14C-16C Courtyards & Gameparks - Ladies on Horseback Hunting, Fighting, Celebrating

1338 Ambrogio Lorenzetti (or Ambruogio Laurati) (c. 1290-1348) Lady & Her Dog

 La Fleur des Histoires by Jean Mansel, 1450-80

Les anciennes Histoires des Romains  gallica.bnf.fr Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Français 64, fol. 73r.

 Hunt with Hawks from the Hours of Duke de Berry, detail 1412-16

 Life of  Saint Jacques de Compostelle, 1386

Joan of Arc depicted on horseback, 1505 manuscript.

 Penthesilea as one of the Nine Female Worthies, 1460-70

  Roman du Chevalier, Tristan and Isolde, 15C.

Royal, Military and Court Costumes from the time of James I Folger Shakespeare Library

  Bodleian Alexander manuscript (MS Bodl. 264)

Bodleian, MS. Douce 195, detail of f. 109v Watched by Pity, Frankness, a woman on horseback, attacks the male Danger (Reserve) with lance Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meung, Le roman de la rose. France, 15C

Saint Helena & Heraclius taking the Holy Cross to Jerusalem by Miguel Ximenes, 1481

Table Ronde 13C Universitätsbibliothek Bonn and the Hill Museum & Manuscript Library.  Folio 489, ii F.

Celebrating the month of May from the Breviarium Grimani by Gerard Horenbout, Alexander & Simon Bening (1483-1561)  c. 1510

 Celebrating The Month of May from the Hours of Duke de Berry 1412-16

Illustration from a Book of Poetry by Christine de Pisan,14th c. French School

Barbara of Celje from Manuscript  Bellifortis by Konrad Kyeser, c. 1405

 Venus and her children, the Wolfegg Housebook, c. 1475-1485

Lady probably hunting with hawks, mid 15C The British Museum playing cards printed by the German Monogrammist PW

 Lady on Horse by the German Monogrammist PW mid 15C The British Museum 

Lady on horse depicted on playing cards printed by the German Monogrammist PW mid 15C The British Museum 

Hunting Birds in Gameparks - Illuminated Manuscripts

Master of Girart de Roussillon, The Book of King Modus and Queen Ratio (after 1455)

During Medieval times, local lords strove to maintain & monopolize the forest reserves & the taking of big game in those forest reserves, & small game in warrens. They were most successful in England after the Norman Conquest, & in Gascony from the 12C. These were large sanctuaries of woodland — the royal forest — where populations of game animals were kept & watched over by gamekeepers. The peasantry could not hunt in these gameparks, poaching being subject to severe punishment: the injustice of such "emparked" preserves became a common cause of complaint in vernacular literature. The lower classes mostly had to content themselves with snaring birds & smaller game outside of restricted forest reserves & gameparks.

Master of Girart de Roussillon, The Book of King Modus and Queen Ratio (after 1455)

Piero de' Crescenzi (1233-1321) wrote of Hunting in Book 10 of his Liber ruralium commodorum 1304-09. He advised that the gamepark should be stocked with hare, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, & rabbits.  He recommended the English, French, & Spanish hare specifically.  He wrote of hunting dogs & their dietary recommendations for each season & even times of the day to feed them.  Those participating in "the hunt" lived with unique vocabularies, customs, & ancient rituals.

Master of Girart de Roussillon, The Book of King Modus and Queen Ratio (after 1455). You might be interested in comparing this last image with the one below painted about 300 years later...

As time passed, the invention of the terms & rituals of Medieval hunting for nobles was attributed by Malory & others to the Arthurian knight Sir Tristram, who was seen both as the model of the noble huntsman, & the originator of its rituals: As he (Sir Tristram) grew in power & strength he laboured in hunting & hawking - never a gentleman that we ever heard of did more. Reportedly, he devised good methods to take beasts of venery, & beasts of the chase & all kinds of vermin, & all the terms used in hawking & hunting. And therefore the book of venery, of hawking & hunting, is called Sir Tristram's. Therefore all gentlemen who bear old (coats of) arms ought to honour Sir Tristram for the goodly terms that gentlemen have & use, & shall until Doomsday, that through them all men of respect may distinguish a gentleman from a yeoman & a yeoman from a villein. See: du Fouilloux, Jaques (1561). La Venerie de Jaques du Fouilloux  &  Turbervile, George (1575). The Noble Art of Venerie or Huntyng (A translation of du Fouilloux)

1775 Francisco Goya (Spanish artist, 1746-1828) Hunting with a Decoy

By the 16C, areas of European land reserved for breeding & hunting of game were of 3 kinds, according to their degree of enclosure & being subject to Forest Laws: 
Forests, large unenclosed areas of wilderness; 
Chases, which normally belonged to nobles, not the crown; &
Game Parks, which were enclosed, & not subject to traditional Forest Laws.

