French and Burgundian Court Art

"La naissance d’une thalassocratie" considers the contribution of the Burgundian and Habsburg Netherlands to the rise of the Dutch Republic as a maritime power. In Braudelian fashion, its chapters are centred around three lines of research. The first part, focuses on the long term or ‘temps structurel’ and considers geographical and infrastructural developments of port towns. The second part on the mid term or ‘temps conjoncturel’ (social and economic developments) takes maritime commerce, fisheries and maritime risk management into account. The third part deals with the short term or ‘temps événementiel’ (political developments) and includes chapters on military transports at sea, the unstable development of admiralties and on the Dutch Revolt at sea.

Over the past twenty years Louis Sicking has given conference papers, invited lectures and guest courses in France, Belgium, Spain, the US, the UK, and Scandinavia. The resulting articles have now been integrated in one book which offers new insights in the maritime history of the Low Countries in the 15th and 16th centuries, including a maritime perspective on the Dutch Revolt. While crossing the established boundaries of Dutch and Belgian historiographies, the book not only offers an unfamiliar maritime perspective, it also proposes a new and refreshing look at the origin of the Dutch Republic.

"La Naissance d’une thalassocatie" has been published in the ‘Collection d’histoire maritime’ by the Presses de l’université Paris-Sorbonne (PUPS). Founded in 1470 it is the oldest university press in France.



Text on the cover:
L’essor maritime sans précédent de la république des Provinces-Unies au XVIIe siècle, a impressionné les contemporains et continue de fasciner aujourd’hui.
La Révolte des Pays-Bas menée par Guillaume d’Orange et la naissance, pendant ce long conflit (1568-1648), d’une république indépendante est un thème classique de l’histoire européenne et domine toujours le cadre de l’histoire nationale des Pays-Bas actuels. A contrario, la période qui a precede ce point-pivot de l’histoire des Pays-Bas n’est que rarement évoquée, alors qu’elle a pourtant fortement influence la constitution de la république des Provinces-Unies et son success sur les mers du monde.
Ce livre vise à montrer l’importance de l’histoire maritime des anciens Pays-Bas pour la Révolte et l’expansion maritime des Provinces-Unies. Commençant avec l’intégration des provinces néerlandaises aux XVe et XVIe siècles par les Bourguignons et les Habsbourg, « la naissance d’une thalassocratie » analyse les changements ou les ruptures, mais aussi les continuités de l’histoire des Pays-Bas et la mer à l’aube du siècle d’Or, afin de proposer au lecteur une nouvelle perspective qui renouvelle les cadres traditionnels des historiographies néerlandaises et belges.

A critical and performance edition of Alexander Agricola's chanson "De tous biens plaine" for three voices. The cantus firmus of the tenor is extracted from Hayne Van Ghizeghem's (c. 1445 – 1476 to 1497) eponymous chanson.

The text of the first verse is underlaid in this edition, though only the first few words actually appear in the manuscript. The complete text as found in a number of Ghizeghem's sources with a complete translation is given at the end.

It seems unlikely that the outer voices should be sung, given their continual motion, frequent awkward leaps, and extreme ambitus.  However, the inner voice certainly could be sung.

A pedagogical transcription of Richard Sampson's (attr.) motet in double canon, "Salve radix," written to celebrate the union of Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon and the birth of their daughter, Mary.

For a video with recording accompanying the modern transcription with side-by-side animated original notated music see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9wl1XqV6Nk

In 2004, a number of events and exhibitions devoted to the arts in France around the year 1400 highlighted the rich diversity of current research in this area. Recent studies have challenged the validity of the critical term “International Gothic”, and the essentially stylistic approach upon which it is founded. Researchers have addressed a number of new questions, which have profoundly reshaped our knowledge of certain areas of artistic production, notably precious metalwork. The religious, political or ideological functions of objects from this period are now more readily taken into account. Researchers have taken a subtler, more differentiated approach to the study of relationships between artists and their patrons. Alongside the widely recognized importance of royal or aristocratic patrons, new studies highlight the roles played by women, members of the royal court, and prelates, in the commissioning process. We also have a far better understanding of the complex structures and conditions affecting artists working in both courtly and civic contexts in France. Further research is needed to compare these with the conditions that prevailed in other European countries, and to achieve a more precise definition of the particular dynamics affecting French art during this period. Comparative studies of this type would also help us to analyze the dissemination of French designs and models, and to re-examine the question of international artistic exchanges around the year 1400, in a new light.

