Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts

Livre des merveilles du monde
France, possibly Angers, ca. 1460
MS M.461 fol. 5v

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Livres des Merveilles du Monde: Scene, Amazons -- To left, among two couples embracing, both men wearing turban-like headgear, the foremost female wears veiled headdress and decorated dress; all on path in landscape. In center, on grassy plateau, two women grasp arms of nude infants with left hands and with their right hands, one raises knife and the other plunges knife into neck of the infant, bleeding from wounds; all beside table on which is strapped youthful female, bare-breasted, another woman, wearing hat, bends over her holding funnel-like object to her left breast. To right, two women, one wearing veiled headdress, kneel before crowned Queen of Amazons, seated on cushioned throne beneath canopy, with right hand holding floreate-tipped scepter and with left hand resting on waist. In background, crowned woman, possibly queen, wearing breastplate of armor, is beside another woman, wearing turban-like headdress, both mounted on bridled and saddled horses and accompanied by fourteen other female soldiers, possibly mounted on horses, wearing helmets, three hold bows, and the others hold spears. Scene in hilly landscape with city in distance. Initial A of Amazone decorated with foliate ornament. Miniature for the Livres des Merveilles du Monde for the Amazons.