MINIATURIST, Flemish
(active 1490s in Bruges)

Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung: Romance of the Rose

1490s
Manuscript (Harley Ms. 4425)
British Library, London

This manuscript contains an old French allegorical romance in verses on love, written in two parts by two different authors active independently of each other and at different periods. The authors are Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200-c. 1240) and Jean de Meung (c. 1240-1305). From the end of the 13th century the Romance of the Rose had remained one of the most popular themes of miniature painting for over two hundred years. Approximately 500 illustrated manuscripts survive. One of the finest is the copy in the British Library whose miniatures have recently been ascribed to the Master of Engelbert of Nassau who is identified by some scholars with the Master of Mary of Burgundy.

The miniature on folio 39 depicts the Castle of Jealousy.