1389 to Jeanne de Boulogne. He died in Paris on June
15, 1416, leaving no male heirs.
One of the greatest patrons in the history of art, John
was an inveterate collector—of books, dogs, castles,
tapestries, jewels, and objets d’art, whether antique or
contemporary. If he overtaxed his people, as has been
claimed, it was to transform his immense wealth into
works of art. Probably the best-known work commis-
sioned by him is the unfi nished Très Riches Heures
(Chantilly, Musée Condé), illuminated by the limbourg
brothers and Jean Colombe. The famous calendar illu-
minations in this manuscript picture some of the duke’s
seventeen castles: Lusignan, Dourdan, Hôtel de Nesle,
Clain, Étampes, Saumur, the Louvre, and Vincennes.
Another favorite castle, Mehun-sur-Yèvre, dominates
the Temptation of Christ scene. Other works illuminated
by the brothers include the Très Belles Heures de Notre
Dame (B.N. lat. 3093) and the Belles Heures (New York,
The Cloisters). They also contributed a miniature of
the duke setting off on a journey in the Petites Heures
(B.N. lat. 18014) and some scenes in grisaille for a
Bible historiale (B.N. fr. 166). Another famous book of
hours associated with the duke is the Grandes Heures
(B.N. lat. 919), commissioned in 1407 and completed
in 1409. Unfortunately, its original sixteen large min-
iatures, possibly by Jacquemart de Hesdin, who had
illuminated the Heures de Bruxelles (before 1402) for
the duke, have been lost. The list of artists contributing
small miniatures reads like a who’s who of the day,
including the Boucicaut and Bedford Masters, as well
as the Pseudo-Jacquemart. Other artists in the duke’s
employ were his master architect Gui de Dammartin,
André Beauneveu, and Jean de Cambrai, who sculpted
the duke’s tomb.
John’s extensive library included thirty-eight chi-
valric romances, forty-one histories, as well as works
by Aristotle, Nicole Oresme, and Marco Polo. His
secular books were outnumbered by religious works,
especially prayer books: fourteen Bibles, sixteen psal-
ters, eighteen breviaries, six missals, and fi fteen books
of hours. Of the over 300 illuminated manuscripts in
the duke’s library, some one hundred are extant today.
Most of the other objects in his collections are known
to us only through the extensive registers he caused to
be kept after 1401.
See also Charles VI; John II the Good;
Limbourg Brothers
Further Reading
Guiffrey, J. Inventaires de Jean, duc de Berry (1401–1416). 2
vols. Paris, 1894–96.
Lacour, René. Le gouvernement de 1’apanage de Jean, duc de
Berry 1360–1416. Paris: Picard, 1934.
Lehoux, Francoise. Jean de France, duc de Berri: sa vie, son
action politique. 4 vols. Paris: Picard, 1966–68.
Longnon, Jean, and Raymond Cazelles. The Très Riches Heures
of Jean, Duke of Berry. New York: Braziller, 1969.
Meiss, Millard. French Painting the Time of Jean de Berry: The
Late Fourteenth Century and the Patronage of the Duke. 2nd
ed. 2 vols. London: Phaidon, 1969.
——, and Elizabeth H. Beatson. The Belles Heures of Jean, Duke
of Berry. New York: Braziller, 1974.
Thomas, Marcel. The Grandes Heures of Jean, Duke of Berry.
New York: Braziller, 1971.
Richard C. Famiglietti
William W. KiblerJOINVILLE, JEAN DE (1225–1317)
Joinville’s Vie de saint Louis, a French prose memoir
by a powerful aristocrat, is one of our most valuable
accounts of noble society in the 13th century. Joinville’s
father was seneschal of Champagne, an offi ce he in-
herited. In 1248, he decided to take part in the Seventh
Crusade and thus met St. Louis, becoming a close friend.
The two endured captivity together, then Joinville served
as royal steward at Acre (1250–54) before returning to
France. Joinville began his memoirs of the king in 1272,
just after Louis’s death, but undertook the second part
(composed 1298–1309) when Jeanne of Navarre, wife
of Philip IV, requested it.
Joinville’s narrative has many virtues. As an im-
portant noble, he advised the king during the crusade;
as a warrior, he fought in it. Although a close friend,
Joinville, unlike other biographers of Louis, respected
but was not overawed by the king and sometimes disap-
proved of his actions, particularly when Louis’s saintli-
ness confl icted with what Joinville perceived to be his
duties as king, aristocrat, and layman. Louis’s decision
to go on crusade in 1270 was one such occasion, but
there were others. Joinville felt free at the time to speak
his mind and records a number of salty interchanges
between himself and his ruler. He was also candid about
his own prejudices; he defended aristocratic privileges
and was contemptuous of bourgeois upstarts. His ob-
servations are vivid, and his frankness makes the Vie
delightful reading.
Joinville’s work was overshadowed in his own day
by Guillaume de Nangis’s biography of Louis; of the
three extant manuscripts, only one is medieval, a copy
of the presentation manuscript of 1309.See also Louis IXFurther Reading
Joinville, Jean de. La vie de saint Louis, ed. Noel L. Corbett.
Sherbrooke: Naaman, 1977.
—— and Villehardouin. Chronicles of the Crusades, trans. Mar-
garet R.B. Shaw. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1963.
Billson, Marcus K. “Joinville’s Histoire de Saint-Louis: Hagiog-
raphy, History and Memoir.” American Benedictine Review
31 (1980): 418–42.JOHN, DUKE OF BERRY