PLATE X.
FROISSART IN HIS STUDY.
This Illumination is taken from an odd volume of a MS. of Froissart’s Chronicles, among the royal MSS. now in the British Museum. It contains few illuminations beyond the present subject, which forms a sort of frontispiece, or title-page, in which the illuminator has not, as usual, represented the principal event of the first chapter, but has thought it more appropriate to picture the author of the book in his study. He is just receiving a letter from some person of note, (as appears from the bearer wearing the arms or badge of his lord upon his breast,) whilst a clerk, or amanuensis, is busily employed in transcribing what we may suppose to be a portion of the famous Chronicles. The present plate only represents a portion of the original illumination, in which, not only the interior of Froissart’s study is exhibited by the usual device, an excision of a portion of the wall, but also the exterior of the building, with a side-entrance, court-yard, and a distant view; a portion of which is given in the next plate.
The present plate conveys a very vivid and pleasing impression of a comfortably furnished apartment of the fifteenth century; the whole being executed with great care; but the figures are inferior to many works of the period, and are principally interesting on account of the costume.
A female attendant serving wine to a groom.