DOI Heft:
Artykuły
DOI Artikel:Płonka-Bałus, Katarzyna: "En grant affection": an unusual portrait of Jean Chenart in a French fifteenth-century prayer book in the Princes Czartoryski Library in Cracow
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.32786#0037
37
and surname: JEHAN CHENART, criss-crossing and re-
peated twice. One can be sure that this inscription, bear-
ing clearly personal overtones, was made on the patrons
special order. As far as the structure of the text and kind
of narration are concerned, this is a prayer that Kathryn
Rudy called a ‘prayer of entreaty’ (hence the word la sup-
plication in Chenarts mouth). In this kind of prayer, the
adorant, speaking in the first person singular, directly ad-
dresses God, who is entreated in the second person sin-
gular (in Chenarts prayer, mon redempteur qui tespieds...
etc.; emphasis of the author), and awaits the fulfilment of
the specific request expressed in the monologue. 9 The ab-
sence of the characteristic rubrics, that usually specify the
extent of indulgence, and the distinctly indicative mood
of the text suggest that Chenart s entreaty is not a typical
indulgence prayer, although it is undoubtedly related to
his pilgrimage (peregrinatio). 10
The mesostic (an acrostic formed not by the initial, but
middle letters of a text) made up of lines of the poem in-
tertwining with the silhouette of the cross, is reminiscent
of a stylisation that texts were subjected to in the ancient
tradition of visual poetry and prose that flourished in
the Middle Ages, known as carmina cancellata, of which
numerous examples survive. * 11 * * The name and surname of
the supplicant recorded in the mesostic has acquired here
a distinct form of intext: letters, read vertically, are inte-
gral part of the prayer and at the same time retain their
independent meaning. In the fiffeenth century, acrostics
introduced into rhymed prayers addressed to Christ, the
Virgin Mary and saints were rare, but not unique. Johann
B. Oosterman, who examined Flemish prayer books from
the first half of the century in this regard, identified sev-
eral dozen of such prayers in a dozen manuscripts. For
our purposes, two such examples will be most instruc-
tive: the acrostic IANVANHULST, formed by the initial
letters of a paraphrase of the Salve Regina hymn, being
the name of the author of this paraphrase, in a Bruges
prayer book (of the so-called Glasgow-Rouen Group), of
9 K. Rudy, Images, Rubrics, and Indulgences on the Eve ofthe Refor-
mation, [in:] The Authority of the Word. Reflecting on Image and
Text in Northern Europe 1460-1700, eds. C. Busaki, K.A.E. Enen-
kel, W. Melion, Leiden 2012 (Interdisciplinary Studies in Early
Modern Culture 20, 2011), pp. 446-448.
10 For indulgences gained for visiting the Holy Land see A. Vauchez,
Pelerinages et indulgences au Moyen-Age, “II Veltro. Rivista della
civilta italiana”, 43,1999, pp. 275-286.
11 It was a form used by Peter Abelard and Saint Bonaventure,
among others. P. Rypson, Obraz słowa. Historia poezji wizual-
nej [The Image of the word. The history of visual poetry], War-
saw 1989, pp. 23-41, mentions, for example, Liber de distinctione
metrorum, a poetic epitaph for the husband of the Duchess of
Pembroke, who died in 1363, written on the commission of the
widow by Nicolas de Dacia and preserved in the British Library,
MS Cotton Claudius A XIV, and in the Bibliotheque nationale de
France, MS lat. 10323.
c. 1400-1410 12, and the names MARIA and LODEWICH
forming an acrostic in the Marian prayer (Maria speghel
van alre duecht...) in folios 140-142 of the prayer book of
Lodewijck Halyncbrood. 13
However, it must be noted that the Flemish examples
usually consist of text only and are not combined with min-
iatures. An exception are acrostics with the names of a mar-
ried couple of Jan van der Scaghe and Anne de Memere de-
picted in the act of prayer in a miniature on the incipit page
immediately preceding the text of their prayer in a Flemish
book of hours that in the early modern period found its way
to the Nova Rise abbey in Moravia. 14 What relates them to
Chenart s prayer is their language: all the above-mentioned
texts were written in a Flemish dialect comparable with the
French used in the Czartoryski manuscript. Another com-
mon feature is the fact that, not accidentally, they are ex-
ceptional, having been made to order of particular persons,
and are as unique as Chenarts supplication. However, in
none of the Flemish examples is the relationship between
the image, the text and the ‘insert’ - which plays the role of
intext - as strong as it is in the Cracow codex. An example
of a similar conception, chronologically remote, but such
that nevertheless set a precedent, is the composition in fol.
