12 Vv Books for Aristocrats mperors and kings, dukes and marquises, counts, knights, townsfolk have it read to you,” With these words Marco Polo addresses his audience and bye in the second half of the thirteenth century, a tale which introduces Genghis Khan, Prester Jahn, the One-Eyed Cobb the Wrestling Princess, as well as his historically reliable description of the almost unknown world be had seen bi Venice ond China, The emperors and ings, to whom the book was supposed to be read, must have Jelt that the whole story souinded like a romance. Mahaut, countess of Artois, com sioned a copy to be written and illustrated in 1312, within five {years of the completion of that particular version of the text, and the book appears in the countess’s payment record as roman du grand Kan, true-lfe geography already called fetion. One of the finest Marco Polo manuscripts, made about 1400, was bound up with Bodleian Library, ats, Bodley 264, an Alexander romance dated 1338. It basa famous miniature of Marco Polo about to sil from Venice, which is shown like the backdrop of a pageant on a ‘sunny day with bridges, tlags, bouts, swans, islands, and little {groups of richly desed citizens hurrying along cobbled streets or standing, talking, or waving (rt. 129). The reminiscences of the shrewd Venetian merchant were transformed by scribes and illu: mimtors into a text to be enjoyed by the rich with stories of Alexander the Great, Charlemagne, and King Arthur. Many listen. ‘ers must have enjoyed Marco Polo as fiction. King Charles V of France owned five copies, ane of them hound in a cloth of gold Marco Polo's book describes his adventures on an incredible voyage. A journey or a pilgrimage isthe setting of much me fictional narrative, Travelling was slow in the Middle Ages and often adventurous, It also provided occasion fur travellers to pass the time by singing and telling stories, and this in itself comtbuted . take this bool in his account of a joumey across the something 10 the rise of Kterature, This chapter, which fiction and romance, will take us along the pilgrim road France to the shrine of S James of Compestella, to the ani back, up the waterways of the Rhine and into northern Ei and unste coat inter the north Addatic im wooden b safely in Apzil from London along the pilgrims’ way to Cant Elements of vernacular literature go back to campfires and hefore anything was written down, The og ertainly ‘erns, centri France were ying and dancing from time imam ‘Their name has the same derivation as ‘juggler’ in Engl entertainers and acrobats belong to a profession far older of manuscript illumination, ‘The troubadours of Provence chanting their songs of love and heroism long before these first recorded in « twellth century, As wayfarcrs passed the ‘dup wandering minsteh listened to their songs on the journey. Pilgrims from. north southern France, they must have piel Europe travelling to Compostella in Spain came past the to the Carolingian hero, Roland, who was buried at the foot o Pyrenees, and they crossod the pass at Roncevaux where said to have been killed by the Saracens i and bis troops we cighth century. Of course travellers were shown there ster they heard the chansons de geste, the songs of deeds, recited by fessional entertainers, When someone wrote it down, then} Chanson de Roland became literature, There are fewermrchitmencenetaraquetanot ior oar i ieee apetoute grt qeuelove\nune oped hn hues 0\nd qld et |? tanorionne direst. citeqac unepmbquetnoicint GieulactterhgeneRe ‘trp aude eG nanedd crade Ppp nce tou or sutepesnecouroe tbat. c.4 Mice ee, dnd buena waaing: manuscripts and fragments of the Chanson de Roland the long winter of 1190-1 carping in Scily bere setting sail on cHarreH v Hs enormous fame now as the giatest chanson de gate), the tral eg of the ill-fated Third Crusade against Ssladin, The woos voK they are all unillusrated, except for ene cupy sa Vee with, Chanson concerns Charlemagne and his allies in Maly crossing the 4K IstOERATS Soll initsl showing Charlemagne, The oldest samictipt —imotintainous *Agpre fn the Apennin y,mareh agaient. he Saracen king Agolant. Crusaders must have found it easy to ident ppethaps within the frst half of the century fy themselses with the heroes of the sory, One of the exes this is highly controversial — and 1c is a unasuring Hite tmanuscripts of the Chansn dispremont is also English in origin ctipt, suitable for a minsteel’s wallet, His unumbigusly a ipt of poerry, with the frst lever of eath line slightly sepa from the text block itself and with dots marking the end of line. Ie har 9 clearly recognisable verse format. Even the fact (BLL., Lanstowwne Ms. 73) and dates from about 134-50. 