The Concept of True Nobility at the Burgundian Court

Author(s): Charity Cannon Willard

Source: Studies in the Renaissance, Vol. 14 (1967), pp. 33-48
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of
America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2857159
Accessed: 07-07-2017 03:31 UTC

REFERENCES
Linked references are available on JSTOR for this article:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2857159?seq=1&cid=pdf-reference#references_tab_contents
You may need to log in to JSTOR to access the linked references.

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms

Renaissance Society of America, The University of Chicago Press are collaborating with
JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in the Renaissance

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 !gX,
! ern Europe has made considerable progress in recent

The Concept of True Nobility at the

Burgundian Court

k ui9; HE VIEW of the fifteenth century as an age of tran-

W fK ;<X>;, sition rather than as a period of decline, even in north-

> j years, but there is still much to be learned about the

7, various tr-ans by whieh the transition took plaee,
especially how it came about in the minds of men.
Too often investigations in this direction have been limited by the
practice of studying the intellectual life of a given period almost exclu-
sively through what men wrote rather than through what they read or
what they saw about them. Besides this, suff1cient importance has not
always been given to the international and mu]tilingual nature of the
culture in the more civilized parts of Europe during both the Middle
Ages and the Renaissance. For this reason there has been a tendency to
underestimate the importance of translations, not only as a means of
transmitting ideas from one part of Europe to another but as an indica-
tion of intellectual and social concerns at a given time and place.
Fortunately there has been a gradual increase of interest in even this
aspect of cultural history. Quite recently Professor Paul Oskar Kristeller
has emphasized the importance of translation as a method of diffusion of
the writings of Italian humanism deserving of serious consideration. He
maintains: 'In several instances a single document is involved, and it
might be argued that rare documents ofthis kind are unimportant when
seen within the overall picture of life and literature of the period. I am
inclined to attribute greater significance to such cases. A single manu-
script, if written on parchment, was destined for a library where it
might have been read by many people, or even a paper copy of a text
that has a preface or dedication proves that the text was at least intended
for diffusion and publication.'1
Interestingly enough, in connection with the problem of the trans-
1 Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (Harper Torchbooks, New
York, I965), p. 84.

[33 ]

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
34 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

mission of Italian humanistic texts, he ment

Bonaccursius de Montemagno (sometimes call
toia), which was translated into English arou
teenth century by John Tiptoft, Earl of Wo
I48I by William Caxton. Furthermore, it later
Henry Medwall's Fulgens and Lucres, the first
the English language, performed for the first
Far better-known than Medwall's play, how
True Nobility which takes place in Castiglion
says: 'I say that his nobility of birth does not ap
the Courtier . . . I could cite instances of many
blood who have been full of vices and on the
among the humbly born who by their virtue
illustrious.'3
The passage has been singled out by Myron Gilmore as an example of
the way in which literature is able to reflect changes which are taking
place in the social order, with the observation: 'Such testimony is per-
haps more frequently to be found in Italy than elsewhere, as might be
expected from the region that saw the earlier and more complete tri-
umphs of an urban civilization. In the middle of the fifteenth century
Aeneas Sylvius complained that the old grades were now so completely
upset that every servant wanted to be a master; and the debate on nobil-
ity in the celebrated Courtier of Castiglione may be cited as perhaps even
more indicative. This work became so universally the handbook for
gentlemen in the sixteenth century that its implications for thinking
about social classes are particularly important.'4
It is interesting to note that The Courtier, which was first printed in
I528, followed by a century Bonaccursius de Montemagno's Dialogus
de Vera Nobilitate (composed before I429) and there is abundant evi-
dence to suggest that the Latin treatise attracted a considerable amount
of attelltion. Medwall's interlude was first performed some sixteen years
after Caxton's publication of the Earl of Worcester's translation. The
Latin text had already been printed at Cologne in I473, by an anony-
mous press which has come to be associated with Caxton's earliest

2 Five Pre-Shakespearean Conledies, ed. by F. S. Boas (Oxford U Press, I950). For de-
tails of the English tr., see also Hans Baron, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance
(Princeton U Press, I966), pp. 420-423.
3 TXle Book ofthe Courtier, tr. by L. E. Opdycke (New York, I903), p. 23.
4 Tlle World of Humanism (Harper Torchbooks, New York, I963), p. 69.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 CHARITY CANNON WILLARD 35

printing ventures. There was a further edition printed at Leipzig in I494

and another at Louvain in ISOI. The surprising thing is, however, that
John Tiptoft did not translate directly from the Latin, but rather from a
French translation which had already been made at the Burgundian
Court by the prolific translator and adapter, Jean Mielot, and this trans-
lation had been printed, without date although probably around I47S,
by Caxton's early colleague in Bruges, Colard Mansion.5
The fact that the English translation should be better-known than the
French one is not surprising, because attention has been so firmly fixed
on the picturesque and decadent aspects of the Court of Burgundy in
the fifteenth century that its importance as a way station for new ideas
on their route north has been generally overlooked. Yet the prosperous
textile centers of this part of Europe had much in common with the
contemporary Italian city-states, socially as well as commercially. Not
only was Bruges, 'the Venice of the North', a rival to Florence as a
center lSor international trade, but the two cities were in regular com-
munication with each other from a very early date.6
The Dukes of Burgundy themselves could scarcely have been una-
ware of this similarity, a circumstance which might account in large
measure for their efforts to separate their fortunes from those of the
French monarchy at a time when the latter was involved in the final
throes of a feudal struggle. Furthermore, the dukes were obliged to pay
considerable attention to the interests oftheir prosperous, but frequently
unruly, Flemish subjects and to devise ways to bind together the vast
realm they had managed to assemble.
Nowhere is this struggle more apparent than during the reign of
Philip the Good. If, in the end, he gained the upper hand at least mo-
mentarily, it was at the cost of subduing the individualistic ambitions of
his most prosperous subjects. The result was a social evolution which
has been aptly described in Lestoquoy's study, Les Villes de Flandre et
d'Italie sous legouvernement des patriciens:7