3 V and in a number of following sheets in De laudibus sanc-
tae crucis (c. 840), depicting the Abbot of Fulda and Arch-
bishop of Mainz Rabanus Maurus adoring, in the act of
proskynesis, a large-size cross, brought out from the ‘back-
ground’ formed by the script of his poem, and filled with
the letters making up a motto concealed in the anagram:
oro te ramus aramara sumar et oro. 15 Both here as in Chen-
12 Prayer book, Bruges, 1400-1410, Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek,
BPL 2627, fol. 64, J.B. Oosterman, A Prayer of one’s own. Rhymed
Prayers and their Authors in Bruges in the First Halfofthe Fifteenth
Century, [in:] Flanders in a European Perspective. Manuscript II-
lumination around 1400 in Flanders and Abroad. Proceedings of
the International Colloquium, Leuven 7-10 September 1993, eds.
M. Smeyers, B. Cardon, Leuven 1995, pp. 739-740, Fig. 1.
13 The Maria speghel van alre duecht... prayer in the Prayer book
of Lodewijck Halyncbrood, Bruges, 1430-1440, Munich, Bayer-
isches Staatsbibliothek, Cgm 83, fols 140-142; J.B. Oosterman,
A Prayer ofone’s own, p. 735 (as above in footnote 12). It should be
remembered that these poetic texts par excellence depended on
North-French poetry from the circles of Guillaume de Machaut
(1300-1377) and Jean Froissart (1337-1405); on this topic see
J. Reynaert, Literatuur in de stad? Op zoek naar een voorgeschie-
denis van het Gruuthuse-liedboek, [in:] De studie van de Middelne-
derlandse letterkunde: stand en toekomst, Symposium Antwerpen
22-24 september 1988, eds. F.P. van Oostrom, F. Willaert, Hilver-
sum 1989, pp. 35-48 (quoted by J.B. Oosterman, A Prayer ofone’s
own [as above in footnote 12]).
14 L. Campbell, fan van Scaghe and Anne de Memere, the First
Owners of the Hours of 1480 in the Abbey Library at Nova Riśe,
[in:] Flemish Manuscript in Context. Recent Research, eds. E. Mor-
rison, T. Kren, Los Angeles 2006, pp. 1-7, Figs 1.1,1.2, p. 2.
15 Rabanus Maurus, De laudibus sanctae crucis, Vienna, Os-
terreichische Nationalbibliothek MS 652, fol. 3, published by
and surname: JEHAN CHENART, criss-crossing and re-
peated twice. One can be sure that this inscription, bear-
ing clearly personal overtones, was made on the patrons
special order. As far as the structure of the text and kind
of narration are concerned, this is a prayer that Kathryn
Rudy called a ‘prayer of entreaty’ (hence the word la sup-
plication in Chenarts mouth). In this kind of prayer, the
adorant, speaking in the first person singular, directly ad-
dresses God, who is entreated in the second person sin-
gular (in Chenarts prayer, mon redempteur qui tespieds...
etc.; emphasis of the author), and awaits the fulfilment of
the specific request expressed in the monologue. 9 The ab-
sence of the characteristic rubrics, that usually specify the
extent of indulgence, and the distinctly indicative mood
of the text suggest that Chenart s entreaty is not a typical
indulgence prayer, although it is undoubtedly related to
his pilgrimage (peregrinatio). 10
The mesostic (an acrostic formed not by the initial, but
middle letters of a text) made up of lines of the poem in-
tertwining with the silhouette of the cross, is reminiscent
of a stylisation that texts were subjected to in the ancient
tradition of visual poetry and prose that flourished in
the Middle Ages, known as carmina cancellata, of which
numerous examples survive. * 11 * * The name and surname of
the supplicant recorded in the mesostic has acquired here
a distinct form of intext: letters, read vertically, are inte-
gral part of the prayer and at the same time retain their
independent meaning. In the fiffeenth century, acrostics
introduced into rhymed prayers addressed to Christ, the
Virgin Mary and saints were rare, but not unique. Johann
B. Oosterman, who examined Flemish prayer books from
the first half of the century in this regard, identified sev-
eral dozen of such prayers in a dozen manuscripts. For
our purposes, two such examples will be most instruc-
tive: the acrostic IANVANHULST, formed by the initial
letters of a paraphrase of the Salve Regina hymn, being
the name of the author of this paraphrase, in a Bruges
prayer book (of the so-called Glasgow-Rouen Group), of
9 K. Rudy, Images, Rubrics, and Indulgences on the Eve ofthe Refor-
mation, [in:] The Authority of the Word. Reflecting on Image and
Text in Northern Europe 1460-1700, eds. C. Busaki, K.A.E. Enen-
kel, W. Melion, Leiden 2012 (Interdisciplinary Studies in Early
Modern Culture 20, 2011), pp. 446-448.
