 –13, color plates 5,6 London, British Library, Harley 4431 (Collected Works of Christine de Pizan), 163 , fig. 111
London, British Library, Royal 16 G VI (Grandes Chroniques ), 51 –73, 76 , 213 –21, figs. 31 , 38 –50, 63 , color plate 1 ; effaced signature in, 290 n.5; late fourteenth century marginal annotations of, 52 –54; sources for textual revision of, 52 ; structure of pictures in, 55 , 60 ; structure of text in, 52 London, British Library, Royal 20 E I-20 E VI (Grandes Chroniques ), 180 , 221 –26 London, British Library, Sloane Ms. 2433, vols. A, B, and C (Grandes Chroniques ), 226 – 28; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 London, Guildhall, Ms. 244 (Grandes Chroniques ), 228 ; extra text passages in, 288 n.38 Louis II of Bourbon, 120 Louis III (king of France), 174 , fig. 122 Louis IV (king of France), 165 , 168 , fig. 116 Louis V (king of France), fig. 13 Louis VII (king of France), 10 , 20 –21, 146 , figs. 7 , 53 Louis VIII (king of France), 22 , 103 , 158 , 161 , 173 , figs. 104 , 106 , 123 ; reditus in life of, 160 ; tomb of, 2 Louis IX (king of France), 9 , 10 , 11 , 116 , 144 , 152 , 165 , figs. 43 , 45 , 49 , 50 , 59 , 81 , 87 , 88 , 92 , 93 , 115 , 123 ; crusades of, 64 –68; as model for Charles V, 96 , 98 , 124 –26, 143 ; as model for Charles VI, 96 , 139 , 140 –42, 143 –44; as model for Henry V and Henry VI, 179 ; as model for John the Good, 63 –71; as model for Louis of Guyenne, 173 –74;
as model for Philip III, 20 ; as model for Philip IV, 35 ; as model for Philip V, 35 ; nativity of, 124 ; as object of devotion at court, 168 ; Old Testament models for, 10 ; patronage for, 10 ; political ideology of, 1 , 5 ; sanctity of, 67 ; translation of relics of, 79 ; Treaty of Paris, 117 Louis X (king of France), 9 Louis XI (king of France), 180 , 181 Louis XII (king of France), 180 Louis (duke of Anjou), 109 , 137 Louis (duke of Bourbon), 138 Louis (duke of Orléans), 138 , 168 , 169 , 172 , figs. 110 –11; devices of, 163 , 170 –71; the Order of the Porcupine of, 163 ; as Paris, 163 ; as son of Clotilda, fig. 117 Louis of Guyenne (dauphin), 137 , 138 , 145 , 161 , 169 , 172 , 179 ; exempla for, 174 Louis the Pious (emperor), 146 –47, 171 , figs. 20 , 54 , 94 , 95 , 119 Louis the Stammerer (king of France), 145 , 173 –74, fig. 122 Lyon, Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon, Ms. 880 (Grandes Chroniques ), 96 , 140 , 144 , 228 –30; as model for Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek Hs. 2564
Lyon, Bibliothèque de la Ville de Lyon, P.A. 30 (Grandes Chroniques ), 230 –31; extra text passages in, 288 n.38
M Maine, 117 Marcel, Étienne, 106 Marmion, Simon, 181 Matthew of Vendôme (abbot of Saint-Denis), 9 , 10 –11, 15 , 16 , fig. 4 Maurice (emperor of Constantinople), fig. 57 Memoire grossement abrégée (Jean de Montreuil), 138
― 335 ― Menelaeus (king of Greece), glossed as Charles VI, 163 , fig. 110 , color plate 8 Ménestrel of Alphonse of Poitiers: Abrégée de l'histoire de France , 3 , 286 –87 n.27; as model for Thomas of Maubeuge, 37 ; prologue as a source for Grandes Chroniques , 4 –5. See also Paris Bibliothèque Nationale Mss. fr. 2815, fr. 4961, fr. 5700, fr. 13565, n.a. fr. 10043 Mézières, Philippe de, 139 ; Songe du vieil pelerin , 140 , 305 n.36 Mirror of Princes, 15 Monfrin, Jacques, 138 Mons-en-Pévèle, Battle of, 83 Montjoies , 34 Most Christian king (rex christianissimus ), 1 , 143 , 152 Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. Gall. 4 (Grandes Chroniques ), 231 ; extra text passages in, 288 n.38
N New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 536 (Grandes Chroniques ), 153 –69, 176 , 231 – 32, figs. 101 , 103 , 104 , 107 , color plate 7 ; condensation of description of imperial visit in, 154 ; continuation to 1384 in, 154 ; Latin poem in, 154 , 313 n.7 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, M. 638 (Old Testament Picture Book), 2 Noël de Fribois, 181 Normandy, 117 ; Charles V's interests in, 97 –98 Notes to the illuminator. See Directions to the illuminator Notes to the rubricator. See Directions to the rubricator Notes to the scribe. See Directions to the scribe
