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Joanna of Castile’s Entry into Brussels: Viragos, Wise and Virtuous Women

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Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500

Part of the book series: The New Synthese Historical Library ((SYNL,volume 69))

Abstract

A late-fifteenth-century manuscript that illustrates the entry into Brussels of Joanna of Castile (1479–1555), later called Joanna the Mad, allows us to glimpse the surprising variety of virtues expected of a Burgundian princess at the time. Joanna married Philip the Fair, Duke of Burgundy and son of Emperor Maximilian, on 18 October 1496. Her entry into Brussels took place in December 1496. It is depicted in a contemporary manuscript today held in the Kupferstichkabinett in Berlin’s Staatliche Museen. It was commissioned by the city of Brussels, as can be seen from the opening miniature showing St Michael, the patron saint of Brussels. It is adorned with sixty-three watercolours on paper, each accompanied on the opposite page by a short Latin text giving a description and interpretation. This manuscript is a unique document: the oldest illustrated testimony of a princely entry in Burgundy. It predates the entry of Charles V into Bruges in 1515, which was recorded by both an illuminated manuscript and a printed book with thirty-three woodcuts.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Berlin, Staatliche Museen Preussischer Kulturbesitz, Kupferstichkabinett, MS 78 D5: paper, 356 × 250 mm., ca. 1496. See Paul Wescher, Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der Miniaturen, Handschriften und Einzelblätter des Kupferstichkabinetts der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin (Leipzig: J.J. Weber, 1931), pp. 179–181; Wim Blockmans, “Le Dialogue imaginaire entre princes et sujets: les joyeuses entrées en Brabant en 1494 et en 1496,” in A la Cour de Bourgogne: Le Duc, son entourage, son train, ed. Jean-Marie Cauchies (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), pp. 155–170, here p. 163; Wim Blockmans and Esther Donckers, “Self-Representation of Court and City in Flanders and Brabant in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries,” in Showing Status: Representation of Social Positions in the Late Middle Ages, ed. Wim Blockmans and Antheun Janse (Turnhout: Brepols, 1999), pp. 99–107; Birgit Franke, Assuerus und Esther am Burgunderhof: Zur Rezeption des Buches Esther in den Niederlanden (1450–1530) (Berlin: Gebrüder Mann, 1998), pp. 110–112; Carolus, Charles Quint 1500–1558, exhib. cat., ed. Hugo Soly and Jan van de Wiele (Snoeck-Ducaju & Fils), p. 170; Women of Distinction: Margaret of York, Margaret of Austria, exhib. Cat., ed. Dagmar Eichberger (Turnhout: Brepols, 2005), p. 81, no. 16 (Birgit Franke); Dagmar Eichberger, “Illustrierte Festzüge für das Haus Habsburg-Burgund: Idee und Wirklichkeit”, in Hofkultur in Frankreich und Europa im Spätmittelalte: La culture de cour en France et en Europe à la fin du Moyen Âge, ed. Christian Freigang and Jean-Claude Schmitt (Berlin: Akademie-Verlag, 2005), pp. 73–98.

  2. 2.

    Blockmans, “Le Dialogue imaginaire entre princes et sujets”; Wim Blockmans, “De onderdanen van de keizer” in Hugo Soly, ed., Karel V 1500–1558: de keiser en zijn tijd (Antwerp: Mercatorfonds, 1999), pp. 227–283; Gordon Kipling, Enter the King: Theatre, Liturgy, and Ritual in the Medieval Civic Triumph (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998); Dagmar Eichberger, Leben mit Kunst, Wirken durch Kunst: Sammelwesen und Hofkunst unter Margarete von Österreich, Regentin der Niederlande (Turnhout: Brepols, 2002), pp. 156, 337–339; Eichberger, “Illustrierte Festzüge für das Haus Habsburg-Burgund: Idee und Wirklichkeit,” pp. 73–98.

  3. 3.

    See Blockmans, “Le Dialogue imaginaire entre princes et sujets,” pp. 155–170; Blockmans and Donckers, “Self-Representation of Court and City in Flanders and Brabant in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries”; Blockmans, “De onderdanen van de keizer,” pp. 275–279 with nine colour reproductions. On the theatrical dimension of the entry, see M. Hermann, Forschungen zur Deutschen Theatergeschichte des Mittelalters und der Renaissance (Berlin: Weidmann, 1914), pp. 364–400.

  4. 4.

    A monograph on the manuscript by Dagmar Eichberger and Anne-Marie Legaré is in preparation.

  5. 5.

    On the tableau vivant and its popularity in Flanders in the late Middle Ages, see W.M.H. Jummelen, “Het tableau vivant, de ‘toog’, in de toneelspelen van de rederijkers” in Tijdschrift voor Nederlandse taal: En letterkunde 108 (1992), pp. 193–222; Blockmans and Donckers, “Self-Representation of Court and City in Flanders and Brabant in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries,” pp. 81–111. On the relationship between illuminators and the “tableau vivant”, see B.A.M. Ramakers, Spelen en figuren: Toneelkunst en processiecultuur in Oudenaarde tussen Middeleeuwen en Moderne Tijd (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1996), pp. 211, 217–220 passim.

