MIÉLOT, JEAN
(fl. 15th c.). Translator, copyist, illuminator. A native of Gueschard in Picardy, near the
residence of the dukes of Burgundy at Hesdin, Miélot was later canon of Saint-Pierre in
Lille and, from 1449 to 1467, honorary secretary of Duke Philip the Good. This
appointment followed his translation for the ducal library of the Miroir de la salvation
humaine (1448), the first of a series of translations that included not only such religious
texts as the Vie et miracles de saint Josse (1449) or the Sermons d’un Franciscain sur
l’oraison dominicale (1457) but also, shortly after the Pheasant Banquet (1454), several
crusading texts, such as the Advis directif pour faire le voyage d’oultremer and a
Description de la Terre Sainte by the Dominican missionary Bouchard, and certain
classical texts, such as the Romuléon, a Roman history by Roberto della Porta of Bologna
(1465) and, for Charles the Bold, the Épistre de Cicéron a son frère Quintus (1472). He
was also a calligrapher, on occasion an illustrator, and a director of a workshop in Lille
that prepared manuscripts of these translations, which, it has been suggested, contributed
to the development of French prose.
Charity Cannon Willard
Portrait of Jean Miélot in his study. BN
fr. 9198, fol. 19. Courtesy of the
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris.
The Encyclopedia 1167