Are we to deprive the readers of The BurLINGTON MAGAZINE of the opportunities which the publication of such pictures may give them? Doubtless in a normal state of things such pictures would ultimately find their way either into the National Gallery or at least into the possession of some English collector. But as things are they are far more likely to find a home either, let us say, in the Berlin, Amsterdam, or Munich Museum, or in a private collection on the other side of the Atlantic; and it may be very difficult to trace them if the opportunity is lost of publishing them while they are in London. Were the National Gallery still a buyer of pictures, it might not be necessary for a periodical to take such a course as we have taken. But it is notorious that the National Gallery is no longer a buyer of pictures; not merely is the money allotted by the Government absurdly inadequate, but it is also the case that, inadequate as it is, it is not made the best use of. Only last month Mr. Weale pointed out in this Magazine that the Berlin Gallery had recently bought for £1,000 a charming picture by a rare Flemish master, which was sold at Christie's eight years ago for £3 10s., and this is merely one example of the almost innumerable opportunities that escape those who at present direct the National Gallery. Although we are told that present prices in England are prohibitive so far as public collections are concerned, it is nevertheless the fact that museums such as those of Berlin, Boston, Munich, and Amsterdam find it worth while to buy largely in London, and we do not suppose that they always pay exorbitant prices, although of course a large and wealthy country like Bavaria can afford to spend more on art than a country like England. In former years a London dealer who had a particularly fine picture in his possession would have offered it to the National Gallery; now that is the last thing that he thinks of doing; he knows too well that the authorities

of the National Gallery would probably not The Publitake the trouble even to look at it, and that cation of some of those who would have a voice in Works of Art deciding whether it should be purchased Belonging to have not the necessary qualifications for Dealers making such a decision. The evil has been increased by the insane rule now in force, that the trustees of the National Gallery must be unanimous before any picture is purchased—a rule which, as anyone with sense would have foreseen, has led to an absolute deadlock. Within the last few weeks, for instance, the chance of purchasing a superb work of Frans Hals at a very moderate price has been lost to the nation, simply because one of the trustees of the National Gallery refuses to agree to any purchase that does not suit his own preference for art of what may be called the glorified chocolate-box type. ¶ But we need not now enlarge upon this subject, with which we hope to deal at some future time; we have said enough perhaps to support our contention that it is hopeless to expect that fine pictures which have passed into the hands of London dealers will find their way into that collection which has been made by former directors one of the most representative in the world of the best European art. This being so, we feel very strongly that we ought to risk something in order to give the readers of THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE the opportunity of seeing, at least, reproductions of works of art which they may otherwise never have the opportunity of seeing. At the same time we cannot lightly reject the objections which have been raised by those who, as we know, have only the best interests of THE BURLINGTON MAGAZINE at heart; and, while we do not at present feel disposed to alter our policy in this respect, we are nevertheless open to argument, and if the considerations which we have put forward can be shown to be unsound or inadequate we are prepared to be convinced. We invite from our readers expressions of opinion on the subject.

HENthe burly Landsknechte stormed the walls of the deer park and therewith won the hard-fought battle of Pavia, one of the treasures they captured in Francis's sumptuous gold-laden tents was a vellum Codex of folio size, almost every leaf of which bore beautifully illuminated pictures of hunting scenes. We know from other evidence that this precious volume was one of the favourite books of the luxury-loving French king, and the fact that he took it with him to the Italian wars in preference to a printed copy, infinitely more portable, such as had been turned out in three different editions by the hand-presses of Antoine Verard, Trepperel, and Philippe le Noir, is a further proof that Francis's love for finely illuminated manuscript was a ruling passion with him. It is this very MS. which forms the subject of these lines, and the facsimile reproductions, which the writer obtained permission to have executed by competent hands, show the rare skill of the fifteenth-century miniaturist of whose identity we unfortunately know but little.

W

The history of this Codex is an extremely interesting one and well worth the research expended upon it by Gaucheraud, Joseph Lavallée, Werth, and others. The eightyfive chapters are written in a wonderfully regular and perfect hand, and the ink is today as black and clean of outline as it was four and a half centuries ago. The author of what is unquestionably the most beautiful hunting manuscript extant was Count Gaston de Foix, the oft-cited patron of Froissart. This great noble and hunter began the book on May Day 1387, and we know that it was completed when a fit of apoplexy, after a bear hunt, cut short his remarkable career four years later, when he

