Education and Devotion in Besançon Manuscript 551, "Les Miracles de Nostre Dame by Gautier de Coinci"

Abstract

This article is an attempt to study the margins in the Besançon Codex, which contains Les Miracles de Nostre Dame by Gautier de Coinci. Outside of the writing miracles, we can find in the decorative margins and the Latin annotations one speech where devotion and education are connected: scenes of secular life like the hunting and jousting, bestiary that talk about humility, penitence and chastity, and different advices extracted from the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church. This catalogue can point to a secular owner, perhaps a young woman, as these virtues were the most important ones in the educational females programs in France during the 13th century.