The world's most famous manuscript: The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry

The Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry

In the precious stone case north of Paris, Shantei Castle (le château de Chantilly), a unique six-hundred-year-old manuscript, entitled “The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry,” was secretly preserved before it was revealed. Every schoolchild in France has seen one of his famous illustrations in history books, most likely the January illustration, even if they don’t know how to quote the title of the book.

The magical illustrations are the first images that give us an idea of ​​what really existed in the Middle Ages. For the first time, historical monuments are revealed to us under their original faces: Mont Saint-Michel, Notre Dame Cathedral, Louvre Palace But also the daily lives of the French, the control of feudalism throughout society, and the influence of religion and other beliefs.

“The Mona Lisa of manuscripts,” the work is called. But the manuscript, time has taken its toll. It had to be restored, the unraveled pages re-stitched, stains and fingerprints brightened, cracks filled with paint. Thus, for the first time, it was treated by doctors, radiologists, and chemists who put it under a scanner and a scalpel. This was the opportunity to discover the secrets of the mysterious manuscript that Umberto Eco defined as “a documentary that tells us about life in the Middle Ages.” After the examination and restoration, a historical exhibition was held from early June to early October 2025, presenting the diamond of Shanteuil Castle and the progress of the research carried out on it.

“The King of Manuscripts,” another nickname for him, is kept in a secret library in the castle of Chantilly. There are many reproductions of him in the world, but he himself is rarely seen (only three times he has been exposed to the public). The curator is one of the few who enjoys the privilege of leafing through him. He was commissioned by the richest patron of the Middle Ages, the Duke of Berry, from three brilliant young artists whose masterpiece it is.

In the 16th century, the manuscript disappeared and its traces were lost until it reappeared in the 19th century, in 1856. The Duke of Aumale (le duc d'Aumale), the fifth son of Louis Philippe, the last king of France, managed to acquire the sought-after manuscript that had almost vanished forever. The Duke of Dumal, who rebuilt the Château de Chantilly, bequeathed the manuscript to the French Republic on the condition that it not leave his hands.

How was the “king of manuscripts” created, under what circumstances, why is he considered the father of the world of images, illustrations, icons, and cartoons, which flood us from screens, from all sides, the father of the spectacular visuals, the giant images of today's advanced technologies?

Exploring the Manuscript – Going Back in Time

After 170 years of hiding, the manuscript's guardians were forced, as mentioned, to take the risk of exposing it to the scientific spotlight in order to restore it. Marie-Pierre Dion, the curator, traveled, under supervision, with the manuscript in her luggage from the Château de Chantilly to the Louvre in Paris and descended with it twenty meters underground, to the C2RMF, the “Center for Research and Restoration of the Museums of France” (le Centre de recherche et de restauration des musées de France). Thousands of exhibits, from paintings by great artists to Egyptian mummies, have been studied at this center. The place includes advanced equipment in the field of instrumental analysis, such as a particle accelerator supervised by a team of physicists and a photography studio that is a medical imaging laboratory for the service of art. The manuscript stayed there exceptionally from March to May 2023.

A renowned radiologist, an international expert, examines the manuscript with an optical microscope, under the tense gaze of Marie-Pierre Dion, the curator, who is stressed by the contrast between the modernity of the equipment and the ancient age of the subject. An opportunity to examine the contents of the book, which includes 131 illustrations. The first 12 are dedicated to the months of the year. The illustrations were usually inserted into religious texts to illustrate, but here, in this special manuscript, all the illustrations of the months and more, a total of 66, take up an entire page, compared to 65 small illustrations. And another difference – the illustrations usually illustrated only biblical scenes, whereas here the subjects go beyond the accepted boundaries to show medieval life.

The laboratory instruments, in the service of understanding the illustrations, serve as a time machine, transporting us back in time. The first illustration, dedicated to the month of January, is known to schoolchildren in France from history books, the chapter on the Middle Ages. The illustration depicts a feudal scene from the court of one of the greatest noblemen of the early 15th century, the manuscript's commissioner, Jean de Valois, Duke of Berry (le duc de Berry, 1340-1416).

The Very Rich Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry, January. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

The Duke of Berry, seated below, on the right, dressed in blue and wearing a fur hat, receives the guests for the New Year's ball where gifts are exchanged. The Duke of Berry is shielded from the fireplace by a circular braided screen, which creates a kind of saintly halo around his head. A phallic scepter crosses and cuts through it to express lordship and masculinity. Behind the prince's banner appears the inscription "Come near, come near" and his courtiers do indeed approach, like pilgrims to an idol in a temple, in gestures of submissive adoration. The servants, in the foreground of the scene, are busy preparing or serving the food and drink. The javelin-wielding warriors, from an episode of the Trojan War on the tapestry in the background, reflect the Hundred Years' War, in the background of the period, while the banquet itself is peaceful and calm.

