[By Anne D. Hedeman, Distinguished Professor Emerita at the University of Kansas, chercheuse invitée en résidence ERC AGRELITA]

Have you ever wondered why medieval manuscripts were illustrated? Or speculated about the ways in which illuminations played a role in introducing new texts and shaping their reception?

Frontispieces in manuscripts played an important role in guiding readers to understand the texts that follow. This is most notable in the visual cycles that decorate the Grandes chroniques de France, the French national history translated ca. 1274 from the Latin texts that had been written and preserved throughout the Middle Ages by the monastic historiographers at the Abbey of Saint-Denis. While the Latin chronicles compiled at Saint-Denis were unilluminated, their French translations were illustrated, because they were made for a new secular audience centered in Paris at the French court rather than for a monastic audience. And that new audience was interested in the history of the French kings, but also in romans d’antiquité, the mid-twelfth century stories of Thebes, Aeneas, Brut, and Troy that were often richly illuminated. How might the Greek destruction of Troy, a story popular in many of these texts, frame the history of the French kings?

When the first illuminated copy of the Grandes chroniques (Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782) was made in Paris circa 1274 at the request of Abbot Matthew of Vendôme for King Philip III (r. 1270–1284), the abbot was painted in a presentation miniature above a poem on fol. 326v that describes the book as “le romanz qui des rois est romez” [the book in French/romance about kings that is put in French]. Doubtless because the compilator thought of the book as a romanz [romance] and because the artists were searching for appropriate visual models, they drew on a contemporary model that had been used just ten years earlier to illustrate a Roman de Troie (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 1610). The first Grandes chroniques copied this composition which was used in one of the folios excised from the Roman de Troie that is now preserved in the art collection in Huis Bergh. However, the artists modified iconographic details from their model to make Helen’s abduction less violent, probably to make the French kings who were descendants of the Trojans more comfortable with their ancestors’ behavior.  This is most noticeable in the last two scenes, where artists replaced the slaughter and forced abduction of the Roman de Troie with scenes of Paris putting his arm gently around Queen Helen of Troy’s shoulders and then sailing away with her to Troy in the Grandes chroniques. The strong visual relationship between the frontispiece of the Grandes chroniques and just one of many images from the Roman de Troie interlaced the two texts to offer the entirety of the Roman de Troie as a prequel to the Grandes chroniques, as Morrison suggests.

Subsequent royal copies of the Grandes chroniques passed over the romance model used for the opening image in the first Grandes chroniques, even though that manuscript of the chronicle was available in the royal library. Instead, the artists worked with the libraires coordinating production of royal manuscripts to create frontispieces that were a visual invitation to read the chronicle’s first several chapters and to see the Trojans as direct ancestors of current French kings. They experimented with ways to use purely visual imagery to strengthen their visual message as two examples made in the 1370s for King Charles V (r. 1364–1380) illustrate. The earlier manuscript (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 10135) has the text of chronicle up to events of 1350, and it opens with a four-part frontispiece that feature stories from chapters 1-3 of the chronicle: the Greeks land in Troy and attack the Trojans in the upper register, and in the lower register Francion, son of Hector, founds Sicambria and his descendants defeat the armies of the Roman Emperor Theodosius. A second manuscript made for Charles V (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 2813) and painted by the same artist contains a revised and expanded text that originally ended with events of 1350 but then was continued, first to 1375 and subsequently to 1379. The iconography of its frontispiece heightened contemporary references. It contains the same four scenes, but the artist worked to make the emphasis on Charles V as a descendent of the Trojans more explicit. The army routing the Roman emperor in the fourth scene is led by a king wearing fleur-de-lis, riding a horse similarly covered and his armies carry fleur-de-lis pennons. This iconographic change encourages a more direct association between these Trojan ancestors and Charles V, the owner of the book whose fleur-de-lis arms borne by angels fill the lower margin and whose life ends the book.

As time passed artists continued to overlay the frontispiece introductions to the Grandes chroniques with contemporary references or displays of vibrant narratives of past events emphasizing the Greek destruction of Troy. Two examples made for non-royal patrons illustrate these practices. An unusual manuscript made circa 1405 (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028) for an unknown owner shows the city of Troy burning on a distant shore. Two ships bearing the arms of France and Brittany appear in the water next to the burning city. The French boat, under full sail, is filled with soldiers. A trumpeter stands by the French flag and blows his horn to attract the Bretons, while a secular figure standing at the back of the French vessel gestures towards the Breton one. A Breton sailor uses a smaller sail to turn his ship towards the French, and the military leader of the Bretons surrounded by his troops, points towards the approaching French. The scene does not seem to be confrontational, yet it raises questions about its relationship to the chronicle’s text. Clearly the focus on France and Brittany is grounded in chapter 1 of the chronicle which begins just below the frontispiece “Comment François descendirent des Troiens” [How the French descend from the Trojans]. This chapter describes the Greek’s ten-year siege and destruction of Troy, and it notes that several princes of the city escaped and spread to different portions of the world: the chronicler first names Helenus (a son of Priam), Aeneas, and Antenor (A counselor of Priam) and then elaborates texts about diverse founders of European realms. Most relevant to this illumination are the discussions of Hector’s son Francion and of Brutus. Chapters 2–4 explain that Francion fled to a region on the Danube River where he founded a city called Sicambria. His descendants founded Lutece, later called Paris, and governed France. In chapter 1, Brutus is described as the great-grandson of Aeneas.  Along with his ally Corinus, Brutus led the descendants of Helenus and Antenor to England where Brutus founded Bretaigne [Britain] and Corineus founded Cornouaille [Cornwall].  Until the invasion of the Angles, all the kings of England were descended from Brutus.