10 For indulgences gained for visiting the Holy Land see A. Vauchez,
Pelerinages et indulgences au Moyen-Age, “II Veltro. Rivista della
civilta italiana”, 43,1999, pp. 275-286.
11 It was a form used by Peter Abelard and Saint Bonaventure,
among others. P. Rypson, Obraz słowa. Historia poezji wizual-
nej [The Image of the word. The history of visual poetry], War-
saw 1989, pp. 23-41, mentions, for example, Liber de distinctione
metrorum, a poetic epitaph for the husband of the Duchess of
Pembroke, who died in 1363, written on the commission of the
widow by Nicolas de Dacia and preserved in the British Library,
MS Cotton Claudius A XIV, and in the Bibliotheque nationale de
France, MS lat. 10323.
c. 1400-1410 12, and the names MARIA and LODEWICH
forming an acrostic in the Marian prayer (Maria speghel
van alre duecht...) in folios 140-142 of the prayer book of
Lodewijck Halyncbrood. 13
However, it must be noted that the Flemish examples
usually consist of text only and are not combined with min-
iatures. An exception are acrostics with the names of a mar-
ried couple of Jan van der Scaghe and Anne de Memere de-
picted in the act of prayer in a miniature on the incipit page
immediately preceding the text of their prayer in a Flemish
book of hours that in the early modern period found its way
to the Nova Rise abbey in Moravia. 14 What relates them to
Chenart s prayer is their language: all the above-mentioned
texts were written in a Flemish dialect comparable with the
French used in the Czartoryski manuscript. Another com-
mon feature is the fact that, not accidentally, they are ex-
ceptional, having been made to order of particular persons,
and are as unique as Chenarts supplication. However, in
none of the Flemish examples is the relationship between
the image, the text and the ‘insert’ - which plays the role of
intext - as strong as it is in the Cracow codex. An example
of a similar conception, chronologically remote, but such
that nevertheless set a precedent, is the composition in fol.
3 V and in a number of following sheets in De laudibus sanc-
tae crucis (c. 840), depicting the Abbot of Fulda and Arch-
bishop of Mainz Rabanus Maurus adoring, in the act of
proskynesis, a large-size cross, brought out from the ‘back-
ground’ formed by the script of his poem, and filled with
the letters making up a motto concealed in the anagram:
oro te ramus aramara sumar et oro. 15 Both here as in Chen-
12 Prayer book, Bruges, 1400-1410, Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek,
BPL 2627, fol. 64, J.B. Oosterman, A Prayer of one’s own. Rhymed
Prayers and their Authors in Bruges in the First Halfofthe Fifteenth
Century, [in:] Flanders in a European Perspective. Manuscript II-
lumination around 1400 in Flanders and Abroad. Proceedings of
the International Colloquium, Leuven 7-10 September 1993, eds.
M. Smeyers, B. Cardon, Leuven 1995, pp. 739-740, Fig. 1.
13 The Maria speghel van alre duecht... prayer in the Prayer book
of Lodewijck Halyncbrood, Bruges, 1430-1440, Munich, Bayer-
isches Staatsbibliothek, Cgm 83, fols 140-142; J.B. Oosterman,
A Prayer ofone’s own, p. 735 (as above in footnote 12). It should be
remembered that these poetic texts par excellence depended on
North-French poetry from the circles of Guillaume de Machaut
(1300-1377) and Jean Froissart (1337-1405); on this topic see
J. Reynaert, Literatuur in de stad? Op zoek naar een voorgeschie-
denis van het Gruuthuse-liedboek, [in:] De studie van de Middelne-
derlandse letterkunde: stand en toekomst, Symposium Antwerpen
22-24 september 1988, eds. F.P. van Oostrom, F. Willaert, Hilver-
sum 1989, pp. 35-48 (quoted by J.B. Oosterman, A Prayer ofone’s
own [as above in footnote 12]).
14 L. Campbell, fan van Scaghe and Anne de Memere, the First
Owners of the Hours of 1480 in the Abbey Library at Nova Riśe,
[in:] Flemish Manuscript in Context. Recent Research, eds. E. Mor-
rison, T. Kren, Los Angeles 2006, pp. 1-7, Figs 1.1,1.2, p. 2.
15 Rabanus Maurus, De laudibus sanctae crucis, Vienna, Os-
terreichische Nationalbibliothek MS 652, fol. 3, published by