Le Livre des tournois

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(Redirected from
King René's Tournament Book
)
Bibliothèque Nationale de France
.

Le Livre des tournois (Traicte de la Forme de Devis d'un Tournoi) or King René's Tournament Book is a treatise describing rules for

Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris (MS Fr. 2695) with illustrations, or at least the drawings before colouring, attributed to Barthélemy d'Eyck
.

The description given in the book is different from that of the pas d'armes held at Razilly and Saumur; conspicuously absent are the allegorical and chivalresque ornamentations that were in vogue at the time. René instead emphasizes he is reporting on ancient tournament customs of France, Germany and the Low Countries, combining them in a new suggestion on how to hold a tournament. The tournament described is a

melee fought by two sides. Individual jousts
are only briefly mentioned.

In the original BnF manuscript van Eyck did the line drawings, possibly intended as preparatory only, which were later coloured either by him or by another artist. There are twenty-six full and double page illustrations. The BNF also has three illuminated copies of the manuscript made shortly after the original, MS Fr. 2692 is dated to 1488/9, Fr. 2693 to 1480–1488, and Fr. 2696 to c. 1483, plus one early modern copy, Fr. 2694 (17th century).

Formerly, the MS Fr. 2695 manuscript was regarded as directly inspired by a series of tournaments held at the Anjou court at

Jean II of Bourbon
in 1457. Finally, the paper itself was dated to the 1450s. According to Gautier (2009), the manuscript would have been redacted during 1462–69, when René was at Angers. It was most likely complete before 1471, as an inventory of Angers castle in 1471/2 mentions a cayez de papier en grant volume, ouquel est le commencement d'un tournoy, which has been identified with this manuscript.[1] The manuscript later came into possession of
Marie of Luxembourg (d. 1546) and later again of Louis Nicolas Fouquet (d. 1705), then passing to Louis François de Bourbon-Conti and finally to Louis-César de La Baume Le Blanc de La Vallière who in 1766 sold it to the royal library of Louis XV
(which became the BNF after 1789).

Further reading

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Traicte de la Forme de Devis d'un Tournoi.
French Wikisource has original text related to this article:

References

  1. ISBN 978-2-7427-8611-4
    ), pp. 276-283.

External links
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