Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy
Owners
Philip the Good inherited the manuscript in 1419 after the death of his father, John the Fearless. He paid his valet de chambre and illuminator Dreux Jean 10 livres and 16 sous for numerous textual and pictorial additions made from c. 1445 onwards and for the rebinding of the manuscript in two volumes in 1451. The miniature on fol. 253v includes the arms and portrait of Philip the Good, who is shown wearing the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece which he founded in 1430. The images painted by Dreux Jean on fols. 238v and 256r feature Philip’s devices: the double ‘e’ monogram and the golden fusils and flints of the Order of the Golden Fleece.
Philip the Good witnessing the Mass of St Gregory (suffrage to St Gregory)
This 15th-century miniature was painted by the Master of Wauquelin's Alexander, an artist active in Bruges c. 1440-1460, on a separate piece of parchment which was then pasted onto the page. Kneeling on a carpet woven with the arms of Burgundy, Philip the Good wears the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece which he founded in 1430. He witnesses the vision of Christ that St Gregory received while celebrating Mass. Surrounded by the Instruments of his Passion, Christ appears above a retable depicting the Crucifixion with St Agnes, St Peter and the Virgin on the left (the liturgical right), and Saints John, Paul and Catherine on the right.