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| Master of François de Rohan, Cleopatra, Queen of Egypt, Dying by Suicide, in Concerning Famous and Noble Women, about 1470 (text) and 1515-1520 (miniatures). Getty Museum |
In 2024 the Getty Museum purchased a French Renaissance manuscript combining two key texts on the role of women in late medieval Europe: Giovanni Boccaccio's Concerning Famous and Noble Women and Christine de Pizan's The Book of the City of Ladies. The manuscript has just gone on public view, for the first time at the Getty or anywhere else, in "Beginnings: The Story of Creation in the Middle Ages" (at the Getty Center through Apr. 19, 2026).
The manuscript's two authors treat their subject from opposite perspectives. Boccaccio offers mini-biographies of women, ancient and modern (that is, medieval), who succumb to moral failings. Christine's text is a rebuttal faulting Boccaccio's reliance on stereotypes of vain, weak, and scheming women. Christine was perhaps the first professional woman author in Europe, and her book is the first in the Getty collection known to have been written by a woman.
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| Concerning Famous and Noble Women and The Book of the City of Ladies. Shown are Étienne Colaud's miniatures of Boccaccio Writing His Book and The Creation of Eve |
The manuscript is opened to miniatures of Boccaccio Writing His Book and The Creation of Eve, both by Étienne Colaud. These only hint at the book's scope. The manuscript has 108 one-column miniatures split lopsidedly between 105 for Boccaccio and 3 for Christine. All are perusable in hi-res on the Getty site. It's clear from the page layout that the two texts were intended to go together. Only one other manuscript pairing the two texts is known.
The manuscript's words were copied about 1470, leaving room for the miniatures. A late-fifteenth century coat of arms implies that the book's text was commissioned by the La Marck-Bouillon family. About 45 years later, Étienne Colaud (active 1512–1540), his workshop, and the Master of François de Rohan added the miniatures. The provenance has been traced from 1811 to the present. A private collection (from 1946) sold it to the Parisian dealer Les Enluminures in 2024.
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| Étienne Colaud's miniature of Cloelia Fleeing on a Horse |
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| Étienne Colaud's miniature of Hypermnestra, the Queen of the Argives and Priestess of Juno, Refusing to Kill Her Husband |
Hypermnestra had one job: to behead her husband on their wedding night. Her 49 sisters went along with the murderous scheme, while Hypermnestra opted for a nonlethal honeymoon. Boccaccio cites her as an example of how women can't follow directions.
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| Étienne Colaud's miniature of Christine Lamenting at Her Desk with Reason, Rectitude, and Justice |
Christine laments the mansplaining of history, in an early depiction of a facepalm.
Comments
> purchased a French Renaissance
> manuscript
Kind of a relief right now that a museum in LA goes on record for acquiring the type of object not found at a Hauser & Wirth. Even more so since I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact the Van Gogh from the Pearlman Foundation is the first for LACMA.
Even though the Getty at least (or supposedly) has the financial means to purchase artworks from a worldwide depleted resource, I still wonder if they're also affected by an "after all, tomorrow is another day" procrastination evident in LA's lack of an art museum (ie, publicly owned and free-standing) until 1965.
I don't understand the meaning behind the patron commissioning the inclusion of two texts in one volume, where the theses of the two texts are polemically opposing, but then allowing space in one text ("critical of women") for 105 illuminations and only a mere 3 illuminations in the other text ("praising of women").
It seems the commissioner had already made up their mind.
Q: Re "Only one other manuscript pairing the two texts is known.": Where is this held? Are the illuminations identical? In the same configuration?
The Getty site mentions that there's one other Bocaccio/Christine de Pizan ms, but doesn't give its whereabouts or say whether it's illuminated.