Katherine A . Rush (née Sedovic)

Manuscript Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS fr. 12577 and ivory casket Musée du Louvre, OA 122, and are two of three extant fourteenth-century visualizations of Chrétien’s Le Conte du Graal, produced in Paris circa 1310-1330. Although the objects’ shared era of production suggests similarities of iconography, artistic influences, and production methods, little research has been conducted regarding visual and cultural connections between MS fr. 12577 and OA 122. Through iconographic and stylistic analysis of the scenes each artisan depicted within his respective medium, I elucidate how the casket and manuscript’s imagery personifies Perceval’s dual nature, a young knight symbolic of the secular and sacred. As visualizations of Chrétien’s most religiously-minded legend, MS fr. 12577 and OA 122 exemplify the intertwining of the sacred and secular within fourteenth-century French romantic art, specifically within illuminated manuscripts and carved ivory, materials that through their refinement, rarity, and expense, signified leisure, luxury, and nobility. By examining these two opulent objects, I provide insights into their purpose and significance in late medieval France, especially cultural crossover between the porous realms of sacred and secular medieval life.

The penultimate Vulgate legend, La Queste del saint Graal, is a striking example of the intertwining of chivalry and Christianity in late medieval French culture. Through an examination of three fourteenth-century illuminated manuscripts of the Vulgate La Queste del saint Graal —Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MSS Arsenal fr. 3482 and fr. 5218, and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson Q.b.6—this article considers the visual intertwining of the sacred and secular as found in what is arguably the most inherently religious French Arthurian legend. Of the approximately 200 manuscripts that contain part or all of the Vulgate Lancelot-Graal cycle, twelve were produced in France during the fourteenth century. Of these twelve, this study focuses on three manuscripts that were produced in northern France (Paris and Tournai) in the first half of the fourteenth century, contain the complete Queste text, and are illuminated throughout with narrative miniatures. The large number of generally well-preserved images among MSS Rawlinson Q.b.6, Arsenal 3482, and Arsenal 5218 renders them ideal subjects for a case study of early fourteenth-century French Arthurian illumination, as does their status as under-researched Arthurian manuscripts. Although Alison Stones has given thorough consideration to higher quality Queste manuscripts, such as London, British Library, MS Royal 14 E. iii, the three manuscripts that this study focuses on have yet to be considered in depth.
Through a detailed analysis of MSS Rawlinson Q.b.6, Arsenal 3482, and Arsenal 5218, this paper addresses this lacuna in Arthurian manuscript studies, contributing to the broader goal of increasing knowledge of the overall corpus of late medieval French Arthurian manuscripts. Indeed, manuscripts whose illuminations may be less perfectly rendered, or exhibit textual discrepancies, can be just as, if not more useful than their more skilfully rendered brethren in enlightening us as to the production and dissemination of the Arthurian legends in late medieval France.
By comparing and contrasting MSS Rawlinson Q.b.6, Arsenal 3482, and Arsenal 5218 in terms of overall visual impact, artistic style, iconography, cultural context, and contemporary reception, this study elucidates questions of the manuscripts’ production and use, as well as their function as multivalent visual artefacts which exhibit a visual union of the sacred and the secular—opposite ends of a spectrum on which all elements of medieval visual culture existed.

The Aspremont-Kievraing Psalter (Bodleian Library, MS Douce 118) was created in Artois, France circa 1290-1310 for Joffroy d’Aspremont and Isabelle de Kievraing. The Psalter is the first half of a ‘hybrid text’, consisting of both the Psalms and liturgical hours, and typical of the late thirteenth century, when the popularity of the book of hours began to outpace that of the psalter. The Psalter’s accompanying text is a book of hours, MS Felton 2, National Gallery of Victoria. Both manuscripts are characterised by imaginative and elaborate marginalia, images of chivalry, fantasy, and piety that illuminate every folio. Although Margaret Manion has closely examined the Book of Hours’ marginalia, the Psalter’s has yet to be sufficiently studied.
By analysing the Aspremont-Kievraing Psalter’s marginalia, particularly its scenes of chivalry and heraldry, I will argue that these liminal images functioned on several levels, serving not only as an entertaining diversion from the text, but also as a record of familial events and achievements, an exemplar of wealth and piety, an illustration of medieval gender roles, and as an aid to devotion. I will posit that the diverse ways in which Joffroy and Isabelle may have engaged with their manuscript’s imagery speaks both to the multivalent nature of medieval reading, and to late medieval cultural and societal norms. Finally, I will hypothesise that the overarching theme of the Psalter’s marginalia is of the marriage of sacred and secular, illustrating the complex interrelations between two seemingly dichotomous aspects of medieval life.