Above the fireplace is the coat of arms of the Duke of Berry, blue shields with gilded fleurs-de-lis on a red background decorated with branches. Swans and two bears, the prince's symbols, also stand out against the red background. The bear was chosen in honor of the patron saint of Bourges, its first bishop between 251 and 280, whose name was Ursin, from Latin Orsinus, which means “bear”, in French ours Ors.

It should be noted that the church in those days, which feared pagan worship around The bear, competing with the lion for the title of king of beasts, took pains to give him the name of a devilish and bloodthirsty creature. The Duke of Berry clung to it, nevertheless, as a prominent image to translate his identity: his strength and ability to endure. The swan, on the other hand, appears on the Duke of Berry's coat of arms as a cygne navré, literally, "stabbed swan," that is, wounded by an arrow, a blood stain on its chest.

The swan, unlike the bear, took on a positive symbolic meaning, which grew stronger from the 14th century onwards, to represent adherence to Christian values, chivalry, love, loyalty, and purity. The swan united all of these and was therefore increasingly used in the signs of the nobility. The Duke of Berry chose, indeed, two diametrically opposed symbols. The bear, dark, clumsy, terrifying. The swan, white, graceful, pure, innocent, a sacrifice.

The prince added the swan to his symbol of nobility about ten years later, perhaps to balance the image of the bear, a dangerous, large, clumsy predatory mammal, with the image of the swan, a vulnerable, long-necked, beautifully feathered, aesthetic waterfowl. For his zoo, the prince acquired troops of bears and flocks of swans.

On the table on the right is a magnificent serving vessel, made of goldsmith’s work, in the shape of a ship, called in French a nef de table, “table ship.” The ship is mentioned and described in the inventory of the duke’s property in 1413 and has the name: la Sallière du pavillon, “the ship’s salt shaker.” The salt shaker is decorated at both ends, with a bear and a swan.

Small dogs on the table, a hunting dog on the floor. The playful touch of the Limbor brothers, who were playful and provocative, is not absent, expressed here in the representation of a phallus between testicles, attached to a black cloth bag, and protruding from the wine pourer's blue robe on the left side.

In his article “For Our Devotion and Pleasure': The Sexual Objects of Jean, Duc de Berry” Michael Camille describes the wine-bartender as a double of the beautiful boy from Greek mythology, Ganymede, who was abducted by Zeus to be his lover by night and the cupbearer of the gods of Olympus by day. Michael Camille sees here an allusion to the Duke of Berry’s custom of generously financing young men of low status as lovers. The water bearer (Aquarius), symbolizing the sign of Aquarius, in the astrological half-circle on the right, completely naked, was identified with Ganymede in the Middle Ages.

The important chronicler of the time, Jean Froissart, criticizes the Duke of Berry for falling in love with the latticework of bonnets and undergarments to the point of having him installed in the castle of Nonette, Auvergne, where the protégé enjoyed a life of luxury. A second, anonymous chronicler, mocks the Archduke who, around the age of 60, fell in love in a series of ways, showered him with expensive gifts, clothes, silver, gold and diamonds, bestowed a title of nobility on him and married him to a wealthy noblewoman.

Let's return to the illustration in which, in addition to the wine pourer, the meat cutter, dressed in a green robe in the center of the illustration, also wears the same sex accessory, attached to a black cloth belt bag. The phallus is tilted to the side, parallel to the knife that will soon cut into pieces of meat, and the hint is clear. The young servants are presented as erotic objects, says Michael Camus, a symbol of male sexuality. It is important to note that the ball is a homosocial space in which only men participate.

Any attentive observer can see the sex toys, but the radiologist sees with the help of the optical microscope what the human eye cannot see, down to the micrometer (thousandth of a millimeter). This is how you will notice the gold and silver from which the plates are made, the gold decorations on the Duke of Berry's robe, the silver decorations on the robe of the herald, who resembles his master in his posture and clothing.

The second illustration, dedicated to the month of February, depicts a farm in the snow. From the family and friends of a prince, celebrating in a magnificent, heated hall at a table laden with goodies, we move on to the peasants sheltering from the cold. The scene, however, is poetic and idyllic, with humorous touches, in the manner of the Limbor brothers.

