F 130r of the Metz Pontifical or the Pontifical of Renaud de Bar at the Fitzwilliam Museum shows the Archbishop handling the bishop a crosier (Office for Consecrating a Bishop.)  On this unfinished leaf we see how after the calligrapher wrote in the text in two colors the illuminator first drew in all the designs before starting to paint them and gild them.

F 130r of the Metz Pontifical or the Pontifical of Renaud de Bar at the Fitzwilliam Museum shows the Archbishop handling the bishop a crosier (Office for Consecrating a Bishop.)  On this unfinished leaf we see how after the calligrapher wrote in the text in two colors the illuminator first drew in all the designs before starting to paint them and gild them.

Detail map of Metz, Grand Est, France Overview map of Metz, Grand Est, France

A: Metz, Grand Est, France

The Metz Pontifical: An Unfinished Medieval Masterpiece

Circa 1303 to 1316
The Metz Pontifical, 1302-1316. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

The Metz Pontifical, 1302-1316. Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge.

Folios 7v-8r of the Metz Pontifical.

The Metz Pontifical, also called The Pontifical of Renaud de Bar, an illuminated manuscript produced for Renaut de Bar, Bishop of Metz (1303-1316), and preserved at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, has the added virtue, from the standpoint of historical research, of being unfinished. Work on the manuscript stopped in 1316 upon the death of Bishop Renaut de Bar, and its unfinished state shows the evolution of images; from drawings, through under-painting and gilding to finished images. Its manner of production is shown in an interesting flash animation on the Fitzwilliam website at this link. The manuscript was donated to the Fitzwilliam Museum by Henry Yates Thompson through the auspices of the museum's director, Sydney Cockerell.

Fifty-two other illuminated manuscripts owned by Yates Thompson are preserved in the British Library, which has an extensive article about Thompson and his fabulous collection at this link.

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