Tournament Book of René d´Anjou

Tournament Book of René d’Anjou

One of the most precious manuscripts now kept in the Russian National Library in Saint Petersburg is the Tournament Book of René d’Anjou, which is famous throughout the world for its remarkable contents and text. Produced in the 1470's, the manuscript contains the only known version of a poetic description of the Pas de Saumur, a sumptuous tournament that King René had organized for his knights at Saumur in the year 1446. The codex encompasses 91 illustrations of great historic value, which fascinate through their momentum and great feel for vivid detail. These masterfully executed pictures are based on the lost original drawings of Barthélemy d’Eyck, an excellent painter who was active for a long period at René’s court. The great value of the poem as a historic and literary monument of the 15th century and the undisputed rarity of the text have not only drawn the attention of researchers specialized in medieval history, literature and culture. The manuscript also offers a wealth of valuable material for studies in medieval heraldry, as the illustrations show a great number of escutcheons and crests.

The Only Account of the pas d’armes at Saumur

The Saint Petersburg manuscript is the only historic witness to the sumptuous knights’ festival organized in Saumur, which put all other tournaments to shame. It enables us to reconstruct the course of this great event in full detail. This very important aspect makes the manuscript an informative document on the history of the knightly mock battles of the late Middle Ages. The author reports on the organization and the ceremony of the joust (in which only two knights at one time were allowed to charge each other), on actors and combatants; description of the knights' equipment, especially the bascinets, as well as the harnesses and mantling worn by the combat horses. He goes even further and tries to present tournaments, which were obviously among the essential themes of the courtly and knightly culture, in their true significance.

René d’Anjou: a Politician, Patron, and Poet

René d’Anjou, King of Naples and Sicily, Duke of Anjou, Bar, and Lorraine, was one of the most generous tournament hosts of his era. He was not only an ambitious sovereign but also an educated patron of the arts. Beyond that, he also tried his luck as a poet. Numerous works from his pen, among them the Livre du Cuer d’Amours Espris, a romantic allegory, bear testimony to the king’s talent for this genre among others. René also knew how to hold glorious festivals. The tournaments he arranged were famous throughout the country and sung by a great many poets.

A Mirror of the Knightly Way of Life

The organizer of the tournament, René himself, probably commissioned the Saint Petersburg manuscript. He hired a poet, whose name has been lost in the course of history, to write a poetic description of the sumptuous pas d’armes. However, out of all festive events that took place there, the writer chose to describe only the combat scenes, with only a few exceptions. He was obviously less keen on the results of the competition than on an extensive description of the arms depicted on the shields, the horses’ harnesses, and the helmets worn by the participants. This might be due to the king’s wish according to which each participant was to display his own heraldic device, the cuir bouilli, the crest and the coat of arms on his shield, and these instructions conferred the arms and helmets the greatest importance. The 3,952 verses also contain statements concerning the significance of tournaments in the contemporary knightly society as well as indications of the code of behavior and honor to which every participant had to bow. The ritualized combat was a means for the knights to demonstrate their ideals of life: braveness and generosity, honor and glory, fealty and courtly love. In this commission, the author reveals himself as a master of the poetic form used, keeping strictly to the verse structure and rhythm in each stanza. He appears to have been an enormously learned poet, well experienced in the making of a poetic text.

The Miniatures

The narrative of the work is visually supported by numerous illustrations, whereby picture and text are closely related to each other. The illustrations are all drawn with a pen and then painted with watercolors. Differences in color and the reproduction of landscapes as well as different representations of knights and their bascinets make us assume that the manuscript is the work of several hands. The miniatures often constitute a valuable addition to the text and one may say that the illustrated cycle as well as the text both determine the value of the work as a historic source to the same extent.