From Library Journal
An influential Italian writer of the 14th century, Boccaccio wrote a collection of stories on exemplary historical women, De mulieribus claris. A French merchant commissioned a copy as a gift to the duke of Burgundy in 1402. This French version, known as Des cleres et nobles femmes, was beautifully crafted with colorful miniature illustrations depicting story scenes. Using a vast amount of scholarly research and specialized sources, Buettner (art, Smith Coll.) attempts to trace the influences on the art and style of this manuscript. Unfortunately, the text is greatly hindered by awkward and stiff prose. Terms and phrases are used without explanation or translation, severely limiting readership. The dissection of pictorial elements, though more concrete, is limited. Further inhibiting a generalist's interest, of the more than 100 illustrations, only four are in color. Recommended only for large special collections.?Karen Ellis, Baldwin Boettcher Lib., Humble, Tex.Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The first surviving illuminated manuscript of the French translation of Boccaccio's De mulieribus claris, known as the Cleres femmes (now in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris), is the subject of this book. The manuscript was commissioned by a Parisian merchant, Jacques Raponde, as a New Year's gift for the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Bold. This innovative aspect of the commission, where a merchant rather than a prince acted as the patron of the manuscript, provides the subject for the first part of Buettner's study. In addition to sketching the Valois rulers' practice of collecting illuminated manuscripts and to tracing the reasons for the successful reception of Boccaccio's work in this courtly milieu, the author delineates the role of merchants in Parisian artistic production around 1400.

FROM THE CRITICS

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