Burgundy Gallery

Single Leaf from a Decretum by Gratian: Quadruple Arcade with Concordance..., c. 1160-1165

Single Leaf from a Decretum by Gratian: Quadruple Arcade with Concordance of Greek and Latin Alphabets , c. 1160-1165. This leaf was excised from a copy of the handbook of church law known as the Decretum written by Gratian, an Italian Camaldolese monk active in Bologna from about 1130 to 1140. The focus of the leaf is a large decorated letter Q with spiraling lotus petals introducing the first Causa , or case of law. The text begins, "A man having a son offered him to a very wealthy cloister." This case concerns the definition of simony (making profit from sacred things). The style of the illumination and the script date the leaf to between 1160 and 1165. In November 1164, Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, took refuge at Pontigny as a result of his conflict with King Henry II of England. During his stay, Becket immersed himself in the study of church law, as evidenced by his later use of citations from the Decretum . This leaf could have been part of the original manuscript Becket consulted. The volume was later dismembered following the suppression of the monastery during the French Revolution in the late 1700s

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Louis, Duke of Burgundy, Dauphin of France and father of King Louis XV, c1700 (1894). Artist: Gerard Edelnick

Louis, Duke of Burgundy (1682-1712), Dauphin of France and father of King Louis XV, c1700 (1894). From A Collection of Engraved Portraits (Further Selection) Exhibited by the Late James Anderson Rose, at the Opening of the New Library and Museum of the Corporation of London, November 1872, Vol. I. [Marcus Ward & Co., Limited, London, 1894]

© The Print Collector

Vercingetorix Memorial at Alesia, near Dijon, France, 1882-1884

Vercingetorix Memorial at Alesia, near Dijon, France, 1882-1884. The Gallic chieftain Vercingetorix was chosen as king by the Arverni, a powerful tribe that occupied what is now the Auvergne. In 52 BC he led the Arverni against Roman rule but was ultimately defeated and captured by Julius Caesar at Alesia (near Dijon). Vercingetorix was then taken to Rome, where, after five years imprisonment, he was humiliated by being paraded as evidence of Rome's greatness, and was then put to death. A print from La France et les Francais a Travers les Siecles, Volume I, F Roy editor, Saint-Antoine, 1882-1884

© The Print Collector / Heritage-Images