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The Concept of True Nobility at the Burgundian Court

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2019

Charity Cannon Willard
Charity Cannon Willard*
Affiliation:
West Point, New York
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Extract

The view of the fifteenth century as an age of transition rather than as a period of decline, even in northern Europe, has made considerable progress in recent years, but there is still much to be learned about the various means by which the transition took place, 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 exclusively through what men wrote rather than through what they read or what they saw about them. Besides this, sufficient importance has not always been given to the international and multilingual nature of the culture in the more civilized parts of Europe during both the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in the Renaissance , Volume 14 , 1967 , pp. 33 - 48
Copyright
Copyright © Renaissance Society of America 1967

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References

1 Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1965), p. 84.Google Scholar

2 Five Pre-Shakespearean Comedies, ed. by Boas, F. S. (Oxford U Press, 1950).Google Scholar For details of the English tr., see also Baron, Hans, The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance (Princeton U Press, 1966), pp. 420-423.Google Scholar

3 The Book of the Courtier, tr. by L. E. Opdycke (New York, 1903), p. 23.

4 The World of Humanism (Harper Torchbooks, New York, 1963), p. 69.Google Scholar

5 Cav. Giuliari, G. R. C., Prose del Giovane Buonaccorso da Montemagno inedite alcune da due codici della Bibl. Capitolare di Verona (Bologna, 1874), pp. xvii-xviiiGoogle Scholar; Van Praet, J., Notice sur Colard Mansion (Bruges, 1826), pp. 52–53 Google Scholar; Goldschmidt, E. Ph., Medieval Texts and their First Appearance in Print (London, 1943), p. 5.Google Scholar

6 Lestoquoy, J., Les Villes de Flandre et d'ltalie sous le gouvemement des patriciens (Paris, 1952)Google Scholar; A. Grunzweig, ‘Florence et les Pays-Bas au Moyen Age,’ Bulletin de I'Institut Historique Beige de Rome XXVI (1950-51), 113-128.

7 Les Villes de Flandre et d'ltalie, p. 243.

8 (New York, 1956), 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. 5089, Bibl. Nat. f. fr. 22547 and f. fr. 257; Copenhagen, Royal Library, Thott MS. 540; Gotha, Landesbibliothek, MS. Membr. 1,116; Geneva, Bibliotheque de la Ville, MS. 76; Jena, Universitätsbibliothek, MS. Gall. F. 89; Vienna, Nationalbibliothek, MS. 2566. The tr. of Xenophon's Hieron (in reality a tr. of Brum's Latin text) is contained in Brussels, Bibl. Royale, MSS. 14642 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 siècle (Paris, 1963). The Cyropaedia is contained in Brussels, Bibl. Royale, MS. 11703 and London, British Museum, Royal MS. 17 E V. Among the copies of Caesar's Commentaries 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 Miélot's tr. of Cicero's letter is contained in Paris, B.N. f. fr. 17001 and there is another copy in Copenhagen, Royal Library, Thott MS. 1090. Discussions of these trs. are to be found in R. Bossuat, ‘Vasque de Lucène, traducteur de Quinte-Curce (1468),’ Bibliotheque d'Humanisme et Renaissance VIII (1946), 197-245; ‘Traductions françaises des “Commentaires“ de César á la fin du XVe siècle,’ Bibl. d'Humanisme et Renaissance IV (1944), 253-373; ‘ Jean Miélot, traducteur de Ciceron,’ Bibl. de VEcole des Charles XCIX (1938), 1-45; J. Monfrin, ‘Humanisme et traductions du moyen âge,’ Journal des Savants (juilletseptembre 1963), 161-190.

10 In Copenhagen, Royal Library, Thott MS. 1090, f. 98 r° he describes himself as 'prestre indigne natif de Gaissart-les-Ponthieu en l'eveschie d'Amiens.'

11 See G. Mombello, ‘Per la fortuna del Boccaccio in Francia. Jean Miélot traduttore di due capitoli della Geneologia’ in Studi sul Boccaccio, I (Firenze, 1963), 415-444.

12 See J. Lutz and P. Perdizet, Speculum humanae salvationis (Mulhouse, 1907).

13 For a more complete list of trs. see P. Perdizet, ‘Jean Mielot’ in Revue d'histoire litteraire XIV (1907), 475 ff.

14 A. W. Reed, ‘Chivalry and the Idea of a Gentleman,’ in Chivalry, ed. E. Prestage (New York, I928), pp.211-213.

15 These are Nos. 117 and 83 respectively of the catalogue prepared by L. M. J. Delaisse for La Miniature Jiamande. Le mécénat de Philippe le Bon. Exposition organisée & Voccasion du 400” anniversaire de lafondation de la Bibliothèque royale de Philippe II le 12 avril 1559. Palais des Beaux Arts, Bruxelles, avril-juin 1959 (Bruxelles, 1959).

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 xvthcentury English tr. preserved at the Trinity College Library in Dublin in Renaissance Thought II, p. 87.

17 The 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. 21551-69 and 10977-79, Paris B.N. f. fr. 5229, Torino, Bibl. Reale MS. Varia 73 and Yale University Library MS. 230.

