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The Grandes Chroniques de France de Charles V (The Great Chronicle of France of Charles V) was recognised as the standard official history of the French monarchy. By the late 13th century it had become the custom of the monks of Saint-Denis to record remarkable contemporary events. This habit was then systematically continued by court historians, and ultimately developed into a historical project unique in the whole of Europe. Like his predecessors, Charles V was strongly concerned to have a lavish, historically updated new copy of the chronicles made, based on the old repertoire of text. This luxurious manuscript actually consists of two volumes illuminated by numerous anonymous artists in very different styles.
The upper scene on folio 394r shows King John the Good endowing the Order of the Star. The lower scene shows the knights of the order celebrating this endowment at a banquet, where they are entertained by minstrels playing the bagpipes and a shawm (a medieval and Renaissance musical instrument of the woodwind family).
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