medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Louis IX of France (d. 1270) was by all accounts an upright and very pious person, famed for his justice and for his charity. The founder (along with his mother, Blanche of Castile) of the abbey of Royaumont, his signature landmark is the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, erected in the 1240s to house major relics: the Crown of Thorns, a large piece of the True Cross, and the point of the Holy Lance. Louis' two crusades -- the first to coastal Egypt, the second to Tunis -- failed spectacularly: captured and imprisoned during the first, he died of an illness early in the second. His bones and heart were returned to France and a movement soon began to have him canonized. In 1272 pope Gregory X asked Louis' Dominican confessor to furnish a Vita. In 1282-83 Louis was the subject of a lengthy canonization inquest at Saint-Denis, where miracles were reported at his tomb. He was canonized in 1297 by Boniface VIII, whose excellent relations with Louis' grandson Philip IV doubtless caused the entire proceedings to be suffused in a glow of the mutual admiration and respect for which these two are famous.
Today (25. August) is Louis' feast day in France and his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of Louis IX, mostly informed by his identity as St. Louis, king of France:
a) as depicted (upper register at right; upper register at left, Blanche of Castile) in the dedication illumination of an earlier thirteenth-century picture bible (ca. 1230; New York, The Pierpont Morgan Library and Museum, MS M.240, fol. 8r):
http://tinyurl.com/ohgnvzg
b) as depicted (carrying the Crown of Thorns) in a panel of the mid-thirteenth-century Relics of the Passion Window (window A; ca. 1245-1248) in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris:
http://www.therosewindow.com/pilot/StChapelle/w15r-98.htm
c) as depicted (carrying the Crown of Thorns) in a mid-thirteenth-century glass window panel from Tours (ca. 1245-1248) in the Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:
http://metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/471218
d) as depicted (at left, being cured by a relic of True Cross; at right, the bishop of Paris) by Matthew Paris in the latter's mid-thirteenth-century complete autograph of his _Historia Anglorum_ (1250-1259; London, BL, MS Royal 14 C VII, fols. 10-156v, at fol. 137v:
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=30936
e) as depicted at the outset of the dedicatory letter to him in a mid- to later thirteenth-century copy of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ formerly owned by the abbey of Royaumont (Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 568, fol. 9r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_094713-p.jpg
f) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century legendary (ca. 1273-1300; Rouen, Bibliothèque publique, ms. 1410, fol. 3r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_101412-p.jpg
g) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century copy of the _Grandes chroniques de France_ (1274?; Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 782, fol. 327r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht15/IRHT_026819-p.jpg
h) as depicted (carrying the Crown of Thorns) in the later thirteenth-century martyrology and obituary of the abbaye Notre-Dame des Prés in Douai (ca. 1275-1300; Valenciennes, Bibliothèque de Valenciennes, ms. 838, fol. 101r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht5/IRHT_092290-p.jpg
i) as portrayed in a late thirteenth- or early fourteenth-century polychromed wooden statue (ca. 1300; yew) formerly in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and now in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny) in the same city:
http://www.sculpturesmedievales-cluny.fr/notices/notice.php?id=667
http://www.sculpturesmedievales-cluny.fr/notices/zoom.php?myImg=01-004588.jpg
The statue's modern copy in the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris:
https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3337/3664528845_9db0da0bd0_b.jpg
j) as depicted in an early fourteenth-century sacramentary for the Use of Senlis (ca. 1310; Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, ms. 103, fol. 278r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht15/IRHT_023729-p.jpg
k) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Louis of Toulouse) by Simone Martini in his early fourteenth-century frescoes (ca. 1318-1320) in the cappella di San Martino in the lower church of the basilica di San Francesco in Assisi:
http://www.wga.hu/art/s/simone/3assisi/1saints/saints30.jpg
Detail view (Louis the king):
http://www.wga.hu/art/s/simone/3assisi/1saints/saints31.jpg
l) as depicted (two of eight scenes illustrating his Dominican Office) by Jean Pucelle in the earlier fourteenth-century Hours of Jeanne d'Évreux (ca. 1324–1328) in the Cloisters Collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:
1) receiving from a dove his lost prayer book (fol. 154v): http://images.metmuseum.org/CRDImages/cl/original/DP233778.jpg
2) collecting the bones of martyrs (fol. 159v): http://tinyurl.com/np6bex2