O Odo Capet, fig. 11 Old Testament kings, 9 –10 Orders of chivalry: Order of the Garter, 109 ; Order of the Porcupine (Mail), 163 , fig. 111 ; Order of the Star, 107 –109, 129 , 131 , 132 , fig. 76 Ordinance, on education (tutelle ) of the dauphin, under Charles V, 113 –14; under Charles VI, 172 Ordinance, on the majority of the dauphin, under Charles V, 111 , 113 , 124 Ordinance, on regency for the dauphin: under Charles V, 137 ; under Charles VI, 172 Oriflamme , 10 , 19 , 83 Orléanist party, 138
Osculum , 120 Ouy, Gilbert, 38 Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce Ms. 217 (Grandes Chroniques ), 232 –33; extra text passages in, 288 n.38
P Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 5128 (Grandes Chroniques ), 180 , 233 –34 Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms. 5223 (Grandes Chroniques ), 233 –34 Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Institut, Ms. 324 (Grandes Chroniques ), 234 Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028 (Grandes Chroniques ), 153 , 154 , 160 , 169 – 74, 175 , 235 , figs. 100 , 106 , 108 , 117 , 119 , 120 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 73 (Grandes Chroniques ), 235 –36; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 1950 (Livre des information des princes ), 297 n.4 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2090–92 (Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii ), 11 , 284 –85 n.17 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2597 (Grandes Chroniques ), 236 –37; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2600 (Grandes Chroniques ), 296 n.12 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2604 (Grandes Chroniques ), 145 –52, 237 –38, fig. 95 ; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2605 (Grandes Chroniques ): textual editing, 318 n.11 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2606 (Grandes Chroniques ), 238 –39; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2608 (Grandes Chroniques ), 96 , 140 –44, 239 – 41, figs. 92 , 93 ; dependence on B.N. fr. 2813, 140
― 336 ―
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2609 (Grandes Chroniques ), 181 ; textual editing, 318 n.11 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2615 (Grandes Chroniques ), 30 –34, 241 –43, figs. 18 –20; structure of text in, 32 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2616–20 (Grandes Chroniques ), 243 –44; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2813 (Grandes Chroniques ), 95 –133, 139 , 143 , 244 –48, figs. 70 , 71 , 73 –87, 89 –91, color plate 4 ; maquette for, 53 , 96 ; as model for Lyon, B.M. 880, 140 ; as model for B.N. fr. 2608, 140 ; as model for Vienna, ÖNB 2564, 140 ; pictorial structure of, 96 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2814 (Grandes Chroniques ), 248 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 2815 (Abrégé de l'histoire de France ), 286 –87 n.27 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 4324 (Recueil ), 301 n.31 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 4961 (Abrégé de l'histoire de France ), 286 –87 n.27 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 5700 (Abrégé de l'histoire de France ), 286 –87 n.27 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 5716 (Vie de Saint Louis ), 126 , fig. 88 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 5729 (Grandes Chroniques ), 180 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 6465 (Grandes Chroniques ), 180 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 6466–67 (Grandes Chroniques ), 145 , 248 –49; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10132 (Grandes Chroniques ), 37 –47, 77 , 145 , 249 –51, 285 –86 n.22, figs. 22 –25, 28 –30; extra text passages in, 288 ; stock scenes in, 41
