Sin and Redemption in the Hours of François I (1539–40) by the Master of François de Rohan

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Previous articleNext article FreeSin and Redemption in the Hours of François I (1539–40) by the Master of François de RohanYassana Croizat-GlazerYassana Croizat-GlazerAssistant Curator, Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreIn 2011, the Department of European Sculpture and Decorative Arts acquired a lavish book of hours made for the use of Rome for King François I (1494–1547). Of the manuscript’s ninety-three leaves, eighteen feature full-page miniatures by the Master of François de Rohan, who was active mainly in Paris between about 1525 and 1546. The humanistic script (an imitation of Roman script) is likely the work of Jean Mallard, a calligrapher and illuminator from Rouen who enjoyed royal patronage first in France, then in England.1 In light of the fact that virtually nothing remains of François I’s collection of personal prayer books, the Hours of François I constitutes a key addition to the Museum’s collection of works from the French Renaissance.2 The manuscript itself is remarkable for its sumptuous decoration and the unusual imagery of two illuminations, folios 67r and 89r (Figures 1, 2), which together raise important questions about François I’s attitude toward kingship and the struggles he faced in the tumultuous period during which the book was made.1. Master of François de Rohan (Paris, active ca. 1525–46). Bathsheba at Her Bath and King David in Penitence (fol. 67r). Hours of François I, 1539–40. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, eighteenth-century leather binding with gilt, overall bound dimensions: 8⅛ × 5¾ × 1½ in. (20.8 × 14.6 × 3.8 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Purchase, several members of The Chairman’s Council Gifts and 2011 Benefit Fund, 2011 (2011.353). Photograph: Katherine Dehab, The Photograph Studio, MMA2. Master of François de Rohan. Portrait of François I with Saint Marcouf (fol. 89r). Hours of François I, 1539–40The History of the Hours of François IAs part of his mission to enhance his kingdom’s cultural prestige and to satisfy his own intellectual curiosity, François I sought to establish new libraries as well as to expand the existing Royal Library.3 He also acquired manuscripts and printed books for his personal collection.4 Treasured as devotional aids and luxurious objects, illuminated books of hours had been avidly collected by the nobility since the mid-thirteenth century and remained an important component of any princely library. Little is known of François I’s personal devotional books, and the circumstances surrounding the creation of the Hours of François I remain unclear. Since it did not include François I’s personal books, the inventory of the Royal Library taken at the time of its transfer from Blois to Fontainebleau in 1544 is of little help in determining whether the manuscript was ever in the king’s possession.The fact that it depicts François and contains intercessory prayers found only in French royal manuscripts leaves no doubt as to the identity of the manuscript’s intended recipient. Moreover, the highly personal nature of some of the book’s imagery strongly suggests that it was commissioned by the king himself. The Hours of François I has recently been linked to a 1538 payment record that would confirm the theory of a royal commission and the attribution of the script to Jean Mallard.5 The document states that forty-five livres were paid from the king’s account to Mallard for copying a book of hours that was presented to François I so that he could have it illuminated.6 The king would then have entrusted this task to the Master of François de Rohan no later than 1539, the year appearing in four of the miniatures’ frames (a fifth bears a date of 1540).7 The historical record, while slim, suggests an alternate theory for the manuscript’s early history. Two later inscriptions, one pasted on the interior of the eighteenth-century leather binding and the other on the first back flyleaf, indicate that the book—mistakenly identified as a missal—belonged to Henri d’Albret, king of Navarre (r. 1518–55), François I’s brother-in-law.8 The first pastedown may once have been present on the original binding, while the second may record an earlier inscription.9 These notations raise the possibility that François gave the book to his sister, Marguerite de Navarre (1492–1549), so that she could have it illuminated and that it subsequently remained in her possession or was reacquired by her at a later date.10 Marguerite herself is known to have employed the Master of François de Rohan, who illuminated a manuscript of her poem La Coche (1542).11The book’s later history is far more secure. In the eighteenth century, it entered the collection of the antiquarian John Ives Jr. (1751–1776). The manuscript was subsequently acquired by the great-grandson of King Charles II (r. 1660–85) and