5 G. R. C. Cav. Giuliari, Prose del Giovane Buonaccorso da Montemagno inedite akune da

due codici della Bibl. Capitolare di Verona (Bologna, I874), pp. XVii-XViii; J. Van Praet,
Notice sur Colard Mansion (Bruges, I826), pp. 52-53; E. Ph. Goldschmidt, Medieval Texts
and their First Appearance in Print (London, I943), p. 5.
6 J Lestoquoy, Les Villes de Flandre et d'Italie sous le gouvernement des patricieols (Paris,
I952); A. Grunzweig, 'Florence et les Pays-Bas au Moyen Age,' Bulletin de l'Institut
Historique Belge de Rome XXVI (I950-SI), II3-I28.
7 Les Villes de Flandre et d'Italie, p. 243.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
36 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

La ville a pris le pas sur le domaine. Mais le XVe siecle voit l'Etat prendre le pas
sur la ville. Le prince parvient a une centralisation du pouvoir inconnue j usqu'alors . . .
I1 y aura encore un patriciat, mais il sera surtout au service du prince, aussi bien dans la
Florence des Medicis que dans les villes du duche de Bourgogne . . . Ainsi se trans-
forma la vie sociale.

In the face of such an observation, which is amply supported by o

evidence, it becomes difflcult to accept Johann Huizinga's celebrat
conclusion to his Waning of the Middle Ages: 'The fifteenth centur
France and the Netherlands is still medieval at heart. The diapason
life has not yet changed . . . The two poles of the mind continued t
chivalry and hierarchy ....'8
Huizinga's conclusion is likewise difflcult to reconcile with the sort of
evidence provided by a group of translations which came into being at
the Burgundian Court during the second half of the fifteenth century.
This included the Quintus Curtius life of Alexander the Great and
Xenophon's Cyropaedia translated by the Portuguese courtier Vasco de
Lucena. Xenophon's treatise on tyranny was also translated by Charies
the Bold's secretary Charles Soillot and Caesar's Commentaries was put
into French by Jean Du Quesne of Lille, not to mention Cicero's letter
to his brother Quintus 011 the duties of the governor of a province,
which was translated byJean Mielot, to name only the most important.9
It is in connection with these other translations that the French version
of Bonaccursius de Montemagno's De Nobilitate should be examined.
Although the translator, Jean Mielot, was one of the most prolific
8 (NeWYorknI956)P-335-

9 Vasco de Lucena's tr. of the life of Alexander, based on Poggio's Latin version, is to
be found, for instance, in Paris, Arsenal MS. 508g, Bibl. Nat. f. fr. 22547 and f. fr. 257;
Copenhagen, Royal Library, Thott MS. 540; Gotha, Landesbibliothek, MS. Membr. I, I I6;
Geneva, Bibliotheque de la Ville, MS. 76; Jena, Universitatsbibliothek, MS. Gall. F. 89;
Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, MS. 2566. The tr. of Xenophon's Hieron (in reality a tr. of
Bruni's Latin text) is contained in Brussels, Bibl. Royale, MSS. I4642 and 9567 as well as
in another which is described in Cat. No. 60 of Pierre Beres of Paris, Manuscrits et livres du
XIV au XVI siecle (Paris, I963). The Cyropaedia is contained in Brussels, Bibl. Royale,
MS. I I703 and London, British Museum, Royal MS. I7 E V. Among the copies of Caesar's
C0s7tmentaries are to be noted Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 208; Copenhagen,
Royal Library, Thott MS. 544 and Yale University Library, MS. 226. The autograph of
Mielot's tr. of Cicero's letter is contained in Paris, B.N. f. fr. I700I and there is another
copy in Copenhagen, Royal Library, Thott MS. I090. Discussions of these trs. are to be
found in R. Bossuat, 'Vasque de Lucene, traducteur de Quinte-Curce (I468),' Biblio-
tlleque d'Huetanissne et Renaissance VIII (I946), I97-245; 'Traductions fran ,caises des "Com-
mentaires" de Cesar a la fin du XVe siecle,' Bibl. d'Humanisete et Renaissance IV (I944),
253-373; 'Jean Mielot, traducteur de Ciceron,' Bibl. de l'Ecole des Chartes XCIX (I938),
I-45; J. Monfrin, 'Humanisme et traductions du moyen age,'Journal des Savants (juillet-
septembre I963), I6I-I90.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 CHARITY CANNON WILLARD 37

