Bourges or Loire Valley, ca. 1470

This richly illustrated and carefully written manuscript records the history of the world from the Creation through the reign of Julius Caesar, recounting Biblical narratives alongside ancient history and mythology. The lively, though sometimes gory, text was quite popular in the fifteenth century. Although it is here ascribed to Eutropius, the Hystoires anciennes also borrows heavily from medieval as well as other classical authors. This particular copy was illuminated for Yves de Fou, whose arms appear on the first page. Because the arms were altered after his marriage to include those of his wife, Anne Mourande, it can be concluded that the manuscript was probably completed before their wedding in the early 1470s. The style of the miniatures, attributed to at least four different hands, localizes the production of the manuscript to Bourges or the Loire valley. The page shown describes and illustrates the battle between King Pyrrhus (the father of Achilles) and the ruler of the Amazons, Queen Penthesilea. On the left, the armored queen leads her army on horseback to the defense of the Trojans. The actual battle is depicted on the right--the two armies fight before a castle, soldiers dying beneath their horses' feet.

Fig. 1: Parchment, 176 folios, 370 x 255 (254 x 155) mm, 2 columns (70 mm each), 47 lines, in Latin, written in Gothic cursive bookhand.