Whereas tournaments of the late thirteenth century were infused with cross-channel contact, whether in reciprocity of form or in the international composition of the participants involved, by the early fifteenth century, tournament forms in England and the Netherlands had significantly diverged. As has been thoroughly explored by recent historians, English tournaments became increasingly socially exclusive, whilst retaining an international dimension in the interests of diplomacy. However, this essay demonstrates that this development was by no means typical of all late medieval tournaments. The case of the Low Countries demonstrates that the more socially inclusive style tournaments did continue into the fifteenth century, and provided an opportunity for the ducal household and noblemen to come into contact with patrician townspeople and even more diverse urban audiences.

A non-barred critical transcription of Alexander Agricola's contrafacta motet, "Virgo sub ethereis" (Source: Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, MS 40021 ff. 131v-132r) as derived from his "Comme femme desconfortée".

For a video of the score with a performance recording see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5_nnTzNXeUY

En 1466, au cours du voyage qui le conduisit de Prague à Saint-Jacques de Compostelle et retour, et lui fit visiter les souverains et princes occidentaux, afin, notamment, de déterminer leur position quant au conflit qui mettait alors aux prises, sur la question hussite, le pape Paul II et le roi de Bohême Georges de Poděbrady, Léon, seigneur de Rozmital et de Blatna, beau-frère du précédent, fut manifestement fort étonné lorsqu'il se trouva mis en présence, à la cour de Philippe le Bon, de ceux qu'il déclare appelés spurii en Bohême, les bâtards en l'occurrence, trois des fils illégitimes du duc pour être précis. Il remarque en particulier qu'ils ne sont pas tenus pour quantité négligeable, qu'ils partagent le repas du comte de Charolais, que, dans ces régions, de tels enfants sont dotés de domaines, de biens qu'ils conservent au décès de leur père, et qu'un prince légitime ne peut en aucun cas leur refuser un duel. mais, a-t-il soin de préciser, les cartels sont bien moins nombreux en ces contrées qu'en son pays 1 . À l'image de ce seigneur bohémien, la recherche 1. -L'un des deux récits de ce voyage, écrit en tchèque, ne subsiste que sous la forme d'une traduction latine : VENCESLAS SAšEk DE BIřkOV, Commentarius brevis et iucundus itineris atque peregrinationis, pietatis et religionis causa suscepta ab illustri et magnifico domino, domino Leone, libero barone de Rosmital et Blatna, éd. k. Hrdina, Prague, 1951, p. 26, ici, comme infra, pour le passage qui m'intéresse. L'édition usuelle en pays tchèque est celle de R. URBáNEk, dans Ve službách Jiříka krále.

The Burgundian duke Charles the Bold (1433-1477) was not particularly well known for his liberality. According to De Barante, the nineteenth century historian of the Burgundian dukes, he was seen by his officers and the nobles as ‘bien avare et peu liberal pour un prince si jeune et si nouveau’. One of this article’s purposes is to investigate this claim, but my larger concern is to make sense of the patterns of gift-giving evidenced by the available sources. Although we do not have complete records of all Charles’s gift giving, the account of the highest financial officer, the argentier, combined with the household ordinances and a few narrative sources, provide a good overview of the importance and nature of gift-giving in Charles’s court. These texts reveal a charged and unstable culture of gift-giving, one in which the category of ‘gift’ itself is in some disarray and where bureaucratic pressures both distort the gift and ntensify Charles’s need to deploy gifts in order to secure his power.

From 4 to 7 May 1439 a massive tournament (235 participants) was organized at the Grote Markt in Brussels, in which the Burgundian duke Philip the Good himself participated. This tournament was maybe one of the last in the massive (urban) melee-style in the fifteenth century. This article demonstrates that both the town and the duke had an interest in the organization of this tournament. The duke and his household officers were happy to exhibit the splendor of the court to the citizens of Brussels, the nobility of Brabant and the international community. The town considered the tournament as a stimulus for the local economy. At the same time the chivalric event would position Brussels as an attractive residence for the Burgundian duke.

