ABSTRACT

The Duke of Nemours's desire for a synoptic collection of Arthurian images may have evolved from the time he inherited Jean de Berry's Lancelot-Graal. It was Cedric Pickford who first observed that Jacques d'Armagnac was a particularly avid reader of Arthurian romances. Three manuscripts have the Lancelot, Queste del Saint Graal, and Mort le roi Artu, romances from the so-called Vulgate Cycle or Lancelot-Graal. Some changes made to the miniatures were intended to clarify or amplify Berry's iconography. The author study of the duke's unique compilation of Arthurian romances, with which Pickford was primarily concerned, and his two Lancelot-Graals shows that their miniature cycles were made to interrelate. When taken together, the three cycles result in an exhaustive and largely non-repetitive visual synopsis of Arthurian episodes that emphasizes the completeness of the narrative. Since Jacques d'Armagnac Arthurian miniatures have similar patterns that are differentiated by variations of hand and occasionally minor details.