Giovanni Boccaccio, De Casibus Illustrium Virorum, in French, single leaf from an illuminated manuscript on vellum

single leaf, 385mm. by 277mm., slightly trimmed to edge of illumination but entire folio extant, double column, 54 lines in dark brown ink in lettre batârde, rubrics in red, on verso: eight 1-line initials in burnished gold on blue or red ground with line fillers in same (now much rubbed), one 4-line initial in blue on burnished gold ground, with foliate infill terminating in blue ivy-leaves, and border panel on two sides filled with foliage and acanthus leaves (also rubbed), on recto: entire text column framed by border panel on all sides with acanthus leaves, various flowers and fruit, a butterfly, a fox-like animal, a man carrying a broom and an angel, all on liquid gold ground, border panel enclosing one 8-line initial in pink with white penwork on burnished gold ground with floral infill with daises and strawberries, and a large arch-topped miniature of an interior scene in which Alexander the Great, dressed as an emperor, directs the capture, blinding and murder of the Greek historian and philosopher Callisthenes of Olynthus (see below), gardens with further figures (one being pierced by a spear) before a castle and tree-covered hills in background, entire miniature 130mm. by 87mm., recovered from a binding hence somewhat rubbed on verso, some staining and small holes horizontally across middle of leaf where the spine of the leaf covered the spine of the volume, but recto in good condition and miniature almost unaffected, professionally conserved and in a card mount

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text

When Giovanni Boccaccio entered his late 50s, sometime between 1355 and 1360, he experienced a sudden turn towards religion and repentance, and the moral work De Casibus Illustrium Virorum, a series of historical episodes retold to highlight the moral falls of famous men, was the principal result. He dedicated it in 1363 to Mainardo dei Cavalcanti, an educated middle-class friend of his, as, he explains, he could find no emperor, king, prince or pope worthy of his tribute. It was extremely popular among the European nobility, and may have been more widely read than the Decameron, being translated into six different languages by the mid-sixteenth century.

The present leaf is from a French translation of the text, naming its author as iehan boccace and its subject as les cas de aucuns malheureux nobles. It is almost certainly the translation of Laurent de Premierfait (c. 1380-1418), who worked as secretary to Cardinal Amadeo di Saluzzo in the papal curia in Avignon around 1397. Here he made contacts with prominent French humanists (such as Gontier Col, Jean de Montreuil and Nicolas de Clamanges) and European statesmen which brought him acclaim and further offices, including a period of service with Louis de Bourbon, Charles VI's maternal uncle, during which he translated the first version of the text here, and after 1400 with Jean, duc de Berry under whom he re-translated the work. This second translation was highly sought after by the European nobility of the fifteenth century, and the Bourbon family alone are recorded as owning six separate copies, and a large number of the other extant manuscripts bear inscriptions or coats-of-arms allowing their noble owners to be identified; note the presence of the four initial 'I's in black touched with liquid gold in the decorated border panel on the recto of the present leaf, perhaps indicating the original patron's name began with that letter. Because of this popularity approximately 68 extant manuscripts are recorded, almost all from the fifteenth or early sixteenth centuries (see P. M. Gatherole, Laurent de Premierfait's Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, 1968, pp. 39-63). The present manuscript is apparently unknown to scholarship.

The manuscript apparently contains part of a prologue, which pays particular attention to the story of Mark Anthony and Cleopatra and her use of seduction to obtain whatever she wished from powerful men, and the beginning of septiesme liure dudit iehan boccace.

illumination

The miniature is well executed, and shows Alexander the Great's capture, blinding and murder of the Greek historian and philosopher Callisthenes of Olynthus (a relative and disciple of Aristotle who offended Alexander by criticising his adoption of oriental customs), who is seized in the centre of the scene while Alexander directs the action from the left, blinded in the far right, and whose body lies, blood gushing from the neck, at the foot of the miniature. The fight scene and blinding have no obvious extant models, but the position, posture and portrayal of Alexander in the garb of a late medieval emperor closely echoes that of the figure of Alexander the Great in a manuscript of the same text prepared for Jean sans Peur, duke of Burgundy (1371-1419), and now Paris, Arsenal MS. 5193 (see H. Martin, Le Boccace de Jean sans Peur - Des cas des nobles hommes et femmes, 1911, pl. lxiii for a reproduction), and perhaps that was the model for the present miniature.