his mistress Nell Gwyn, Topham Beauclerk (1739–1780), who purchased it at the sale of Ives’s library by Baker and Leigh, at Covent Garden, on March 3–6, 1777.12 On Beauclerk’s death, the book was sold at auction on June 6, 1781, and is next recorded in the nineteenth century as being in the possession of the great-great-grandfather of Colonel C. C. C. Farran, who placed it on deposit at the British Library in 1966.13 The manuscript remained there as loan MS 58 until it was sold to H. P. Kraus through Christie’s, London, on June 24, 1987.14 After spending twenty-three years in a private American collection, the book once again appeared on the market, where it was acquired by Les Enluminures and later purchased by the Museum.15A Book of Hours Fit For a KingThe manuscript was first published in 1967 by Janet Backhouse, who referred to the anonymous artist as the Master of François I.16 François Avril, Conservateur général honoraire of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, later renamed him after miniatures from the Fleur de Vertu (Figure 3), which was translated by the archbishop of Lyons, François de Rohan.17 In her definitive 1998 study on the artist, Myra Orth attributed eighteen manuscripts and four printed books to the master as well as his sizable workshop and speculated that many more works had yet to be identifed.18 In the artist’s preference for sturdy figures, outlandish costumes, and cramped, crowded spaces, Orth recognized the influence of printed books from Germany and especially Basel, which led her to suggest that the master may have originated in those parts.3. Master of François de Rohan. Title page with a portrait of François de Rohan (fol. 1). Fleur de Vertu, 1530. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, 8½ × 6 in. (21.7 × 15.2 cm). Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS fr. 1877.The boisterous energy and rusticity that define the Master of François de Rohan’s style are indeed atypical of contemporary Parisian manuscripts, in which a more subdued elegance tends to prevail. The master was especially fond of weighty, highly ornamented architectural frames—another characteristic that points to a possible Germanic origin.19 The Museum’s manuscript contains ten opulent examples with lively Renaissance details and copious use of shell gold. Swirling forms of dolphins and arabesques abound, as do playful putti with buoyant bodies and architectural components painted to imitate stones such as colored marble and lapis lazuli.In addition to delighting the eye, the frames include details that enrich the significance of the scenes they border. References to the Passion appear in the fanciful architecture surrounding the Annunciation to the Shepherds (Figure 4), so that the reader’s contemplation of this joyous event would have been tempered by the remembrance of Christ’s future suffering. With its shaft in the form of twisting branches, the column on the left calls to mind the Crown of Thorns, while the colorful one on the right, adorned with the head of a ram (a pagan image and symbol of sacrifice), evokes the column used in Christ’s flagellation. The theme of sacrifice extends to the frieze of golden sheep resting on the cornice at the top. The relationship between border and central scene reaches a new level of interactivity in folio 55r (Figure 5), which depicts the Flight into Egypt and related apocryphal stories, such as that of the pagan statue toppling from its base in response to the Christ child’s appearance. A detail in the frame’s right pier further underscores the power of Jesus’s presence: a gilded putto responds to him by kneeling and clasping his hands in prayer.4. Master of François de Rohan. Annunciation to the Shepherds (fol. 42r). Hours of François I, 1539–405. Master of François de Rohan. Flight into Egypt (fol. 55r). Hours of François I, 1539–40Instead of an architectural frame, folio 5r, which shows Saint John the Evangelist writing his Gospel on Patmos (Figure 6), features a candelabra border populated with fantastic half-horse figures, putti supporting platters of fruit, and other playful grotesques.20 The remainder of the book contains floral borders, a convention of Flemish origin favored by Jean Bourdichon (1457–1521) and his French followers but rarely used by the master. The scatter border of folio 7r (Figure 7) contains the manuscript’s greatest variety and concentration of vegetation. The flowers and plants depicted serve both decorative and symbolic functions, such as the roses and columbines that represent the Virgin’s flawlessness and sorrow, respectively, along with the strawberry plant that refers to her perfection and purity.21 These floral elements relate closely to the manuscript’s only historiated initial: an Annunciation scene in which the Virgin is separated from Gabriel by an “I” that has been transformed into a decorated column.226. Master of François de Rohan. Saint John the Evangelist on the Island of Patmos (fol. 