To accompany premiere recording of the ?Josquin mass on Quem dicunt homines. Brief review & summary of the literature for popular audience. [CD title "The Spirit like a Dove"]

Available on Spotify, YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_k94-9Uq_PYN9qZQ5QvagabVBqkAlq05e4) etc

A performance and critical edition of Agricola's two voiced polyphonic setting of "Gaudeamus omnes", Introit for the Feast of the Assumption. For two different recordings and video-scores of the piece see the links below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZnRmQ-B2Zc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxK8zd2hLEM

Only the incipit "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" appears with Agricola's music. The Introit text set to the chant cantus firmus used in this transcription is the text for the Introit for the Feast of the Assumption (also Gaudeamus omnes in domino).

Furthermore, Agricola only set down as semibreves each of the first 38 notes of the "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" chant. This transcription, following the example of Edward Learner's edition, reconstructs the remaining tenor notes. This edition differs from Learner's in that it uses the Introit chant for Assumption from Cambrai, Bibliotheque Municipale [F-CA], MS B-12, fol. 49r-v (c. 1500), rather than a British version from the Sarum rite.

______________________________

Gaudeamus omnes in domino,
diem festum celebrantes sub honore Mariae Virginis:
de cujus assumptione gaudent angeli,
et collaudant filium dei.

Let us all rejoice in the Lord
celebrating this day the feast in honor of the Virgin Mary,
in whose solemnity the angels rejoice,
and praising the Son of God.

This paper analyses two late sixteenth-century armorials with the coats of arms of the 235 participants of a tournament organized in May 1439 on the central market square, the Grote Markt, of Brussels. The armorials, trustworthy copies of a now lost original, record the performance of an exclusive social category in public space, and express in a distinctive visual way the internal hierarchy of the tourneying society: team leaders, leaders of large companies, leaders of of small companies, and 'ordinary' participants. The heraldic elements that were essential to this hierarchic arrangement - banners, pennons, shields – were actually used during the tournament, as well as the depicted helmets and crests.
It goes without saying that these occasional rolls were important for the nobility of the Low Countries, both at the time of the tournament and at the time of their creation in the last decades of the sixteenth century. Inclusion of their coats of arms in the armorials ensured the participants of a place in the collective memory. The compilers of the armorials played an essential role in defining the nobility as a social category since participating in a tournament meant that you lived nobly and that your peers considered you as a nobleman. The two copies of the original armorial in the last decades of the sixteenth century reproduced the social classification within the nobility in the second quarter of the fifteenth century. It shows that the same mechanisms of social distinction still played a role at that time.

This article treats the first entry of a new prince as the start of a series of exchanges between the prince and his subjects. On the occasion of an entry, gifts in all kind of forms, subsistence, luxury and symbolic goods, were exchanged with the intention of establishing a bond between the new ruler and the subjects. These gifts were not standardized in the Burgundian Low Countries. There was a wide range of gifts, from wine to silverware and from money to horses. Some gifts can be linked to the princely right of lodging in places he passed on his itinerary, whereas others refer to marks of honour offered by the host. However, not all gifts were given spontaneously, but were the result of a negotiating process between the town and the prince’s officials on the one hand and between the different towns of a principality on the other. Those officials benefited as well from entry gifts that trickled down to lower levels in the official hierarchy. Therefore, the gifts can be considered as personalized items in a bigger process of exchange and as a confirmation of the outcome of political negotiations.

