The pleasure of words, Le Plaisir Des Mots, the title of one of Georges Jean's (b.1920 Besancon, France) books which was awarded the 1980 Fondation de France prize.
The little book now in my possession, Writing: The Story of Alphabets and Scripts, thanks to a stall at the Easter market, was also penned by Jean and the English translation published by Thames & Hudson, London, in 1992.
Inside the front cover he writes about Jean Froissart, the 14th Century cleric, who decided that his vocation was to "celebrate the great deeds of princes and to sing of courtly love".
Statue of Jean Froissart, Chimay, BelgiumThis from Wikipedia:
Jean Froissart (c.1337-c.1405) was one of the most important of the chroniclers of medieval France. For centuries, Froissart's Chronicles have been recognized as the chief expression of the chivalric revival of the 14th century Kingdom of England and France. His history is also one of the most important sources for the first half of the Hundred Years' War.
Battle of Poitiers 1356 - Miniature of FroissartThe pleasure is now mine to open this little book, gaze at the coloured plates of the illuminators' works and read about the art of writing. Thanks to Royal Armouries for the following video.
3 comments:
What a lovely treasure of a book!
Thanks very much for favouriting me. If you like old manuscripts and the like check out http://bibliodyssey.blogspot.com/
His entry this week is Ronald Searle but he features lovely old manuscripts and asian books. It's worth a look, if you don't know him already. He's a fellow Oz.
Thanks Hazel for that blog; I could really lose myself there!
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