The Very Rich Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry, February. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

Villagers live on a fenced farm with a barn, a barnyard, and beehives. On the right side of the illustration, three figures are seen in motion. One is driving a donkey to the nearby village, one is chopping wood, one, inside the farm, is walking to the cabin, trying to warm herself, blowing on her fingers. Three figures are sitting inside the cabin, two by the fireplace, a man and a woman, without underwear, their genitals exposed. Michael Camus explains that the Duke of Berry derived pleasure from peering into the intimate body parts of his subjects, men and women, although his preference, it must be assumed, was for boys. The third figure, a woman, sits by the door, either outside or inside, slightly rolling up the hem of her dress but maintaining modesty. The figures are mostly androgynous, as in the January illustration. If the members of the two warming themselves in front of the fire were not exposed, their sexual identity would not be clear.

The optical microscope allows us to see the expression on the face of the woodcutter, all of which are only five millimeters across. The illustrators' precision in the minute details is amazing. The technique of the beam of light, thrown from the side and casting a shadow, shows the outline of the elements of the picture sharply. The tiny snowflakes between the tree branches and the donkey's tracks would have been impossible to see without it.

The illustrations, because of Kutnen, were called, in the past and now, miniatures. Why were they enclosed between the pages of a book and not displayed in public in paintings on walls? Because in the Middle Ages it was customary to paint between the pages of books. Only very few pictures were painted. The cold and dampness in castles were not, moreover, suitable for hanging pictures. And if the great museum of Shantei Castle does not have pictures from the Middle Ages, its library contains 1500 “Books of Hours” (from a collection of more than 60,000), the bestsellers of that period.

A “Book of Hours” was a personal, intimate object that allowed its owner to keep track of the hours of prayer during the day, hence its name, and also contained a calendar to keep track of the liturgical dates month by month. The book also contained the “Litanies des saints,” a series of prayers to patron saints so that they would mediate between the worshipper and God and intercede on his behalf.

The prevalence of “Books of Hours,” which were intended for the general public and written in Latin, attests to the strong influence of religion. Christians believed that if they recited the prayers every hour of the day, they would gain eternal life in heaven after death. Believers who could afford it would leaf through the book all day long. And if they had the means, ordering an illustrated “Book of Hours” allowed them to boast of their wealth and display it for all to see. The wealthy not only displayed their financial prowess, but also their religious piety and artistic taste. The “Book of Hours” was a status symbol in the Middle Ages.

And how did it happen that the Duke of Berry’s “Book of Hours” remained in history and overshadowed all the others? The answer lies in the Duke of Berry’s passion for art. The “Book of Hours” of one of the first collectors and greatest patrons was bold and innovative. The Duke of Berry understood the power of illustration, painting, the sight of the eye, an aesthetic power as well as a political power. The Duke of Berry presents himself in the book as a great ruler whose capital, Bourges, is prosperous, his banquets are magnificent, his dynasty is secure, and his subjects are peaceful.

Duke of Berry, Prince of Illustrations

Who commissioned the revolutionary “Book of Hours”? Jean de Berry (1340-1415) was the son of King Jean II, known as “Jean the Good,” and during his 76-year life he would see four kings on the throne. The Duke was a very important man in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, brother of Charles V, uncle of Charles VI, representative of the monarchy in the vast territories he owned, Berry, Poitou, Languedoc, Auvergne. These lands provided the Duke of Berry with thousands of serfs who worked them for him, produced crops and paid taxes. In addition, they were illustrated in the “Book of Hours” and provided him with artistic pleasure and probably also of a more earthly kind.

The Duke of Berry was known for his sexual appetite and his passion for art objects. In both areas he was a serial collector, which did not interfere with his faith and piety, on the contrary. The prince derived similar pleasure from observing young living men, precious stones and liturgical objects. Erotic excitement and religious devotion, flesh and spirit, world and sacred were intertwined for him in the same pursuit of pleasure. He filled his castles with treasures, books, animals and from time to time he took young lovers.

The prince passionately collected relics of saints and hoped for the redemption of his soul after death. By commissioning “Books of Hours” and by generous donations to religious institutions, he aimed for the same goal. When, for example, he gave the Chartreuse monastery in Paris (la Chartreuse de Paris) a precious reliquary, decorated with the image of Salome, daughter of Herodias, presenting the head of John the Baptist, “for the redemption and salvation of his soul,” he set a condition for the monks: when he stayed in Paris, they would have to lend him the reliquary “for the sake of piety and pleasure.”