giampaOlO ermiNi, matteO ferrari, mONia maNescalcHi, stefaNO ricciONi, eleNa vaiaNi Sono accettati nella rivista contributi in italiano, francese e inglese. In vista della pubblicazione, i testi inviati sono sottoposti in forma anonima alla valutazione di membri del Comitato scientifico e di referee, selezionati in base alla competenza sui temi trattati. Gli autori restano a disposizione degli aventi diritto per le fonti iconografiche non individuate. Pubblicazione semestrale on line Direttore responsabile: Maria Monica Donato Autorizzazione Tribunale di Pisa n. 15/09 del 18 settembre 2009 sOmmariO allegra iafrate «Artifex specialis»: per una lettura critica della figura di Matthew Paris attraverso le fonti pp. 1-42 matteO ferrari Grixopolo e i dipinti del Palazzo della Ragione di Mantova pp. 43-90 maria luDOvica rOsati «In qual modo si contraffà il velluto, o panno di lana, e così la seta, in muro e in tavola»: stoffe preziose e tessuti serici nell'opera di Simone Martini pp. 91-132 liNDa pisaNi Le due firme del pittore pistoiese Antonio di Vita pp. 133-150 elisaBetta ciONi Nuove acquisizioni sulla bottega 'dei Tondi': un documento e alcuni smalti pp. 151-218 alice caviNatO «Nicolò di Giovanni da Siena à fatto questo libro di sua propia mano e di sua spontana volontà»: note su due manoscritti illustrati senesi del Quattrocento e le loro sottoscrizioni pp. 219-262 micHele tOmasi Artistes de cour en France autour de 1400: institutions, formules et réalités pp. 263-286 cHiara BerNazzaNi La campana civica: tra signum, simbolo e celebrazione visiva pp. 287-392 eliaNa carrara Giorgio Vasari, Giovanni Battista Adriani e la stesura della seconda edizione delle Vite. Ragioni e nuove evidenze della loro collaborazione pp. 393-430

A study and critical edition of Agricola's two voiced polyphonic setting of "Gaudeamus omnes", Introit for the Feast of the Assumption. This is intended for teaching various 14th and 15th century mensuration signs and their modern translations and persisting problems.

For two recordings and video-scores of the piece see the link below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZnRmQ-B2Zc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LxK8zd2hLEM

Only the incipit "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" appears with Agricola's music. The Introit text set to the chant cantus firmus used in this transcription is the text for the Introit for the Feast of the Assumption (also Gaudeamus omnes in domino).

Furthermore, Agricola only set down as semibreves each of the first 38 notes of the "Gaudeamus omnes in domino" chant. This transcription, following the example of Edward Learner's edition, reconstructs the remaining tenor notes. This edition differs from Learner's in that it uses the Introit chant for Assumption from Cambrai, Bibliotheque Municipale [F-CA], MS B-12, fol. 49r-v (c. 1500), rather than a British version from the Sarum rite.

______________________________

Gaudeamus omnes in domino,
diem festum celebrantes sub honore Mariae Virginis:
de cujus assumptione gaudent angeli,
et collaudant filium dei.

Let us all rejoice in the Lord
celebrating this day the feast in honor of the Virgin Mary,
in whose solemnity the angels rejoice,
and praising the Son of God.

In this article I give a comprehensive view of the relationship between Margaret of York (1446-1503), the wife of the Burgundian duke Charles the Bold, and Voorne, from 1477 onwards her dower lands in the south of the county of Holland. I will concentrate on three different aspects of this relationship. First, I will demonstrate the economic importance of the isle for the duchess. At the same time I will show the interests of the inhabitants of Voorne and explain how they benefited from the patronage of their new lady. Finally, I will treat Margaret’s charitable and devotional works on the isle. I will demonstrate how these fit into a pious tradition of the lords of Voorne on the one hand and into the devotional practises of Margaret and other members of the Burgundian-Habsburg dynasty on the other.

Despite the frequently critiqued prolixity in much of his oeuvre, Alexander Agricola (1445/46-1506) crafted music comprehensible enough to elicit great praise from numerous contemporaries. What is then inherently praiseworthy in this abstruse music? In his Salve Regina I, Agricola crafts a musical argument for his garrulity, the thesis of which aims to clarify and justify the virtue of his style. While Agricola employed cantus firmus conventions to provide formal scaffolding, he also imbues discursiveness with comprehensibility through rhetorical techniques, such as inflection of cadence, clearness of imitation, phraseology of text, and varied implementation of cantus firmus. Articulating the micro-structure of his music, these components are then couched in the discourse of the classical argument: an introduction, confirmation, and refutation of a thesis. In Agricola’s Salve Regina I, motet becomes a medium for the exhibition and logical justification of his musical thesis of abstract polystylism.

