A Knight for the Ages ― Jacques De Lalaing and the Art of Chivalry

The Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing (Book of the Deeds of Jacques de Lalaing), a famous Flemish illuminated manuscript, relays the audacious life of Jacques de Lalaing (1421–1453), a story that reads more like a fast-paced adventure novel. Produced in the tradition of chivalric biography, a genre developed in the mid-fifteenth century to celebrate the great personalities of the day, the manuscript’s text and illuminations begin with a magnificent frontispiece by the most acclaimed Flemish illuminator of the sixteenth century, Simon Bening.

A Knight for the Ages: Jacques de Lalaing and the Art of Chivalry presents a kaleidoscopic view of the manuscript with essays written by the world’s leading medievalists, adding rich texture and providing a greater understanding of the many aspects of the manuscript’s background, creation, and reception, revealing for the first time the full complexity of this illuminated romance.

The texts are accompanied by stunning reproductions of all of the manuscripts’ miniatures—never before published in color—as well as a plot summary and translations, allowing the reader to follow Jacques de Lalaing on his knightly journeys and experience the thrilling triumphs of his legendary tournaments and battles.

Elizabeth Morrison is senior curator of manuscripts at the J. Paul Getty Museum. She is coauthor or author of a variety of publications, including The Adventures of Gillion de Trazegnies: Chivalry and Romance in the Medieval East (2015), Imagining the Past in France,: History in Manuscript Painting, 1250–1500 (2010), and Beasts Factual and Fantastic (2007), all published by Getty Publications.