In the crypt of the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne in Bourges, where he is buried, at the feet of his recumbent statue, a sleeping bear, its muzzle drawn. This is the statue of one of the bears he raised and cared for in his zoo. The bear's name was Valentin. Its peaceful, melancholic expression is surprisingly reminiscent of its owner's. The Duke of Berry's fondness for bears dates back to his youth.

The burial site of the Duke of Berry in the Cathedral of Saint-Étienne in Bourges. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

At the age of 16, the prince agreed to replace his father, King John II of France, who had been captured during the Hundred Years' War, and spent four years as a hostage in Edward III's palace in London. His days of captivity with other French princes were not traumatic, and all he was required to do was return to the palace in the evening.

From this the prince cut out his unusual symbol, bearIn English, the word "bear" means "bear". bar She was named after his beloved duchess, Berry. clearAnd the English verb to bear, to carry, also appears in the prince's motto: bearing in the sense of lifting and holding, bearing in the sense of endurance. Bear up and distribute what is due, bear your sufferings and endure everything bravely throughout your lives.

The Duke of Berry's devotion to the bear grew over the years. From 1400 onwards he wore a bear-hair cap and even more so, his face became rounder and more prominent, his ears became more erect, his eyes became smaller and closer together, until, in the end, he resembled his totem animal. The resemblance is particularly striking in three illustrations by the Limbourg brothers in the Book of Hours.

When it comes to the Duke of Berry, one always returns to the “Book of Hours.” Ultimately, the Duke of Berry will not be remembered as a ruler or a warrior, but rather as a patron of the arts who used his fortune to commission seventeen illuminated manuscripts that would, if he had known, grace the great museums of the world, Paris, Brussels, New York, Los Angeles, Turin, and most famous of all, the Château de Chantilly.

Because the prince always wanted the best, the most beautiful, the most impressive, the most modern, the most avant-garde. The chemist, who transmitted the illustrations with X-rays, was amazed to see their composition. The bright yellow color contains real gold, wherever it appears. Gold was very important in the Middle Ages, as was the color. And the azure stone, lapis lazuli, from which the intense and deep blue color, the pigment ultramarine, was produced, was brought from Pakistan and was more expensive than gold. The prince invested in the “Book of Hours” an entire annual allowance that he received from the king! This is the meaning of the name “The Very Rich Book of Hours”.

Who did the prince, who wanted the best, choose to create the masterpiece? Three Dutch brothers, genius illustrators.

The Limbor Brothers, a Revolution in Art History

The three Limbourg brothers, Armand, Paul and Jean, were residents of Nijmegen, the largest city in the province of Gelderland in the eastern Netherlands, and were born there at the end of the 14th century. Look at the illustration for January, the figure in green clothes with a red bonnet on his head, and the two figures next to him, one partially hidden and the other above, are most likely representations of the Limbourg brothers who made a self-portrait here. Artists at that time wore such red bonnets.

Two historians, who converted the Limbor brothers' house in Nijmegen into a museum, point to more illustrations, יוני, יולי, August, in which figures are seen bare-chested or completely naked. The young and ambitious brothers wanted to cause a sensation, to leave a mark. At that time, only Adam, Eve, and Jesus were depicted naked, so the daring brothers broke an ingrained convention.

The Limbor brothers' parents were both artists, diligent and precise: the father was a wooden sculptor and the mother painted knightly shields. The financial situation was good and a whole house, with a spacious studio, was at their disposal. From their parents, the brothers learned sculpture, embroidery, goldsmithing and other arts. When they arrived, young, in Paris to study illustration, they were already skilled artists. They acquired the secrets of mastering the preparation of goatskin for parchment pages, the drawing of the illustration, the preparation of the colors, and their application to the page without difficulty.

Paris was the most populous city at that time and France was ruled by a mad king, Charles VI. His two uncles, the Duke of Berry and the Duke of Burgundy, competed among themselves for the favor of the Limbor brothers. The Duke of Berry won the prize and rewarded the brothers with money and prestige. His favorite was the middle and most talented brother, Paul, to whom he gave for the New Year of 1408 not only a gold ring set with an emerald in the shape of a bear but also Reya, an eight-year-old girl whom he had kidnapped and imprisoned inEtamp Castle (Le château d'Étampes), which appears in the background of the August illustration. The girl's mother obtained her release in court, but the marriage was eventually arranged when she reached the age of 12. For four years, the brothers performed "The Beautiful Hours of the Duke of Berry" (Les Belles Heures du duc de Berry).

The prince was mesmerized. The Limbor brothers' illustrations so fascinated him that he asked them to create a work that would surpass anything that had been done before. A biography or autobiography of the prince, a complete book that would summarize his presence on earth before he departed from it. All means were made available for this purpose.