was in his sixty-first year. Of the forty, or possibly forty-one, ancient copies of this hunting book that have come down to us, one or two were written it is almost certain during the author's lifetime, though the original itself, which was dedicated by Gaston to Phelippes de France, duc de Bourgoigne,' disappeared in a mysterious manner from the Escurial during the eventful year of 1809, and has not turned up since. None of the other contemporary copies have illuminations at all comparable to those in our MS., for the simple reason that it was not until some decades later that art had reached, even in France, the brilliancy that our illuminations show. For although Argote de Molina-who in his 'Libro de la Monteria,' published in Seville in 1582, describes the lost original-says 'el qual se vee illuminado de excelente mano,' it is safe to say that, could we place the original side by side with the MS. of which we are speaking, its illuminations would be found to be far inferior to those in the MS. owned by Francis I. Very likely the lost original MS. was written by one or the other of the four secretaries Froissart tells us were constantly employed by Count de Foix. These he did not call John, or Gautier, or William, but nicknamed them 'Bad-me-serve,' or 'Good-for-nothings.' The illuminations were probably the work of some wandering master-illuminator attracted to the splendid court at Orthéz by the Count's well-known prodigal liberality. ¶Gaston de Foix, to interrupt for a brief spell our tale, was the lord of Foix and Béarn; buffer countships at the foot of the Pyrenees-the castle of Pau was one of Foix's strongholds. He succeeded, as Gaston III, at the age of twelve to his principalities. Two years later he was serving against the English, and shortly afterwards was made Lieutenant de Roi' in

Languedoc and Gascony, and at the age of
eighteen he married Agnes daughter of
Philip III King of Navarre.
His person

was so handsome, his bodily strength so great, his hair of such sunny golden hue, that he acquired the name of Le Roi Phoebus or Gaston Phoebus, by which latter both he and his hunting book have gone down to posterity. The oldest copy that is extant is preserved in the same treasure-house that contains our MS. and some fourteen other copies of it, namely the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. It bears the number 619 (anc. 7,098), while our MS. is numbered f.fr. 616 (anc. 7,097), and if P. Paris MSS. Franc. V 217 is right, it was Gaston's working copy. The pictures in this MS. are shaded black-and-white drawings, and are not illuminations. That its origin was the south of France is proved, as M. Joseph Lavallée says, by the spelling of certain words: car being spelt quar, baigner as bainher, montagne as montainhe, a manner peculiar in the fourteenth century to the langue d'Oc. The fact that in the MS. 616 these words are spelt in the more modern fashion supports the theory, according to the last-mentioned authority, that it was written at a later date, i.e. in the first half of the fifteenth century, thus confirming the impression already produced by the far superior illuminations in MS. 616. These latter, as we see by a glance at the two full-page reproductions, somewhat reduced in size though they necessarily had to be to find space in this place, evince the unmistakable signs of having been created during a period of transition in the miniaturist's art. For while the one has the characteristic diapered background, the other has a more realistic horizon, which betokens a later origin than the beginning of the fifteenth century. Of the eighty-seven illuminations in our MS. 616, only four have a natural horizon as background, the rest are diapered in the conventional older manner, in the invention of which the miniaturists of the

fourteenth century developed a perfectly The Finest wonderful ingenuity, and of which this Hunting exquisite Codex is one of the most re- Manuscript markable examples. In the opinion of Extant some experts the illuminations in MS. 616 are by the hand of the famous Jean Foucquet, born about 1415, who was made painter and valet-de-chambre to Charles VII. Amongst the choicest works of this artist rank, it is perhaps hardly necessary to mention, the Book of Hours that he executed for Estienne Chevalier, Charles VII's Treasurer, another Hours which he made for the Duchess Marie of Cleves, and most famous of all the ninety miniatures of the Boccaccio of Estienne Chevalier which is one of the principal treasures of the Royal Library in Munich. Those who are acquainted with Count Bastard's monumental work will probably discover a distinct resemblance between one of his reproductions, especially in the foliage and scroll work, and the two fullpage pictures now before the reader. On the other hand, the opinion of such a painstaking critic as is Levallée deserves attention. According to him-and nobody expended more time and trouble in Gaston Phoebus researches the illuminations are not by Foucquet's hand, but possibly by an artist of his school. If they are Foucquet's, they cannot have been executed before 1440, or at the earliest 1435. And now to return to the romantic history of our Codex. On one of the front leaves is painted a large coatof-arms. It is that of the Saint-Vallier family, and two events connected with the then possessors of this precious manuscript throw a telling sidelight upon French social conditions at the period to which the opening scene on Pavia's bloody field has introduced us. A generation before that event, namely in 1477, Jacques de Brézé, a rich noble of well-known sporting proclivities, returning suddenly home found his wife in a compromising position with a young noble. Swords flashed on slighter provocation than this one in those days, and the angry husband killed both the lover and his wife without further