1 haw 45 coloured drawings of rather home-made quality. The same workshop probably illustrated another romance on the like and travels of Alexander the Great, Thorniss of Kents Renin de Tous Ms 0.9.34), which has 152 coloured drawings of knights and battles (#1. 123), It is cary der, who no coubt enjoyed singing of legendary heroes com> te. magi the book ix English shows how far the story had travelled, Cheval (Cambridge, Trinity ‘Charlemagne: romances probably crossed Europe with the ured solders ordering illustrations for these old nll, The Chanson 'Agjemone was apparently com- songs in onter to deenonstrate taining relatives at home the ell in Sicily or the fr scuth of Taly, and it seas known to the valour of holy warfare The movement of legends went the other way too, Moder 185italy has carvings of the very early wali King Arthur of Britain and his knights res Winlogee (2 variant of Guinevere) from the “wicked KR Maroc, The twolfth-century mosaics in Otranto Cathedral ia ti extreme south-eastern tip of Haly depict ‘rex Arturus’ among oh aid Alcxander the Galil Her had! brought songs and tales to Il i France the twelfth-century poet Chrétien de Troyes began 18608 lect the Ae ries told (as he says) at the royal court, a ss on the Holy Gall adil Lancelot, Something over thirty manuscripts (at least half oth in the Bibliotheque Nationale) contain poems ascribed to Chri Ae Trayes. One, made about 1249, 1s signed by is seme Gala who writes that he has a shop before the church of Notas Dia du:Val in Provins (Paris, B.N., ms. fr. 794). It is an extras carly reference to some kind! of scribe/bookseller presanabl ilar texts for clients, The Chrétien de Troyes tles theme became the source for other Arthurian legends hese her passed over into Germany, The Sati Juke Henry the Lion Ghose Gospel Rook, described ia dhaplgl proclaims his descent from Charlemagne) cornraissioned_ gil Pfu Konrad (Konrad the priest) a German version of the sag Roland, the Rolandidied, written about 1170. 1 may lave Gil out through Norman culture tat ti ducal houschold after Henry the Lion's in 1166) Matilda, slaughter of Henry I of England At about this ml ding of the Countess of Cleves to Landgrave Ludwig Il Thuringia for the epilogue tells that the author's unique dll snfinished pt was stolen by ne of th ow returned for nine years, There are twellth-century German pig mm Alexander the Great and King Arthur too. Most ofthe grail ither side of They include Hartmann von Aa (11176-1214), who translated Chrétien de Troyes; Wolfram Eschenbach (d. after 1219), author of Willehalm, the story dl night who falls Hove w the wea a young knight errant who is eventually admitted to dhe Roa Table of King Arthur and to the ¢ ompany of the guardians oi Holy Grail at Munsalvische; and Gottfried von Strabi i 2 sephaw SF Mark (of "Tintajoc!" Castle in Cornwall) who ace kh Rudolf yon Ems (1220-54), be a ntally drab king's betrothed, On lace fF the world as foray King: Sola Which int some mansseripts Ins hundreds of illustrations. Th rl onof the text is mow the lst remaining manuscript af over thd toner in the library of the Princes of Firstenberg (Donaeieil 5. 63). The epic is ng and immensely complicated, Belli concerns Siegiried, who. helps King Gunther marry: the te Brunhild because Siegiried wants to marry Keiemhild, Gun sister, but Brunhild (misunderstanding Siegfried!s rank) his A kallec; so Kriemnild, who has in the meantime married F of the Huns, cunningly invites the enemies of Si avenging hi death ard obtaining the Nib treasure (which hus been thrown in the Rhine), butin the mag which ensues everybody dies Ni all German secular writing was quite so bloodthist Minnesiagers are still romantic igares in history. The woed Mia often translated as ‘love’ (lor these were knightly minstrel sang of fir damsels), hut these were not mere songs of passa of a courtly aristocratic wistful secret love for