centuries. The spiky style of Gothic script seen here is characterized by decorative
shading of such letters as the tall s and loops on d, h, and I.
The tradition of transcribing and illuminating vernacular literary manuscripts
flourished throughout 15th-century France to the extent that hundreds of copies still
survive today of the popular French works, such as the Roman de la Rose and the texts of
Christine de Pizan. Many of these manuscripts were copied in an elegant grade of
bâtarde script with fewer cursive features, a style associated with deluxe book production
of the Burgundian court and often termed lettre bourguignonne. The overall appearance
of the script is calligraphic, though it exhibits some of the prickly aspects of Gothic
cursive script.
Beinecke 226 (opposite) is a beautifully illuminated copy of Julius Caesar’s
Commentaries, translated into French by Jean de Chesne. The script, regular and
relatively devoid of loops on tall letters, retains many features of the formal Gothic
bookhand but also incorporates selected cursive features. The manuscript is a large
luxury book containing ten half-page and three smaller miniatures. Lettre bourguignonne,
as illustrated here, survived into the 16th century as a popular choice for deluxe
manuscripts.
Barbara A.Shailor
[See also: LIBRARIES; MANUSCRIPTS, HEBREW ILLUMINATED;
MANUSCRIPTS, PRODUCTION AND ILLUMINATION; UNIVERSITIES]
Bischoff, Bernard. Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, trans. D.O.Cróinin and
D.Ganz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Boyle, Leonard E. Medieval Latin Palaeography: A Bibliographical Introduction. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1984.
Brown, Michelle P. A Guide to Western Historical Scripts from Antiquity to 1600. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1990.
Ganz, David. “The Preconditions for Caroline Minuscule.” Viator 18(1987):23–44.
McKitterick, Rosamond. The Carolingians and the Written Word. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1989.
Reynolds, Leighton D., and Nigel G.Wilson. Scribes and Scholars: A Guide to the Transmission of
Greek and Latin Literature. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1974.
Rouse, Richard H. and Mary A. “The Commerical Production of Manuscript Books in Late
Thirteenth- and Early Fourteenth-Century Paris.” In Medieval Book Production: Assessing the
Evidence, ed. Linda L.Brownrigg. Los Altos Hills: Anderson-Lovelace/Red Gull, 1990, pp.
103–15.
Shailor, Barbara A. The Medieval Book. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.
PAMIERS, STATUTES OF
. During the Albigensian Crusade, in late November 1212, Simon de Montfort, having
become viscount of Carcassonne, held an assembly of prelates and barons at Pamiers for
the purpose of establishing his rule and the basis of authority in his new domains. The
results, forty-six articles and a brief rider, are known as the Statutes of Pamiers. The
statutes aim primarily to accomplish three goals: to strengthen the church against heresy;
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