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Medieval French Miniatures
Jean Porcher
Medieval French Miniatures is Jean Porcher's classic survey of French manuscript illumination from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries—the first general account of the subject in English. Porcher, who was keeper of manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, built the book on three landmark exhibitions he had organized there, and it moves from the Romanesque period through the great flowering of Gothic illumination, introducing the named and anonymous masters—Honoré, Jean Pucelle, the Limbourg brothers, the Boucicaut and Bedford Masters, Jean Fouquet—who made France a center of the illuminator's art. Ninety-three full-page color plates and ninety black-and-white illustrations make it as much a picture book as a history. Published by Abrams in 1960, it's a product of mid-century connoisseurship, authoritative and beautifully produced. For anyone drawn to illuminated manuscripts, medieval art, or the roots of Western painting, it's a foundational and lovely volume.
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The author
Jean Porcher (1892–1966) was a French art historian and keeper of manuscripts at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, and one of the leading twentieth-century authorities on medieval illumination. His exhibitions there laid the groundwork for this book.
The book
Published by Harry N. Abrams in 1960 and translated by Julian Brown, Medieval French Miniatures is the first general English-language survey of French illuminated manuscripts from the tenth to the fifteenth centuries. It covers the Romanesque and Gothic periods and the major masters, with 93 color and 90 black-and-white plates.
How it has aged
The scholarship reflects mid-century connoisseurship, and later research has refined attributions, but Porcher's overview and its superb plates remain valuable and are still consulted as an introduction.
For more context
Read alongside studies of the Très Riches Heures and general histories of the medieval book of hours.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- Jean Porcher
- Publisher
- Harry N. Abrams
- Place of publication
- New York
- Year
- 1960
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Art
- Location
- Maine