Bossuat, Robert. “Jean Miélot, traducteur de Cicéron.” Bibliothèque de École des Chartes
99(1938):82–124.
Delaissé, L.M.J. La miniature flamande, le mécénat de Philippe le Bon. Brussels: Bibliothèque
Royale, 1959.
Perdrizet, Paul. “Jean Miélot, l’un des traducteurs de Philippe le Bon.” Revue de l’histoire littéraire
de la France 14(1907): 472–82.
Wilson, Adrian L. A Medieval Mirror. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984.
MIGRATIONS ART
. The term usually used to refer to art produced by and for the “new peoples,” primarily
Germanic, who entered the former territory of the Roman Empire as federate allies,
mercenaries, raiders, and ultimately as settlers. In France, the migration of new peoples
on a large scale is a phenomenon primarily of the 5th century, prior to the establishment
of dominant Frankish power throughout most of the country, and the conversion of the
Franks to Christianity, ca. 500. By convention, however, “migrations art” refers to
ornamental metalwork primarily of non-Christian function and subject matter down to the
7th century. Furthermore, it has become clear that this migrations art is by no means a
collection of tribal artistic traditions but rather the product of considerable interchange
among Germanic peoples and between the new settlers and indigenous inhabitants;
migrations art was not brought to the former Roman territories by new settlers but created
there.
The bulk of the migrations art consists of weapons and objects of personal adornment,
such as pins, brooches, and buckles, which have been recovered in vast numbers from
graves of the period. Important artistic work must also have been undertaken in building
(such as royal and aristocratic halls), in wood sculpture, and especially in textiles; that the
medium of metalwork alone has survived in quantity gives it undue importance. In
addition, the concentration upon elaborate metalwork does not indicate that only portable
arts were produced because the artists and their patrons were nomadic. Nonetheless, this
metalwork is characteristic of the period, and the great luxury objects played a major role
in displaying social patterns and status. Archaeologists and art historians have organized
the metalwork of the 5th to early 7th centuries according to technical and stylistic criteria
and have concentrated attention on the objects using gold and jewels rather than the far
more numerous examples in iron and bronze. Most objects fall within the categories
known as chip carving, Polychrome Style, Style I, and Style II. All of these terms are
used for objects produced and found from Scandinavia to Italy and from Spain to the
Black Sea basin, and for none of them does France appear to have been the most original
or productive center, although it certainly participated actively in the development.
Chip carving developed along the eastern borders of the Roman Empire, including the
Frankish regions of the lower Rhine, in the late 4th century, in connection with cast-
bronze objects made for soldiers; it involved handchiseling of abstract patterns into the
metal. The starting point of the tradition is Roman in both design and tech-
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