an often tnatt fF inaccessible woman (et. 135), There is an almont faa atmosphere about the wandering Sionesingen like Reine Ha nau (f1,1160-1719) and Heinrich von Mouingen (e-e289)) The minstrels brought vernacular entertainment into thé fof soutien Europe abe, Troubadours like Rambertino, Bus Jn Bologna in the Provencal language: Dante a origin of Kalian poetry to the court of the Emperor Fredetid (1194-1250), king of Sicily and Jerusalem, who gathered a up of writers known (not strictly correctly) a Sicilian poets', and there exist poems hy Frederick himself all his chancellor Pier della V) gna, Th must be stressed thatthe sig secular poetry throughout Europe from about +209 onward ds not mean that poetical manuscripts are common, They are ini ingly rare. Many troubadoury were pribably hardly Ia and the audiences listened to literature: rather than reading it ificance of seealar verse, however, is that (within a couple erations at most) the fashion for vernacular heeratane yn pe and the minstrel lad of the B ave way to the seriter of medieval romances. An jungle omposel his songs as he Went along, hut a thir century poet prepared a specific text ans! when that happenaly Ame he most remarkable literary manuscripts of tel Alonso X, ‘el Sabio! (d Wise), king of Spain from 1292 10 1284. Like Frederic teenth century are the songbook Alfonso encouraged the arts of astronomy, law, and hisry gum to collect and write in Galician 2 seri hhis youth he ad songs-or Gimtigas in honour of the Virgin Mary, and he eo sioned spectacular Castilian manuscripts off these and had df Hiehly: decorated, Four of the volumes survive, ome in All (from the Cathedral of Toledo and probably the cory in Florence (unfinished), and two marvellous volumes which fl 1 obtained great expense from Seville Cathedral foe the fs monastery he was building at the Escorial, They are still ivifxttenth-century library there. The second of these manuscripts the stunting total of Base with caps gril, Keal Biblioteca de S 5 miniajures, usually arranged sik 10 1 in Spanidy: and omamental border (Et Lorenea,, Com Tyje1). The mina 27). The frst ‘opens with a miniature oF King Alfonso himself holding up ithastrate miracles describe in the segs (o (oF his songs on a Jang scroll which he points out to bis adr courtiers. The second miniature shows three musica playing Bhe king liens to then andl dictates words to two clerics who. Be sce abl then transfer the tet in site ita ig lini, from which foor cantors are singing. ‘The fallowing thot ‘or 0 miniatures form an amazing documentary on medieval i church building, riding, ing 4 hanging, steal ha iy, seeping, travelling, dying, praying, wrestling, hunting, maga city, sailing, painting freseves (the scaffold collapses but artist fs saved ecaune he was painting the Virgin Mary), giving Pphying dice, serving in a shop, keeping bees, hawking, bul: ing, g and so forth, The manuscript must have delighted the j shearing sheep, writing books, frying eggs, ploug 1 ascribed tw Walter and i brings together the legen af Camelot, the Lady of ‘Lak, the Holy Grail, and the death of Arthur, whist all stil ut folk culture. About filly Lancelot manuseripts have versions (ris. 25 126 and 128). One of the usted copies of the prose version is Rems, Mthixpie Municipale, ms, 255, which ean be aséribed to the nat ity Paris perp as carly as the 12206, It ment in Parisian book presluctiin which was tse in the last chapter, when professional artists meved in to the ness of the court on the one band and the students on foher. In a rhymed preface to a chronicle of Philip Augustas in the secend half of the 12205 (B.L.. Add. ws. 21242) the Gays ho will use French prose ‘si com Ui livres Lancclot’, ‘suggests that such books were well known to his readers Ath br FHlemecis le rxmoncecur’, the seller of romances, cath ee sg ne alded toa jpt an invitatice to his shop in front uf Notre Dare in [Giesnen, Uni ritatabablioniek, cal, 945, fol. 2699) bk rcmances were coped in Hainault (stich as Musée Condé, ms. 479, Lancet and other romances dF their Tate thirtcenth-century serie Calin Je Frution, the: seer). and in Pkardly, especially, it seems In workshops iy Two Amiens scribes of romances are known by: name fa Jeanne d’Amiens le Petit, who probably wrote Arras, Jue Municipale, ms, 149 (verse lives of saints and ether Bilin 278, and avether wae Arnulfur de Kayo, oho’ signedBo (26). This is a splendid copy of Lance Universititsbiblioth« 5 Cod. S.596, in Amiens in 4286 (o4 fo with over 345 miniatures, apemsive hook to make and i supposes wealthy patron, A similarly high class Zanclot manweript whose in the Belnecke pea Nery fine vopy in thee vol first owner can be Wentified from its heraldry Library at Yale University (st, 2 tumes illuminated Guillaume: de Teemonide (1248-1 312), sc8 ond som of the count of Flan The inventory of the possessions of Jean d”Avesnes, count of Hainault (1404), includes 4 Lancelot 4 in red, and the will of the e manuscript described as b un’ ts (i.1296), mentions ‘live de geste ther, Guillaume d'Avener, wh otra mn. bho, of athich wasta be gives to the abbey of S-Sépulechne in Cama becanse (the will says) one of the ronks had made it, These minor nobles therefore are the kia el prople wo toned hare ewerseimts k od and enjoyed the romances 1g Arthas knights The best-kn oman des sn French romance of the thirteenth century i the Rive, a huge poem of aver 20,000 lines, which was by two authors whe never met each other. The story begins with lover going to bed one night and dreaming that he fas found himelf by a siream on a lavely May morning with the sun suming and the birds singing. He is admitted inter a garden shore he sees and falls in love with the Rose in bod (Pt. is rebulfed in all his alvances wl only ater elaborate Ieyorieal gous fs he finally able to ad heart's desine by winaing the Rowe. It sounds rather tite brief summary but in fact is enter ini to road andi with fawinating incident and observation. The first 4,954 ovedl about +2 30-5 by Guillaunye de hs text uniniged, yas: then continued and comple poem were sho probably. came from Loris near Orkans and who vad pethaps belore 1274 by Jean de Mewn, wha reference to hinnelf Jato the text. The: Goal of Love is appear in the story and to bemoan the death ofall the fone sume de Loers of Love predicts) Jean Chopinel from Meung-s iluding his faithful servant will come more than forty years later and. will he s0 fom post that he will ry 10 finish itn order that the knowlege may he ¢ ried ‘through crossroads and through schol, language of France, before audiences throughonst the ki Thus another 17,000 lines were add ad the pact a Jean de Meun (d.1 305) sas well known a6 a poet ad ques, the same str Dominican consent ai thy Sens Lanily of tationens whe London Beh ibrar, Aya M20... 6 mt foto ng thes walneal ing he pe ering se lle rlparties Se prnepingnes cute ae que en fonges { iC qua Die x Ra Ce fables Wine fort Folens x= ne naufardie ais lenpuet nee 7 D Cavity que Conges aimengue ne Cont tie y g Q cowed 7 folmenen A 1 for aps bren a ts ear mor Abie aa sta reaps bit l) Wt’ Conges font fenefiance tiancteqornom macoles —B] D ' e6biés an gés res ann y € arhpluteur togenrin wforpe lation Oy anntes dofes coutiecrn it ant Foy evpuon pr Vows oct aipereerine:rn in chapter 4. He wasn experience author filly aware of the value of books ‘inthe language of France’ The Roman de [a Rose was a great success throughout the rest of the Middle Ayes, Over two hundied manuscripts are known ee dreulition was perhaps helped by the paaem's reputation of having There fs 4 thrteenth-century: glossed Acts, les, and Apocalypse in the Biblionhiyue de Ste Canonical Ep jens in Pais (ms. 95) shth a medieval note that its owner priest in Senlis, exehangidl i for a Ronn ue la Rewe. Nev doubt he hurried away delightedly from the deal, Many copies are beautiful ly dlluminotcd andl at least fire have over « Innere! sniatures each, Two survising copies belonged to the Duc de Beery (Paris, HN. mss y8o and 12595}. One manuscript (Paris, BLN, ms. fi, 2495) slated atthe end 31 May 1361 andl includes an acrostic which spells out the name of its seribe at ‘Johan Mulot’ this copy wonership lnseription of Massiot Austin of Rouen, who says he boul it in was sill being enjoyed a eeatary later as it has Jane 1470 from a book dealer in Rouen called Gautier Nero, and to that ie lose the inde who retucrv itt Min dal be sowardd with 2 good pot of wine (fol, (460), Another Roman de ls Row was written at Sully-sur-Loire in 1490 (Paris, Bibliotheque de PArscnal, ms. 3347), and the sribe records that