Royal Library of Belgium
The Library of the Dukes of Burgundy
Six centuries ago, most of what is now Belgium & the Netherlands belonged to the illustrious Dukes of Burgundy. From 1384 to 1477, through marriages, acquisitions & inheritances, they forged a new state across much of France & the Low Countries. The Burgundian court was resplendent with artistic & literary renewal, especially during the reign of Philip the Good (1396–1467), when the House of Valois-Burgundy reached the apex of its prosperity & prestige. This artistic flourishing was also reflected in illuminated manuscripts, which became symbols of luxury & intellectual cultivation. At the time of Philip the Good, the ducal library contained no fewer than nine hundred such manuscripts, and despite disasters & looting, nearly one-third of them have survived to the present day.
The museum of the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR) in Brussels is dedicated to the ducal manuscript collection and the century in which it was established. Its highlights include the Peterborough Psalter, Chroniques de Hainaut, the Roman de Gérard de Nevers, the Livres du roi Modus et de la reine Ratio, and Conquêtes et chroniques de Charlemagne. Because manuscripts cannot be permanently on display, a selection of the exhibits is changed every four months, so there is no guarantee that you will find your favourite titles in the exhibition at any given time. Depending on your age or level of interest you can choose between three different tours — if you pick the comprehensive one, which I recommend, your visit will typically take around two hours, or substantially longer if you’re a bibliophile.
www.kbr.beReader Comments
Dominic
A sumptuous feast of a book, Bart Van Loo’s The Burgundians is a rollicking history of the medieval superpower that vanished with barely a trace. If you haven’t already read it, your visit to the KBR Museum will definitely inspire you to do so.
Rosalind
The Roman de Gérard de Nevers tells the story of two noblemen, Gerard and Liziart, and Euriant, the lady to whom the former is betrothed. When Gerard boasts his love for Euriant during a gathering at the court of the King of France, Liziart claims to be able to seduce her, leading Gerard to wager his lands & fortune on the sexual fidelity of his beloved. After having had his advances firmly rebuffed by Euriant, Liziart, with the help of Gondree, her corrupt nurse, manages to spy on her and discovers the violet-shaped birthmark that she has on her right breast. Armed with this false evidence, Liziart returns to court and convinces the King that he has succeeded in seducing Euriant, so winning the wager and taking Gerard’s lands & title from him. Gerard then repudiates Euriant and abandons her, and the two of them undergo a long series of separate adventures. At some point Gerard, disguised as a minstrel, manages to enter the castle of Nevers and overhears Gondree & Liziart talking about how they tricked him in the wager, and in the end Gerard defeats Liziart in a tournament presided over by the King & Queen, thereby restoring Euriant’s good name and clearing her of the accusation of disloyalty. On top of this, Gerard regains his county and obtains that of his rival, and marries Euriant.
Ignace
One of the books on display contains the music for the polyphonic motet Proch Dolor, an elegy on the death of Emperor Maximilian I. While you explore the manuscript you can listen to the lament, and a console allows you to isolate or mix the four voices of the seven singers.
Françoise
The Royal Library holds several autograph manuscripts by Christine de Pizan, one of the first professional women of letters. Her best-known book is Le Livre de la Cité des dames, which she wrote in praise of women and as a defence of their capabilities & virtues. De Pizan is noted for sparking the first literary debate in French, the so-called Querelle des dames, when she criticized the misogynistic character of Le Roman de la Rose, one of the Middle Ages’ most popular novels.