“Manuscript Illumination in Paris: Something Old, Something New”
Myra Dickman Orth

The production of illuminated manuscripts in France in the early sixteenth century was increasingly concentrated in Paris which gained as other centers of manuscript production diminished in importance. Libraires (publishers), scribes, and artists continued to work anonymously in the established sequence of manuscript production. Their traditional neighborhood, richly documented for the earlier period by Mary and Richard Rouse, had been largely taken over by the printing trade which is well recorded, while the continuing production of manuscripts remains obscure.

A certain amount of interpretive creativity is called for; this paper is a work in progress. I will draw on newly interpreted documentation on artist-entrepreneurs who designed and directed the making of miniatures in collaboration with unknown libraires. Approaching the problem from the patron's end yields scant results, but one document concerning the production of illuminated manuscripts of Marguerite de Navarre's poetry is striking. I will consider other authors who replaced the libraire in overseeing the making of a richly illustrated copy of their work; or the less exceptional cases of scribes who doubled as producers. Finally, and central to questions of book production in Paris, I will discuss the interesting relationship between print publishers and the manuscript painters.