be began i! on 26 August aru! worked without a break unsil 8 November. This i896 days, which works out at about 296 lines day. A fourtcenth-century Raman de fa Rose in the Biblithique tis 6a oa sian ane ile actus o charming ginal lan woman sitting at separate desks writing out and illuminating. the ‘manuscript with little racks behind them on which the newly-mae 24526, fol. 77%, of the -Moothaston, bookseller in the rae Neuve: Notre Dame pages are Ranging up wo dry (tne, fr 19) These are pr Niche d corded in 1542, dead by #343, and ofhis wife Jeanne, "beanie ably sll a orton: lamingee, Iiumioair’, who inherited the business after his death, ‘Theie book.trade colleagues in the samme strest inchided Geedlray de: St Léger, recorded nx y16 anil uid at least 1337, whe was cently aly both a bookseller and a ilunsinator (his samy a beside miniatures in Paris, lubliothéque de Ste-Geneviees, land whe entific oatjuit wat principally Wterary est Ing three manuscripts of the Roman de la Rose attributalte hand. Among his clients were two quoens of France, Clg Hungary, secon wife of Lowis X, Phi 1V Dockseller recorded hetwe nl Joanene of Burgundy, In the same stfeet also lived Thomas de Mab nay ialzed in French literary texts; among others, hes manuscript for Charles TV in 27 for the huge warn of £3205 Obviousty not all medieval courtly Hiterature was iF there is certamly an implication that romances were appr the French Iaaguage; the word romance originally meant sy vemaculir speech of France, Maree Polo's memoirs ser certainly first writen down in Pron, though the author & the writer, vt. 131). Beunetto Latin, the ist great livery nary Ttaly, wrote one of his books, the Ti Jus deliable et pay of thirteonth French because he theaaght this was mune a tous Tongages'. The fact that nearly thirty’ ill copies of the text survive shows that he sas at least pay Obviously many’ English aristocrats spoke French as thelr tongue, 49 their Norman ancestors hd done. At het, oni teenth-crntury Roma de la Rose svems ta have been made in butin the French language of course (lormerly Astor Ms, Naa gible. A Arthurian romances in Erench seem to hay aly too literature in F yas quite inn been A really beautital ih sy. Br 52455 th Guinn le Courors, one of Arthur's Knights, painted in Lom pumber ten aut by Halian seribes fa Italy ‘example isin Paris, BLN, ms, nowy pethaps oven Venice inthe late fourteenth century. tn the ml Home 1 pr ojpee enaon rena ‘Asa MS. 2108 ft Pars soowteqve Maton, tr 8526077 deta mig al 7H Kt na an ds oman ting ato pre th ar Et een aig Sperm ert sling Sr isa pare aging(Oxford, Baden Library, sue oe no . apcolnt piacque algualle effenee egli if ito KES Per Legge feomutabile ao quite le coffe monsane _anere fine. {Ime amoze oltre aegmiatno i algiale muna fore sipsoponomenee © sronfigho © cinergegnia cutee & fencolo die feguire neporife antes pontto revamp perfe mesefmo m Londen, Brida rary, Yates ‘Thompaon MS-36 0 6 et Nowe cre sempre treaME attey ee ecHte pS quelle moti ea focofo visto alama malinc tia fopamiene nelle Lore ments wiquclle conmiene de com grstie nora fitmest 1S a muoitt ragtenainent non ¢ rimoMs fang challe tne melee mene feret de glioma + movoitencre 4 r 2 ficome not potTiam escre effi alesma malmeenta o gates| Bure olen es vies tA | ole fly get ow piaerier > 3 enc fey gar ee Se eh Te: ened enterite Bi qmot ve ‘om esti Get et oe Berge (oP of anittere. sedi fete fo Oe i hee fo fieve the feof, and chert nother tele (Bufe-fynte proite guste o finahe ii sal Hite int couches gentithes a yi foams BAe mrffeve 18 A wf 58 Prote weal ths SoKas je Fone Ane otdfer mio I] Ang havfotere cHey tolhe Bothie to Be dom 3208 ane goint ene ont of Bfitme Jaf nob anak evinstt of game Teg Sa eve enrbeed ye pth aut Bagyrmeth ye ta Reflow, cher sais Pebeynge m oyenforse 5 A oti ofp gofies feels to Base he. aah He BAG A carpenter Was $B: | oF at oe tu a i er tote jH cons ee for to se Atrons, Penwm A vega eh eect eens. ent te eile Gane eeoit oe ‘eouve 3duke of Fer J tu dispatch ‘as many French books as posible, especially af 1 shall nth century: orso d’Este 4, wrote asking a ive fern them mies Be wiry of the Rand Table, f atu contentment than frean the capture ofa city.” Goraialy, however, not all Borso date’ Hiterature was in ls, for hy his date there were many great vernacular books in Ue r464 he commis ined Lancslo in Hallan, for example, Tis friend and courtier Teofilo Caleagni ordered a splendid ‘of Boccaccio’s Decsmeran, the boisterens tales supposedly told Pach other on ten successive days by young men and women her Fim an canbe rele t the plague im 4348 (ot ), The supremacy of Italian erature goes back, of course, to sgreat Diving Commalia, or Divine Comedy, of Dante Alighieri B55-1521). 