A Heraldic Dream: the Treatise on Blazon of Frederick of Aragon, last King of Naples

Catherine Yvard

p. 211-244

Remerciements

I would like to thank Samuel Gras, Javier Docampo, the BNE, and the whole HispaNord/Proyecto Codex team in Lille and Madrid. Many thanks also to Stuart Kinsella and Michaela Zöschg for their advice.


Extrait

1Among the French illuminated manuscripts in the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE) in Madrid is a little studied early sixteenth-century heraldic treatise associated with the name of Frederick of Aragon (1451-1504), last king of Naples1. Turning its pages, one is faced with an astounding collection of shields teaming with colours, metals and shapes: this wide range of charges, initially geometric, turns into a visual inventory of the natural and man-made world, from lions to planets, garments to architectural constructions, ships to household objects. Heraldry appears to have been a pretext for producing a lavish picture book, a dizzying catalogue of heraldic permutations. This paper will investigate the manuscript’s content, function and production, and place it in the context of Frederick’s library, during his lifetime and beyond, tracing its trajectory from the last king of Naples to King Philip IV of Spain (r. 1621-1665).

“All manner of arms”

2The volume, enclosed in a 17th

Les formats HTML, PDF et ePub de cet ouvrage sont accessibles aux usagers des bibliothèques partenaires qui l’ont acquis. L’ouvrage pourra également être acheté sur les sites des libraires partenaires, aux formats PDF et ePub, si l’éditeur a fait le choix de cette diffusion commerciale. Si l’édition papier est disponible, des liens vers les librairies sont proposés sur cette page.


Le texte seul est utilisable sous licence Licence OpenEdition Books. Les autres éléments (illustrations, fichiers annexes importés) sont « Tous droits réservés », sauf mention contraire.