scribes and editors at the Burgundian Court, little is known of his life
beyond the fact that he was a native of the region of Amiens and that he
served as a Canon of the Church of Saint Peter in Lille atld as secretary
at the ]3urgundian Court.l° The merit of his individual translations has
possibly been obscured by their abundance and their astonishing vari-
ety: saints lives (Vie et miracles de Saint-Josse in Brussels- Bibl. Royale
MS. I0958, dated I449; Vie de Sainte Catherine, Philip the Good's copy in
Paris 13.N. £ fr. 6449), crusade literature (B.N. £ fr. 9087, which is
considered to be Mielot's autograph copy of a Recueil sur la Sainte Terre;
Avis directif pour faire le passage d'outremer, dated I455, in Brussels MS.
9°9S a1ld Paris, B.N. £ fr. 9087), a revision of Christine de Pisan s im-
mensely popular Epistre Othea (Brussels MS.9392, dated I460 and car-
ried out with additions from a translation of a portion of Boccaccio's
De Getlealogia Deorum)1l as well as such spiritual treatises as the Miroir de
la Salv(ltion humaine (Brussels MS.9249-50)12 and Denys theCarthusian's
Traite des quatre dernieres choses (Brussels MS. III29) to mention only a
part of his accomplishment.l3
Along with all these other texts, then, Mielot translated Bonaccursius
de Montemagno's De Nobilitate, although in the process the Italian
humanist became 'Bonne Surse, notable docteur en loix et grant ora-
teur.' The text itself is entitled La Controverse de noblesse. There is no
doubt about its parentage, however, for it sets forth the same debate
between Publius Cornelius Scipio and Gaius Flaminius before the
Roman Senate for the hand of a young Roman woman developed by
Bonaccursius. The first contender is of noble birth, though an idler; the
second is of obscure origin, but stlldious and active in public life.
Lucrece, the daughter of a Roman senator, has declared that she will
marry the youth who will be adjudged more noble, though the Senate's
decision is not recorded in the story. It is not without interest to con-
sider that the original treatise was dedicated to Carlo Malatesta of Rimi-
ni, whose illegitimate birth may well have had something to do with
the inspiration of the controversy.14

10 In (Copenhagen, Royal Library, Thott MS. I090, f. 98 r° he describes himself as

'prestre i]<digne natif de Gaissart-les-Ponthieu en l'eveschie d'Amiens.'
11 See G. Mombello, 'Per la fortuna del Boccaccio in Francia. Jean Mielot traduttore
di due capitoli della Geneologia' in Studi sul Boccaccio, I (Firenze, I963), 4I5-444.
12 SeeJ. Lutz and P. Perdizet, Speculum hus7lanae salvatio>is (Mulhouse, I907).
13 For a more complete list of trs. see P. Perdizet, 'Jean Mielot' in Revue d'histoire
litte'raire SIV (I907), 475 ff.
14 A. W. Reed, 'Chivalry and the Idea of a Gentleman,' in Chivalry, ed. E. Prestage
(New York, I928), pp. 2I I-2I3 .

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
38 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

Mielot's translation dates from I449. Si

text are still known, the most important
translator for Philip the Good. (Brussels
ature shows the Duke accepting the copy
while another person, who tnight possib
himself because of the presence of similar f
his translations, looks on. Other manusc
Brussels MS. I0977-79, the product of an a
I090 of the Royal Danish Library in Cope
likewise to be found in Paris, B.N. £ fr.
I0493-97, the latter a compilation prepare
ful political figures and notable biblioph
Good, and, finally, it exists in a manuscr
the XVIth century, Paris, B.N. £ fr. 54I
edition printed in Bruges by Colard Mans
evidence of interest in the text at the Bu
It is important to notice, however, that
contain the Controverse de Noblesse are m
text is accompanied by a Detbat d'honneu
Mielot. This debate purports to have tak
Great, Hannibal and Scipio the Roman C
enjoyed the greatest renown and the mo
Minos, ruler of the Underworld, gives t
honors to Scipio. Reference to a text of t
in the Royal Library in The Hague (MS.
this iS a text composed by the Italian hu
Lucian.l6

The third text which is included in the manuscript pre

lot for Philip the Good is another Traite de Noblesse, this on

15 These are Nos. II7 and 83 respectively of the catalogue prepared by L. M. J.

Delaisse for La Miniature Xqamande. Le mecelat de Pltilippe le Boul. Expositioul orgalisee a
1'occasion du 4ooe anniversaire de lafondation de la Bibliotheque royale de P1tilippe II le 12 avril
. Palais des Beaux Arts, Bruxelles, avriljuin I 959 (Bruxelles, I 959).
16 The Hague MS. contains the following annotation: 'Sensuit une autre comparaison
fete entre Alexandre, Hannybal et Scipion, laquelle a este escripte en langue grejoyse par
Lucanne, orateur solennel et bien entendu. Et a este translate par Libianne soubz briefve
comprehension a donner a entendre et a cognoistre les fais et euvres des renommees que
chacun de ces troys tan glorieux capitainnes ont fait selon que cy apres se racontera de
chacun deulx.' Professor Kristeller refers to the popularity of this text and to a xvth-
century English tr. preserved at the Trinity College Library in Dublin in Renaissance
Thought II, p. 87.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 CHARITY CANNON WILLARD
93

hsinapS eht
t hcnerF eht
uH fo krow
ehto lareveS
cossa stpircs
hcihvz ,S7°7
fo ynohtnA
pS eht wenk
icitrap meht
magne, held at Chalons-sur-Marne in I438.17
The presence at the Burgundian Court of Valera's treatise on nobility
is significant for the light it throws on the spread of discussion of this
humanistic topic during the fifteenth century. The career of Diego de
Valera is, in addition, interesting because it illustrates so well the con-
trasts of the age in which he lived. An able diplomat and a versatile
writer, he was also a knight errant in the best medieval sense of the word
and an expert on chivalric practices. His life spanned a good part of the
fifteenth century, for he was born in I4I2, reared at the court ofJuan II
of Castile, which he entered as a page to the Infante Don Enrique, and
he livecl to play a role at the court of Isabel the Catholic at the very end
of the century.
Eager to know the world, in I427 he traveled to France and later to
Vienna where, in the company of several other Spanish knights and like
so many other young noblemen of his day, he covered himself with
glory fighting in the wars against the Hussites.l8
It was not long after this adventure that he made his first appearance
at the Burgundian Court, where his presence is recorded by Olivier de
la Marche. The two amateurs of literature and also of chivalric protocol
must have had a great deal in common and Olivier de la Marche's
comments on the Spaniard suggest that he found him most agreeable.l9
In jousting he acquitted himself with distinction and he became ac-