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 10135 (Grandes Chroniques ), 96 , 139 –40, 143 , 251 –52, fig. 72 ; in relation to B.N. fr. 2813, 99 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 13565 (Abrégé de l'histoire de France ), 286 –87 n.27 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 17270 (Grandes Chroniques ), 252 –53 in relation to B.N. fr. 2813, 102 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 20350 (Grandes Chroniques ), 253 –55 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 20352–53 (Grandes Chroniques ), 255 –56 extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 22495 (Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon ), 306 n.44 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. fr. 23140 (Grandes Chroniques ), 256 –57 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. n.a. fr. 3372 (Grandes Chroniques ), 257 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. n.a. fr. 10043 (Abrégé de l'histoire de France ), 286 – 87 n.27 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5286 (Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii ), 35 , 284 –85 n.17, figs. 32 –37; Dagobert cycle in, 56 –58; marginal notes in, 35 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 5925 (Recueil ), 4 ; as source for revisions in Royal 16 G VI, 52 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 6184 (Abbreviated Chronicle ), 282 n.57 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 12711 (Aimoinis Continuatio ), as source for Royal 16 G VI, 52 Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Ms. lat. 13836 (Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii ), 11 , 35 , fig. 21 Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782 (Grandes Chroniques ); 11 –29, 257 –58, figs. 88 , 3 –15, 69 ; Charlemagne subcycle of, 18 –20 dedicatory poems in, 14 –15, 76 , 283 n.4; hierarchy of miniatures of, 16 –17, 22 ;
prologue of, 4 –5, 14 –15, 17 ; as source for B.N. fr. 2813, 53 , 96 , 102 , 297 n.4; structure of text of, 4 , 16 , 274 n.25 Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 783 (Grandes Chroniques ), 145 , 259 ; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Paris, Cathedral of Notre-Dame, 10 Paris, Palais de la Cité: royal statues in the Grande Salle, 35 , 62 Paris, Paulin, 117 , 122 Paris, Sainte-Chapelle, 2
― 337 ― Paris, Société des Autographs des Manuscrits Français, Ex-Bute Manuscript (Grandes Chroniques ), 259 –61 Paris (son of Priam), 12 , 13 , 14 , figs. 1 , 2 , 110 ; as Louis of Orléans, 163 Paris, Treaty of, 117 ; mentioned in Charles V's speech (1378), 121 Parlement of Paris: hears claims to relics of Saint Denis, 53 ; passes ordinance regulating majority of French kings, 111 Peers, at coronation, 112 –14, color plates 4 –6 Pepin (king of France), 22 –24, 32 , figs. 9 , 15 , 18 , 19 Peter the Hermit, 131 , fig. 91 Pharamond (king of France), 62 , fig. 99 , color plate 1 Philip III (king of France), 9 , 10 , 11 , 13 , 15 , 20 ; use of Joyeuse (sword of Charlemagne) at coronation of, 20 , figs. 3 , 4 Philip IV, 10 , 11 , 83 ; homage of Edward I before, 117 ;
homage of Edward II before, 117 ; and tombs at Saint-Denis, 35 Philip V (king of France), 9 , 11 , 165 , fig. 107 ; homage of Edward II before, 117 Philip Augustus (king of France), 147 , figs. 7 , 27 , 30 , 67 , 96 , 97 ; marriage to Elizabeth of Hainaut, 45 ; as model for Philip III, 20 –22; as model for relations with the nobility, 88 –90; tomb of, 2 ; use of Joyeuse (sword of Charlemagne) at coronation of, 22 Philip of Valois (king of France), 51 , 62 –64, 68 , 116 , figs. 82 –86; coronation of, 122 ; homage of Edward III before, 117 –21; receives letter from Edward III (1331), 117 ; tomb of, 124 Philip the Bold (duke of Burgundy), 137 , 138 , 154 , fig. 109 ; as count of Flanders, 132 ; charged with education of the dauphin, 172 ; invested with duchy of Burgundy, 161 Philip the Good (duke of Burgundy), 154 , 181 Philippa of Hainaut (queen of England), 121 Pierre d'Orgemont, 52 Pierre le Tertre, 116 Pilgrimage of Charlemagne , 20 Pintoin, Michel, 180 Pizan, Christine de, 139 , 153 , 163 , 168 , 172 , 174 , fig. 111 ; Collected Works (London, British Library, Harley 4431), 163 ;
Lamentacion sur les maux de la guerre civile , 168 ; Lettre à la reine , 168 ; Le livre des fais et bonnes meurs du sage roy Charles V , 139 , 140 , 305 n.36 Poetic colophon. See Dedicatory poems Poitiers, Battle of, 106 Poitou, 117 , 120 Prague, National Library, Kynzvarte[*] Ms. 23 A 12 (Grandes Chroniques ), 261 –62 Priam, 12 , 155 , figs. 1 , 2 , color plate 8 Primat (monk of Saint-Denis), 3 –6, 9 , 15 , 22 , 96 , figs. 3 , 4 Princes of the Blood, 169 ; special status of, 176 –77 Proemium (Aimoin of Fleury), as a source for the Grandes Chroniques , 5 Pseudo-Turpin, chronicle of, 3 , 4 , 12 , 18
