DEATH AND THE ILLUSTRATED BOOK: PRINTERS, EXPERIMENTATON AND THE REINVENTON OF THE DANSE MACABRE, 1485-c.1530s by Maja Dujakovic B.A., The University of British Columbia, 2002 M.A., The University of British Columbia, 2004 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Art History and Theory) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August, 2015 © Maja Dujakovic, 2015 ABSTRACT This thesis considers the adaptation of the Danse macabre (Dance of Death), a popular late medieval visual and literary theme prevalent in mural paintings, into a series of illustrated books published in France towards the end of the fifteenth century. While the first known edition, printed in Paris in 1485 by Guy Marchant, was based on the famous and now destroyed mural from the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents (painted 1424-25), subsequent editions published by presses in Paris, Lyons, Troyes and Geneva included additional figures and often placed the theme together with other texts and images of similar subject matter thus framing the Danse macabre in a novel context. Despite this, however, previous scholarship has treated the books mainly as replicas of the lost mural and overlooked their status as inventive works of art. Nor have the extant editions been studied in detail even though they vary considerably in terms of content, layout and medium, all of which has an effect on how the theme is presented in each book. By studying the series within the context of early printing in France, the thesis situates the books in the transitional period of bookmaking, from scribal to printing culture, and argues that they were a product of collaboration and experimentation among some of the most prolific printers and publishers of the period, including Marchant, Antoine Vérard and Mathias Husz. In discussing their printing practices, the thesis emphasizes the crucial role the printers had in editing the work and reinventing the theme. The late fifteenth century in France was also marked by an unprecedented exchange of artistic practices across multiple media, facilitated in part by the proliferation of the printed works, which became the locus for diffusion of images and ideas. In this context, the Danse macabre books helped to popularize the late medieval theme and even served as the model for mural paintings and an illuminated manuscript. Ultimately, the thesis reveals not only that the books are distinctive and innovative works, but also that they participated in a much broader scope of image production than previously assumed. ii PREFACE This dissertation is the original, unpublished, independent work of the author, M. Dujakovic. All images from the Bibliothèque nationale are reprinted with the permission of the library. All images from the British Library are reprinted with the permission of the British Library Board. All images from the Lambeth Palace Library are reprinted with the permission of the library. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................... ii PREFACE ...................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................... vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ............................................................................................... xii CHAPTER ONE Introduction ........................................................................................ 1 Context and Issues .................................................................................................... 1 Layout of Chapters ................................................................................................... 18 CHAPTER TWO Death in Print: The Danse macabre and the Medium of Illustrated Books ........................................................................................................................... 22 The Printing Workshop and the Bookstore – New Spaces of Death ..................... 22 The Danse macabre mural and the Cemetery of the Holy Innocents .................... 27 A Case for Printed Books......................................................................................... 38 The Danse macabre Illustrated Books: Format and Diffusion ................................ 45 The Ambiguous Image of Death .............................................................................. 51 Questions and Issues .............................................................................................. 67 CHAPTER THREE Death and the Business of Printing: Guy Marchant and the Production of the Danse macabre Books ................................................................... 78 The Printers and the Bookseller – New Figures in the Dance of Death ................ 78 Early Printing in France (1470-1500) ...................................................................... 82 Between Script and Print: The Book in the Transitional Period ............................. 88 The Career of Guy Marchant ................................................................................... 92 Printing the Illustrated Book ................................................................................... 100 How-to-live and How-to-die: The Shepherd’s Calendar and the Danse macabre ................................................................................................................................ 116 Translating, Augmenting or Reinventing: Strategies for Marketing Illustrated Books ................................................................................................................................ 126 CHAPTER FOUR La danse macabre nouvelle: Women, Fools and the Agency of the Printer ................................................................................................................... 137 The Big Twist .......................................................................................................... 137 The New Danse...................................................................................................... 139 Marchant and the Framing of the Danse macabre of Women ............................. 144 iv Women and Death in French Manuscripts and Literary Traditions, c. 1460-1520 ................................................................................................................................ 149 Women’s Dance of Death: Layout and Content.................................................... 152 On Death and Dancing .......................................................................................... 156 Women, Sin and the Gender of Death .................................................................. 160 The Here-and-Now: Paris and the Urban Context ................................................ 169 The Aftermath of Death .......................................................................................... 175 Fooling with Death ................................................................................................. 178 CHAPTER FIVE The Salutary Mirror: Editing and Viewing the Illustrated Book .... 192 Death and the Viewer ............................................................................................ 192 The Material Nature of the Printed Book and the “Acts of Viewing” ..................... 196 The Question of Audience ..................................................................................... 206 The Impact of Color: Hand-Painted Editions Published by Antoine Vérard ......... 211 Husz and the Total Edition ..................................................................................... 224 The Viewer in the Book .......................................................................................... 236 CHAPTER SIX Conclusion ....................................................................................... 246 FIGURES ................................................................................................................... 252 BIBLIOGRAPHY ........................................................................................................ 328 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. The Author, La danse macabre, Meslay-le-Grenet (Eure-et-Loire), fresco, c. 1500. Photo credit: M. Dujakovic........................................................................... 252 Figure 2. The Pope and the Emperor, La danse macabre, Meslay-le-Grenet (Eure- et-Loire), fresco, c.1500. Photo credit: M. Dujakovic................................................ 253 Figure 3. The Peasant and the Infant, La danse macabre, Meslay-le-Grenet (Eure- et-Loire), fresco, c.1500. Photo credit: M. Dujakovic................................................ 254 Figure 4. The King, the Patriarch, La danse macabre,Meslay-le-Grenet (Eure-et- Loire), fresco, c.1500. Photo credit: M. Dujakovic. ................................................... 255 Figure 5. The Burgher, the Curate and the Doctor, La danse macabre,Meslay-le- Grenet (Eure-et-Loire), fresco, c.1500. Photo credit: M. Dujakovic. ........................ 256 Figure 6. The Three Dead, La danse macabre, Meslay-le-Grenet (Eure-et-Loire), fresco, c.1500. Photo credit: M. Dujakovic. .............................................................