17 Ihe original Spanish version of Diego de Valera's treatise is to be found in the

Library of the Palacio Real in Madrid, MS. 2078; copies of the French tr. are preserved in
Brussels, Bibl. Royale MSS. 2I55I-69 and I0977-79, Paris B.N. f. fr. 5229, Torino, Bibl.
Reale MS. Varia 73 and Yale University Library MS. 230.
18 Menendez y Pelayo, Antologia de poetas liricos castellanos (Madrid, I894), V, CCXXViii.
1 9 Olivier de la Marche, Me'nloires (Ed. H. Beaune et J. d'Arbaumont, Soc. Hist. de Fr.,
Paris, I883-88), II, ch. IX: 'Arriva a l'arbre de Charlemaigne un chevalier du royaume
d'Espaigne pour venir au pas dessusdit. Ce chevalier fut de petit et moyenne taille, mais
de grand et noble vouloir, gracieux et courtois et fort agreable a chacun' (3 89).

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
40 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

quainted with some of the Burgundians who would later show an

illterest ill his writings. His own impressions are reflected in a Tratado de
1f1s armas setting forth the laws and practices of chivalry as he had ob-
served them in France, England, Germany and Spain.
Subsequent diplomatic missions took him back to France and Bur-
gundy, as well as to England and Hungary. These travels are recorded
in llis Cronica abreviada, also known ill French translation at the Burgun-
dian Court. The writings of his later years also reflect a variety of other
concerns, for he was one of the most prolific writers of his generation.
LIis Epistolas enviadas en diversos tiempos e a diversas personas reveal the
work of a talented political polemicist and as such are particularly note-
worthy.
Amo1zg other notable works are his Defensa de mtljeres, apparently
intended as a reply to Boccaccio's n Corbaccio, and his Espejo de verdadera
nobleza, two compositions which, curiously enough, parallel two others
on precisely the same themes written by his compatriot and contem-
porary Juan Rodriguez del Padron. For some unknown reason it was
Juan Rodriguez's Triunfo de las donas and Valera's Espejo de verdadera
nobleza which were translated at the Burgundian Court. Valera's treatise
on nobility may have found favor not only because the author was
known there, but because it is less allegorical than Juan Rodriguez's
Cadira del honor, and more given to historical example, a device much
in favor at the Burgundian Court.20
Valera's treatise on nobility was dedicated to King Juan II of Castile,
and thus must have been written before I454.21 It is divided into twelve
chapters, which deal with such problems as three fundamental types of
nobility, with tyrants who ennoble themselves and also with men of
high birth but ignoble conduct whose nobility should be forfeited; there
are also sections devoted to the origins of nobility and of chivalry. It is
particularly interesting to observe that Valera makes reference not only
to Lucian's comparison of Alexander, Scipio, and Hannibal, but also to
Boccaccio's De viris illustribus.
The exact date of Hugues de Salve's translation is difficult to establish.
There is reason to believe, however, that some discussion of True No-
bility was already in progress at the Burgundian Court even before any
20 For a discussion ofthe tr. ofthe Triunfo de las donas see my article 'Isabel of Portugal
and the French Translation of the "Triunfo de las Donas" ' in the Revue belge de Philologie
et d Histoire XLIII (I965), 96I-969.
21 The dedication appears in the Madrid Palacio Real MS. 2078, f. lv°. See also M.
Menendez y Pelayo, Poetas de la Corte de Don Juan II (2a ed., Buenos Aires, I946), pp.
2I2-230.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 CHARITY CANNON WILLARD 41

of these translations were put into circulation, for there is an earlier

treatise entitled the Enseignement de vraie noblesse, one copy of which is
dated I440.22 This is the account of a pilgrimage made to the shrine of
Notre Dame de Hal, near Brussels, in May of that year by 'un chevalier
de petit estat et lignaige.' The pilgrim set out from Lille, and on ap-
proachillg the town of Hal he saw in a vision a dazzling lady come out
from the city gates to meet him. After she had introduced herself as
Imagination, she proceeded to discuss with the pilgrim the troubles of
the times, calling attention to the shortcomings of each group in con-
temporary society, and concluding with her expressed conviction that
'bon et joyeux temps regneroit en la Chrestiente si les princes et leur
chevalerie avoit en eulx vraie noblesse.' Convinced that the ignorance of
both princes and knights was the cause of all these social ills, she charged
the pilgrim with the duty of delivering a message to the Nobility. The
pilgrim, understandably hesitant to accept the mission, finally acceded
to the lady's insistence and immediately thereafter awoke from his
dream.
Although it would be difficult to see any significant humanistic ideas
in this Enseignement de vraie noblesse, it is qtute possible that it helped to
prepare the way for Mielot's translation of I449. After the middle of the
century, in any case, there was an evident increase of interest in the
question of True Nobility. Indeed, the Prologue of Anthony of Bur-
gundy's copy of the Diego de Valera treatise mentions such discussion:

Survint en ma memoire que beaucop de foix avoie oy debatre non pas tant seule-
ment en vostre tresnoble maison et court mais en beaucoup d'autres maisons de
tresllaulx roys et illustres princes et treshaulz barons du traittie et estat de noblesse et
gentilesse. Et pour ce qu'il me semble que pluseurs sont bien loing de la vraie cong-
noissance et verite, d'icelle me sembla et fut aviz que ne povoie entreprendre plus hon-
neste occupacion et traveil et desquel plus grant proufflt se peut ensuivir entre les nobles
en monstrant la verite de si hautes choses comme des vertus et dignitez en secourant et
aydant a ceulx qvii n'en ont pas tant leut que moy, tollsjours en me soubzmettant a la
correction de ceulx qui plus hautement que moi en ont voulu ou vouldroient traitier.23

An ccho of the same sentiment is to be found in the Instruction d'un

jeune prince, attributed at various times to both Georges Chastellain and

22 Felix Hachez, 'Un Manuscrit de l'Enseignement de la Vraie Noblesse provenant de

la bibliotheque de Charles de Croy, comte de Chimay,' Annales du Cercle Archetologique de
Mons XIII (I892), 9I-I04. The manuscript dated I440 iS Brussels No. II047, cited by G.
Doutrepont, La litte'raturefranfaise a la cour des ducs de Bourgogne (Bruxelles, I909), 3 I7 n.,
although the manuscript published in part by Hachez is No. I0,3 I4.
23 Brussels MS. II 7057, foll. lvo-2ro.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
42 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

Ghilbert de Lannoy, although with somewhat better evidence to the

Jatter.24 The general tone ofthe Instruction is noble, somewhat conserva-
tive and distinctly practical. The author dwells in particular on the
necessity of virtuous advisors for the prince, supporting his arguments
with examples of Roman virtue. Thus he introduces the image of the
Roman Temples of Honor and Virtue:

Et ad ce propoz l'en treuve anciennement ou temps que Romme seignourissoit

presque sur tout le monde avoit a Romme deux temples: l'un nomme le Temple
d'Honneur et l'autre le Temple de Verttl, mais le Temple d'Onneur estoit eddiffile et
assis en telle maniere que nul n'y povoit entrer que premiers ne passast par le Temple
de Vertu, pourquoy l'en doit scavoir que nul de quelque estat qu'il soit sans vertu ne
poent parvenir a honneur.25

Burgundian literature, furthermore, provides other references to the

debate on Nobility. One of these occurs in Chastellain's Advertissement
au duc Charles, written in the midst of rather significant circumstances.
Soon after the death of Philip the Good (I2J@y I467), the burghers of
Ghent had attempted an uprising against their new duke, who had on
the whole been favorably disposed towards them in the past. Charles of
Burgundy, greatly oliended by their presumption, was inclined to deal
with them severely. When the representatives of Ghent were sum-
moned before him, however, one of Chastellain's servants was also
present bearing in his hand the Advertissement. In the treatise, as well as
in a poem addressed to the duke the following year, the elderly courtier
urged moderation. It was in such a context that he reminded his lord of
the true meaning of nobility:

24 According to Ch. Potvin, Oeuvres de Guillebert de Lannoy (Louvain, I878), pp.

xxxv-xli, the authorship is ascribed to Lannoy on the basis of similarity to ideas expressed
in an Avis directed by Lannoy to Philip the Good in I439. It should be remembered that
Lannoy had been counsellor and 'director of spiritual affairs' for Philip even before he had
succeeded to the dukedom. Curiously enough, the Delaisse catalogue attributes the
Brussels MS. of the Instruction to Lannoy and the Arsenal copy to Chastellain, following
the Arsenal catalogue in this. This would, of course, be impossible. It is interesting to
tlote, however, that the Delaisse catalogue calls attention to a strong similarity between
the format of the Brussels MS. and that of several MSS. containing Mielot's trs. The illus-
trator is an artist who appears to be a disciple of DreuxJean, a well-known artist at the
Burgundian Court. The Arsenal MS. illus., ccording to the ducal accounts, by Jean
Hennecart in I470, recalls the style of an artist who was responsible for the decoration of
two trs. made in the entourage of the Duchess Isabel of Portugal. All these MSS. appear to
be products of an atelier which manifested interest in humanistic texts.
25 Brussels MS. I0976, foll. 4gv°-Sor°. The image immediately calls to mind Le Temple
d Honneur et de Vertus ofJean Lemaire de Belges (I503); see edition of his Oeuvres, ed.
M.J. Stecher (Louvain, I882-9I), IV, I83.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 CHARITY CANNON WILLARD 43

Et vaut mieux un povre homme que vertu acompagne, venir au titre de roy, que
fils de roy parvienne a coronne, non doue de vertu. Rien ne fait digne l'homme, que
ses bonnes moeurs, et riens ne le fait clair, que son bien faire et louablement exposer de
soy acquitter en son devoir. Ou? Certes envers Dieu, envers ses subjets par equite en
tenir, envers ses nobles par les recognoistre, envers ses serviteurs par les remunerer,
envers les bons et dignes par les avanchier, envers les sages par les attraire, et les vaillans
honnourer et tenir en amour par singulier benefice.26