18 Menéndez y Pelayo, Antología depoetas líricos castellanos (Madrid, 1894), v, ccxxviii.

19 Olivier de la Marche, Memoires (Ed. H. Beaune et J. d'Arbaumont, Soc. Hist, de Fr., Paris, 1883-88), 11, ch. ix: ‘Arriva a I'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 á chacun’ (389).

20 For a discussion of the tr. of the Triunfo de las doñas see my article ‘Isabel of Portugal and the French Translation of the “Triunfo de las Doñas” ‘ in the Revue beige de Philologie etd'Histoirexua XLIII (1965), 961-969.

21 The dedication appears in the Madrid Palacio Real MS. 2078, f. lv°. See also M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Poetas de la Corte de Don Juan II (2a ed., Buenos Aires, 1946), pp. 212-230.

22 Félix Hachez, ‘Un Manuscrit de l'Enseignement de la Vraie Noblesse provenant de la bibliothèque de Charles de Croy, comte de Chimay,’ Annates du Cercle Archéologique de Mons XIII (1892), 91-104. The manuscript dated 1440 is Brussels No. 11047, cited by G. Doutrepont, La litterature francaise a la cour des dues de Bourgogne (Bruxelles, 1909), 317 n., although the manuscript published in part by Hachez is No. 10,314.

23 Brussels MS. H 7057, foil. 1v°-2r°.

24 According to Ch. Potvin, , Oeuvres de Guilkbert de Lannoy (Louvain, 1878), pp. xxxv-xliGoogle Scholar, 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 1439. 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 note, 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 illustrator is an artist who appears to be a disciple of Dreux Jean, a well-known artist at the Burgundian Court. The Arsenal MS. illus., according to the ducal accounts, by Jean Hennecart in 1470, 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. 10976, foil. 49v°-50r°. The image immediately calls to mind Le Temple d'Honneur et de Vertus of Jean Lemaire de Beiges (1503); see edition of his Oeuvres, ed. M.J. Stecher (Louvain, 1882-91), IV, 183.

26 Oeuvres de Georges Chastellain, ed. Kervyn de Lettenhove (Bruxelles, 1863-66), VII, 312.

27 Pub. by Kervyn de Lettenhove in Oeuvres de Chastellain, VIII, 18.

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 F r a n c e … . 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'Ethiques, 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 quern non solum excellentia generis sed mores virtutesque nobilitarunt, car il n'a pas este tant seulement par Fexcellence 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 epopees et des romans chevaleresques du XIVe au XVIe siècle (Bruxelles, 1939), p. 87.

29 See n. 17.

30 Brussels MS. 10238, f. 8.

31 Mombello, ‘Per la fortuna del Boccaccio in Francia,’ 431-432.

32 Légistes etgens de finance. Les conseillers des dues de Bourgogne Philippe le Bon et Charles le Téméraire. Académie royale de Belgique. Classe des lettres et des sciences morales et politiques. Mémoires, L, 2-2 bis (Bruxelles, 1955-57).

33 Bonenfant, P., Philippe le Bon (Bruxelles, 1955)Google Scholar, speaks of the particular development of portrait painting at the Burgundian Court as follows: ‘Ainsi d'ailleurs, que l'a noté très justement J. Huizinga, la peinture, à la différence de la musique ou même de la litterature, apparaît moins, sous Philippe le Bon, comme un art de cour, que comme un art urbain et même bourgeois. Quelle qu'ait pu être 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 done, en somme, à sa manière la prospérité, sinon de la bourgeoisie, a tout le moins de certains milieux bourgeois’ (pp. 132-133).

34 The Humanism ojColuccio Salutati (New York, 1964), p. 73.Google Scholar

35 P. 70. The importance of Laurent de Premierfait's trs. of Boccaccio in the dissemination of the idea must not be overlooked. In the introd. to the second (1409) 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 Pré in 1483 it was known through numerous MS. copies. See P. Durrieu, Le Boccace de Munich (Munich, 1909) and H. Martin, Le Boccace de Jean sans Peur, des cas des nobles hommes etfemmes (Brussels, 1911).

36 Renaissance Thought II, pp. 48-49.

37 Italian Humanism: Philosophy and Civic Life in the Renaissance, tr. by Peter Munz (Oxford, 1965), p. 46.

38 Ed. Stecher, IV, 305.

39 Wadsworth, J. B., Lyon, 1473-1503. The Beginnings of Cosmopolitanism (Cambridge, Mass., 1962), pp. 109–111.Google Scholar

40 Chamard, H., Les Origines de lapoesiefrancaise de la Renaissance (Paris, 1932), p. 227.Google Scholar

41 Leçons et Notes sur la litterature jrancaise au XVIe siécle (Cambridge, Mass., 1965), p. 162.

42 Mahomet 1, iv:M

Les mortels sont égaux; 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 done gentilhomme!… Pourquoi done me l'avoir caché? M. Vanderk pere: Par une prudence peut-6tre inutile; j'ai craint que l'orgueil d'un grand nom ne devint le germe de vos vertus; j ‘ a i desire que vous les tinssiez de vous-même… .

43 Koch, A., The American Enlightenment (New York, 1965)Google Scholar: Franklin to Mrs. Sarah Bache from Passy, 26 Jan. 1784, pp. 95-96; John Adams to Thomas Jefferson, 15 Nov. 1813, pp. 218-220; letter cited from Thomas Jefferson to John Adams on 28 Oct. 1813, PP. 356-357.