5r). Hours of François I, 1539–407. Master of François de Rohan. Saint Luke Writing his Gospel (fol. 7r). Hours of François I, 1539–40The Hours of François I reveal the Master of François de Rohan’s penchant for stout figures with gentle expressions and almond-shaped eyes that droop slightly. They inhabit either verdant landscapes in which atmospheric perspective is used heavily or stylish interiors with luxurious trappings, such as Saint Luke’s elaborately carved chair (Figure 7) or the Annunciation scene’s checkered marble floor (Figure 8). For the master, conveying a sense of intimacy and comfort clearly took precedence over achieving spatial clarity. This propensity is especially apparent in the marvelously claustrophobic interior depicted in folio 11r (Figure 9), where the window is tilted at an odd angle and objects have an uneasy relationship to one another. More dramatic scenes, like the Annunciation to the Shepherds (Figure 4), showcase the master’s preference for communicating excitement by using figures that perform jerky, almost puppetlike movements—a tendency that also surfaces in his woodcuts (Figure 10).23 Color, too, imparts tension. Instead of the cool palette favored by Parisian illuminators, the Master of François de Rohan relied on warm earth tones, often juxtaposing discordant shades to convey an emotionally charged atmosphere.24 Such is the case in the crucifixion scene, where the sky ranges disconcertingly from pale ocher to ink blue, or in the Coronation of the Virgin (Figure 11), in which the heavens glow with rainbow colors in celebration of her triumph. Throughout the manuscript, highlights are achieved by means of thin, agitated lines that trace contours or are arranged in weblike patterns with varying degrees of concentration (Figure 12).8. Master of François de Rohan. Annunciation (fol. 21r). Hours of François I, 1539–409. Master of François de Rohan. Saint Mark Reading his Gospel (fol. 11r). Hours of François I, 1539–4010. Master of François de Rohan. Adoration of the Magi (fol. AIV). Biblia picturis illustrata, 1540. woodcut, 2½ × 1¾ in. (6.5 × 4.5 cm). Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and Humanities, Los Angeles (86-B26751)11. Master of François de Rohan. Coronation of the Virgin (fol. 61r). Hours of François I, 1539–4012. Detail of Figure 7As was typical for private devotional books, the Hours of François I was customized to reflect the identity of its prestigious owner.25 The Annunciation’s border comprises a shield with the French royal arms (three gold fleurs-de-lis before an azure background) (Figure 8).26 Another fleur-de-lis appears in the frame surrounding the Adoration of the Magi (Figure 13), as does a salamander, François’s emblem. The caryatids are faintly evocative of the stucco nudes from the Galerie François I at the king’s favorite château, Fontainebleau.27 The manuscript also contains two highly personal illuminations, which respectively show François in the guise of David (Figure 1) and as himself kneeling before Saint Marcouf (Figure 2).13. Master of François de Rohan. Adoration of the Magi (fol. 47r). Hours of François I, 1539–40David Spying and David Repenting: An Unusual Pairing in Folio 67rFolio 67r (Figure 1) introduces the Seven Penitential Psalms, which are recited for repentance and to help one avoid committing a deadly sin.28 Their author, King David, is depicted in two distinct episodes viewed through a golden arch supported by a fanciful arrangement of colorful columns and piers. In the foreground, David adopts a penitent pose as he is visited by an angel in the sky. Beneath him appears a trompe l’oeil cartouche inscribed with the opening verses of Psalm 6. In the distance, at the window of his classically inspired palace, David spies on Bathsheba as she bathes in a fountain. despite her slight size, she conforms to contemporary ideals of beauty through her long, golden hair and slender body with small, perfectly spherical breasts.29 Bathsheba is approached by her attendant, whose height can hardly be accommodated by the portico through which she must pass to deliver a bowl of sweetmeats to her mistress.30 The courtyard is also occupied by a messenger, whom David will soon send to fetch Bathsheba, thereby initiating their adulterous relationship. It will lead to her pregnancy and the death of her husband, Uriah, whom the king murders in an attempt to cover up his sin (2 Samuel 11).By the early sixteenth century, David spying on Bathsheba had become a popular image for introducing the Penitential Psalms in books of hours.31 As such, the scene was frequently depicted by the Master of François de Rohan and his workshop. In the Hours of Saulx-Tavannes miniature (Figure 14), Bathsheba occupies a fountain set at an angle in the foreground, while David, mirroring the viewer, watches her from his window.32 A similar arrangement occurs in folio 77r of a tiny book of hours for the use of Sarum illuminated by the master in 1532 (Figure 15), slightly