Browsing through a book about illuminated manuscripts I've noticed what a remarkable collection the French Biblotheque Nationale has, and I should love to be able to go and see some of them. Does anyone know whether manuscripts from the collection are on public display (like the displays at the British Library)? I haven't found the BnF website to be very user-friendly.

I understand the enluminures are extremely rarely put on public display.
The Chantilly castle (which is well worth a day-trip for so many reasons) has an excellent reproduction of the "Riches Heures" series on permanent display. I highly highly recommend.

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Chantilly ... I highly highly recommend

Thanks for the information. We already plan to go to Chantilly to see the facsimile of the Très Riches Heures (and all their other treasures.) I'm glad to hear that you recommend it so highly. Incidentally, the book I was looking at showed pictures from other Books of Hours commissioned by the Duc du Berry; it seems he was quite a fan of the art of illumination. It's disappointing to hear that the Bibliothèque Nationale rarely displays its illuminated manuscripts. I wonder why. However, I understand that the buildings are well worth seeing for their architecture, quite apart from their contents.

You'll see: Chantilly is a treat and a half!

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Originally posted by WestSussexBird:
understand that the buildings are well worth seeing for their architecture, quite apart from their contents.

Do you mean the old Bibilothèque nationale or the new one?
The old one does have a breathtaking interior and is smack in the middle of town, next to the beautiful galeries Vivienne and Colbert.
The new one is a sprawling concrete complex far from town and is not exaclty inviting.

Thanks for this clarification. I must mean the old one. An old guide book of mine says "Don't miss this on any account ... nine top-lit domes ... six iron columns, unbelievably thin ... without a reader's ticket you can only get as far as the glass-fronted entrance lobby, but the inside is clearly visible from there."

Looking back at the book I see that the other library I had in the back of my mind was not part of the Bibliothèque Nationale at all but the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève (immediately north of the Panthéon). Do you know it? It was apparently by the same architect as the old (Rue de Richelieu) Bibliothèque Nationale. My guide calls the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève "just about the perfect French building."

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Originally posted by WestSussexBird:
… the Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève (immediately north of the Panthéon). Do you know it?

whew, yes, ions ago.
Bravo, you have a great guidebook!

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Bravo, you have a great guidebook!

It is, indeed, a gem. It's called "Nairn's Paris", written 40 years ago by an English architectural writer called Ian Nairn. It's not a conventional guidebook, more a set of jottings on places that interested him, all written with a wonderfully appealing turn of phrase. It's long out of print, but can be bought secondhand on the web.

Here are a couple of web pages which describe his work more eloquently than I could hope to: from a blog and from Discover Paris website.

I haven't yet had the opportunity to use the book much in Paris, but it has led us to many treasurable places as we have toured through the Paris region (off the top of my head I would single out the village of Blandy-les-Tours, the retable at Fromentières, and churches at St-Loup-du-Naud, Vorges (near Laon) and, greatest treasure of all, St-Martin-aux-Bois about which I have waxed lyrically in this forum.)

Thank you so much for telling me about "Nairn's Paris".
I just reserved the book from Paris's American library.
Nairn's description of the Passage du Caire is ace.
Nairn is right up my alley. He digs up forgotten corners like the Passage du Caire and his appreciation is pure premeditated subjectivity.
Thank you again. It is not the first time I feel both foolish and grateful on this forum, as this local learns again and again from travellers how to open her eyes to her environment…

Slow Travel is a wonderful resource, isn't it?

I hope you get as much pleasure from Nairn's Paris as we have. His books about London and the buildings of Surrey and Sussex are pretty good too!

Hugh

(We seem to have come a long way from illuminated manuscripts, don't we?)

Hugh,

Another thanks for the introduction to "Nairn's Paris". We plan to go back to Paris again and again and this sounds like the perfect companion to our many coming trips. I will have to keep an eye out at bookfairs, garage sales and library sales!

JO

Oh, yes! Thank you! This sounds right up our alley, too. Jo - amazon has some used copies Nairn's Paris, don't know about Canadian shipping.

Laura

There are also some for sale on Amazon UK.

I'm not sure whether either of the web pages I linked to mentioned the illustrations. Nairn was an enthusiastic photographer with an eye for curious details, and part of the charm of Nairn's books lies in the delightful black and white photographs.

This is way off the enluminures mais bon…
My hubby poo and I are big architecture-history buffs.
He nearly got me kicked out of the St Sulpice church as we cornered every kind lady working there - including a few nuns, - traumatizing them with queries about a painter who had bought up the hearts of the royal family stored somewhere after the Révolution. The painter, Drolling, was said to have ground up the purchase in order to make what was supposed to be a unique bordeaux-red pigment for paintings.
Nobody there knew the painter - or they didn't admit so.
We found Drolling's paintings there by ourselves but were disappointed to find the red color literally lackluster.

Revisited the sumptuous Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève, because of Nairn's book.
I recommend it to everyone. Summer opening hours: afternoons, Mon to Fri.

Another very interesting ( and really lovely) place in Paris to see some enluminures is the musée national du moyen âge de Cluny
Musée de Cluny

The Musee Marmottan (Monet's paintings) also has a room with 313 illuminations. We didn't know about it when we went to see the Monet paintings, but were pleasantly surprised by this collection. They are very beautiful. We loved Cluny as well.

http://www.marmottan.com/uk/enluminures/index.asp

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Originally posted by Sophia1:
The Musee Marmottan (Monet's paintings) also has a room with 313 illuminations.

This rates with the best tips of the year.Thank you.

The Marmatton illuminations really are stunning.

And forever planted in my memory because several years ago that room was where my husband was suddenly hit with an attack of vertigo that led to a whole day of adventure involving racing around in the back of one of those tiny ambulances blaring ooga-booga, a long visit to an emergency room, and finally and thankfully, an uneventful discharge into a totally unfamiliar area of Paris. Fortunately, in Paris, once you find a Metro station, you're no longer lost.

Chris, your husband had the stendhal syndrome!

It does sound like it, doesn't it?

Thanks, Doru! I don't know if I'd rate it as one of the best tips of the year , but we certainly spent a lovely hour looking at these manuscripts. Most are very small, if I remember correctly. There is also an interesting clock in a room across from the gift shop. Are you going to Paris soon?

I forgot to mention that the audio guide for M. Marmottan also covers this manuscript room.

We're just back from our trip to Chantilly (and many other wonderful places). As you say, Chantilly is a treat. Wow! The Fouquets, Clouets, Raphaels, Van Dycks, etc, etc. Not forgetting the horse museum in the stables. Sadly, however, the Très Riches Heures were a real let-down. I had been expecting a facsimile in the form of a book, or at least loose pages of ink and/or paint on paper. However, all we got to see was a computer screen. The library had a small collection of 16th century printed books on display, so no illuminations to be seen. (The fabulous Fouquets don't really count as illuminations since they are essentially stand-alone paintings that happen to be book-sized.)

One place we did see a few fine illuminated manuscripts was, somewhat surprisingly, the extraordinary "Benedictine" palace at Fécamp.

Thanks for the tips about Cluny and the Marmottan. I've noted them for future trips. (We went to the Cluny a couple of years ago but there was so much else to see that we missed the manuscripts!)

I've heard that a museum in Avranches owns (and displays) a good collection of manuscripts that were produced at the Mont St Michel abbey. Has anyone seen these?