Q Queen, importance in government of, 171 –72
R Raoulet d'Orléans, 95 , 106 –107, 115 , 116 , 117 –18, 122 ; added marginal notes to B.N. fr. 2813, 121 –22 edited rubrics: figs. 84 , 86 ; signed manuscripts, 298 n.4 Reditus regni ad stirpem Karoli Magni , 22 , 25 , 35 , 45 –46, 102 –105, 160 , 165 , 277 n.18 Reims, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 1469 (Grandes Chroniques ), 262 Reims, Cathedral of Notre-Dame, sculpture, 10 Religion royale , 139 , 150 , 151 , 153 , 165 , 180 Remi, Saint, 150 , figs. 47 , 51 , 52 , 98 Rex christianissimus. See Most Christian king Richard II (king of England), 116 , 140
Richard the Lionheart (king of England), 88 , 132 Richilda (empress), 145 Rigord, Gesta Philippi Augusti , 4 , 22 Robert (count of Artois), 83 , color plate 3 Robert (duke of Normandy), 131
― 338 ― Rolin, Nicholas, 154 ; arms of, color plate 8 Rollo (Robert) (duke of Normandy), 97 , fig. 70 Roman de Godefroi de Bouillon , 306 n.44 Roman de Troic (Benoît de Sainte-Maure), 12 –13, fig. 2 Rubricator. See Directions to the rubricator Rubrics, figs. 84 , 86 ; edited, 118 ; substituted, 122 ; used as explanatory captions, 37 , 41 , 43
S Sadler, Donna, 10 Saint-Denis, figs. 33 , 35 –39; abbey church, 28 ; cult of Charlemagne, 19 ; Fair of Lendit, 86 ; historiography at, 3 –4, 273 n.2; stained glass of, 12 ; sculpture of, 9 ; tombs, 2 –3, 10 –11, 25 , 35 , 86 , 124 , 277 n.18, 282 n.57 Sainte-Chapelle, stained glass of, 2
Scepter of Charles V, 112 , color plates 4 –6 Scepter of Dagobert, 112 , color plates 4 –6 Scribe. See Directions to the scribe; Henri de Trévou; Raoulet d'Orléans Scrofula: king's ability to cure, 2 , 68 , 70 –71, fig. 50 s'Heerenberg, Stichting Huis Bergh, Romain de Troie (excerpts), 13 , fig. 2 Sicambria, figs. 71 , 72 , 99 Sigebert of Gembloux, 4 Sigismund (king of Burgundy), 151 , fig. 98 Le songe du vergier , 152 Le songe du vieil pelerin (Philippe de Mézières), 140 , 305 n.36 Stephen II (pope), 28 , figs. 15 , 19 Stiennon, Jacques, 54 , 59 –60 Succession, royal, 34 –35, 51 , 61 –63, 79 , 95 , 171 –72, fig. 120 Suger (abbot of Saint-Denis), 10 ; Vita Ludovici VI Grossi regis , 4 Switzerland, private collection (Grandes Chroniques ), 74 , 76 , 82 , 90 , 262 –63, fig. 53
T Testard, Robinet, 181 Theodosius (emperor), 99 , figs. 71 , 72 Thomas of Maubeuge, 37 –47, 74 Thwaytes, Thomas, 181 Toulouse, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 512 (Grandes Chroniques ), 263 –64; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Touraine, 117
Traité contre les anglais , (Jean de Montreuil), 139 Traité du sacre (Jean Golein), 113 –14, 128 , 152 Translatio studii , 5 Tree of Descent, 43 , fig. 29 Troy, figs. 28 , 71 , 72 , 100 , 112 ; color plates 7 , 8 ; destruction of, 12 , 14 , 155 , 169 ; fugitives from, 155 ; Greeks landing in, 99 Troyes, Treaty of, 179 Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale, Ms. L. II. 8 (Grandes Chroniques ), 264
V Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms. 637 (Grandes Chroniques ), 145 –52, 264 – 66, figs. 94 , 96 , 98 –99; directions to the illuminator in, 146 –47; extra text passages in, 289 n.38 Valerian prophecy, 103 –105 Valery, Saint, fig. 73 Veniat pax (Jean Gerson), 168 Vérard, Antoine, 181 Viard, Jules, 122 Vie de Saint Louis (Guillaume de Saint-Pathus), 124 –26, fig. 88 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Hs. 2547 (Grandes Chroniques ), 266 Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Hs. 2564 (Grandes Chroniques ), 96 , 140 , 144 , 266 –68 Vita Caroli Magni (Einhard), 4 Vita et Passio Sancti Dionysii (Ivo of Saint-Denis), 11 , 55 –56, 284 –85 n.17 Vita Ludovici VI Grossi regis (Abbot Suger), 4
Vita Sancti Ludovici (Guillaume de Nangis), 20 Vivat rex (Jean Gerson), 168
W Wenceslaus (king of the Romans), 129 , figs. 90 , 91
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