Les Passages d’Outremer -History of the Crusades-
The Great History of Louis de Laval’s Crusades As a Free Gift to the New Subscribers of the Collection Bibliothèque duc de Berry.

• The quality of the present complete facsimile edition of the Ms. Fr. 5594 is accredited and certified by Thierry Delcourt, Director of the Department of Manuscripts of the National Library of France.

• Completed circa 1474, Sébastien Mamerot’s lavishly illustrated manuscript is the only contemporary document to capture four centuries of crusades, when successive kings tried to capture the Holy Land.

• Jean Colombe, the medieval illuminator best known for his work on the Très Riches Heures of the Duke of Berry is the principal artist of its 66 exquisite miniatures.

• Mamerot’s manuscript was dedicated to his patron Louis de Laval, governor of Champagne, whose inspiration was the Christian equivalent of extremist jihad—a xenophobic holy war with its origins in a Papal appeal by Urban II.

• Les Passages d’Outremer (The Expeditions to Outremer) was illustrated by Colombe and the finest caligraphers of the medieval era.

• Mamerot’s contemporary historical descriptions present a vast panorama, from Charlemagne to the revolt of Genoa in 1462, and are a splendid testimony of this glorious and at the same time bloody era of history.

• This two-volume edition – comprising a facsimile volume and a commentary volume with the complete translation of the manuscript text and explanations of Jean Colombe’s miniatures – is a particular testimony to that long, glorious and bloody historical epoch. The battles, burials, religious ceremonies, coronations and royal processions depicted in the 66 colourful miniatures come to life before our eyes and create a forceful image of those centuries-long wars.

• Commentary volume in English and French by Thierry Delcourt, director of the Department of Manuscripts at the BnF, Fabrice Masanès, an art historian and art critic and Danielle Quéruel, Professor of Medieval Literature at the Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne.

• Complete facsimile. Available for delivery.

• As a free gift for the new subscribers of the Collection Bibliothèque duc de Berry.

• Handrcafted gilt-tooled red leather binding, which faithfully reproduces the covers of the original manuscript.

• Special certified series, unique and limited to 250 copies.