Renaissance Manuscripts: The Sixteenth Century.
MYRA D. ORTHRenaissance Manuscripts: The Sixteenth Century.
A Survey of Manuscripts Illuminated in France. 2 vols.
London and Turnhout, Belgium:
Harvey Miller Publishers for Brepols, 2015.
721 pp. 321 B&W, 55 color illus.
Myra Orth, who died in 2002, was without a doubt a leading expert on Renaissance French manuscript illumination, and these two beautifully produced volumes attest to her erudition and her long scholarship in that area of study. I remember Myra's showing me her proofs for the book during our last lunch in Boston some fifteen years ago. In its foreword, the publisher notes that publication of these much-awaited volumes was held up by the need to acquire and select the color illustrations, but that its decision was "to publish Myra's work with as little change as possible," updating only the bibliography (7). Many people, including Mary Rouse, had a hand in finishing these volumes, for which we must all be grateful.
In "French Renaissance Manuscripts and L'Histoire du Livre" (Viator, 32 [200l]:245-278), Myra wrote that the Renaissance manuscript is worthy of study because it remained an important force in book production well into the sixteenth century; further, she advocated contextualization. Miniatures need to be understood not in isolation but through study of the whole codicology of the book, the conditions of its production, and "the how and who of its readership," along with its text (247). These goals are more than met in her Survey catalogue.
Like many of the books in the Survey of Manuscripts series, Orth's book is in two volumes. Volume 1 contains text and illustrations, including appendices with biographies of the artists and scribes. Here we meet court portrait artists such as Jean Clouet (ca. 1485-1540) and his son, Francois (ca. 1520-1572), who produced both drawings and paintings of the French royal family and collaborated with manuscript illuminators; Guillaume II Le Roy (d. 1528), who was both an illuminator and a woodcut designer; the well-documented Noel Bellemare (fl. 1515-1546); and the much-studied Master of Claude de France (fl. ca. 1510-1525). There is also a section providing brief biographies of authors and translators, for example, Catherine d'Amboise (d. 1550), Guillaume Bude (1468-1540), Anne de Graville (d. ca. 1540), Marguerite d'Angouleme (1492-1549), Clement Marot (1496-1544) and his father, Jean (ca. 1464-1524 or 1526), to name a few. Another section gives short biographies of patrons, dedicatees, and first owners, among them Catherine de' Medici, queen of France (1519-1589), Claude de France, queen of France (1499-1524), Edward VI, king of England (1537-1553), Louise de Savoie (1476-1531), and others.
There are also helpful family trees of royal and noble houses (Orleans Valois, House of Lorraine, House of Bourbon Vendome, for example), as these lineages are sometimes hard to follow for those outside the immediate period. The volume closes with a list of illustrations (which rather oddly recurs at the end of volume 2 as well, though this may prove convenient for users of these books). All of this apparatus is helpful when studying the images that volume 1 contains.
And what images! These are crisply and cleanly reproduced on every page. Among the highlights of the color pictures are reproductions of a 1531 embroidered binding now in the Russian National Library (Col., Plate l); an illumination made about 1530 of a printer's shop that was copied from the Parisian printer's mark of Josse Bade, showing the press, tools, and men at work, including a proofreader, along with two customers, from a compilation of Rouen Puy poetry (Col., Plate 17, see also Plate 96); a color reproduction from La Coche painted about 1541 from the work by Marguerite de Navarre, who provided detailed descriptions of each illumination for the artist (Col., Plate 37); and a painting of the Shroud of Turin displayed by three priests before an altar, from the Hours of Marguerite de France, made in 1559 (Col., Plate 54), a manuscript also located in Turin. Some of the color plates feature works in grisaille (Col., Plates 2-4), a fashionable form of illustration that continues into the sixteenth century.