1 one Of the supreme works of mankind. The drdous poser and artic of Dante's writing equ the Middle Ages, As ltratare, the Pirin Come fa eclipses un de la Roe, though the texts are more or ks cantempo: D Fy terminal ourselves that the Divine and Jean de Meum knew each other. It may not be amey is an accent Astonishing yayage through the anulerworlds and into heaven ff The scene opens-on Easter Thurslay in the year 1320 when, pt fas lst hin way fa adark word. He is rescued by the pot MH who has been sent by three women, the Virgin Mary, St til Beatrice, the git Dante loved, Virgil escoris Dante right Bi into the centre of hell, and up through purgatory, and ge herself leds him on into paradise, It isa pom of enor Yoveligene and majesty, ane it was extremely widely read six hundred fourtecnth-century manuscripts surrive and na Ie jy even more rom the fifteenth century Fe by Dante’s som Jacopo (written before 1443) and by: Jacopo ilo da Pia (Pt, 196) and others, From the distribu tran iret Te cy pee oe er tien of manuscripts one can guess that the text was especially pop til sn Florence in the mid-fourteemth century and again: around give peoducthnns (ike, those downed by the Viscont! family in Milan and the yal te filteenth century Argun lary in Naples, r8. 133, oF the amazing utlinished copy’ with Fall page drawings by Botticel), but others are quite! humble in oxevution and: art quit ‘often written. on paper, The frst dated illustrated copy was written out in 1147 by Ser Francesa di Ser Nardo da Barberini (Milan, Biblioteca Trivulsiama, ats. 108) ate vas dlumitated sn Florenee by the arist know as the Master of the Doaainicat Eligies. The legend is led dowries for his d that Ser Francesco pros ters by seriting cout a bundied manuscripts of the Divine Comedy, andl itis curiows tHhat there are at least threw ather copies aa closely related to signed manuscript im their script andl devoration that they smast all Florence, Biblioteca Medices Biblioteca Nazionale, Ms have leon produced together: Laurewiana, 95, Stearti 1525 Hloveace, Palate j235 anal New Vouk, P proceeds of even a few sich books would make any’ daughter pont Morgan Library, M289. The luxury manuscripts for aristocratic sel'indal: pics of Geatirey Chaucer's Camerbury Taler come a p third after the Roman de la Rave an the Dine Comedy. This text too scribes a journey andl the stories told hy pilgrims as they travel the filty miles oso from Southwark in London to the shrine of St Thomas Becket in Cantertury Cathedral. There exist about eighty five manuscripts of all or part of the Canterbury Tales, bat they ar not lavishly ilustated like the French or Malian romances, Only fone, the fimous Ellesmere Chaueer (San Marve, Huntingten Library, ts: FL26.€.9), has marginal illustrations of the twenty tree pilgrims who recounted stories in the text, and two others (Cambridge University Library, sis. Gg4.27, and the fragaentsJn Manchester and Philadephia) perhaps once: had similar pic> mr which have now mostly disappeared, B.L., Marley ms, 4758 Henk spaccs far miniatures which were never added. All the ‘manuscripts ate without illustrations (mt. 145), and third them are written on paper Js dficul: vo bnow how to sterpret he fact Mat there war no of ihuminaticn for secular texts in England as ro was in France and Hay, Perhaps the talex were: meant for outloud and pictures would have been supettucas if the store ever recitiin publ ax shown nthe Fans fon: ce 10, Chaucer's Trois and Creyde in Cambridge, Corpus ti College, sts, 61, where the author devlaims from a lectern Inidst of an aristocratic picnic (et. 147). This miniature, tis French fa syle and must represent a courtly eal thon a comevon practice. Ht seems likely that Merary patron simply diferent in England, There were almost no. great svistecratic art collectors inthe lifetime of Chaucer 1400), except