The merry, merry month of May - Horses, Houpplelandes and the Hunt!

Today we showcase a page from the famous "Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry," a masterpiece of medieval illuminated manuscripts created by the Limbourg brothers. The image depicts the May Day or seasonal celebration, showing elegantly dressed nobility on horseback engaged in what appears to be a ceremonial springtime procession showcasing the ever splendid Houpplelande for men and women.

We just LOVE Houpplelandes. Comfy, fancy and easy to fit - shaping all comes from the belts worn with - so their fit is uniquely adjustable. In linen they are fancy AND comfy in the warmest weather, in brocade they are ideal for your fanciest court event. Along, with coordinated headwear its arguably the best, most disctinctive medieval look.

Shown here in all their glory, the fabrics and skirts displayed in great detail on horseback. And so we bring you...

Jean Duc De Berry's Book Of Hours - May

It is well-known that the famed May Pole and the May Dance celebrated at the first of the month are ancient customs, coming to us from Antiquity, through a medieval filter. But a less well-known May Day tradition was the “May Jaunt”. Derived from the floralia, a Roman festival of the goddess Flora, that symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, and was marked with dancing, drinking, and flowers, young men would gather together and slip off into the woods to bring back newly flowering branches to their ladies. As part of the tradition, the young men dressed in green, ideally from head to toe, making themselves “children of the wood”. This festival was a particular favorite of the young Duc Jean, and each year, both he and his brother the King gave gifts of fine garments made of bright green cloth, which became known as livrée de mai (the livery of May). It is this custom of the May Jaunt that the Limbourges brothers chose to depict in the Très Riches Heures.

In the May illumination, a merry band of nobles and their attendants wind their way through the woods, with a magnificent set of tours and gabled roofs in the background. At the front, rather than armed guards, a band of musicians play trumpets and flutes, while hunting dogs race about their feet. Behind the musicians come the nobility, dressed in court finery. Three young women ride horses caparisoned in soft green; a color obtained from crushed malachite. Although the girls are not specifically identifiable to us, today, the exquisite houppelandes, lined with blue and ornamented with gold lilies, identifies them as princesses of the royal house. The young princess at the center of the scene wears a wreath of greens over her veil, again harkening to the traditions of the May Jaunt.

Riding before the princess, but turning in his saddle to perhaps converse with her is a rider dressed half in red, half in black and white, which is again associated with the royal livery of the Valois at the turn of the 15th century; like the young women, he is probably a prince of the blood. At the princess’s left rides a man dressed in a sumptuous, blue brocade houppelande, decorated with golden flowers. Although the figures are unnamed, this figure has traditionally been believed to be the manuscript’s patron, Duke Jean himself.

Although the towers and rooftops appearing through the trees was once identified as the Château de Riom, capital of Auvergne and part of the Duke’s holdings; modern scholarship now believes that it is more likely to be the Palais de la Cité in Paris (which we will see again in June). If so, we are looking at the two towers of the Conciergerie, and the Tour de L’Horloge, all of which still exist on the Ile de la Cité. Beyond this is the Grand Salle of the Parlement, and at the extreme right the Tour Montgomery, as seen from the rear. The level of detail is so precise that art historians have been able to identify the precise setting of the illumination as being somewhere in the woods bordering the rue du Pré-aux-Clercs, near what is now the rue de Bellechasse.

All in all, the illumination for May is a beautiful depiction of both one of the little-remembered May Day customs and a fantastic reference for houppelandes of the late 14th century.

"It is well-known that the famed May Pole and the May Dance celebrated at the first of the month are ancient customs, coming to us from Antiquity, through a medieval filter. But a less well-known May Day tradition was the “May Jaunt”. Derived from the floralia, a Roman festival of the goddess Flora, that symbolized the renewal of the cycle of life, and was marked with dancing, drinking, and flowers, young men would gather together and slip off into the woods to bring back newly flowering branches to their ladies..."