May - Falconry - Using a bird to help hunting other birds. Agricultural calendar from a manuscript of Piero de' Crescenzi (1233-1321) written c. 1306. Illumination from The Boccaccio Master Geneva (active between 1448-75) Illustration 1470-75

 Falconry French Miniaturist, c. 1180, illumination on parchment (Koninklijke, The Hague)

 Frederick II and his falconers

Codex Manesse Markgraf Heinrich von Meißen

 A Falconer and a Gamekeeper c. 1600.

Manesse Codex (UBH Cod. Pal. germ. 848) Der Kol von Nüssen (fol. 396r) Zürich, ca. 1300 bis ca. 1340

 Emperor Frederick II and Falcon

Manesse Codex (UBH Cod. Pal. germ. 848) Kunz von Rosenheim (fol. 394r), Zürich, ca. 1300 bis ca. 1340

 Falconer at his stand from De arte venandi cum avibus, 1240s 1250 – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II wrote a treatise on The Art of Hunting with Birds

Manesse Codex (UBH Cod. Pal. germ. 848 König Konrad der Junge (fol. 7r) Zürich, ca. 1300 bis ca. 1340

 Falconers from De arte venandi cum avibus, 1240s 1250 – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II wrote a treatise on The Art of Hunting with Birds

 Falconers with horse from De arte venandi cum avibus, 1240s 1250 – Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II wrote a treatise on The Art of Hunting with Birds

King William I and King Harold II of England, Bayeux Tapestry.

Falconer San Baudelio de Berlanga

1490 Dogs & Nobless Off to Hunt in the Gamepark - Illuminated Manuscripts

Grimani Breviary 1490-1510 Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice

During Medieval times, local lords strove to maintain & monopolize the forest reserves & the taking of big game in those forest reserves, & small game in warrens. They were most successful in England after the Norman Conquest, & in Gascony from the 12C. These were large sanctuaries of woodland — the royal forest — where populations of game animals were kept & watched over by gamekeepers. The peasantry could not hunt in these gameparks, poaching being subject to severe punishment: the injustice of such "emparked" preserves became a common cause of complaint in vernacular literature. The lower classes mostly had to content themselves with snaring birds & smaller game outside of restricted forest reserves & gameparks.

Piero de' Crescenzi (1233-1321) wrote of Hunting in Book 10 of his Liber ruralium commodorum 1304-09. He advised that the gamepark should be stocked with hare, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, & rabbits.  He recommended the English, French, & Spanish hare specifically.  He wrote of hunting dogs & their dietary recommendations for each season & even times of the day to feed them.  Those participating in "the hunt" lived with unique vocabularies, customs, & ancient rituals.

As time passed, the invention of the terms & rituals of Medieval hunting for nobles was attributed by Malory & others to the Arthurian knight Sir Tristram, who was seen both as the model of the noble huntsman, & the originator of its rituals: As he (Sir Tristram) grew in power & strength he laboured in hunting & hawking - never a gentleman that we ever heard of did more. Reportedly, he devised good methods to take beasts of venery, & beasts of the chase & all kinds of vermin, & all the terms used in hawking & hunting. And therefore the book of venery, of hawking & hunting, is called Sir Tristram's. Therefore all gentlemen who bear old (coats of) arms ought to honour Sir Tristram for the goodly terms that gentlemen have & use, & shall until Doomsday, that through them all men of respect may distinguish a gentleman from a yeoman & a yeoman from a villein. See: du Fouilloux, Jaques (1561). La Venerie de Jaques du Fouilloux  &  Turbervile, George (1575). The Noble Art of Venerie or Huntyng (A translation of du Fouilloux)

By the 16C, areas of European land reserved for breeding & hunting of game were of 3 kinds, according to their degree of enclosure & being subject to Forest Laws: 
Forests, large unenclosed areas of wilderness; 
Chases, which normally belonged to nobles, not the crown; &
Game-Parks, which were enclosed, & not subject to traditional Forest Laws.

See
Joyce Salisbury, The Beast Within. Animals in the Middle Ages (New York, 1994). 

HH J. Cummins, The Hound and the Hawk. The Art of Medieval Hunting (London, 2001). 

Hunting A. Smets and B. V an den Abeele, “Medieval Hunting” in Animals in the Medieval Age (Oxford, 2011).

Hannele Klemettilä, Animals and Hunters in the Late Middle Ages (Routledge, 2015) 

MH R. Almond, Medieval Hunting (Phoenix Mill, 2003). 

