he manuscript begins with a calendar, which lists month by month the fixed Christian holidays, mostly the feasts of saints. This page represents the first half of September. In this manuscript, the most important days are indicated by blue letters, and the second-most important by red. To the left of each feast day are columns of numbers and letters that were used to calculate new and full moons and the dates of movable feasts such as Easter. It was customary in the Middle Ages to decorate calendar pages with the signs of the zodiac and with activities appropriate to the time of year. In this manuscript, the activity, or labor, associated with September is the harvesting of grapes for wine. At left, a woman picks bunches of grapes from the vine; she can't help indulging in the juicy fruit. The man in the center hands a basket filled with grapes to another man who, standing in a large wooden barrel, stomps on the grapes. When the book was unbound, it was revealed that the September calendar (shown above) shared the same leaf of parchment with the May calendar (shown at left). At the bottom of the May page, a naked man and woman are shown holding a shield in front of them, representing the zodiacal sign of Gemini—the twins. Why do you think the zodiacal sign for May appears on the same leaf of parchment as the September calendar? Next

Jeanne d'Evreux, queen of France

Illuminated Manuscripts

Religious Calendar

The Hours of the Virgin

The Hours of Saint Louis