Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Poème sur la Passion
France, Rouen, ca. 1530
MS M.147 fol. 2r

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Francis I of France, bearded, wearing hat and ermine-trimmed garments, holds gloves in right hand and extends left hand to book in extended right hand of author Jacques le Lieur, wearing ermine-trimmed garments, holding hat in left hand, partly kneeling, both flanked by two groups of men (courtiers), wearing hats, some raise hands and some in conversation with each other, all stand behind balustrade. In foreground personifications of planets: 1) Personification of Moon, as female figure, holding crescent moon and star in left hand and horn in right hand. 2) Personification of Mars, as soldier, helmeted and wearing armor, raising sword in right hand. 3) Personification of the Sun, as female figure, crowned, emitting rays from her head, holding scepter in left hand. 4) Personification of Mercury, as soldier, wearing helmet and armor, holding caduceus in right hand. 5) Personification of Jupiter, as male figure, wearing hat, holding arrow in right hand and extending right hand toward vessel in extended hands of kneeling man. 6) Personification of Venus, crowned, winged, holding arrow in right hand with heft hand extended toward Eros, wearing blindfold, aiming bow in arrow. 7) Personification of Saturn, as hooded male figure, holding child, nude, partly visible over left shoulder. All before arched façade with central domed structure and hanging in portal is drapery with semy of fleur-de-lis. Below, two lines of text in two columns begin the Introduction and dedication to the King. Miniature within architectural frame of arch between two columns surmounted by pediment, two portals in spandrels; two identical escutcheons for Francis I, heraldry of azure three fleur-de-lis or, suspended from the columns.