{"id":6272,"date":"2016-01-24T23:50:57","date_gmt":"2016-01-25T04:50:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6272"},"modified":"2018-08-24T14:22:14","modified_gmt":"2018-08-24T18:22:14","slug":"les-tres-riches-heures-du-duc-de-berry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=6272","title":{"rendered":"Les Tr\u00e8s Riches Heures du Duc de Berry"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\u00a9Photo.<\/a>Usu\u00adal\u00adly, I don\u2019t list a book as \u201cread\u201d unless I read the whole thing, but this is a spe\u00adcial case. The Tr\u00e8s Rich\u00ades Heures<\/em> is a medieval bre\u00adviary, famous for its artis\u00adtic val\u00adue as an illu\u00admi\u00adnat\u00aded man\u00adu\u00adscript. I doubt that many peo\u00adple have ever read the entire text, which is mere\u00adly a col\u00adlec\u00adtion of prayers, mak\u00ading tedious read\u00ading. Such books were made for lay\u00admen who wished to bring some ele\u00adments of monas\u00adtic prac\u00adtice into their dai\u00adly lives. They pro\u00advid\u00aded a cal\u00aden\u00addric sched\u00adule for read\u00ading pas\u00adsages from the Gospels, the Psalms, and lita\u00adnies, and also helped one keep track of the many feast and saints\u2019 days. Most were in Latin, but some were in local ver\u00adnac\u00adu\u00adlars. Thou\u00adsands of these man\u00adu\u00adscripts sur\u00advive, but a hand\u00adful that were pro\u00adduced for wealthy nobles are spec\u00adtac\u00adu\u00adlar\u00adly illu\u00admi\u00adnat\u00aded. The one pro\u00adduced for the Duc de Berry is con\u00adsid\u00adered to be one of the prin\u00adci\u00adpal mas\u00adter\u00adpieces of medieval art. It is some\u00adtimes said to be the most valu\u00adable book in the world. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"16-01-24<\/a>
\nThe copy I have is a fac\u00adsim\u00adi\u00adle of the orig\u00adi\u00adnal man\u00adu\u00adscript, and even for some\u00adone famil\u00adiar with medieval French, the script used in the mid\u00addle ages is very dif\u00adfi\u00adcult for a mod\u00adern read\u00ader to get used to [see the sam\u00adple in the image below]. I could not find a trans\u00adla\u00adtion of the text, or a ver\u00adsion in mod\u00adern French, so I con\u00adtent\u00aded myself with read\u00ading a ran\u00addom assort\u00adment of pages to get the feel of it. It is, after all, as visu\u00adal art that the book has its fame.<\/span> The book was begun in 1412, com\u00admis\u00adsioned by Jean duc de Berry from three Lim\u00adbourg broth\u00aders, Dutch artists who worked in the court of Bur\u00adgundy. All three died of the plague (along with their patron) four years lat\u00ader, with the work uncom\u00adplet\u00aded. More illus\u00adtra\u00adtions were added over the next few decades, by an unknown artist and by Jean Colombe (c.1430\u20131493). It remained obscure until the 19th cen\u00adtu\u00adry, when it left pri\u00advate hands and became rec\u00adog\u00adnized as a masterpiece. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"16-01-24<\/a>
\nQuite apart from being extra\u00ador\u00addi\u00adnar\u00adi\u00adly beau\u00adti\u00adful, the book is a trea\u00adsure-trove of visu\u00adal infor\u00adma\u00adtion about medieval soci\u00adety, because it includes depic\u00adtions of peas\u00adant life (ide\u00adal\u00adized) as well as the activ\u00adi\u00adties of the aris\u00adtoc\u00adra\u00adcy. For this rea\u00adson, some of the images \u2014 notably those from the cal\u00aden\u00addri\u00adcal por\u00adtion [the first one shown here] \u2014 have been often repro\u00adduced as cov\u00aders and illus\u00adtra\u00adtions for books on medieval history. <\/span>
\n\"16-01-24<\/a>But I strong\u00adly rec\u00adom\u00admend that you down\u00adload the images from Wikipedia Com\u00admons<\/span><\/a>. This is a slow process, as you must indi\u00advid\u00adu\u00adal\u00adly down\u00adload 425 files if you want to have the whole book. Most peo\u00adple will be con\u00adtent with the full-page illus\u00adtra\u00adtions and some of the more ornate text pages. There are dozens of unfa\u00admil\u00adiar, sel\u00addom repro\u00adduced images that will daz\u00adzle you.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Usu\u00adal\u00adly, I don\u2019t list a book as \u201cread\u201d unless I read the whole thing, but this is a spe\u00adcial case. The Tr\u00e8s Rich\u00ades Heures is a medieval bre\u00adviary, famous for its artis\u00adtic val\u00adue as an illu\u00admi\u00adnat\u00aded man\u00adu\u00adscript. I doubt that \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,951],"tags":[1177,1178,1176,1175],"class_list":["post-6272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bk-reading-2016","tag-duc-de-berry","tag-illuminations","tag-medieval-art","tag-tres-riches-heures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6272"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9843,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6272\/revisions\/9843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}