Quest for the Holy Grail and Death of King Arthur

A Noble Commission

A great lover of the legends surrounding King Arthur, Jacques d'Armagnac (1433–1477), Duke of Nemours and Count of La Marche and Castres, had four illuminated manuscripts on this subject produced for his library at his residence in Castres in Languedoc. While the first volume was already lost in the 16th century, the other three precious codices survived the ravages of time and are now kept in the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The fourth manuscript, Quest for the Holy Grail and Death of King Arthur, was finished for the Duke on July 4, 1470 and is the most elaborately decorated one. It is an artistic testimony to the patronage of the Duke of Nemours, who was not only a great patron of book illumination, but made history in particular for his rebellion against the French crown, which eventually cost him his head in 1477.

Critique of the Monarchy in a Classic of Medieval Literature

This magnificent manuscript contains an extraordinary compilation of the legendary tales of the quest for the Holy Grail (fol. 1r-182r) and the legend of King Arthur's death (fol. 182r-233r). The Quest is presented in a version in which King Arthur, together with the Knights of the Round Table, goes in search of the mystical vessel with which Jesus celebrated the Last Supper and in which Joseph of Arimathea collected the blood of Christ on the cross. In the late medieval codex, the famous narratives that emerged in the 12th and 13th centuries were adapted to the changing cultural and social context. For example, an episode about the death of King Mark from the Tristan legend (fol. 160r-163r) was included, which is quite unusual in the French tradition. It is also remarkable that a critical attitude towards the centralist monarchy in France is implied on both the textual and pictorial levels.

A Glimpse into the World of Chivalry

The two-column text was written by Micheau Gonnot, a scribe in the Duke's service, in an eminently legible bastarda with a dynamic momentum. The neat script is repeatedly interrupted by a total of 133 differently sized, colorful and mostly gold-decorated miniatures. Many of them extend across both columns taking up nearly half a page. Most of them, however, can be read like small windows into the stories and are only one column wide. Here, tournament and battle scenes, which idealize and romanticize late medieval chivalry, take up a particularly large amount of space, emphasizing the martial aspects of the tales. At the same time, however, the miniatures also provide order and structure and help readers find their way around the codex, which comprises 233 parchment folios. Vegetable borders and ornamental initials with many golden details additionally emphasize important passages in the text, introduce new sections and chapters, and together decorate the clearly structured pages.

Masterly Book Illumination

The pictorial decoration of this beautiful manuscript was done by the workshop of the prolific illuminator Évrard d'Espinques. The latter was actually from northern Germany, but was active in Paris from 1440 and later in the county of La Marche, and was "employed" as an illuminator by Jacques d'Armagnac from 1461. As such, he was responsible for the artful illumination of several manuscripts of courtly literature, some of which still survive today.

In royal possession

After the duke's death, the codex came into the possession of Montjehan family. Later it was in the library of Charles III (1490–1527), Duke of Bourbon. There too, the manuscript did not remain for too long, as it soon passed into the hands of the French King Francis I. (1494–1547). There the manuscript remained until the dissolution of the royal library in 1792, which led to the establishment of the Bibliothèque nationale, where the manuscript still resides today.