At mtlch the same period references to True Nobility began to appea

in other sorts of texts. One such is to be found in the Livre des faits
Jacques Lalaing, the life of that perfect knight of the fifteenth century.
Before he leaves home for the Burgundian Court his father admonishe
him: 'Et sachez, mon fils, que de tant que estes plus noble qu'un autre,
de tant devez estre plus noble de vertus; car la noblesse de bonnes
mocurs vaut tant mieux que la noblesse de parens, et ne peut la noblesse,
tant soit grande ni puissante, surmonter la mort.'27
The same idea is given a more extensive development in the prosifica-
tion ofthe epic Doon de Mayence, published by Antoine Verard (ISOI)
with the curious title, La feur des batailles Doolin deMaience, chevalier
preux et hardi, fils du noble et chevalereux Gui, comte de Matence. In the
Prologue it is explained that Adam was indeed the first nobleman, but
that he became base after the Fall. From that point is developed the
theory of two kinds of nobility, accompanied by a genealogy which
begins with Adam and eventually arrives at Doolin, described rather
pedantically as the 'tres-fidele, loyal et hardy Doolin quem non solum
excellentia generis, sed mores virtutesque nobilitant.'28

26 Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove (Bruxelles, I863-66),

VII, 3 I2.

27 Pub. by Kervyn de Lettenhove in Oeuvres de Chastellain, VIII, I8.

28 Bibl. Nat. y2 78: L'Acteur sur la declaration de noblesse. 'Toutefoys pource que je
trouve deux manieres de noblesse dont l'une est qui descent par charnelle generation et
notable lignee congneue comme celle du noble fidele et loyal chevalier Guy, conte de
Maience qui engendra directement en mariage le hardy, preux, et vaillant conquerant
Doolin de Maience duquel ce roman et cronique a este fait, lesquelz pere et filz sont
descendus de la noble lignee des roys trescrestiens de France .... Et a celle fin de tousjours
donner aux presens chevaliers et autres gens de guerre courage d'ensuyvir vigoreusement
le bon chevalier je treuve la seconde noblesse qui est vertu et bonnes meurs, comme dit
Aristote au. iii. chapitre d'Etlziques, et ceste ont acquis et acquierent plusieurs par leurs
vaillances et proesses, car on dit communement que noblesse vient de noble courage.
Mais veritablement je puis dire du tresfidele loyale et hardy Doolin quem non solum excel-
lentia generis sed snores virtutesque nobilitarunt, car il n'a pas este tant seulement par l'excel-
lence de generation ennobly, mais par bonnes meurs et vertueuses operations comme s'en
pourra veoir par ce present romant redige et mis par chapitres ainsi qu'il est contenu en
la table dessus escripte.' See also G. Doutrepont, Les Mises en prose des etpopetes et des romans
chevaleresques du XIVe au XVIe siecle (Bruxelles, I939), p. 87.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
44 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

It is interesting to compare this prologue wit

found at the beginning of a compilation conta
tion of Diego de Valera's treatise on Nobility.
svould appear to have been copied in Bruges b
is now in the Yale University Library.29

Cy commence le prologue de ce present traittie intitule

A la loenge de Dieu Nostre Benoit Createur, a l'onneur d
de vertus et de noblesse. Je qui pour ma petitesse nom
volume rassemble et mis ensemble aucuns petis traittiez
choses servans a tous desirans scavoir quele chose est n
naissance et commencement et qui fut le premier noble
vient faire a l'omme pour estre dit et tenu noble dont
hardiesse que de soy nommer noble et gentil par dessus
faire et accomplir j'ay eu refuge et conseil a pluiseurs
d'armes, heraulx, comme a pluiseurs nobles docteurs en
expers en divers sciences. Mais pour toutes resolucions et
se condescendent tous et prendent pour commencement
noblesse a l'auctorite du philosphe qui dit: Nobilis est ille
a dire en francoiz que cellui est noble qui sa vertu ano
veriffiler ils prendent pour exemple le premier homm
fut Adam ....

To be sure, the question of True Nobility had already been raised

some years earlier in Les Seigneurs de Gavre, an adventure story written
at the Burgundian Court around I456. When Louis de Gavres takes
leave of his mother before setting forth on his initial adventure, she
gives him this familiar advice:

Mon tres chier filz, je vous commande que ne hantes les folles femmes, les jeu de
deez, ne les tavernes. Se ainsy est que les hantes, tousjours seres povres et meschans.
Cardes-vous des sept pechiez mortels, ales souvent a confesse, ayes plus chier morir de
fain que a perdre bonne renommee de vous. Estes noble de lignye, encores deves plus
estre de vertus, car la noblesse des bonnes meurs vault trop mieulx que la noblesse des
parenS... 30

It is doubtful that these examples exhaust t

ture of the second half of the fifteenth cent
as well known as it should be, but it is cu
Mielot himself returned to the subject at the
lator. In his version of two chapters from Boccaccio's De Genealogia
Deorum, Mielot developed not only the genealogy of the Dukes of

29 See n. I7.
30 Brussels MS. I0238, f. 8.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 CHARITY CANNON WILLARD 45

