At the turn of the century, the art of illumination began to disappear, supplanted by the printed book, which had been gaining popularity ever since the invention of the printing press, generally attributed to Gutenberg with the printing of the first Bible in Mainz in 1454. The Fondation Martin Bodmer (Cologny, Geneva) holds an exemplar of this Bible, which is the jewel in the crown of the Fondation’s collection. In France, starting in the 1490s-1500s, printed books became increasingly common, gradually eroding the tradition of manuscript and illuminated books, which were more time-consuming and more expensive to produce (see also n. 10 in the present catalogue). This transition naturally provoked the anger of the scribes and illuminators, who started losing their jobs. A precious testimony from this period is the petition signed by the illuminators working in Toulouse, addressed to their city parliament, requesting the suppression of the printing press to avoid falling into poverty. However, some illuminators managed to adapt to this new era, notably by creating engraved models for printed books. Jean d’Ypres is certainly the most notable example of this adaptation; after having illuminated several magnificent manuscripts, including the Très Petites Heures d’Anne de Bretagne (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. nouv. acq. lat. 3120) he started to provide engravings destined to Books of Hours or other books to Parisian libraries.

The present illuminated leaf depicting the Pentecost is a beautiful example of French illumination from the period when illuminated manuscripts were gradually being replaced by printed books. Extracted from an unidentified Book of Hours, this illuminated leaf illustrates all the characteristics of Parisian art from the early 16th century: the brushwork is quick, the contours are marked, the palette is diluted, the colors are vivid, and the profusion of decorations in the four borders is notable. This richness of colors and decorative elements in manuscripts from the early 16th century is often seen as the swan song of the illuminators, certainly aware that they were witnessing the last moments of their craft.

The artist responsible for our illuminated leaf is aligned with the style of the illuminator Étienne Colaud, active in Paris during the first half of the 16th century and known thanks to his signature, which appears in a Book of Hours he produced (now in private hands). Highly prolific, Étienne Colaud is now recognized as the author of numerous manuscripts, though his body of work presents some issues of consistency. Several manuscripts, marked by Étienne Colaud’s style, are the work of collaborators, associates, or followers. Among these, it is important to mention the illuminator that art historian Marie-Blanche Cousseau named "L’exécutant principal des Statuts" who illuminated several copies of the Statutes of the Order of Saint Michael produced during the reign of Francis the 1st in collaboration with Étienne Colaud. Within the Parisian workshop, it is perhaps with this artist that the illuminator of our Pentecost shares the most stylistic similarities. More specifically, we believe we recognize the hand of our artist in three other manuscripts, all indebted to the style developed by Étienne Colaud’s workshop: a copy of the Institution of the Prince preserved at the Arsenal Library in Paris (ms. 5103), a copy of Petrarch’s Triumphs (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, ms. fr. 12423), and a pontifical bearing the arms of Philippe de Lévis, Bishop of Mirepoix (1466-1537), preserved in Poitiers (Municipal Library, ms. 822).

We thank Dr Marie Mazzone for her expertise.