15C Women, Horses, Dogs & All the Trappings for a Gamepark - Illuminated Manuscripts

August Très riches heures du Duc de Berry, 1412-16, by Pol and Hermann de Limbourg. Nobility riding out to hunt with falcons & dogs, while the harvest takes place & laborers bathe nearby

During Medieval times, local lords strove to maintain & monopolize the forest reserves & the taking of big game in those forest reserves, & small game in warrens. They were most successful in England after the Norman Conquest, & in Gascony from the 12C. These were large sanctuaries of woodland — the royal forest — where populations of game animals were kept & watched over by gamekeepers. The peasantry could not hunt in these gameparks, poaching being subject to severe punishment: the injustice of such "emparked" preserves became a common cause of complaint in vernacular literature. The lower classes mostly had to content themselves with snaring birds & smaller game outside of restricted forest reserves & gameparks.

Piero de' Crescenzi (1233-1321) wrote of Hunting in Book 10 of his Liber ruralium commodorum 1304-09. He advised that the gamepark should be stocked with hare, roe deer, red deer, wild boar, & rabbits.  He recommended the English, French, & Spanish hare specifically.  He wrote of hunting dogs & their dietary recommendations for each season & even times of the day to feed them.  Those participating in "the hunt" lived with unique vocabularies, customs, & ancient rituals.

As time passed, the invention of the terms & rituals of Medieval hunting for nobles was attributed by Malory & others to the Arthurian knight Sir Tristram, who was seen both as the model of the noble huntsman, & the originator of its rituals: As he (Sir Tristram) grew in power & strength he laboured in hunting & hawking - never a gentleman that we ever heard of did more. Reportedly, he devised good methods to take beasts of venery, & beasts of the chase & all kinds of vermin, & all the terms used in hawking & hunting. And therefore the book of venery, of hawking & hunting, is called Sir Tristram's. Therefore all gentlemen who bear old (coats of) arms ought to honour Sir Tristram for the goodly terms that gentlemen have & use, & shall until Doomsday, that through them all men of respect may distinguish a gentleman from a yeoman & a yeoman from a villein. See: du Fouilloux, Jaques (1561). La Venerie de Jaques du Fouilloux  &  Turbervile, George (1575). The Noble Art of Venerie or Huntyng (A translation of du Fouilloux)

By the 16C, areas of European land reserved for breeding & hunting of game were of 3 kinds, according to their degree of enclosure & being subject to Forest Laws: 
Forests, large unenclosed areas of wilderness; 
Chases, which normally belonged to nobles, not the crown; &
Game-Parks, which were enclosed, & not subject to traditional Forest Laws.

See
Joyce Salisbury, The Beast Within. Animals in the Middle Ages (New York, 1994). 

Chasse L.-J. Bord and J.-P. Mugg, La chasse au Moyen Age. Occident latin, Ve–XVe siècle (Paris, 2008). 

Robert Delort, Le commerce des fourrures en Occident à la fin du Moyen Age ,2 vols. (Rome, 1978). 

HH J. Cummins, The Hound and the Hawk. The Art of Medieval Hunting (London, 2001). 

Hunting A. Smets and B. V an den Abeele, “Medieval Hunting” in  Animals in the Medieval Age (Oxford, 2011).

Hannele Klemettilä, Animals and Hunters in the Late Middle Ages (Routledge, 2015) 

Edward of Norwich, The Master of Game , ed. W. Baillie-Grohman and F. Baillie-Grohman (Philadelphia, 2005). 

MH R. Almond, Medieval Hunting (Phoenix Mill, 2003). 

Poétique A. Strubel and C. de Saulnier, La poétique de la chasse au Moyen Age: Les livres de chasse du XIVe siècle (Paris, 1994). 

15C Formal Garden

The Four Seasons - Lente (Spring) From a series of four plates (Hollstein 1404-1407) plates originally published by Assuerus van Londerseel.

15C Paradise Garden

1410 Meister des Frankfurter Paradiesgärtleins. Little Garden of Paradise

Grapes to Wine

Gathering Grapes for Wine September 1793

18C Growing Grapes - No Hint of Wine

1781 The Twelve Months print Carington Bowles (Published by) Robert Dighton (After) Richard Earlom (Print made by) London. Gathering the grapes.

18C Growing Grapes - No Hint of Wine

1767  Woman with Grapes  Printed for Robert Sayer, London. 

18C Growing Grapes - No Hint of Wine

1712 Louis de Boullogne (After) Nicolas Chateau (Print made by) Nicolas Chateau (Published by) 1712 Paris

18C Growing Grapes - No Hint of Wine

1750s Autumn; print; Charles Corbutt (Print made by); Robert Pyle (After); Robert Sayer (Published by); 1748-1760; London

1600s Picking Grapes - No Hint of Wine

1690s Four Seasons L'autonne Nicolas Bonnart I (Print made by) Nicolas Bonnart I (Published by) 1652-1718 Paris

1700s Grapes & Lust

1758 Autumn; print; Thomas Burford (Published by); Nicolas Lancret (After); John Simon (Print made by); 1758; London