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All the old manuscripts from the 15th century that contain the text from La danse macabre of St. Innocents are unfortunately without illustrations.
The manuscript on the present page, BNF 995, is however a little newer, from 1500-1510, and lavishly illiustrated. Thirty men and 36 women — all in all almost 80 images in splendid colours framed by leaves, flowers, snails, birds and lots of skulls. This was the manuscript that Miot-Frochot used to copy his own simple woodcuts from.
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The book contains
The dance of the men: The authority at the beginning, 30 men, the dead king and another authority.
The legend of the three living and the three dead.
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A verse with 8 lines starting: »A mort a mort a mort tout homme«; followed by a picture of Death on a pale horse (picture to the left); followed by La dance aux aveugles / the dance of the blind. These three elements seem to be have been copied from one of Marchant's "shepherds' calendars" (picture to the right). However BNF 995 only has the first, second and last verses of Aveugles.
The dance of the women begins with the four musicians and the authority (in Marchant's books the sequence is opposite), then the full gamut of 36 women, and yet another authority.
At the end comes a ballad with the refrain, »pour bien mourir et vivre longuement«. This is one of the three old ballads that were included in Miroer Salutaire. The ballad is closed with the words: »Finis presentis opusculi« ("the end of the present little work").
After "the present little work" has ended, comes the dead queen and then the authority reappears to repeat the same two verses that he delivered a few pages ago.
As the content shows, the BNF 995 is very dependent on Marchant's printed books. None of the many manuscripts contain a dead queen, four dead musicians or abbess, prioress, bigot woman or fool. Nor are there any other versions of Danse Macabre containing »A mort a mort«, Death on a pale horse or Aveugles.
The problem is that if the artist behind the BNF 995 only has looked in the books of Marchant, then BNF 995 is unable to tell us anything about the original painting on the cemetery of St. Innocents.
The French national library has scanned BNF 995 in a good resolution; see external link.
For more details about the text, read the men's dance, the women's dance or comparison between Marchant's printed book and the BNF 995.
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Dances of death
Danse macabre
Manuscripts
BNF Fr. 995