earlier than the Saulx-Tavannes hours.33 In each case, Bathsheba is turned so that David can see her but it is the reader who is rewarded with an unobstructed view of her body and a privileged proximity to her nudity. Variations on this formula frequently appear in late fifteenth- and early sixteenth-century French books of hours, such as the Hours of Louis XII (Figure 16), where Bathsheba’s marmoreal flesh is displayed in a manner that primarily satisfies the reader’s gaze. As Thomas Kren has argued, while Louis XII (r. 1498–1515) was likely aware of the different spiritual and moral significances attached to Bathsheba, Jean Bourdichon’s eroticizing depiction of her can also be interpreted as an attempt to appeal to the king’s libidinous side.34 Intimate and portable, the book of hours provided the ideal context for Bourdichon’s tantalizing Bathsheba, who could be held close and carefully studied.14. Master of François de Rohan. Bathsheba at Her Bath, Receiving the Message of King David (fol. 67v). Hours of Saulx-Tavannes, 1533. Illuminated manuscript, 8¾ × 6 in. (22.2 × 15.3 cm). Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, Paris, MS 64015. Master of François de Rohan. Bathsheba at Her Bath, Receiving the Message of King David (fol. 77r). Book of Hours (use of Sarum), 1532. Illuminated manuscript on vellum, 4⅜ × 3 in. (11 × 7. 5 cm). Private collection, United States. Photograph: © Christie’s Images 200616. Jean Bourdichon. Bathsheba Bathing (fol. 79r). Hours of Louis XII, 1498–99. Illuminated manuscript on parchment, 9⅝ × 6¾ in. (24.3 × 17 cm). The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, MS 79rFolio 79r (Figure 16) from the Hours of Louis XII constitutes a particularly successful—and audacious—example of the type of sensual imagery commissioned by Valois rulers. The trend culminated during the rule of Louis XII’s son-in-law, François I, who avidly collected and commissioned representations of female nudes and other erotically charged works. Those wishing to enter into his good graces or repay a kindness often relied on gifts of this nature, such as the Marquis of Mantua, Francesco II Gonzaga (1466–1519), who sent him a painting by Lorenzo Costa (ca. 1537–1583) of a nude Venus holding a cornucopia and unabashedly gazing at the viewer.35 On January 4, 1519, Federico de’ Preti presented the panel to François on the marquis’s behalf, together with a letter in which Francesco addressed the king as a “great and good judge of bodily beauty.” The Mantuan ambassador recorded the king’s reaction in a letter: He liked it very much and never tired of looking at it, and told me that he thanks your lordship a thousand times. He had it taken immediately to the Queen [Claude de France] and the Queen-Mother [Louise de Savoie] and had them see it, and they praised it highly. His majesty the king asked me if it was one of Madame’s [Isabella d’Este’s] women, drawn from life, and I said I did not know. The king showed it to all these lords and gentleman.36 The knowledge that this alluring Venus’s face was drawn from life would have opened the possibility, however remote, that her nude body also reflected a specific reality; the king could thus have the thrill of owning a representation of a Mantuan court lady he might never meet yet had the impression of knowing intimately. Diplomatic correspondence further reveals that the king did not limit himself to enjoying the sight of painted nudes. In a letter dated June 18, 1540, the Ferrarese ambassador Carlo Sacrati reported to Ercole II d’Este the following encounter, which took place in Fontainebleau’s Roman-style baths and cast François and his companions in the role of the spying David: I have learned from M. Tommaso del Vecchio that the day when His Majesty arrived at Fontainebleau in the evening, Madame Marguerite and Madame d’Etampes with Madame de Rothelin and two other ladies were in the baths and His Majesty, accompanied by his lordship the constable [Anne de Montmorency], his lordship the Cardinal of Lorraine [Jean de Lorraine] and our lordship the Cardinal [Ippolito d’Este] went there and found them naked, and stayed there to jest for a long while.37 Among the ladies in attendance was the king’s official mistress, the duchesse d’Etampes (1508–1576), whose body François once compared to that of the Cnidian Aphrodite after seeing a bronze copy of the sculpture.38In light of the king’s appreciation of nude female bodies, both real and artistically fashioned, it is surprising that the Hours of François I does not introduce the Psalms with a composition featuring a large figure of Bathsheba bathing in the foreground, given the numerous royal precedents for this iconographic formula and its employment in other books of hours attributed to the Master of François de Rohan. The relegation of David spying on Bathsheba to the background is unusual, as is the juxtaposition with the foreground David in penitence, one of the scenes most frequently used to introduce