perhaps Richard I himsel yi 384-5 manly comprised Arthusan romances ts French oman se a Rove (valu tome pound all ierited fem his - Chaucer himself probably translated the Roman de fa shut the text never became popular and no complete copy fs whose little ‘known (rL. 138). This may be partly because English aristocrats ‘ould as easly cy it in French asin English, and partly because ‘the English heck trade counterparts, Though gradually more facts are emerging about the London book trade in the late Midile: Ages, especially after the formation fa 1403 of the Mistry of oped more slavely than its continental ationcr, a combined guild ‘of scribes and illuminators, there were ceetainly no great shops for th commercial illustration of secular books. Some of the most Jmportant manuscript of Chaucer were demonstrably veritten out by part-time scribes whose principal occupations were ia the royal dancery anil elsewhere, The two earliest references to copies of the Canterbury Toles in English wills date from 1417 and 1420, The first ckonged 1 Richard Sotheworth, a priest and chancery clerk, aod the second to John Britchele, a London tailor, His interesting thit Sotheworth came from Canterbury’ and was Master of Pastbridge Hospital there, Southwank: thus these two Wl Brinehele is recorded as living ta ll-class owners of manuscripts lived a ether end of Chancer's fictional journey, They may have Iu very local reasons for buying the text. “The old namacored qpestion which has haunted. Naguists for erations isto decile at what time national languages came into ‘common use and when (and ashy) they were frst written dow ye eMARTER 19100 Londen rh bar, Inti the det fF twobrathers, Jol, Dake of since all education came from the Church an all ch Latin, Ics frequently sad that wornen had an important promoting semacular writing becase girls Were not Eu taught Latin as thoroughly as boys. Wis guite true that prayer-hooks can often be traced to nuns rather than tom example, One cannot tell wha gathered sound the pot ed pcs by the Gir fees’ iter in the soit full may well have been there. Ia 1 2 the queens Uh Nottingham Castle was painted with scenes of Alex Great, The audience listening to Chaucer in the rs and manuscript mentioned above inclurles nine women, an the had beer in Latin, Infact, the earliest dated! Lancelot mm doubtful whether they would have heed so attentive st have been writen, by « female sere (Paris, Bia 442). Teeas made in 1274 and ends with the request that dh ce will pray for the scribe, ‘pries pour ce Tiki Tescristy We Fernie pronoun The aristocratic patromge of manuscript illuminators ‘court of Fraace in the frst half of the fourteenth century wa asociated with women, A major patron, for exam Mubais, ecastes, of Artal (1.1329), mother of Queen Jeane of Burgundy, From at least 1305) 197 she commissioned many sieular romances and ia may her acvount books pply us with dhe cust ur the values ly the Marco Palo with ten ia Mahaut’s own case off manwscripts, There include n we eg this chapter (w 1312), but also a FHistire de Troi anal a Roran de Peaceval Denight ini Arras far zyieay in (go a Yoo de’ Poca al from th Paris bookseller Thomas de Ma E8n 1513, and a Bible n francois bought from the same for no less than £re9 in 1327. Noblewomen were the pa her well-known nsshuecripte. They include Jonnie dl Blinche dle France (daughter of Philip V), Jeanne de Navarre, Bonne of Luxembourg, and. Yok landers, by no mcane all their manuscripts rere secular (many were prayer-books) but their support strengthenal dition of expensive manuscript illumination which merged ne of f passion for vermaculir literattne during the (350-44) and Char By the mid-fourtecath eontury a geeat many massive fol were be V (1 364-Ke), transhted into French and richly illuminated for cratic libraries, They inchaded weighty texts atch ay Vegetius, Livy (et, 140), Aristotle, and St Augustine, allt into French, A rather surprising success was an adaptation Comestor's Historia Sholanisa, a twellth-century rity bak which enjoyed a remurkable revival among the nd nobility of the fourteenth century, It consists of a aummtey historical sections of the Bible which, ike the legends of Alexander, clude some first-rate stories, The Misra 8 ‘or Bible His lated by Guat de vale in Fretach, was wan