Lucy Freeman Sandler

Jean Pucelle and the Lost Miniatures of the Belleville Breviary

It has been noted occasionally that a number of large miniatures described in detail in the Exposition des ymages at the beginning of the Belleville Breviary are not actually included in the manuscript. This study is devoted to a reconstruction of their original appearance, drawing conclusions from the description in the expository text, and from the evidence of other works of art. The importance of the Belleville Breviary in the development of 14th-century allegorical and devotional imagery — already recognized from the extant pictorial program of calendar and psalter — is underscored further by the re-integration of the newly reconstructed images into the overall scheme of illustration designed by Jean Pucelle.

Notes for the Illuminator: The Case of the Omne bonum

The Omne bonum, a unique illustrated encyclopedia composed in London between 1360 and 1375 by James le Palmer, Treasurers Scribe in the Exchequer, was left unfinished at the compilers death in 1375, both as to its text and its extensive program of illustrations. Subsequently, ca. 1380, twenty-three historiated intitials—for which there are written marginal instructions—were inserted in spaces that had been left empty. Examination of the respective parts played by the author, original scribe, later instruction-writer, and artist suggest a more independent role for the illuminator than is usual in cases where marginal notes are supplied for manuscript images.