Jean Miélot
Jean Miélot (* in the 15th century in Gueschard near Abbeville in Picardy in what is now northern France; † 1472 in Lille , now France ) was a scribe , illustrator of manuscripts, translator , author and priest .
Life
Miélot was hired as a scribe by the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good , who had been his sovereign since 1435, after he had translated and adapted the work Speculum Humanae Salvationis from Latin into French. In addition to his salary at court, he was appointed canon by the Duke in 1453 at the Church of St. Pierre in Lille . He held this post until his death. He was buried in St. Pierre. Charles the Bold valued Miélot's services even after his father's death in 1467. In 1468 he became chaplain of Louis of Luxembourg , Count of Saint-Pol .
Miélot seems to have lived in the respective palace of the dukes and to have maintained workshops with scribes and miniature painters in both Brussels and Lille. After the pheasant festival in 1454 at the Burgundian court, a movement to revive the crusades arose there . This movement was also reinforced by the conquest of Constantinople in 1453 by the Ottomans and led to various orders to the workshops for the translation and reproduction of travelogues about the Orient .
Miélot not only dealt with translations from Latin or Italian into the French language, but also wrote his own books or verses. A total of 22 illuminated manuscripts were completed and illustrated by him, which after his death were widely distributed using the new printing process .
Miélot's way of working
Philip the Good was the promoter of book art in his domain and maintained a number of scribes, copyists and artists, among whom Miélot had an important position. For his translations he first made a draft, a minute , with sketches of the miniatures and the incunabula . At the Duke's court, the texts were read aloud after his approval for the complete works. Ultimately, a luxury edition was produced on the finest vellum for the Duke's library. Miélot himself painted some of his miniatures himself and wrote some texts himself in broken script , as paleographers found.
In the Burgundian culture it was customary to show on a miniature at the beginning of the text how the author presented the finished book to the Duke or another client. That is why today there are a number of portraits of the translator and author, for example in Traité sur l'oraison dominicale painted in Brussels in the years 1454-1457 by Jean Le Tavernier .
Publications
- own works
- Le Miroir de l'Humaine Salvation based on the Speculum Humanae Salvationis .
- Miracles de Nostre Dame
- A version of the Epître d'Othéa by Christine de Pizan , expanded with material from the Geneologia Deorum Gentilium by Giovanni Boccaccio .
- Translations
- Romuléon by Benvenuto Ramboldi da Imola . The manuscript for Philip the Good was written by Colard Mansion .
- La controverse de noblesse , a translation of the Controversia de nobilitate by Buonaccorso da Montemagno , together with Le Débat d'honneur after the Italian text by Giovanni Aurispa .
- 1454–1457: Traité sur l'oraison dominicale , dedicated to Philip the Good.
- Miroir de l'âme pécheresse (The mirror of the sinful soul) Translation of Speculum aureum animae peccatricis .
- Les quattres choses derrenieres , translation of Cordiale quatuor novissimorum . This text was printed in 1475 by Colard Mansion and William Caxton in Bruges. Caxton himself later printed the English translation of Anthony Woodville, 2nd Earl Rivers , entitled Cordyale, or Four last thinges .
- Advis directif pour faire la passage doultre-mer , a tourist guide for the Holy Land .
- La Vie de sainte Catherine d'Alexandrie . Two illuminated manuscripts have survived: the first is Philip the Good, the second is an illuminated copy written by Simon Marmion for Margaret of York .
- Consolation desolez .
literature
- T. Kren / S. Mc Kendrick (Ed.): Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe. Getty Museum / Royal Academy of Arts , Los Angeles / London 2003, ISBN 1-903973-28-7 .
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Miélot, Jean |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Miélot, Jehan |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Writer, illustrator, sutor, translator and priest who worked in the Duchy of Burgundy |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 15th century |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Gueschard, Picardy , now in France |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1472 |
| Place of death | Lille , France |