The title Valet de chambre appears for the first time, in the French court on the second half of the Fourteenth century. This title showed a closed relation and allowed direct communication between the servant and the sovereign. Later on the same model was adapted to other courts that followed the french tradition, like the court of dukes of Burgundy in the Fefteenth century. This study aims to identify the Valets de chambre serving at the court of Philip the Good and Charles the Bold applaying a prosopographical approach in order to gather as much information as possible about this social group. Thanks to the analisis of «Recette general des finances» and ducal ordinances from : 1426, 1433, 1438, 1445, 1449 and 1458 it is posible to describe the group of people that enjoyed the privilege of serving at the court.

https://mpa.univ-st-etienne.fr:443/index.php?id=422

A score analysis of Alexander Agricola's first "Salve Regina" motet by Jordan Key. If you are interested in this analysis, my paper "Rhetoric, Prolixity, and Agricola: Alexander Agricola's Salve Regina I as a Defense of Polystylism During the Late 15th Century" discusses at length this piece as a model of rhetoric in music during the 15th century.


See:
https://www.academia.edu/27395799/Rhetoric_Prolixity_and_Agricola_Alexander_Agricolas_Salve_Regina_I_as_a_Defense_of_Polystylism_During_the_Late_15th_Century


For a performance recording with a score, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3B-j3fUbqc

A transcription of Alexander Agricola's office hymn to the Virgin Mary, "Ave maris stella." Note the canonic inner tenor voices. This is one of Agricola's unicum.

For a recording and score video see the link below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hE0rMPcBvo

This motet is the second "Salve Regina" motet composed by Alexander Agricola.
For a recording and score-video of Salve Regina II see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yoQLA3BXvQs

For a transcription of his first Salve Regina see here:
https://www.academia.edu/21795600/Alexander_Agricola_Salve_Regina_I_Brussels_Bibliotheque_Royale_MS_9126_fol._138v-143r_
For a recording and score-video of Salve Regina I see here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3B-j3fUbqc

"Salve Regina II" is not only based off the classical "Salve Regina" (solemn tone) chant. The tenor of this piece is derived from Walter Frye's (d. 1474?) Marian motet, "Ave Regina".

For information and a video-score on Frye's motet see the link here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BH43f-yd9oA
For a transcription see here:
https://www.academia.edu/31933857/Walter_Frye_-_Ave_Regina_tenor_for_Agricola_Salve_Regina_II_-_Full_Score.pdf

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Ave Regina (Latin text):

Ave Regina coelorum mater Regis angelorum.
O Maria flos virginum velut rosa, velut lilium.
Funde preces ad filium pro salute fidelium.
O Maria flos virginum velut rosa, velut lilium.


Hail Queen (English translation):

Hail, Queen of heaven, Mother of the King of angels.
O Mary, flower of virgins, like the rose, like the lily.
Pour out prayers to the Son for the salvation of the faithful.
O Mary, flower of virgins, like the rose, like the lily.

________________________


Salve Regina (Latin text):

Salve, Regina, Mater misericordiæ,
vita, dulcedo, et spes nostra, salve.
Ad te clamamus exsules filii Hevæ,
Ad te suspiramus, gementes et flentes
in hac lacrimarum valle.
Eia, ergo, advocata nostra, illos tuos
misericordes oculos ad nos converte;
Et Jesum, benedictum fructum ventris tui,
nobis post hoc exsilium ostende.
O clemens, O pia, O dulcis Virgo Maria.


Hail, holy Queen (English translation):

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy,
Our life, our sweetness and our hope.
To you do we cry,
Poor banished children of Eve;
To you do we send up our sighs,
Mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.
Turn then, most gracious advocate,
Your eyes of mercy toward us;
And after this our exile,
Show us the blessed fruit of your womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving,
O sweet Virgin Mary.

This article discusses the material and spatial features of the tournaments on the Grote Markt, the central market square in Brussels, in the fifteenth and first half of the sixteenth century. It investigates how the tournament acquired meaning in the urban space where it was organized, and how the chivalric event in its turn altered that urban space. These Brussels tournaments, for which both archival, iconographical and narrative sources are available, show us the dynamics of an inherently courtly festival within an urban setting. Recent historiography has stressed that these tournaments, just like other urban festivals, for example joyous entries, demonstrate the submission of the town to the ruler. Indeed, the prince and his household used the public space of the GroteMarkt and the facilities of the town hall to organize tournaments and festivities. However, they could not do this on their own. They needed the town government for the organization and logistics of the tournament and for its hospitality. Moreover, the town managed to put its own stamp on the architecture, both permanent and ephemeral, emphasizing the responsibilities that the duke had towards his town, as well as the long tradition of subservience and loyalty of the town to the duke.

