ABSTRACT

Textual and visual evidence in the early books and manuscripts acquired by the dukes and duchesses offers a framework for discussion of dynastic, familial, and private intent. Emblems and insignia, such as coats of arms, badges, moĴoes, signatures, and portrait representations, are common identifiers of ownership, and serve to denote membership and rank within a family and society. The placement of emblems in private volumes, especially their proximity to representations of saints, prophets, and other religious themes, provides yet another clue to the owner’s assumed or coveted status. In some cases, the quantity of ownership marks within a single manuscript may seem an excessive branding of one’s possessions. Whether motivated as a way of displaying personal or political privilege and authority, or to commemorate family and lineage, the placement of visual signs, especially in a sacred context, appears to have been a common aim among late medieval nobility.2