“Praise for the Patron: the Louenges of Anthoine Vérard”
Mary Beth Winn

Prominent bookseller and publisher in late-15th century Paris, with two shops in the capital and an outlet in Tours, Anthoine Vérard is best known for his deluxe copies printed on vellum and illuminated by pre-eminent artists of the day.  Vérard catered to the royal court and profited from its patronage, but he also promoted contemporary authors, producing first editions of individual works as well as compilations of texts that remain invaluable today.  One such edition is the Louenges de Notre Dame which contains poems in praise of the Virgin Mary composed by a score of authors, some as famous as Molinet and Jean Lemaire, others identified only through an acrostic.  This printed collection, published ca. 1503, was subsequently edited for an illuminated manuscript which Vérard presented to an unnamed female patron who is portrayed in several miniatures kneeling before the Virgin.  Just as the manuscript mirrors the printed collection, so praise to the Virgin is deflected onto the publisher’s “lady.”  Both printed edition and manuscript are “signed” with an acrostic poem by their producer, Anthoine Vérard.  The Louenges manifest a network of relationships between patron and publisher, poet and public, compiler and scribe, illuminator and printer, that highlights the complexity of book production in late medieval Paris.