Second Volume.[307]—The first miniature represents François I on horseback, in hunting costume, wearing the chapeau with plumes. The King is urging his horse to the right. Above his head a crowned F in gold stands out against the blue background of a shield. This was a device for disclosing his identity to those who were not struck by the likeness. In the middle distance is a huntsman, galloping in the same direction as the King and blowing his horn. Over his head floats a banderole, bearing the name 'PEROT.'[308] On a stone between the legs of the King's horse is the initial letter of the artist's name; and beneath, in a frame (separated, however, by a running dog), the date 1519. The border is of the utmost grace of design, and leaves room for a few words of the text, which begins thus:—
'Françoys, by the grace of God King of France, desiring to exercise his lusty youth by violent labour, early in the month of August in the year one thousand five hundred nineteen, went forth to course the stag in the forest of Byevre, and gave order that on that day those dogs should course which he had chosen to lead the pack, because they are surer than the others. Gaillart was of the number, as was Gallehault, and pretty Rameau. Arbault, Gerfault, and Billehault went in their company.
'The King was following the stag very close and was riding at full speed when he fell in with the chaste Diana. The King was overcome with joy, and having forgotten his quarry, he was all amazed that the vision vanished and he remained all alone in deepest thought. But soon after he saw beside him an ancient man of venerable aspect. He knew upon hearing him speak that it was his friend Julius Cæsar, whom he had met in like manner, only three months before, in his park at Sainte-Germain-en-Laye.'
Thereupon they enter into conversation upon Cæsar's campaigns.
Godefroy's plates, almost all of which are signed with a G and dated 1519, are on these leaves: 2 verso, 3 verso, 4 verso, 5 verso, 7 verso, 9 verso, 20 recto, 22 verso, 28 recto, 33 verso, 34 verso, 36 verso, 37 verso, 43 recto, 46 verso, 48 verso, 59 verso, 62 verso, 78 verso, 90 recto.
The medallions, which are copied from the antique, are admirably executed in gold on a blue ground, the models being delicately outlined in sepia. They are on leaves 6 verso, 8 recto, 9 verso, 10 verso, 11 recto and verso, 12 recto and verso, 13 recto and verso.
Warlike machines, copied from other drawings, and consequently lacking the life imparted by the representation of real objects, fill leaves 39 recto and verso, 40 recto and verso, 41 recto, 91 recto and verso, 92 recto and verso, 93 recto and verso, 94 recto.
Lastly, the portraits may be found on the leaves which I am now about to enumerate. I will add nothing to what I have said of their perfection, generally speaking, reserving my comments for the points of interest suggested by the manuscript itself. These portraits, as one might have anticipated, and as is proved by leaf 52 most directly, are copies of originals which antedate the manuscript. They are painted in miniature, surrounded by three circles of black and gold; the whole medallion is fifty-two millimeters in diameter, the miniature forty.
Leaf 25 verso: Quintus Pedius. Such is the title given by the scribe; but a different hand has written in the margin, in cursive characters: 'Le grand maistre de Boissy, aged 41 years.' I am inclined to see in these marginal annotations the hand of the author rather than that of the artist. This portrait is three-quarters full, turned to the left, with a cap on its head, the hair in a net, a collar of some order around the neck, face tranquil, expression shrewd.
Leaf 35 recto: Le Fiable Divitiacus Dautun. ('Admiral de Boissy, seigneur de Bonivet, aged 34 years.') Three-quarters full, turned to the right.