Seventeen of the prince's castles are represented in the book, the most notable of which is the Château de Mehun sur Yèvre, In the Duchy of Berry (at the time), it stands tall, towering, and dizzying. The Duke of Berry transformed it into a magnificent Gothic-style castle, home to his art collections. The castle included a caldarium, a park for excursions, and an exotic zoo where, in addition to bears and swans, camels, donkeys, and ostriches received dedicated care from a multitude of caretakers.

After the Duke of Berry came the turn of King Charles VII who loved to stay in this castle, received Joan of Arc there in 1429 and ended his life there in 1461. The castle was destroyed during the Revolution but its remains still testify to its legendary charm. The Tower of Courage was restored at the end of the 19th century to provide accommodation forCharles VII Museum And it is highly recommended to visit it to soak up the medieval atmosphere.

The Duke of Berry provided the Limbor brothers with a spacious studio, adjacent to the comfortable castle. In the illustration, which illustrates the scene The Temptation of Jesus, we see the castle with its lace decorations, before the revolutionaries destroyed it.

The Very Rich Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry, The Temptation of Jesus. Source: Wikimedia, Public Domain

Starting in 1411, the brothers worked tirelessly on the manuscript until, in 1416, the plague killed all three of them, one after the other, within a few months. And the prince, too, in the same year. Three young men and one adult who were harvested, united around a masterpiece.

The Limbourg brothers, in their thirties, disappeared at the height of their fame and talent, and the world has probably lost many more masterpieces that they could have created but for the plague. The last evidence of their genius is found in the last “Book of Hours” of the Duke of Berry, which remained closed, hidden, forgotten, for centuries.

It took six hundred years for science to reveal to us the secrets of the legacy left by the three brothers. For the first time in the history of French art, a winter landscape was painted – the illustration of the peasant farm in the snow that we saw in February.

For the first time, a night scene is depicted – an illustration of the arrest of Jesus, described in chapter 18 of the Gospel of John. Jesus on the Mount of Olives, accompanied by Saint Pierre, with only a few lights flickering. The Roman soldiers who came to arrest him are lying on the ground, three of them still holding discarded torches, dying. But the central light radiates from Jesus’ halo, from which three triumphant beams of light emanate, arrows towards the sky, dotted with many round stars and two linear flashes of light.

The symbolism of the number three – the Holy Trinity and perhaps also an allusion to the three brothers, who in life and in death were never separated.

The Very Rich Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry, The Arrest of Jesus. Source: Wikimedia, Public Domain

The tiny details in the representation of everyday life, the posture of the figures, their facial expressions, exposed body parts, a castle during a storm – all the details examined with the naked eye and those discovered in instrumental analyses lead experts to conclude that the Limbor brothers revolutionized the history of art.

The scientists were all excited when they discovered one detail or another because it seemed to them that the Limbor brothers had come back to life and were creating and painting, here, in their vicinity, revealing the secrets of their creation. Modern technique went back in time to bring a sense of intimacy with the three brothers, the inventors of realism, who went beyond painting religious scenes and expressed life as a whole with all their actors, nobles, bishops, bourgeois, hunters, knights, peasants, shepherds, fishermen, servants.

The Limbor brothers revolutionized the history of art by setting the stage for the movement of realism. They were followed by the best Dutch artists whose works are exhibited in the Rijksmuseum, the national art museum in Amsterdam, the equivalent of the Louvre in Paris. Two hundred years after the January illustration, Bartholomeus van der Helst painted “The Civil Guard banquet at the celebration of the Münster Peace Treaty“, a group portrait, 1648, one of the first ever executed, in a similar atmosphere. The rendering of the reflections, the clothes, the facial expressions – the delicate hand of the Dutch painter is reminiscent of that of the Limbor brothers and creates the same direct contact between the painted members of the group and us, the viewers, despite the time gap. And let us not forget, in this context, that two hundred years separate Van der Helst and the Limbor brothers. What a legacy they left even though their paintings do not hang on walls!

At the Rijksmuseum, we see more works belonging to the Nordic Realism movement that was born with the Limbor brothers, who did not only paint religious scenes but also reproduced what they saw around them, the landscape, the people, life. Rembrandt, Johannes Vermeer, and Van Gogh, whose brushstrokes are reminiscent of those of the illustrators, all of these great painters are the sons of the Limbor brothers, who were pioneers in the history of art. Before and after, the Limbor brothers are a pivot. Their works, moreover, are always in motion, never boring. The illustrations of the past are the paintings projected onto the walls, floor, and ceiling today. We and our contemporaries are grateful to the Limbor brothers for the intimacy they created between the figures, landscapes, and objects on the parchment and those who look at them. This is how today's viewers feel in the light and sound shows that surround them as the works of art come to life in immersive animation.

The “Book of Hours” was completed seventy years after the brothers’ deaths. Other illustrators replaced each other, throughout the 15th century, to complete the manuscript, such as Barthélémy d’Eyck, court painter to King René, around 1440 for the royal family and Jean Colombe, of Bourges, around 1485 for Charles I of Savoy. We speak of a “cathedral book,” like a medieval church whose construction took decades, so too did this book, which passed through the hands of various artists over seventy years. But despite the intersection of multiple influences – Flemish, French, Italian, Oriental and ancient, it retained the spirit of the original architects and did not lose its unity.

Can we speak of the book as the work of the Limbor brothers? To answer this question, another technique will come to the aid of the researchers. Infrared radiation will penetrate the pigment and reveal the black outline, hidden under the paint, of each illustration. Did the brothers have time to prepare the preliminary sketches of the illustrations before they were caught?

The radiologist's answer is yes. The Limbor brothers prepared a large number of detailed sketches that were used by their successors. The structure of the book is theirs and most of the illustrations are theirs.

The book as a source of information for learning about the Middle Ages

The revolutionary realism of the Limbor brothers not only shook up art but also documented the Middle Ages, which, before them, were poor in visual representations. Digging into the details of their illustrations offers a gold mine of information for historians of the Middle Ages, about architecture, daily life, clothing and accessories, agriculture, tools and work and pack animals, vines, the harvest and consumption of wine, plowing, harvesting and gathering, the division of labor between men and women in the field, the pasture, the table and the kitchen, and what not.

However, it should be noted that the reality of the medieval rural world is not fully represented in the idyllic illustrations of the manuscript, far from it. Everything is done to salute the prosperity that the Duke of Berry claimed to have brought. The carefully tilled lands, the leisurely strolls along the banks of the Seine, the peasants busy making hay or sheep fattening, all appear peaceful. The impression created that peace reigns in the kingdom and its subjects are happy is completely mistaken.

There is no mention of atrocities. The civil war between supporters of the House of Armagnac and supporters of the House of Bourguignon, to the terror inflicted by highwaymen, who were mostly unemployed mercenaries, to the economic and demographic difficulties, to the chroniclers' testimonies describing children starving on piles of garbage. The women of the people did not wear bright blue dresses and the peasant women worked in simple and modest clothes. The agents sent by the Duke of Berry to collect taxes from his serfs aroused great indignation. One of them was tortured and executed by burning without the prince lifting a finger for him.

The Duke of Berry presents himself and his reign in the way he wanted, as well as his interest in astronomy. The manuscript opens a window into The level of information in astronomy and astrology in the Middle Ages and the beliefs associated with it that were prevalent at that time. The reference to this branch of science, which is applied here for the first time as an accompaniment to the “Book of Hours,” is outstanding in a precision never seen before.

An astrological calendar is added to the Christian calendar, without any contradiction between them. In the Middle Ages, every nobleman had his own court astrologer who drew him a detailed horoscope and gave him advice on which day to do what, bloodletting, for example, according to the cycle of the stars. Above the illustrations of the months appears a semicircle, divided into seven parts, and these contain various astronomical data. The zodiac signs corresponding to each month are illustrated in the fifth part on a blue background. In the heart of the semicircle, on the same blue background, is depicted the sun god Apollo in his chariot. The painting is based on a Byzantine medal from the collection of the Duke of Berry, which shows the Emperor Heraclius in a similar chariot.

At the end of the board appears an illustration The astronomical-anatomical man The famous one, whose originality lies in its double presentation. The fair-haired young man, facing the viewer, is doubled by a dark-haired twin, from the back, who places his arms differently. On the body of the first young man are depicted the zodiac signs, each body part and its sign, from the ox above the head to the fish below the feet, an expression of the reflection of the macrocosm in the microcosm.

The two young men, as beautiful as Greek gods, are inside an almond-shaped circle. Twelve similar, smaller circles, with the zodiac signs inside them, surround the large circle inside which is the rare pair, appearing for the first time. Like a cathedral between heaven and earth where science and esotericism meet, where the infinity of the sky takes on flesh. Several explanations have been put forward for the double illustration, which, despite all attempts, retains its mystery.

The references to astronomy are intended, however, like the entire book, to glorify God, the guide of time according to the zodiac signs at the head of each illustration of a month, the creator of man in whose body they are assimilated as an expression of the full acceptance of the rule of the Lord of the world. And not only that. Two illustrations in the book, both dark and similar to each other, tie astronomical phenomena closely to the story of two central theological events in Christianity. The first illustration, which we saw above, depicts the arrest of Jesus and shows two comet trails, which medieval astrologers saw as a sign of the death of a prince, a great man.

The second illustration depicts the The death of Jesus During a solar eclipse. The dark figure, in cold gray, shines only with a halo above the head of Jesus. The Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Lucas describe the so-called “darkness of the crucifixion,” which lasted three hours. In addition to reading the sources, the Limbourg brothers added their personal experience after observing a total solar eclipse in Paris on June 6, 1406.

The Limbourg brothers also painted a spectacle in front of real-life fortresses and castles, something that had never been done before, and thus for the first time the most important monuments of France are presented. You have already seen this Mont Saint MichelAnd you? The Louvre We all know the appearance of a Renaissance palace, have you ever seen it as a medieval fortress? Notre Dame Cathedral, have you seen it with its original spire before it disappeared in the 18th century and was rebuilt by Eugène Viola Le Duc? Click on each link and enlarge, if necessary. Notre Dame appears in small size, on the left side of the illustration dedicated to the meeting of the three Magi.

Portraits of monuments that exist but have undergone changes are presented, as mentioned, in their medieval appearance. We can add to them the Saumur Castle, known to the general public thanks to Walt Disney, who designed Sleeping Beauty's castle for her. To the portraits of existing monuments, one can add those that no longer exist. Lusignan Castle, for example, was destroyed but its memory is preserved in the illustration.

The Limbourg brothers opened a window onto medieval Paris, Notre Dame, the Louvre, we saw, and it is interesting to add another huge historical monument depicted in the June illustration, “Le Palais de la Cité,” literally: “The City Palace.” This is the only painting of this palace, its only visual evidence. And the palace was the seat of royalty throughout the Middle Ages! The site has almost completely disappeared, only a few remains remain, Sainte-Chapelle and the Conciergerie.

The courthouse built on it in the 19th and 20th centuries has swallowed its original foundations while preserving them with new coverings. The courthouse's move, in 2020, from its historic site to the 17th arrondissement allowed the removal of later stone additions, walls and paving, layer by layer, thus revealing the palace's largest hall, the largest in Europe, to the excitement of archaeologists. A historic discovery! Who would have thought that the 14th-century French royal seat, which had disappeared, would be revealed to the eyes?

Did the Tower of Courage, clearly visible in the Limbor brothers' illustration, really tower over the "City Palace" in the Middle Ages? Did it exist? Archaeologist Priscillia Debouige went underground, examined the shaft that was opened to a depth of 12 meters during the evacuation work, as well as part of a partition of the tower's foundation, and, based on these two pieces of data, the shaft and the partition, carried out a three-dimensional reconstruction of the tower. The reconstruction matches the illustration, the same proportions, there is no doubt, the Limbor brothers' drawing is reliable!

The Very Rich Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry, June. Source: Wikimedia, in the public domain

Science serves art, as we saw at the beginning of the article, and art in turn serves science. The architect in charge of the restoration of the Palais de la Cité confirms that the Limbourg brothers' drawings, all in the correct proportions, are the first graphic representations of the monuments of Paris and France. Buildings that exist but have been altered beyond recognition, buildings that have been destroyed and no longer exist or have left ruins, thanks to the Limbourg brothers' drawings, we now know what they looked like then. Moreover, these are the only architectural plans available for the restoration of medieval buildings.

Duke of Dummel after Duke of Berry

The manuscript was supposed to pass into the possession of the prince's nephew, the heir to the throne Charles VII, but he was busy with the Hundred Years' War. Paris would soon fall to the English and the manuscript disappeared. After saving his crown with the help of Joan of Arc, Charles VII regained the manuscript in 1436. The book was lost again. It is known that it came to the Duchy of Savoy, most likely through the hands of Duchess Yolande of France, daughter of Charles VII and wife of Amadeus IX, Duke of Savoy. It is known that it came to Flanders in 1504, in the care of Marguerite of Austria, daughter of Maximilian I, who, after losing her husband, Philibert II, Duke of Savoy, left for Mechelen, a city (in present-day Holland) where she established a lively court around herself and patronized many artists. In her courtyard, the “Book of Hours” was bound in black velvet with a silver clasp. But from the 16th to the 18th centuries, its traces were lost. It apparently passed from hand to hand until it landed in Genoa.

The invention of printing made it common and no one was interested in it again until 1856, three hundred years after its disappearance, when it was rescued by Henri of Orléans, Duke of Aumale (1822-1897, le duc d'Aumale), owner of the Château de Chantilly. The Duke of Aumale entertained nobles and celebrities until his last day. Empress Sisi, Alexandre Dumas, Pierre Loti, all flocked to the château to view the attraction, “The Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry”.

In 1830 Louis Philippe ascended the throne. Henri, his fifth son, the future Duke of Dummel, was still a child, tossed about in the instability of the 19th century, twice exiled. When he was eight, his godfather, Prince Conde, depending on Henri inherited all his vast property, properties, the Château de Chantilly which was largely destroyed in the Revolution, the Bourbon Palace (the future National Assembly), but also collections, including volumes of the Duke of Berry. Henri spent his childhood among books and thus discovered his vocation as a patron of culture and art, like the Duke of Berry.

The Revolution of 1848 drove young Henri's family from the throne and forced him into exile in England. During his 23 years in London, he never stopped acquiring books, manuscripts, drawings, pictures, and art objects. He never stopped enriching his collection, even while in exile.

The Duke of Dummel discovered the fate of the Duke of Berry in exile and saw him as a model for identification. Both were sons of a king, both exiled to London, both were wealthy heirs, both renovated a castle to glory, both would end their lives childless (the Duke of Berry had seven children, of whom five sons died before him and two daughters remained).; The Duke of Daumelas' two sons also died before him.) The Duke of Berry was one of the last princes of the Middle Ages, the Duke of Daumelas was one of the last princes in the history of France. Both belonged to their time, both bought their fame thanks to their burning passion for art and book collections.

In 1856, the paths of the Duke of Berry and the Duke of Dummel crossed. The director of the British Museum's library, the Italian Antonio Panizzi, heard of an unknown French manuscript being offered for sale at a girls' boarding school in the Villa Durazzo-Pallavicini, in the Peli neighborhood (Pegli), west of Genoa and informed the Duke of Dommel. He had a feel for the place, leafed through the pages of the book, recognized the Louvre, the Château de Vincennes, the Sainte-Chapelle, recognized the commissioner of the work and its owner, the Duke of Berry, whose coat of arms and portrait were imprinted at the beginning. The Duke of Dommel realized that the manuscript came from the Duke of Berry's collection and offered a price. His rival was Baron Adolphe de Rothschild, who also coveted the book, but the Duke of Dommel beat him out at a price of 18 francs, more than 30 euros. A huge sum at the time, but he knew that the investment was worthwhile. The value of the journal today is much greater.

The Duke of Dumalé left Genoa for London with the latest acquisition that enriched his collection. After the fall of Napoleon III, the Duke of Dumalé returned to his country with the manuscript in his bag and settled in the Château de Chantilly, which he renovated, as a nod to the Duke of Berry. The Duke of Berry’s journal returned to reside in the Château de Haya Lou, which seemed to have come out of his “Book of Hours” to glorify reality.

Three eras came together after the book's restoration: the late Middle Ages that gave birth to it, the 19th century that discovered it, and our time, which has put the achievements of science at the service of preserving the one-of-a-kind manuscript in the world, the crown jewel of the Duke of Dummel's collection. Cross-border fame has given it its value as an icon that shaped, shapes, and will shape a poetic and idyllic image of the Middle Ages in the collective imagination.

Every spring, during the festival in the capital of the Duke of Berry, Bourges, the illustrations of the “Very Rich Book of Hours” are projected onto the walls of its halls, an opportunity to view them in a giant version and be absorbed in their stories. After the exhibition at the Château de Chantilly ended on October 5, 2025, where the manuscript was unusually displayed, it was encrypted again in its safe hiding place. Hidden from view, it will not be rediscovered soon, perhaps never, but its reproductions are everywhere, on the Internet and in books, available for viewing and study. Today’s children, and older ones, all of us, are the heirs of the Limbourg brothers!

Comments

-Private visit to the exhibition “The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry”, guided by the director of the Conde Museum, located in the Château de Chantilly

-Flip through a book, In this link

-The article is based primarily on the documentary, Le trésor caché du Moyen-Âge, which was screened on Channel 5 and France.tv on September 18, 2025.

Le trésor caché du Moyen-Âge

Jeudi 18 septembre à 21.05 sur France 5 et sur france.tv

Format 90 unedited minutes• Author-Director Stéphane Jacques • Pproduced by Sally Blake • Production CAPA PRESS • With the participation of France Télévisions, Du Center National du cinéma et de l'image animée et HISTORY TV • 2025