Among the black-and-white reproductions, there are many miniatures of royalty or the nobility receiving manuscripts from their makers. These include Louise de Savoie (Plates 55, 100), Marguerite de Navarre (Plate 56), Francois I (Plates 59,178,202), Queen Claude de France (Plate 68), the nobleman Girard de Vienne (Plate 168), and Anne de Pisseleu, duchess of Etampes (Plate 173). Frangois I (1494-1547), king of France and great patron of the arts, is everywhere: he is hunting (Plate l), crossing the Alps (Plate 3), in battle (Plate 150), and listening to a reading by a translator with his court (Plate 153, "Antoine Macault reading his translation to Francois I and his Court"), among other activities. There are scenes showing the court of Francois I and other kings (Plates 89, 90, 91, 92, 93, 236, 237), and stationary portraits of various important rulers: Francois I again (Plate 250), King Louis IX (Plate 249), Louise de Savoie (Plate 265), Marguerite de Navarre as Bathsheba (Plate 266), and Catherine de' Medici (Plate 269). Martin Luther (Plate 94) preaches to two lewd allegorical women in the Panegyricus, a virulent anti-Protestant text, while Dante and Beatrice are shown several times (Plates 64,65,66) in a copy of the Paradiso made about 1520.
As Orth points out, one third of the books catalogued here are Books of Hours produced in France, and many of the reproductions show iconographies that have not changed a great deal since earlier periods. There are many scenes of the Annunciation, Nativity, and Crucifixion, and of Bathsheba in various stages of undress. Despite this, there are some unusual illuminations, including a scene of a bare-breasted Judith with the head of Holofernes (Plate 242), a head reliquary of Mary Magdalene that shows her skull (Plate 48), and a schoolhouse scene of the birching of a student from cuttings from a calendar in a Book of Hours (Plate 167a). Other religious works of instruction are illustrated by a donkey reading a book (Plate 210) and a curious scene of Christ exhorting Henri, Marguerite, and their court to take up their crosses (Plate 88). There are also allegorical scenes of various kinds, but the best of all is an illumination of God in his library holding a large Bible with clasps and brasses in his lap, his many books on shelves surrounding him, and various men exhorting him for copies of the book (Plate 97). In the volume's final picture section, "Comparative Illustrations," there are reproductions of drawings, woodcuts by Albrecht Durer and Hans Holbein the Younger, and examples of woodcut that illustrate early printed Hours, for example those published by Geofroy Tory. Volume 1 is visually sumptuous and stimulating to study.
Volume 2 is the manuscripts catalogue. This provides clear bibliographic information about each manuscript as well as naming artists when known, citing the approximate date and place of making, and describing the binding, collation, initials, frames and borders, text contents, and provenance, with a selected bibliography at the end of each of the one hundred entries. This is clearly written, and each manuscript is fully described. The history for each book is very clearly laid out. The volume of Puys verse, for example, that contains both the scenes of the printing press and of God in his library (item 36, 135-140), had many makers. This is a record of the fifty winning poems at the annual Rouen competitions, copied about 1530, that includes poetry that dates between 1519 and 1528, and its fifty full-page miniatures have been illuminated by three artists.
Orth's list of each of these images further includes the refrain of each poem along with the author and date if known. She discusses the more interesting texts at some length, including the poem accompanying the illumination of the printing press (139) and the poem about God's library (138). For the Panegyricus (item 35, 132-135), she explains the history of this anti-Protestant text as a reaction to the desecration of a Marian statue in Paris in 1528. The mutilated statue (which is also illustrated in this manuscript) was replaced by a silver statue of Virgin and Child given by the king. Each entry is full of useful and interesting information about the period.
At the back of this second volume is "Additional Literature and Exhibits" (335-342), compiled after Myra's death, along with a glossary of terms, an index of iconographic subjects, an index of types of books by subject (Bibles, allegory and moral instruction, education, poetry), an index of provenance, and an index of manuscripts by location.
Myra Orth was a long-time member of the Early Book Society. She spoke in our sessions at the annual meeting at Western Michigan University and published three important essays in this Journal: "Dedicating Women: MS Culture in the French Renaissance, The Cases of Catherine d'Amboise and Anne de Granville," 1 (1997): 17-47; "Family Values: Manuscripts as Gifts and Legacies among French Renaissance Women," 4 (200l):88-111; and "Manuscript Production and Illumination in Renaissance Paris (1500-1565)," 6 (2003): 125-135. These two long-awaited Survey volumes teach us still so much and add to our knowledge of sixteenth-century book production.
Martha W. Driver, Pace University
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| Author: | Driver, Martha W. |
|---|---|
| Publication: | The Journal of the Early Book Society for the Study of Manuscripts and Printing History |
| Article Type: | Book review |
| Date: | Jan 1, 2017 |
| Words: | 1531 |
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