La Vierge à l’Enfant, réceptrice du livre dans les manuscrits méridionaux (XIIIe-XIVe siècle)

Abstract

The Virgin and Child as recipients of books in the southern French manuscripts (XIIIth-XIVth centuries). In the illuminated manuscripts of southern France, the Virgin and Child are sometimes represented as the recipients of books. This kind of illumination expresses the devotion and gratitude of the donor, in particular but not only, those of Cardinal Anglic Grimoard, represented in prayers in the Terrier that he commissioned after 1366. In another context than that of the pontifical court, the Virgin and Child appear as the recipients of the customs of the town. One of the little Thalami from Montpellier, still preserved to the present day, opens with an historical letter in which feature the Virgin and Child, Mary and Jesus, installed in a small shrine reminiscent of the church of Notre Dame des Tables at Montpellier, receiving the book from five dignitaries of the town, painted in the upper margin of the page. The image, here very contextualised, expresses a collective devotion, that of the urban community acting as a corporation. In other southern French manuscripts, such as those of the Customs of Agen, or the Te igitur from Cahors, the Virgin and Child appear yet again, however without receiving the book. The image thus reveals the necessity of its presence at the time of the oath-taking which bind the urban community. In other contexts, namely that of poetic competition, the Virgin receives an allegory of a book. As both inspirer and protector, she is at the origin of all creation. Thus, in various different contexts, the representation of the Virgin and Child as recipients of the book reveals a devotion which is as much private as collective. Often she appears as the obligatory reference point.