Marginal thinking: Lewis E 113
Death and the legate
|
Death and the duke
|
This book presents 23 persons and the pictures to the left and right show the format:
Death stands with his victim on the edge of the page and a band at the bottom states the person's title.
To the left is the Papal legate from Rome, "le legat du pape de rome",
and to the right it's the duke of Brittany, "le duc de bretaigne".
Since
the legate and the duke
are among the ten figures that Guy Marchant added to his
1486-edition
it is safe to assume that the artist behind the present book of hours
has read Guy Marchant's book.
It was also here he found
the valiant soldier,
"Le vaillant homme darmes".
In contrast it's less obvious where he has found the noble count of Blois,
"Le noble conte de blais", since there are no counts in the French Danse Macabre.
The count replaces the nobleman and since he outranks the knight they switch positions
(i.e. this book features a count and a knight instead of the usual
knight and
nobleman).
The astrologer
has become a theologian.
A great part of the participants belong to one city or another. The pope, the holy father, comes from Rome,
"Le saint pere de rome", and so does the emperor: "Le ampereur de rome".
The cardinal is Greek, "Le cardinal grec", the king Hungarian, "Le roy de hongrie",
the bishop is from Paris: "Le euesque de paris", the citizen from Arras; "Le bourgois de aras",
and so on:
Here are the 23 participants:
Le saint pere de rome
Le ampereur de rome
Le cardinal grec
Le roy de hongrie
Le legat du pape de rome
Le duc de bretaigne
Le patria[r]che de anthioche
Le connetable de france
Le archeuesque de rains
Le noble conte de blais
Le euesque de paris
Le cheualier royal
Le abe saint benoist
Le bourgois de aras
Le theologiem
Le prudent home marchant
Le chanoine regle augustin
Le bon loial gentil home
Le gorgias home, de eglise cure
Le vaillant homme darmes
Le piteus home chartreus
Le gentil homme escuier du roy
Sensuit le bon et deuot acteur
The texts are not all easy to read.
The Free Library of Philadelphia reads the Archbishop as "Le archeveque de rome",
but the second letter of the place-name is clearly an "a". So it could be "rame" as in "La Roche-de-Rame",
but it is more probably "rains," which is an archaic spelling of Reims.
The Free Library of Philadelphia reads the last "gentil homme" as "elaver du roy",
but the second letter is clearly an "s" and not an "l", so it should probably be "escuier".
Maybe he is the nobleman, lescuier, who has been displaced,
when a count was added?
The next book is similar to this one.
External links
Count
|
Theologian
|
Gentleman
|
Gentleman
|
Monk
|
The dance of death
Marginals
Dances of death
Lewis E 113
