Belleville Breviary
Bréviaire de Belleville
A verified public-domain excerpt for this text is still being set. The folio is catalogued and linked below; an original Sub Rosa rendering will follow.
What it is
Illuminated by Jean Pucelle c. 1323–1326 (BnF Latin 10483–10484), this two-volume breviary was originally made for Jeanne de Belleville, identified by the Belleville arms on its original silver-gilt clasps, before entering the Valois royal sphere when Charles V acquired it — subsequently passing through Charles VI, Richard II of England, and finally Jean, Duc de Berry. Its provenance chain across multiple crowns makes it one of the most widely circulated aristocratic devotional manuscripts of the fourteenth century, though its original commission predates Valois ownership. It contains the complete cycle of psalms, offices, and prayers for the liturgical year, with Pucelle's innovative typological programme linking Old and New Testament scenes across facing pages.
Why it still matters
Its full cycle of offices and psalms remains entirely functional as a daily prayer framework; Pucelle's typological imagery — pairing Hebrew Bible scenes with Gospel events — enriches Christian lectio divina and contemplation of salvation history.
Kept alongside
Hours of Jeanne d'Évreux
Heures de Jeanne d'Évreux
Made by Jean Pucelle c. 1324–28 for Jeanne d'Évreux, queen consort of the last Capetian king Charles IV, this tiny masterpiece (9 × 6 cm, 209 folios) was bequeathed in Jeanne's 1371 will directly to her nephew Charles V of France — documented in her own words as 'un bien petit livret d'oraisons que le roy Charles… avoit faict faire pour Madame, que Pucelle enlumina' — confirming Valois custody from that point. It pairs Infancy and Passion scenes in innovative grisaille, and contains the Hours of the Virgin, the Office of Saint Louis, Penitential Psalms, and a litany, making it one of the richest lay devotional programmes of the entire medieval period. Its miniature scale — small enough to cradle in a palm — embodies prayer as an act of intimate personal attention rather than public display.
Psalter and Hours of Bonne of Luxembourg
Psalterium et Horae Bonnae de Luxemburgo
This tiny psalter and prayer book (126 × 88 mm), attributed to Jean Le Noir, was made c. 1348–49 for Bonne of Luxembourg, Duchess of Normandy, wife of the future John II and mother of both Charles V and Jean, Duc de Berry, making it a foundational Valois dynastic devotional object. Her heraldic arms combining Luxembourg and Valois decorate the borders alongside striking memento mori imagery — the Three Living and Three Dead — and miniatures illustrating personal prayers. Bonne died of plague in 1349 before she could become queen, giving the manuscript an intimate poignancy as a last testimony of early Valois piety. It is now held at The Cloisters, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Hours of Jeanne de Navarre
Heures de Jeanne de Navarre
Commissioned by King Philip VI of Valois c. 1336–1340 for Jeanne de Navarre (Joan II of Navarre, daughter of Louis X), this book of hours illuminated by Jean Le Noir contains offices for the Trinity, the Virgin Mary, Saint Louis, and the Passion — a devotional programme shaped by the early Valois project of legitimising their dynasty through veneration of the Capetian royal saint Louis IX. The manuscript (BnF nal 3145) thus fuses personal piety with dynastic memory in a way characteristic of Valois royal commissions. Its Marian and Passion content places it squarely within the mainstream of fourteenth-century lay devotion.