the Penitential Psalms in books of hours.39Combining the two subjects on the same page creates a tension that the artist enhanced by placing both figures at either end of the same diagonal axis and having them face each other. The Old Testament king’s double incarnations seem aware of each other, even as they focus on different subjects, the nude (carnal) Bathsheba and the (spiritual) angel. Mirroring one another, both Davids perform a similar gesture but with a divergent meaning, underscoring the temporal and psychological divide that separates them. The spying king raises his hand in excitement, while his future self does so in humble supplication. Symbol of earthly power, the scepter brandished by David at his balcony lies discarded in the foreground next to a harp with ten strings propped against the forecourt’s wall.40 The penitent king’s hand hovers near the golden instrument, thus alluding to his spiritual role as composer of the Psalms—a role overtly celebrated in the border’s jewel-like medallion.41Possessing thick lips, a large, slightly sagging eye, and a long, hooked nose with a prominent bump, the penitent David in profile bears a strong resemblance to portraits of François I (Figure 17a–d).42 That François would recognize himself in David is confirmed by his French royal garb: a blue ermine robe with a fleur-de-lis pattern. François wears the same attire in a portrait of him as David in a miniature from the Hours of Catherine de Medici (Figure 18).43 While the latter corresponds to a formal exaltation of François’s royal qualities, his representation as David in Figure 1 serves a more complex function—one predicated on the importance and nature of vision in religious devotion.17. a. Matteo del nassaro (active 1515–47). Medal of François I Celebrating the Battle of Marignano, 1515. Bronze , diam. 1⅜ in. (3.5 cm). Bibliothèque Nationale de France, SR 82. b. Detail of Figure 1 showing François I as King David. c. Jean Clouet (1475/85–1540). Detail of Portrait of François I, King of France, ca. 1530. Oil on panel, 37¾ × 29⅛ in. (96 × 74 cm). Musée du Louvre, Paris (inv. 3256). Photograph: Hervé Lewandowski © RMn-Grand Palais/Art Resource, NY. d. Detail of Figure 2 showing a portrait of François I18. François I as King David (fol. 152r). Hours of Catherine de Medici, ca. 1544?. Illuminated card stuck on vellum leaf, 3½ × 2⅜ in. (9 × 6.2 cm). Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS NAL 82The composition establishes different “hierarchies of vision,” to borrow Patricia Rubin’s term, which are central to both the image’s organization and its interpretation.44 The background of Figure 1 focuses on the subject of corporeal sight, illustrated by means of David’s looking at a tangible object—the bathing Bathsheba. Spiritual perception, which requires using the eyes of the soul rather than those of the body, is evoked in the foreground through the representation of David gazing at the angel of the Lord. The transition from background to foreground thus reflects David’s progression from using a form of vision that stems from earthly desire and remains on the surface of concrete things to employing one that transcends the physical realm and leads to salvation. The move from lowest to highest level of sight evoked in the image would have paralleled François I’s own viewing experience of the illumination. Beholding the picture as an object using physical sight would have triggered the king’s memory and imagination, opening the path for him to see beyond the representational world.45 Looking at the image of himself as David, as opposed to a generic portrayal of the Old Testament king, would have facilitated this cognitive process as it would have encouraged François to entertain a closer connection to David and his actions.Regarded as an exemplary ruler and an admirable composer, David had long occupied a prominent position in French ceremonial life, from triumphal entries to masquerades, and François was frequently associated with the Old Testament king throughout his reign.46 As early as 1515, Louise de Savoie (1476–1531) commissioned a paraphrased version in French of Psalm 26 for her son’s use following his victory at Marignano.47 The manuscript features twenty images in roundels, each with an interpretation of the verse below—a scheme prefiguring the emblem book. In folio 1v, the young king kneels humbly as an angel carrying a sword visits him—an iconographic formula that recalls images of David in penance (Figure 19). In this case, however, the angel brings protection, a fact emphasized by the inter pretative line, which states that the king recited the verse after recognizing that the sword of God was approaching to defend him on September 14 (the second day of the battle). The manuscript’s opening lines reveal the book’s purpose, to teach the king about Psalm 26—as well as Louise de Savoie’s continued hands-on approach to her son’s education: The xiith day of February one thousand five hundred and sixteen at Horiol [Loriol] on the river Drome, Madame was spiritually compelled to make her humility speak to the obedience of the King her son, and to beg him that for devout Oration he should take Psalm XXVI, which is suitable to him. . . . And it would be most profitable to him, if at the request of the Lady he loves so, he were to sing and to say like David: Dominus Illuminatio mea, et salus mea, quem timebo? [The lord is my light and my savior, whom could I fear?]4819. Godefroy le Batave (active ca. 1515–26) and François de Moulins (died 1526). The Angel Bearing the Divine Sword Appearing to François I (fol. 1v). Paraphrase du psaume XXVI, “Dominus Illuminatio mea”, 1516. Pen and ink on paper, 7⅞ × 5⅜ in. (20 × 13.8 cm). Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, MS fr. 2088 Louise thus encouraged her son to emulate David by commissioning a text that linked the Psalms to the battle of Marignano, François’s greatest military triumph. A few years later, Guillaume Michel published Le Penser de royal mémoire (1518), an entreaty to the king to embark on a crusade against the Turks.49 The text contains four epistles addressed to François I by David, who offers him his harp (to heal and bring harmony to his kingdom) and sling (to defeat the infidels), and instructs him on how to become the Tenth worthy—a goal, the reader is told, the French ruler is very close to achieving thanks to the many qualities he shares with the Old Testament king.50 Even after François’s death, the link between him and David persisted, as attested by a carved image of François in the guise of the Old Testament king on the choir stall of Auch Cathedral.51While in the carving and the illumination from the Hours of Catherine de Medici, François is depicted as David in an upright pose holding the Old Testament king’s attributes, in the Museum’s book of hours he kneels with his gaze lifted toward the sky (Figure 1). Close inspection reveals that the angel who appears to him carries a skull, a sword, and a scourge, all conventions derived from the story of David’s other major transgression: committing the sin of pride, recounted in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21.52 The objects represent divine punishments for the Israelites (famine, war, and plague) from which David must choose one for angering God by taking a census of his army without the Lord’s permission. The king settled on pestilence, but on seeing his people die, begged God to spare them and punish him instead.At least as early as the eleventh century, the angel bearing God’s trio of retributions was incorporated into imagery pertaining to the story of David and Bathsheba, specifically the moment when the repentant David kneels before the prophet Nathan, who rebukes him for committing adultery and murder (2 Samuel 12).53 Rather than a deliberate link between the two events, this conflation was likely a case of artistic misappropriation. The Hours of François I’s representation of David kneeling before the angel holding the three symbols of divine justice may therefore have been intended simply as an image of David repenting for the sin of adultery, thereby connecting the folio’s background and foreground scenes.A learned sixteenth-century audience, however, would have been familiar with the original meaning of the angel’s attributes and their association with the census story. David as portrayed in the foreground of folio 67r (Figure 1) was thus likely meant to be understood as repenting for both his pride and his adultery. That the initial significance of the angel bearing three choices was still resonant in sixteenth-century France is evidenced by the subject’s treatment in a book of hours (the so-called Heures de 1525) (Figure 20), published by Geoffroy Tory (ca. 1480–1533) with a royal privilege granted by François I.54 This widely circulated and highly influential book played a key role in introducing Renaissance aesthetics to France’s nascent printing industry. Replete with classicizing details, folio N4r shows David in a hair shirt and toga kneeling before an angel, who takes the form of a nude putto holding a scourge, a sword, and an arrow (here replacing the skull).55 Lingering near the fountain is a devil, a likely reference to the story of David taking the census as recounted in 1 Chronicles 21, in which Satan incites the king to commit the sin.5620. David in Penitence (fol. N4r). Book of hours (so-called Heures de 1525) (use of Rome). Printed on parchment, 8¼ × 4½ in. (20.8 × 11.3 cm). Published by Geoffroy Tory, Paris, 1525. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, Réserves de livres rare, Velins 1529It is also worth noting that folio N4r of the Heures de 1525 was a source for an illumination by the Master of François de Rohan and his assistants for a manuscript probably made for Jacques Aubry, the abbot of the Benedictine monastery of Saint-Pierre de Lagny (Figure 21).57 The miniature owes much to the illustration from Tory’s book, i