page_title: First Master of the Bible Historiale of Jean de Berry
hierarchical_section_title: First Master of the Bible Historiale of Jean de Berry
caption_attribution_description: English: Livy, Histoire romaine. Translation from the Latin by Pierre Bersuire: The battle of Cannae Place of origin, date: Paris, follower of the Luçon Master, First Master of the Grande Bible Historiale Complétée of Jean, Duc de Berry (Paris, BNF, fr. 159) or Ravenelle Master (illuminators); c. 1390-1400 Material: Vellum, ff. 228+196+160 (3 vols.), 415x303 (279x188) mm, 52 lines, littera textualis, Bindings: 18th-century brown leather; gilt Decoration: Vol. I: 1 two-column miniature (145x185 mm); 9 column miniatures (80/70x85/80 mm); 2 illustrations in the margin (emblems); decorated initials with border decoration (ff. 9r, 12v, 19r, 23v, 26v, etc.); penwork initials throughout. Vol. II: 1 two-column miniature(154x185 mm); 9 column miniatures (100/80x105/80 mm); 2 illustrations in the margin (emblems); decorated initials with border decoration (ff. 5r, 8r, 25r, 46r, 64r, etc.); penwork initials throughout. Vol. III: 1 two-column miniature (140x188 mm); 8 column miniatures (85/70x90/80mm); 2 illustrations in the margin (emblems); decorated initials with border decoration (ff. 5r, 10r, 22v, 36r, 55r, etc.); penwork initials throughout. Added: coats of arms, emblems and motto of Philip of Cleves on the opening pages of all three volumes Provenance: possibly made for Bertrando de Rossi, Count of San Secundo (emblem). Louis de Luxembourg, connétable de France (d. 1475; signature); by descent to his granddaughter Françoise de Luxembourg and her husband Philip of Cleves (d. 1528; coats of arms, emblems, motto;signature); purchased in 1531 from Philip's estate by Henry III, Count of Nassau (d. 1538); by descent to the Princes of Orange-Nassau, the later Stadholders, at The Hague; carried off in 1795 to Paris by the French and restituted to the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in 1816
context_page_description: The First Master of the Bible Historiale of Jean de Berry was a French manuscript illuminator active between 1390 and 1400. Little is known about him; his notname comes from a manuscript of the Bible Historiale, now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, in which he painted several miniatures. The manuscript was once owned by John, Duke of Berry, and with most books containing other work ascribed to the artist seems to have been produced in Paris. This would indicate that the artist lived and worked there, producing large secular works as well as religious treatises written in vernacular French.
  In a 2002 dissertation, Eva Lindqvist Sandgren used stylistic comparison to identify this artist with the Master of the Book of Hours of Johannette Ravenelle who illuminated a book of hours now in the Uppsala University Library. This identification, sometimes under the notname Ravenelle Master or Ravenelle Painter, is now widely accepted.
context_section_description: The First Master of the Bible Historiale of Jean de Berry was a French manuscript illuminator active between 1390 and 1400.  Little is known about him; his notname comes from a manuscript of the Bible Historiale, now held by the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, in which he painted several miniatures.  The manuscript was once owned by John, Duke of Berry, and with most books containing other work ascribed to the artist seems to have been produced in Paris.  This would indicate that the artist lived and worked there, producing large secular works as well as religious treatises written in vernacular French.
  In a 2002 dissertation, Eva Lindqvist Sandgren used stylistic comparison to identify this artist with the Master of the Book of Hours of Johannette Ravenelle who illuminated a book of hours now in the Uppsala University Library (MS C 517e). This identification, sometimes under the notname Ravenelle Master or Ravenelle Painter, is now widely accepted (for example, by the Bibliothèque nationale de France and the British Library).
caption: The battle of Cannae, ca 1390-1400. Bibliothèque nationale de France
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