Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Louis IX learning to read
  • Creator: Guillaume de Saint-Pathus (scribe) and Mahiet (illuminator), a pupil of Pucelle and later identified as the Mathieu le Vavasseur who had a bookshop in Paris
  • Description: This illumination appears in the Vie de Saint Louis and depicts Blanche of Castille overseeing the education of her young son, Louis IX of France. Blanche of Castille was the wife of King Louis VIII and upon his death became regent for their twelve year old son. She was an intelligent and formidable ruler and an overpowering mother to Louis IX. She instilled in Louis a penchant for spectacular worship and instructed him that devotion to God and the interests of his country were one and the same. In this image, Blanche sits on a large white throne and closely supervises Louis’ lessons with his schoolmaster who is a monk, as is indicated by his robes and tonsured head. Louis holds a pointer in his hand and points at letters in the open book that his tutor holds. This image reflects educational practices about how children were taught to read, which required young students to point to each letter or syllable in a Latin text and to pronounce it correctly. Louis wears garments resembling monks' robes, and a halo surrounds his head indicating his future sainthood. The scribe of this manuscript, Guillaume de Saint Pathus, describes young Louis as the ideal Christian prince who combines the virtues of a king with the humility of a monk.
  • Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France
  • Rights: Public Domain
  • Subject (See Also): Blanche of Castile, Wife of Louis XIII of France Education Hagiography Louis IX, King of France Monks Mothers Queens Readers Regents Sons
  • Geographic Area: France
  • Century: 14
  • Date: 1330-1350
  • Related Work: Guillaume de Saint-Pathus, Vie et miracles de saint Louis. See the digitized manuscript on the Gallica website: http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b8447303m
  • Current Location: Bibliotheque nationale de France, Department des Manuscrits, Francais 5716, fol. 16
  • Original Location: Paris
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital Images; Manuscript Illuminations;
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment); Paint
  • Donor: Laywoman (?); Jeanne de Navarre, daughter of Louis X
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 225 mm/150 cm/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Hedeman, Anne D.. The Royal Image: Illustrations of the Grandes Chroniques du France, 1274-1442. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1991. pg 124-126; Clanchy, Michael. "Did Mothers Teach Their Children To Read?" Motherhood, Religion, and Society in Medieval Europe 400-1400: Essays Presented to Henrietta Leyser edited by Conrad Leyser and Lesley Smith. Ashgate. 2011. pg. 130-135; Le Goff, Jacques and Garreth Evan Gollrad. Saint Louis. English language edition Notre Dame Ind: University of Notre Dame Press. 2009. pg. 576-584; Shadis, Miriam, "Blanche of Castile and Facinger's "Medieval Queenship": Reassessing the Argument." Capetian Women. Edited by Kathleen Nolan. Palgrave. 2003. pg. 141-146.