Des Cas des Nobles Hommes et Femmes by Giovanni Boccaccio - c. 1470: Translated into French by Laurent de Premierfait, dedicated to Jean, Duc de Berry, Illuminated manuscript on vellum and paper

A notable Parisian luxury book - 5 large miniatures

This is one of the most widely read texts by Giovanni Boccaccio on the fortunes and downfalls of renowned figures from the Bible, antiquity, and medieval history. It starts with Adam and ends with Boccaccio's own contemporaries of 14th-century Florence. De casibus derives from the tradition of stories focusing on inescapable calamities awaiting those who have been overly favoured by luck. It was composed around 1355-60 in Latin and revised by the author continuously until c. 1374.

For a long time, this book was more famous and successful than the Decameron, which is probably Boccaccio's best-known book today. Boccaccio's text was translated into French in 1409 and dedicated to Jean, Duc de Berry by the Duke's secretary, Laurent Premierfait.

The illuminations are stylistically associated with one of the most important workshops of that time in Paris, that of the Maître François who was recently identified with the Parisian artist and highly esteemed member of the Parliament, François le Barbier père.