Document 1-2: Limbourg Brothers, March: Peasants at Work from the “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry” (15th Century)

Peasants Working a Lord’s Estate

LIMBOURG BROTHERS, March: Peasants at Work from the “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry” (15th Century)

The world Hariot described (Document 1-1) probably seemed exotic to Europeans who would have been more familiar with the scene of peasant life depicted in this image from an early-fifteenth-century Book of Hours. Here we see peasants farming a manor, employing ploughs and domesticated animals. In this more cultivated and subdued way of life, peasants worked a lord’s land in exchange for the right to use his mill to grind wheat and his oven to bake bread. In turn, the lord offered protection from famine and military conflict. A Book of Hours was a book of prayers meant to be recited at appointed hours during the day. The page reproduced here is for the month of March. The arch above the miniature illustration includes zodiacal references, including Pisces and Aries.

image
Source: Ms 65/1284 f.3v March: peasants at work on a feudal estate, from the “Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry” (vellum) (for facsimile copy see 65835), Limbourg Brothers (fl. 1400–1416) / Musée Condé, Chantilly, France / Giraudon / The Bridgeman Art Library.

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