Jean Gerson, La Montagne de Contemplation
La Montaigne de Contemplacion
La cause d'escrire en françoys et aux simples de la matiere de contemplacion. Le premier chappitre.
Our renderingThe reason for writing in French and for simple people about the matter of contemplation. The first chapter.
What it is
Written in 1400 by Jean Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris and the pre-eminent spiritual director of the Valois court, this short French-language guide to contemplative prayer was owned in documented manuscript copies by Charlotte of Savoy, queen of France (wife of Louis XI; BnF fr. 1835), and subsequently by Anne of France, Duchess of Bourbon. Gerson originally wrote it for his own sisters, but it became the leading practical manual for lay contemplation in Valois court circles and among noble women more broadly. Its central argument — that mystical contemplation is accessible to the simple, the unlearned, and women, requiring only humble, attentive love rather than academic theology — was quietly radical and remains its lasting contribution.
Why it still matters
Gerson's insistence that contemplation requires no theological expertise — only sincere love and quiet attention — makes this text immediately practicable for any Christian today seeking a structured introduction to mental prayer or lectio divina.
Kept alongside
Jean Gerson, Opusculum tripartitum (Opus tripartitum)
Opusculum tripartitum de praeceptis Decalogi, de confessione, et de arte moriendi
Composed by Jean Gerson, Chancellor of the University of Paris and principal theological adviser to the Valois court, this compact catechetical manual addresses the Ten Commandments, examination of conscience for sacramental confession, and the art of holy dying — covering the full span of the Christian moral and sacramental life in a form accessible to educated laypersons. The Valois Dukes of Burgundy (cadet branch) owned at least five Gerson manuscripts, and a ducal household member commissioned a copy of the Opus Tripartitum c. 1410 (Koninklijke Bibliotheek van België MS 11133-35), confirming circulation at the highest Valois-adjacent court levels. It was one of the most-copied late medieval catechetical texts in Western Europe, with its French vernacular version circulating far beyond court walls.
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Commissioned c. 1412 by Jean de France, Duc de Berry — son of King John II and brother of Charles V — this is the supreme surviving example of Valois private devotion in manuscript form. It contains the canonical hours structured around the Hours of the Virgin, Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Ghost, Penitential Psalms, Office of the Dead, and additional offices and masses, all framed by the famous calendar illuminations depicting the labours of the months. The duke used it for daily private prayer in his châteaux, and it was left unfinished at his death in 1416, completed only in 1485–1489 by Jean Colombe for Charles I of Savoy. Its unmatched luxury simultaneously signals sincere personal piety and the Valois use of devotional objects as instruments of dynastic prestige.
Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry
Belles Heures du Duc de Berry
The only book of hours entirely completed by the Limbourg Brothers, made for Jean de Berry — uncle of King Charles VI and the pivotal Valois prince-patron — between 1405 and 1408/9, now held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Cloisters Collection). It contains the Hours of the Cross, Hours of the Holy Spirit, Penitential Psalms, Office of the Dead, and seven unprecedented pictorial saint-cycles (Catherine, Jerome, Anthony Abbot, the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and the Passion), plus the Fifteen Joys of the Virgin. Its 172 illuminations served the duke as a personal devotional companion in chapel and chamber; at his death it passed to Yolande of Aragon, mother of Charles VII. It is the most devotionally coherent and structurally complete of the Berry books of hours.