DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.45257#0250
i6o FRENCH ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS
Another noteworthy royal MS. acquired by
the Due d’Aumale which is of special importance
is the Breviary of Jeanne d’Evreux. Amid the
delicate decorations of the border around the
illuminated text may be seen the coats-of-arms
of France, Navarre, and Evreux; and it contains
no less than one hundred and fourteen miniatures
in grisaille upon coloured and gold backgrounds.
The Gothic attitudes and graceful figures recall
the style of Jean Pucelie, which, dating from the
years 1327-1350, had been introduced into Paris
before the coming of Northern realism.
Jeanne d’Evreux, wife of Charles IV, was well
known as a connoisseur in illuminated books, and
this exquisite work of art passed to Charles V,
by whom it was kept at Vincennes in a coffer along
with the Breviary of Belleville.
The small Book of Hours belonging to M.
Maurice de Rothschild (published in facsimile by
Count Delisle), the Missal of St. Denis in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, the Book of Hours
designed for Jeanne de France, Queen of Navarre,
in the Yates Thomson Collection, form a group of
beautiful codices which have rightly been compared
with this MS. of Queen Jeanne d’Evreux.
The greatest gem, however, of all these illumin-
ated MSS. is unquestionably the precious volume
known as Les Tres Riches Heures of the Due de
Berry. The Due d’Aumale himself relates the
history of its acquisition in 1855. On his way to
visit his mother Queen Marie Amelie, then lying
Another noteworthy royal MS. acquired by
the Due d’Aumale which is of special importance
is the Breviary of Jeanne d’Evreux. Amid the
delicate decorations of the border around the
illuminated text may be seen the coats-of-arms
of France, Navarre, and Evreux; and it contains
no less than one hundred and fourteen miniatures
in grisaille upon coloured and gold backgrounds.
The Gothic attitudes and graceful figures recall
the style of Jean Pucelie, which, dating from the
years 1327-1350, had been introduced into Paris
before the coming of Northern realism.
Jeanne d’Evreux, wife of Charles IV, was well
known as a connoisseur in illuminated books, and
this exquisite work of art passed to Charles V,
by whom it was kept at Vincennes in a coffer along
with the Breviary of Belleville.
The small Book of Hours belonging to M.
Maurice de Rothschild (published in facsimile by
Count Delisle), the Missal of St. Denis in the
Victoria and Albert Museum, the Book of Hours
designed for Jeanne de France, Queen of Navarre,
in the Yates Thomson Collection, form a group of
beautiful codices which have rightly been compared
with this MS. of Queen Jeanne d’Evreux.
The greatest gem, however, of all these illumin-
ated MSS. is unquestionably the precious volume
known as Les Tres Riches Heures of the Due de
Berry. The Due d’Aumale himself relates the
history of its acquisition in 1855. On his way to
visit his mother Queen Marie Amelie, then lying