2023-10-31 20:01:08
The month of January opening the Très Riches Heures calendar shows a New Year’s reception in one of the palaces of the Duke of Berry, shown seated on the right, dressed in a rich blue cloak. The hanging in the back of the room depicts a scene from the Trojan War. RMN-Grand Palais Domaine de Chantilly / Michel Urtado/ SP
NARRATIVE – Jewel of the Condé Museum collections, Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry was exceptionally taken out of the Château de Chantilly to establish a precise diagnosis of its state of conservation. It must now be restored before being presented to the public in the summer of 2025, a first since 2004.
When entering the book cabinet of the Condé Museum at the Château de Chantilly, one does not know where to look as there are so many books. But the most beautiful jewel of the collection, the one that undoubtedly eclipses all the others, is not there. It is in another “hidden” library of the castle that the most famous manuscript of the Middle Ages is carefully preserved: The Very Rich Hours of the Duke of Berry. It was in the 19th century that it was bought by Henry d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale, then owner of the Château de Chantilly. He never left this place again.
« Some said it was easier to see the Pope », says Mathieu Deldicque, director of the Condé Museum, with a smile. Often nicknamed the “ Mona Lisa of the manuscripts », this exceptional book of hours (a prayer book intended for the devotion of a lay person which allows one to pray in a private setting) has only been exhibited twice in the last century, in 1956 and in 2004. It should be again at…
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