#000070
The Tres Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry
Jean Longnon & Raymond Cazelles
This is the classic in-print edition of the most celebrated illuminated manuscript in the world: the Très Riches Heures, the book of hours made for Jean, Duke of Berry, and now held as MS 65 in the Musée Condé at Chantilly. Begun around 1411–1416 by the Limbourg brothers and completed decades later by other hands, its calendar miniatures—peasants and nobles at their seasonal labors beneath the Duke's castles—are among the defining images of the late Middle Ages. Edited by Jean Longnon and Raymond Cazelles with a preface by the great scholar Millard Meiss, and published by George Braziller, the volume reproduces the manuscript's miniatures in full color with commentary. Since the fragile original is now closed to the public, editions like this are how most people ever meet it. For anyone drawn to medieval art, manuscripts, or simply extraordinary picture-making, it's an essential and beautiful book.
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The book
The Très Riches Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry reproduces, in full color and with scholarly commentary, the miniatures of the illuminated book of hours held at the Musée Condé, Chantilly (MS 65). This standard English-language edition was edited by Jean Longnon and Raymond Cazelles, with a preface by the art historian Millard Meiss, and published by George Braziller.
The subject
The manuscript was commissioned by Jean, Duke of Berry, a great royal collector, and largely painted around 1411–1416 by the Limbourg brothers—Paul, Jean, and Herman—before their and the Duke's deaths left it unfinished; later illuminators, including Jean Colombe, completed it around 1485.
How to read it
As the closest most readers can come to the original, which the Musée Condé withdrew from display to protect it. Linger on the calendar pages, whose scenes of labor and leisure are the manuscript's most famous.
For more context
Read alongside Millard Meiss's studies of French Gothic painting and general histories of the medieval book of hours.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Jean Longnon & Raymond Cazelles
- Publisher
- George Braziller
- Place of publication
- New York
- Year
- 1969
- ISBN
- None
- Format
- Boxed / slipcase
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Maine