  6. 6.

    Birgit Franke, “Female Role Models in Tapestries,” in Women of Distinction, pp. 155–164, especially pp. 156–157.

  7. 7.

    Fols. 43v–51v. Surprisingly, Ingrid Sedlacek does not include Joanna of Castile’s entry in her iconographical corpus of Amazons. See her study Die Neuf Preuses: Heldinnen des Spätmittelalters, Studien zur Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte 14 (Marburg: Jonas, 1997).

  8. 8.

    For these ideas, and many others relating to the Nine Female Worthies in this article, I am greatly indebted to Ingrid Sedlacek’s study mentioned above.

  9. 9.

    See H. David Brumble, Classical Myths and Legends in the Middle Ages and Renaissance: A Dictionary of Allegorical Meanings, London: Fitzroy Dearborn, article “The Amazons,” pp. 20–23. See also Bejczy, Chapter 1, this volume.

  10. 10.

    The theme of the Nine Worthies has been thoroughly studied by Wim Van Anrooij, Helden van weleer: De Negen Besten in de Nederlanden (1300–1700) (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 1997). See also Horst Schroeder, Der Topos der Nine Worthies in Literatur und Bildender Kunst (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1971), pp. 168–223, and Sedlacek, Die Neuf Preuses.

  11. 11.

    On Jean le Fèvre see Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Âge, ed. G. Hasenohr and M. Zink (Paris: Fayard, 2nd edition 1992), pp. 802–804.

  12. 12.

    Dictionnaire des lettres françaises, pp. 684–685.

  13. 13.

    The tradition of this theme of female pagan warriors has been traced by Ann McMillan, “Men’s Weapons, Women’s War: The Nine Female Worthies, 1400–1460,” Mediaevalia 5 (1979), pp. 113–139. See also Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet, “Penthésilée, reine des Amazones et Preuse, une image de la femme guerrière à la fin du Moyen Âge,” Clio 20 (2004), Armées (pp. 169–179, available at http://clio.revues.org/index1400.html).

  14. 14.

    Schroeder, Der Topos der Nine Worthies, p. 179.

  15. 15.

    Karen Green, “The Amazons and Madeleine de Scudéry’s Refashioning of Female Virtue,” in Expanding the Canon of Early Modern Women, ed. Paul Salzman (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2010), pp. 150–167; “Isabeau de Bavière and the Political Philosophy of Christine de Pizan,” Historical Reflections/Reflexions historiques 32 (2006), pp. 247–272; Karen Green, “Phronesis Feminised: Prudence from Christine de Pizan to Elizabeth I,” in Virtue, Liberty, and Toleration: Political Ideas of European Women, 1400–1800, ed. Jacqueline Broad and Karen Green (Dordrecht: Springer, 2007), pp. 23–38, here pp. 27–29.

  16. 16.

    Green, “The Amazons and Madeleine de Scudéry’s Refashioning of Female Virtue.”

  17. 17.

    Many thanks to Jeanne Verbij Schillings for this information.

  18. 18.

    Van Anrooij, Helden van weleer, p. 91.

  19. 19.

    On Philippe Bouton see Dictionnaire des lettres françaises, pp. 1137–1138.

  20. 20.

    The alternative structure which is always divided in three groups: Christian, Jewish, and pagan heroes and heroines, follows a tradition more popular in German-speaking countries. It includes the female Christian triad: Helen, Elizabeth of Hungary, and Birgit of Sweden, who are associated with Arthur, Charlemagne, and Godefroy de Bouillon; they are followed by the Jewish triad: Esther, Judith, and Jahel, combined with Joshua, David, and Judas Maccabaeus; and finally, the pagan triad: Lucretia, Venturia, and Virginia, paired with Hector, Alexander, and Caesar.

  21. 21.

    Dijon, Municipal Library, MS 3463, vellum, 205 × 135 mm, 12 ff. The dedication miniature was made ca. 1480 in Burgundy or in Flanders. See Jacques Tajan and Bernard Clavreuil, Editions originales d’auteurs français du XV e au XVIII e siècle, catalogue, Bibliothèque littéraire, manuscrits précieux (Paris: Librairie Thomas-Scheler, 1995), cat. no. 7, pp. 16–17; Hospices civils de Beaune [publ.; catalogue], Bruges à Beaune: Marie, l’héritage de Bourgogne (Paris: Somogy, 2000).

  22. 22.

    Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale MS 10557, vellum, 235 × 166 mm, fol. 12 ff. See Marguerite Debae, La Bibliothèque de Marguerite d’Autriche: Essai de reconstitution d’après l’inventaire de 1523–1524 (Louvain and Paris: Peeters, 1995), pp. 477–478, no. 342.

  23. 23.