Burgundy, along with those of other celebrated personages, but he

added his own. His idea was this: although the nobility had in the past
been the only ones to have the right to a family tree because, according
to tradition, they had been the ones to invent and to cultivate the seven
liberal arts, now that these liberal arts were taught in all universities,
which were in turn frequented by people of all classes, all those who
were cultivated had the right to trace their lineage and to participate in
the 'generosity' formerly limited to the nobility. Mielot's idea was sus-
tained by the chapter from the Genealogia entitled Ut plurimum studia
sequimur, il que prona videnter ingenia (bk. IV, ch. x), where Boccaccio
maintains that a man's estate should be determined by his personal
qualities rather than by the circumstances of his birth.3l
It is also unlikely that the literature of the period gives a complete
picture of the interest roused by the question at the Burgundian Court.
During the second part of the fifteenth century any discussion of the
nature of nobility which was not hereditary would inevitably have cor-
responded also to the ambitions of the bureaucratic middle class which
was responsible for the functioning of the far-flung Burgundian terri-
tories. ProfessorJohn Bartier, in particular, has studied the documents
which reveal the careers of these ambitious civil servants who were so
determinedly climbing the social ladder.32 The faces of some of these
sel£made men are still familiar today from the portraits they com-
missioned in a desire to perpetuate their memories for posterity, a trait
which certainly bespeaks the Renaissance. There were Jean Gros and
Pierre Bladelin, along with the Chancellor Rolin and his son, the Bishop
of Autun, to mention only the best known of them. In the port of
Bruges they would inevitably have rubbed shoulders with many for-
eigners, including two notable promoters of Italian silk, and Italian
ideas, at tlle Burgundian Court: Giovanni Arnolfini of Lucca and Tom-
maso Portinari, representative of the Medici Bank of Florence. Their
faces have been preserved by the same painters who immortalized their
Flemish and Burgundian contemporaries. The courtiers who frequented
Bruges would not have needed Mielot's translation of Buonaccorso's
treatise to know what was being discussed in Florence, or elsewhere,
in Italy.33

31 Mombello, 'Per la fortuna del Boccaccio in Francia,' 43I-432.

32 Legistes etgens de finance. Les conseillers des ducs de Bourgogne Philippe le Bon et Charles
le Teme'raire. Academie royale de Belgique. Classe des lettres et des sciences morales et
politiques. Memoires, L, 2-2 bis (Bruxelles, I955-57).
33 P. Bonenfant, Philippe le Bon (Bruxelles, I955), speaks of the particular develop-

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
46 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

Although the objection might be raised that the question of True

Nobility had already been discussed in the Middle Ages proper and that
the ferment which created interest in the subject had started in the
Flemish textile centers long before the fifteenth century, no serious
student of Renaissance thought would be inclined to deny the human-
istic nature ofthe debate, especially as it is set forth in the De Nobilitate of
Bonaccursius or Diego de Valera's treatise. The late Professor Berthold
Ullman, in his study The Humanism of Coluccio Salutati noted: 'Salutati
. . . maintains that genuine nobility depends on virtue, not blood (De
Nobilitate I). He agrees with Dante that where there is virtue there is
nobility, but agreed that the opposite is not true.'34 Myron Gilmore in
Tlie World of Humanism further observes: 'The relationship between
virtue and nobility was often discussed in the Middle Ages, notably by
Dante, but it had become a still more common theme of Renaissance
speculation and the view that virtue could triumph over nobility tended
to flourish in a social situation which was in significant ways becoming
more fluid than in previous centuries.'35
P. O. Kristeller has much the same sort of observation to make:
The question [of nobility] had been discussed by a few late medieval authors, and
some of them had already emphasized the role of personal merit as a basis for nobility.
In the fifteenth century tllere was a whole series of such treatises, De Nobilitate, in
which the problem was investigated further. In the treatises by Poggio Bracciolino,
Buonaccorso da Montemagno, Bartolomeo Platina, and the still unpublished but in-
teresting dialogue by Cristoforo Landino, the thesis that nobility rests on virtue is

melat of portrait painting at the Burgundian Court as follows: 'Ainsi d'ailleurs, que l'a
note tres justement J. Huizinga, la peinture, a la difference de la musique ou meme de la
litterature, apparait moins, sous Philippe le Bon, comme un art de cour, que comme un
art urbain et meme bourgeois. Quelle qu'ait pu etre leur origine, Jan van Eyck, n'est-il
pas avant tout un peintre brugeois et Roger de la Pasture n'est il pas devenu le Bruxellois
van der Weyden? L'efflorescence de la peinture atteste donc, en somme, a sa maniere la
prosperite, sinon de la bourgeoisie, a tout le moins de certains milieux bourgeois' (pp.
I32-I33) -
34 The Humanism of Coluccio Salutati (New York, I964), p. 73.
35 P. 70. The importance of Laurent de Premierfait's trs. of Boccaccio in the dissemina-
tion of the idea must not be overlooked. In the introd. to the second (I409) version he
said: 'Car ainsi comme ung jardin qu'on plante de diverse especes d'arbres et d'herbes
flories et odorrions est plus precieux, aussi sont les enfans des nobles hommes qui sont
nourris entre les fleurs des sciences et odeurs des vertus et qui ont longuement este repeuz
des frians atendu que noblesse n'est pas hereditaire, car elle prent naissance de vertus et bonnes
ouvres.' (Morgan MS. 342, fol. 4r°.) Long before this version was printed in Paris by Jean
du Pre in I483 it was known through numerous MS. copies. See P. Durrieu, Le Boccace de
Munich (Mtmich, I909) and H. Martin, Le Boccace de Jean sans Peur, des cas des nobles
llot1Z11les et feen^11es (Brusscls, I9I I).

