Two Manuscripts from the Sainte-Chapelle

To mark the feast of St Louis IX, king of France (1214-70; r. 1226), here is a look at two very different manuscripts from the collection formerly housed at the Sainte-Chapelle, the great chapel which he built to house the relic of Our Lord’s Crown of Thorns. The first is a missale festivum, a missal which was made to be used only a very limited number of major feast days. (Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 8890) This was produced in the first years of the 16th century during the reign of King Louis XII (1498-1515), and the images very much reflect the French interest in Italian art and culture. (Louis XII and his father Charles VIII were both deeply embroiled in invasions of the various Italian states.) Note, however, that the lettering throughout is the more traditional fraktur font typically used in liturgical books of the period.

The frontispiece, with the royal arms of Louis XII; at the bottom, the words “Louis, king of the French” (with the word Francorum misspelled as Frencorum.)

The Mass of Christmas day. Following a convention of Italian painters, the stable in Bethlehem is shown as a ruined building, symbolizing the condition of the fallen world as it waits for renewal with the coming of the Savior. The floral backgrounds are typical of high quality French books of Hours.

Most of the pages look like this, with various kinds of decorative letters at the beginnings of the prayers, or, as here, at the beginning of the proper part of the preface of Christmas.

The Mass of Easter Sunday.

The dedication of the church.

The Finding of the Cross. The image shows the story that when St Helena discovered the relics of all three crosses together, i.e., of Our Lord and of the two thieves, the title was still nailed to the Lord’s upright, but the crossbars were detached, making it impossible to tell which was His. It was identified by bringing a dying woman to the site, who was healed when it touched her.

The translation of the relics of St Louis, in a bust reliquary.

Pentecost

Corpus Christi

The translation of the Crown of Thorns, i.e., the arrival of the relic in Paris, on August 11, 1239. This feast was originally proper to the Sainte-Chapelle, but over time, was adopted in many other parts of France, as well as by the Dominicans and Cistercians, since the relic was conveyed to Paris by members of those orders. (The original reliquary seen here was destroyed during the Revolution.)

The Assumption, which is also the titular feast of the cathedral of Paris.

The Crucifixion image before the Canon...

is accompanied by this image of God the Father.

The Mass of St Louis himself.

The Exaltation of the Cross

The feast of the Reception of the Holy Relics, on December 4, among which can be seen the reliquary of the Crown of Thorns and the bust of St Louis which contains his skull. This feast is the origin of the feast of the Holy Relics commonly celebrated on November 5, or some other date close to All Saints.

All Saints

The Requiem, with specific prayers for a king or queen.

The second manuscript is a book of the Gospels made in the last quarter of the 10th century, or the early years of the 11th, roughly 250 years before the Sainte-Chapelle was built, and 500 before the missal shown above. (Bibliothèque nationale de France. Département des Manuscrits. Latin 8851) This image of Christ in Majesty surrounded by the four evangelists, the portraits of the evangelists, and the canon tables are attributed to an anonymous artist known as the Master of the Registrum Gregorii, active in the area of Trier in that period. Once owned by the abbey of Echternach, the manuscript was acquired by St Louis, and then donated to the Sainte-Chapelle by King Charles V (1364-80).

The incipit of St Jerome’s preface to the Gospel, addressed to Pope St Damasus I, who commissioned him to revised the Latin text on the basis of the Greek.

The beginning of the preface itself; this is the largest illuminated letter in the manuscript, and in fact there are very few others.

The beginning of Jerome’s other preface to the Gospels.

The conclusion of the preface, followed by colored bars noting, “Here begin the chapters of St Matthew.” These are not the chapters which we use today, divided into verses, a system invented much later, but a much earlier system with a great many smaller sections; Matthew has 355.

The list of chapters.

These chapters are then coordinated by a group of tables called the Eusebian canons, which indicate which ones contain material common to all four Gospels, which to three, to two, and which are found in only one. Here are the two parts of the first canon.

The portrait of St Matthew.

The beginning of the Gospel.

The explicit of Matthew, and the beginning of Mark.

The portraits of Saints Mark...

Luke

and John, each at the beginning of his Gospel.