Illuminated Book: The Visions of Knight Tondal

So I'm doing a bit of research on the medieval personification of Death,
and what do I find? An illuminated book called "The Visions of the Knight
Tondal".

Nearly 250 copies of the tale have survived, but the one I happened across
(displayed on the website of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles) was owned by
Richard's sister, Margaret of York, the Duchess of Burgundy.

If anyone would like a closer look, go here:
http://www.getty.edu/art/exhibitions/death_middle_ages/index.html

then click on the big window saying, "Join Tondal on his tour of the
afterlife: launch the interactive." The preview is interesting (there's a
dragon, Marie!), if irreverent.

Once the preview is done, you click on "skip the preview" and are brought
to a window where you can tour Heaven or Hell. There's a button at the
bottom right of the screen -- "About the Book" that will open an window
that tells you about the artist and Margaret's owning the book.

You can then close the window and go back to touring Heaven and Hell via
the beautifully illuminated pages of Margaret's book.

~Weds




--

- *Friend:* Are you upset about the outcome of the election?
- *Me:* I'm upset about the outcome of the War of the Roses.

Wednesday McKenna wrote:
>
> So I'm doing a bit of research on the medieval personification of Death, and what do I find? An illuminated book called "The Visions of the Knight Tondal".
>
> Nearly 250 copies of the tale have survived, but the one I happened across (displayed on the website of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles) was owned by Richard's sister, Margaret of York, the Duchess of Burgundy. <snip>

Carol responds:

thanks, Weds. Very interesting. I'm wondering whether Richard also read or saw this book (he could read French, so could have read this very book on his visit to his sister in 1471(?) if she owned it at that date. I'm also wondering whether he read or was at least familiar with Dante's "Divine Comedy."

Regardless of the answers to those probably unanswerable questions, I think we can safely conclude that this story and its illustrations closely resemble Richard's own view of death given his undeniable piety. So a final rhetorical question: Given the fate of murderers depicted in that book, how likely is it that Richard would knowingly murder (as opposed to legally execute) *anyone*, in particular his own young nephews?

I know how I would answer the question, and I wonder why so few historians of late medieval England have asked it of themselves. If we want to understand the mindset of the Plantagenet kings, and even Henry VII and the young Henry VIII, we ignore medieval Catholicism at our peril.

Side note: If Henry VII really thought that Richard had ordered the murder of his nephews, he must have thought that Richard was a heretic (or monster) as well as a child murderer. Otherwise, how could he (Ricard) imperil his immortal soul for the feeble (and illusory) reward of suppressed rebellion? As a Catholic himself, I doubt whether Henry really believed that Richard had committed this unthinkable crime. (Henry himself put off killing Edward of Warwick until he could delude himself into doing so with a clear conscience, probably for fear of eternal damnation as much or more than fear of being labeled a tyrant and child murderer.) It's worth thinking about, at any rate, given the similarity of the two situations.

Carol

--- In , "justcarol67" <justcarol67@...> wrote:
>
> Wednesday McKenna wrote:
> >
> > So I'm doing a bit of research on the medieval personification of Death, and what do I find? An illuminated book called "The Visions of the Knight Tondal".
> >
> > Nearly 250 copies of the tale have survived, but the one I happened across (displayed on the website of the Getty Museum in Los Angeles) was owned by Richard's sister, Margaret of York, the Duchess of Burgundy. <snip>
>
> Carol responds:
>
> thanks, Weds. Very interesting. I'm wondering whether Richard also read or saw this book (he could read French, so could have read this very book on his visit to his sister in 1471(?) if she owned it at that date. I'm also wondering whether he read or was at least familiar with Dante's "Divine Comedy."
>
> Regardless of the answers to those probably unanswerable questions, I think we can safely conclude that this story and its illustrations closely resemble Richard's own view of death given his undeniable piety. So a final rhetorical question: Given the fate of murderers depicted in that book, how likely is it that Richard would knowingly murder (as opposed to legally execute) *anyone*, in particular his own young nephews?
>
> I know how I would answer the question, and I wonder why so few historians of late medieval England have asked it of themselves. If we want to understand the mindset of the Plantagenet kings, and even Henry VII and the young Henry VIII, we ignore medieval Catholicism at our peril.
>
> Side note: If Henry VII really thought that Richard had ordered the murder of his nephews, he must have thought that Richard was a heretic (or monster) as well as a child murderer. Otherwise, how could he (Ricard) imperil his immortal soul for the feeble (and illusory) reward of suppressed rebellion? As a Catholic himself, I doubt whether Henry really believed that Richard had committed this unthinkable crime. (Henry himself put off killing Edward of Warwick until he could delude himself into doing so with a clear conscience, probably for fear of eternal damnation as much or more than fear of being labeled a tyrant and child murderer.) It's worth thinking about, at any rate, given the similarity of the two situations.
>
> Carol
>

Granted, much of this was honored in the breach -- look at the Borgias, for one -- but Richard was known to be quite devout.

What a contrast to, say, Bishop John Morton, who from what I understand not only had mistresses, but also violated the sanctity of the confessional.

Tamara