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
 CHARITY CANNON WILLARD 47

strongly defended. The problem is treated in typically humanistic fashion in the work
of Buonaccorso da Montemagno, which enjoyed tremendous popularity.36

Euge1lio Garin, in his Italian Humanism, dwells in particular on

Poggio s treatise:
In his Liber de Nobilitate Bracciolini insists that virtue ennobles and that nobility, in
turn, is the expression of a fruitful virtue. Such virtue must be victorious over fortuna
and change the world of men .... On the other hand, in his De Nobilitate Bracciolini
especially emphasized the two fundamental topics of the humanistic discussion of
nobility. These two topics led to the writings of Buonaccorso da Montemagno and,
towards tlle end of the century, to the work of Landino.37

There seems little reason to deny, therefore, that the inspiration which
brought about the translations of Mielot and of the Provost of Furnes
was basically humanistic. IndeedX Mielot's translation would seem to
have been a way station for Bonaccursius de Montemagno s treatise as
it traveled from Italy to England. Nor is it surprising to discover the
discussion continuing without apparent interruption from the second
half of the fifteenth century into the early years of the sixteenth. A
further development of the same theme is to be observed in the Chatl-
sons de Namur composed by Jean Lemaire de Belges to celebrate the
valor of a group of commoners who defeated French troops on I8
October I507.38 At very nearly the same time Symphorien Champier
included in his Nef des Princes a dialogue inspired by Buonaccorso da
Monterrlagno. In a series of questions and ansu7ers exchanged by the
young prince Charles and his mentor 'le docteur Craton', it is demon-
strated that there is a coexistence of temporal nobility, which is inherit-
ed or conferred by a prince, and of spiritual nobility, which depends on
individual merit and is preferable, but 'qui peut les avoir toutes deux,
c'est le meilleur et l'un aide a l'autre.'39 And of course in I537 there
appeared the first French translation of The Courtier which has been
described as having been, along with Anladis de Gallle 'le livre qui a le
plus influe sur les moeurs franSaises et la vie de cour au XVIe siecle.'40
By that time the discussion of True Nobility should have presented
little novelty to many French readers.

36 Renaissance Thought II, pp. 48-49.

37 Italian Htlffaanism: Philosophy and Civic Lfe in the Renaissance, tr. by Peter Munz
(Oxford, I965), p. 46.
38 Ed. Stecher, IV, 305.
39 J. B. Wadsworth, Lyon, 1473-1503. The Beginnings of Cosmopolitanism (Cambridge,
Mass., I962), pp. IO9-I I I .
40 H. Chamard, Les Origines de la poe'siefranfaise de la Renaissance (Paris, I932), p. 227.

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
48 TRUE NOBILITY AT THE BURGUNDIAN COURT

The importance of the discussion did not end with the sixteenth
century, for it reflected the interests of a new group in society which
^ras gradually gaining momentum. As Marcel FranSon has put it so
aptly: 'Nous avons dit souvent que ce qui caracterise le XVIe siecle,
surtout en France, c'est la formation d'une culture nouvelle au sein de
laquelle la bourgeoisie joue un role qui tend a devenir dominant: le
XVIe siecle prelude au XIXe . . . mais, au XVIe siecle, la revolution est
1nanquee; elle ne pourra etre reprise et menee a bien qu'a la fin du
XVIIIe siecle.'4l

It is not surprising, therefore, to discover that the question of the

ature of nobility was still of moment in the XVIIIth century, as can be
seen not only in the fiery words of a Figaro on the eve of the Revolu-
tion, but in such relatively sober plays as Voltaire's Mahomet or Sedaine's
Philosophe sans le Savoir.42 Furthermore, in the aftermath of the Ameri-
can Revolution, the idea had become an article of faith of a new society.
In I784, Franklin was to be found writing from Passy on the absurdity
of inherited honors and as late as I8I3 John Adams was exchanging
letters with Thomas JeSerson on the subject of 'Natural Aristocracy'.
The latter insisted: 'The natural aristocracy I consider as the most
precious gift in nature, for the instruction, the trusts, and government
of society .... May we not even say, that the form of government is
the best, which provides the most effectually for a pure selection of
these natural aristoi into the oi1ces of government? The artificial aris-
. . . . . . . .

tocracy 1S a mlsc llevous lrlgrec lent m government, anc provlslon

should be made to prevent its ascendance ....'43 There is every reason
to suppose that they thought they were discussing a thoroughly modern
idea.

West Point, New York CHARITY CANNON WILLARD

41 Le,cons et Notes sur la litte'rature fran,caise au XVIe siecle (Cambridge, Mass., I965),
p. I62.

42 Mahomet I, iV:
Les mortels sont egaux; ce n'est point la naissance,
C'est la seule vertu qui fait la difference.
Le Philosophe sans le savoir II, iV:
M. Vanderk fils: Je suis donc gentilh<)mme ! . . . Pourquoi donc me l'avoir cache?
M. Vanderk pere: Par une prudence peut-etre inutile; j'ai craint que l'orgueil d'un
grand nom ne devint le germe de vos vertus; j'ai desire que vous les tinssiez de
vous-meme....
43 A. Koch, The American Enlightenment (New York, I965): Franklin to Mrs. Sarah
Bache from Passy, 26 Jan. I784, pp. 95-96; John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, I5 Nov.
[8I3, pp. 2I8-220; letter cited from ThomasJefferson toJohn Adams on 28 Oct. I8I3,
pp. 356-357-

This content downloaded from 194.117.2.66 on Fri, 07 Jul 2017 03:31:51 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms