Renaud de Bar and Jeanne de Toucy
Owners
Renaud de Bar, who served as canon at the Cathedral of Verdun and provost of St Mary Magdalene before becoming bishop of Metz in 1303, was a prominent member of the Lorraine nobility.
He was the son of Thibaut II, Count of Bar, and Jeanne de Châtillon-Toucy. His arms (azure two barbels addorsed crusily fitchy or) emblazoned on several folios, were overpainted by a later owner (e.g. fol. 1r). His mother’s arms of Chatillon-Toucy (gules three pales vair, in chief or four martlets gules) also occur in the manuscript (e.g. the initials D on fols. 4v and 40v). The initials on fols. 8v and 74v, which include fish motifs, possibly allude to the pair of barbels (carp-like fish) in the Bar family arms. The arms of Bar and Châtillon-Toucy are intact in the Prague part of the Pontifical (National Library of the Czech Republic, MS XXIII.C.120).
Historiated initial F with bishop, and initial D with the arms of Chatillon-Toucy (Office for the Dedication of a Church)
The effaced arms (gules three pales vair, in chief or four martlets gules) belong to Renaud de Bar’s mother, Jeanne de Toucy. The partial bar border is decorated with foliate motifs. A mermaid clutching a pair of fish, which resemble the barbels (carp-like fish) on the Bar coat of arms, is depicted in the bas-de-page. She is shown beside a male monster, known as a sciopod, who shades himself with his gigantic foot.