A version of a paper presented in 2005 to the annual conference of the Renaissance Society of America, in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Painter Antoine Trouvéon was sent by Leonor of Austria to paint her daughter in Lisbon in 1542. Leonor of Austria, the eldest sister and a favorite of Emperor Charles V, was Queen of Portugal and of France. A document dated 1543 shows Trouvéon calling himself painter to the queen. He arrived in Portugal in January 1542 as part of a special diplomatic mission to secure the marriage of Leonor's daughter, Maria of Portugal, with the dauphin Henri. Trouvéon spent at least eight months in Portugal. Any oil portraits he may have painted of Maria have not survived. However, two drawings of Maria, here attributed to him, are in the Musée Condé; these were previously attributed to Portuguese painter Gregório Lopes, though letters by Luis de Sarmiento contradict this.

In this article (in French) I compare two "favoris du prince", two high-ranking courtiers, and their conflictual relationships with the prince's heir. They are Jean d' Arkel, in the years 1400, a favourite of the count of Holland, Albert of Bavaria, and Antoine de Croy, lord chamberlain and favourite of the duke of Burgundy, Philippe le Bon. The idea is to analyze the different phases of the conflict (mobilization of suppurt, peace violation, reconciliation and return to peace) along the lines of an anthropological model. The two favourites, because of their important land possessions, their matrimonial alliances and their political activity, ranked far higher than all the other noblemen. Through their formal and informal networks they tried to control the structures of the State and part of its revenues. This is the reason why they were considered by the heirs as a danger for the dynasties and territorial unity. In both cases, the heirs built themselves a clientage of their own made up of newcomers or of people who had been excluded fium power. The heirs, who benefited fr'om more political, ideological and financial resources than the favourites, eventually won. They still needed all the same the support of the favourites, or at least the support of their landed possessions as they bordered other entities.

During the 15th Century two artists linked with the court of Philippe the Good, Hue de Boulogne and Colard le Voleur reformed the Castle of Hesdin, a residence of dukes of Burgundy. This study analyses the model used for the iconography of the frescos, their color and sources throughout documents of the Chamber de Comptes (ADN) and aims to define the character of the oeuvre of both mentioned artists including the structure of their workshops.

As Johan Huizinga has already shown in a pioneering way, the chroniclers of the
years around 1400 are privileged witnesses of the culture of the elites in France
during the reigns of Charles V and Charles VI. Neglected by art historians who have almost exclusively focused on the Italian writings of the first renaissance, Jean Froissart, Michel Pintoin or the Grandes Chroniques de France are precious sources to
track the milestones of an emerging discourse on art, as I try to show through an analysis conducted using the example of goldsmiths' work. These texts make it possible first of all to note that the precious objects (together with textiles) occupy a prominent place in aristocratic practices and imagination. Above all, they open up broader perspectives on the problem of aesthetic appreciation of medieval works, highlighting the existence of amateurs who, in an intimate context, exchange on the qualities of the works. They also make possible to capture the criteriaof evaluation used by aristicrats and the terms used to express them.

This article considers a little-known manuscript – the Chaldean Histories – that was offered to Anne de Graville, author, bibliophile, and lady in waiting to Claude of France, by her husband Pierre de Balsac around 1507-1510. The manuscript contains a partial translation into French of Annius of Viterbo’s Antiquities, first published in Rome in 1498 and purporting to be ancient texts relating the history of the world around the time of the Flood. Although previous scholars have noted the close reliance on the Antiquities by Jean Lemaire des Belges in his Illustrations de Gaule et singularités de Troyes (1511-13), the translation offered to Anne is unknown. Here I argue that Anne’s personalised manuscript and translation predates Lemaire des Belges’ work, indicating that she and Pierre were early players in an emerging courtly interest in translated works relating to antiquity. In addition, I suggest that the choice of text and the manuscript’s frontispiece by a leading court artist showing Anne receiving the book meant that it was designed to appeal to, and likely shaped, Anne’s interests in literature and translation which are later evident in her own library and writings for the French queen, Claude.