Philippe de Mazerolles: A book of hours on black parchment and the manuscripts of military ordinances of Charles the Bold

The miniaturist Philippe de Mazerolles, a native of France, who worked in B ruges for Charles the Bold, was commissioned to complete a book of hours on black parchment, a gift to the duke. Later on Philippe de Mazerolles would be asked to make a number of illuminated copies of military ordinances. Th ese are the only pieces of detailed information about his commissions provi ded by the archives. The duke's book of hours on black parchment was seized as booty by the Swis s after the battles at Grandson and Morat. A body of historical facts leads one to assume that the book of hours known as the Galeazzo Sforza book of hours, attributed to the Master of Anthony of Burgundy in Vienna, must be t he black book of hours which Charles the Bold had lost to the Swiss. Firstl y, the work attributed to the Master of Anthony of Burgundy was produced at exactly the same time as Mazerolle's known period of activity in Bruges. S econdly, the analysis of the black book of hours reveals that the illuminat or of the book was trained in France. These two findings confirm that the m anuscript is the work that Mazerolles completed for Charles the Bold. In the summer of 1475, when Charles the Bold was going back and forth throu gh Flanders, Artois and Picardy, Mazerolles was commissioned to make a luxu ry copy of military ordinances for the Duke and twenty less elaborate copie s for the captains of the twenty companies. The difficult and strained poli tical atmosphere meant that Mazerolles was not allowed much time to complet e his commission. And this would explain why he only managed to paint the c entral part of the miniature of the Duke's copy and had to call in the Mast er of Margared of York, and why he required the assistance of other less ta lented artists to illuminate the twenty copies of military ordinances.