    These examples have been grouped with others by Sedlacek, Die Neuf Preuses, pp. 118–119.

  24. 24.

    “Iceulx preux et preuses tous armés et montés sur coursiers, tous couvers de fins bougrans batus d’or et d’argent aux armes que les dessuzdiz portoient en leur plaines vies.” Collection générale des Documents français qui se trouvent en Angleterre I, Delpit, ed. (Paris: 1847; reprinted Geneva: 1971), p. 240, cited by Sedlacek, Die Neuf Preuses, p. 153 n. 6.

  25. 25.

    Mentioned in Jean de Stavelot’s Chronique, A. Borgnet ed., Collection des Chroniques belges inédites 10 (Brussels: Borgnet, 1861), p. 539 and by Schroeder, Der Topos der Nine Worthies, p. 198. See Sedlacek, Die Neuf Preuses, p. 119.

  26. 26.

    “La royne Penthasillée, la preuse Deiphille, la royne Synope, la vieille Semiramis de Babilone, la belle Menalippe, la sage Ypolite, la royne Lampheto, la vierge Theuca, la royne Tharamis.” Cited by Sedlacek, Die Neuf Preuses, p. 118, and p. 153 n. 8, from the Collection générale des documents français qui se trouvent en Angleterre.

  27. 27.

    Sedlacek, Die Neuf Preuses, pp. 66–74.

  28. 28.

    BNF MS Clairambault 1312, before 1467. See Sedlacek, Die Neuf Preuses, pp. 72–73 with six black and white reproductions.

  29. 29.

    On this question, see Jean-Marie Cauchies, “La Signification politique des entrées princières dans les Pays-Bas: Maximilien d’Autriche et Philippe le Beau,” in À la Cour de Bourgogne: Le Duc, son entourage, son train (Turnhout: Brepols, 1998), pp. 137–152.

  30. 30.

    Hugo Soly, “Plechtige intochten in de steden van de Zuidelijke Nederlanden tijdens de overgang van Middeleeuwen naar Nieuwe Tijd: communicatie, propaganda, spektakel,” Tijdschrift voor geschiedenis 97, pp. 341–361, here p. 345. Also cited by Cauchies, “La Signification politique des entrées princières,” p. 146 n. 49.

  31. 31.

    In English: “naked, and real women”; see Chroniques de Jean Molinet (1474–1506), G. Doutrepont and O. Jodogne eds. (Brussels: G. Doutrepont and O. Jodogne, 1936), vol. 2, pp. 397–398. See Cauchies, “La Signification politique des entrées princières,” p. 146.

  32. 32.

    On Raoul le Fèvre, see Dictionnaire des lettres françaises, pp. 1238–1239.

  33. 33.

    Women of Distinction, pp. 242–243, no. 80.

  34. 34.

    Anne-Marie Legaré, “The Master of Antoine Rolin: A Hainaut Illuminator Working in the Orbit of Simon Marmion”, ed. Thomas Kren, in Margaret of York, Simon Marmion, and The Visions of Tondal, Papers Delivered at a Symposium Organized by the Department of Manuscripts of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Collaboration with the Huntington Library and Art Collections, June 21–24 1990 (Malibu, California: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 1992), pp. 209–222.

  35. 35.

    I would like to thank Karen Green for this insight.

  36. 36.

    Fol. 56v: “Hoc schemate representatur uti tres dee Paridi fata nuntiaverunt. Sic Johannam Hyspanie faustis comitatam tria dona Philippo afferentem applicuisse congratulantes avisarunt.” I would like to thank Bruno Roy for this transcription and Marie Madeleine Fontaine for its translation. (Pallas is a common alternative name for Athena—or Minerva, to match the Roman names used here. The god Mercury is also depicted, opposite Paris in the foreground.)

  37. 37.

    Margaret J. Ehrhart, “Christine de Pizan and the Judgment of Paris: A Court Poet’s Use of Mythographic Tradition,” in The Mythographic Art: Classical Fable and the Rise of the Vernacular in Early France and England, ed. Jane Chance (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1990), pp. 125–156, here especially pp. 126–129.

  38. 38.

    Edgar Wind, Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance (New York: Norton, 1968), pp. 96–97.

  39. 39.

    See Margaret J. Ehrhart, The Judgment of the Trojan Prince Paris in Medieval Literature (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1987), pp. 206–207.

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  1. University of Lille 3, Lille, France

    Anne-Marie Legaré

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Correspondence to Anne-Marie Legaré .

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  1. , School of Philosophy and Bioethics, Monash University, Melbourne, 3800, Australia

    Karen Green

  2. , Centre for Studies in Religion, Monash University, Melbourne, 3800, Australia

    Constant Mews

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Legaré, AM. (2011). Joanna of Castile’s Entry into Brussels: Viragos, Wise and Virtuous Women. In: Green, K., Mews, C. (eds) Virtue Ethics for Women 1250-1500. The New Synthese Historical Library, vol 69. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0529-6_12

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