m) as depicted (in the panel at left, visiting Vincent at Royaumont) by the Fauvel Master in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of books 1-8 of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language translation by Jean de Vignay (betw. 1326 and 1333; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 316, fol. 1r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b10507212h/f7.item.zoom
n) as depicted (three of numerous scenes from his life) by Mahiet in the earlier fourteenth-century sole copy of William of Saint-Pathus' thematically organized _Vie et miracles de Saint Louis_ (ca. 1330-1340; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 5716; foliation according to the digitization in Gallica):
1) going by ship on crusade (fol. 39v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8447303m/f48.item.zoom
2) instructing his offspring (fol. 43v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8447303m/f52.item.zoom
3) praying before the great relics in the Sainte-Chapelle (fol. 67r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8447303m/f75.item.zoom
o) as depicted (in the panel at left, visiting Vincent at Royaumont) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of books 9-16 of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language translation by Jean de Vignay (ca. 1335; Paris, BnF, ms. Arsenal 5080, fol. 1r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b7100627v/f7.item.zoom
p) as depicted (enthroned, holding the crown of thorns) in a mid- to later fourteenth-century breviary for the Use of Paris ("Breviary of Charles V"; betw. 1347 and 1380; Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1052, fol. 468v):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84525491/f946.item.zoom
q) as depicted (with Innocent IV at Cluny) in a later fourteenth-century copy (ca. 1375-1380) of the _Grandes chroniques de France_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 2813, fol. 277r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84472995/f561.item.zoom
r) as depicted (at left; at center, St. Dionysius [Denis] of Paris) in the presentation illumination of a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy of the _Grandes chroniques de France_ (ca. 1390-1405; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 2806, fol. 1r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8451604g/f9.image.zoom
s) as depicted in semi-grisaille (in the panel at left, visiting Vincent at Royaumont) in a late fourteenth-century copy of part of Vincent of Beauvais' _Speculum historiale_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1396; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 313, fol. 1r):
http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b84557843/f7.item.zoom
t) as depicted (at his coronation) in the second volume of a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy of Don Gonzalo de la Hinojosa's chronicle of Burgos in its French-language translation by Jean Golein (ca. 1400; Besançon, Bibliothèques municipales, ms. 1150, fol. 287r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht5/IRHT_085701-p.jpg
u) as depicted (right-hand column) in the early fifteenth-century Hours of René of Anjou (ca. 1405-1410; London, BL, Egerton MS 1070, fol. 99v; image zoomable):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=48379
v) as depicted in the early fifteenth-century Châteauroux Breviary (ca. 1414; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 2, fol. 298v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054144-p.jpg
w) as depicted in grisaille by Jean le Tavernier in the Suffrages of the mid-fifteenth-century Hours of Philip of Burgundy (ca. 1450-1460; Den Haag, KB, ms. 76 F 2, fol. 268r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f2%3A268r_min
x) as depicted (at left center; at right center, St. Charlemagne) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy of the _Grandes chroniques de France_ (ca. 1460; Châteauroux, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 5, fol. 282v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht2/IRHT_054382-p.jpg
y) as depicted (carrying the Crown of Thorns) in a late fifteenth-century breviary for the Use of Langres (after 1481; Chaumont, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 33, fol. 340r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht6/IRHT_096983-p.jpg
z) as depicted in a late fifteenth-century copy of the _Legenda aurea_ in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (1493; Angers, Université Catholique de l'Ouest, Bibliothèque universitaire, incunable non coté, fol. 290v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht16/IRHT_043130-p.jpg
aa) as depicted on a wing of a late fifteenth- or very early sixteenth-century triptych (ca. 1495-1501?; St. Charlemagne on the other wing) in the Cappella del Santissimo Salvatore in Naples:
http://www.ilportaledelsud.org/images/casati/ss08.jpg
bb) as depicted in a late fifteenth- or early sixteenth-century book of hours for the Use of Rome (ca. 1500; Den Haag, KB, ms. 74 G 22, fol. 201r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_74g22%3A201r
Best,
John Dillon
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