The inclusion of the flag of Brittany does not derive from the chronicles’s text, but it is easy enough to imagine that a French person seeing the words Bretaigne and Cornouaille might think of Brittany as a whole and the area on the southwest corner of Brittany, rather than England and Cornwall. Whether deliberate or not, the intrusion of the Breton arms and the fact that the Bretons are turning towards and beginning dialogue with the French had the potential to construct meaning independent of the text for viewers. In the early fifteenth century Brittany was charting an independent course, maneuvering between the English and French sides in the Hundred Years War.  Readers and viewers of this image might think about the potential alliances between France and Brittany encouraged by their shared Trojan roots.

A final example (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 2613) from the first quarter of the fifteenth century returns our attention to the Greeks and their destruction of Troy. This unfinished manuscript contains one frontispiece and blank spaces left for twenty-nine other illuminations that were never executed. The scenes in the frontispiece to this manuscript were clearly important to the patrons whose arms fill the intercolumnar space on fol. 3r. In a private communication Hélène Loyau identified these as the arms of a branch of the Châtillon family. One is associated with Robert de Châtillon, who was a chamberlain of King Charles VI in 1405, named Charles’ counsellor in 1411, and who died at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415.  Robert bore the Châtillon arms (de gueules a trois pals de vair au chief d’or) with a small shield at the top containing the arms of Brienne (d’azur semé de billettes d’or au lion d’or brochant sur le tout). These arms are known from the Armorial of the Cour Amoureuse of Charles VI (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 5233, f. 60v). Loyau suggested the other impaled arms bear on their dexter side, the arms of Count Frederic V Linange (trois aigles d’or azure bec et serrés de gueules) who married Marie of Blois, daughter of Guy de Châtillon, Count of Blois in 1347. The fact that the arms are impaled suggests a marriage, but Marie’s arms would not have contained the shield of Birenne on the Châtillon arms, so this remains a mystery.

The four scenes of battle between Greeks and Trojans in Robert de Châtillon’s Grandes chroniques are strikingly innovative, because they pay special attention to the Greeks. In the left-hand scene in the upper register, the Trojans, identified by their red pennons marked with the letter T, leave Troy to face off against the Greeks who pour out from ships in the right-hand scene and move towards the Trojans. The foremost Greek soldier wears a robe covered with multiple copies of the letter G, which also appears on his pennon and on the flags on the ships.

In contrast, the lower register shows the aftermath of the battle. In the left-hand image, Troy is in flames and the Greeks, led by a soldier wearing a robe covered with the letter G, slaughter the Trojans. In the right-hand image Greeks who have left Troy debark from their ships bearing pennons marked with the letter G.

This manuscript still poses a puzzle. Both sets of arms suggest affiliation with Robert of Châtillon which raise questions about its circumstances of production.  Was the book left unfinished at Robert’s death in 1415? Why are these particular arms juxtaposed? Only time and further research will tell.

As these examples illustrate, the study of Trojan frontispieces to the Grandes chroniques de France exemplifies how malleable the Trojan story was in late medieval France; it was received as a romance adventure, as a part of family history, as Trojan history, and as a commentary on current events.

Sources

Bozzolo, C. and Loyau, H., La Cour amoureuse dite de Charles VI, 3 vols., Paris, Le Léopard d’or, 1982-1992.

Hedeman, A. D., The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques de France (1274-1422), Berkeley, University of California Press, 1991. http://ark.cdlib.org/ark:/13030/ft8k4008jd/

Morrison, E., “Linking ancient Troy and medieval France: Illuminations of an early copy of the Roman de Troie”, in: Medieval Manuscripts, their Makers and Users: a special issue of Viator in honor of Richard and Mary Rouse, Turnhout, Brepols, 2011, p. 77-102.

Digitized manuscripts cited in this blog entry

Grandes chroniques de France (Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, Ms. 782). https://arca.irht.cnrs.fr/ark:/63955/md902z10xq5m

Grandes chroniques de France (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 10135). ark:/12148/btv1b84525476

Grandes chroniques de France (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 2813). ark:/12148/btv1b84472995

Grandes chroniques de France (Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine, Ms. 2028). https://arca.irht.cnrs.fr/ark:/63955/md9673668j94

Grandes chroniques de France (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 2613). https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b104673274

Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 1610). ark:/12148/btv1b10507221g

Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie (Huis Bergh fragments excised from BnF, Ms. fr. 1610).
https://www.collectiegelderland.nl/huisbergh/object/7f738d19-54bb-574b-1e75-a5285067b7c0

Armorial de la Cour amoureuse dite de Charles VI (Paris, BnF, Ms. fr. 5233, fol. 52r-106r). ark:/12148/btv1b53023966f

Pour citer ce billet : Anne D. Hedeman, “How the Greek’s Destruction of Troy inflected French History Illumination”, dans le carnet de recherches AGRELITA Project ERC Advanced Grant, ISSN 2827-7031, 10/09/2024, https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/5516.

Pour en savoir plus sur les recherches menées par Anne D. Hedeman, ainsi que sur sa résidence de recherche au sein de l’équipe ERC AGRELITA : https://agrelita.hypotheses.org/chercheurs-invites-en-residence

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