Quentin Poulet (

fl. ''Floruit'' (; abbreviated fl. or occasionally flor.; from Latin for "they flourished") denotes a date or period during which a person was known to have been alive or active. In English, the unabbreviated word may also be used as a noun indicatin ...

1477–1506) was a

Burgundian Burgundian can refer to any of the following: *Someone or something from Burgundy. *Burgundians, an East Germanic tribe, who first appear in history in South East Europe. Later Burgundians colonised the area of Gaul that is now known as Burgundy (F ...

Catholic priest, known as a scribe, illuminator, and librarian, from

Lille Lille ( , ; nl, Rijsel ; pcd, Lile; vls, Rysel) is a city in the northern part of France, in French Flanders. On the river Deûle, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Pref ...

.Michael Van Cleave Alexander, ''The First of the Tudors: a study of Henry VII and his reign'' (1981), p. 160
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Between 1492 and at least 1506, when he disappears from the historical record, he was the first recorded librarian of the Old Royal Library of England, and probably "an arbiter of continental taste for the English royal court".

Life

He enrolled as an apprentice in the Confraternity of St John the Evangelist in 1477, in

Bruges Bruges ( , nl, Brugge ) is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium, in the northwest of the country, and the sixth-largest city of the countr ...

. It was in Bruges that he learned his craft as book artist.Arn, p. 162
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The confraternity was mainly for artists, leading several scholars to think Poulet trained as an illuminator, but other book trades were also represented, and no miniatures have ever been attributed to him.Kren & McKendrick, p. 520 He was appointed librarian by

Henry VII of England Henry VII (28 January 1457 – 21 April 1509) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from his seizure of the crown on 22 August 1485 until his death in 1509. He was the first monarch of the House of Tudor. Henry's mother, Margaret Beaufort ...

in 1492, with other duties including French Secretary. As keeper of the king's library at

Sheen Palace Richmond Palace was a royal residence on the River Thames in England which stood in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Situated in what was then rural Surrey, it lay upstream and on the opposite bank from the Palace of Westminster, which w ...

(soon after renamed Richmond Palace), he selected French manuscripts as well as printed books by

Antoine Vérard Antoine Vérard (active 1485–1512) was a late 15th-century and early 16th-century French publisher, bookmaker and bookseller. Life The colophon of a 1485 edition of the ''Catholicon abbreviatum'', the first French-Latin dictionary, which da ...

.Deanne Williams, ''The French Fetish from Chaucer to Shakespeare'' (2004), p. 125
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Poulet worked in parallel with Peter Actoris, Stationer to the King, who managed the importations. Poulet is recorded in 1506, sent to

Calais Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's prefecture is its third-largest city of Arras. Th ...

for the king on book business. He was succeeded by William (Guillaume) Faques, or "

Giles Duwes Giles Duwes, D'Ewes, Du Guez, Du Wes, or Dewes (died 1535) was a Fleming, who was a tutor and musician at the English court during the Tudor period. He was the French tutor of Arthur, Prince of Wales, Prince Henry, the future Henry VIII of England ...

Works

Poulet introduced into the court of Henry VII the Burgundian

mirror for princes Mirrors for princes ( la, specula principum) or mirrors of princes, are an educational literary genre, in a loose sense of the word, of politics, political writings during the Early Middle Ages, the High Middle Ages, the late middle ages and the Re ...

''L'enseignement de vraie noblesse''; the work was already old, and the Yorkist

Warwick the Kingmaker Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whit ...

had had a copy made in Bruges some thirty years earlier. The manuscript, for which Henry paid Poulet the large amount of £23 plus 10 marks on 26 July 1497, was put together in a transcription of high quality by Poulet, and had some adjustments to the text hinting at its application to Henry's problems with low-born pretenders to the throne.Kren & McKendrick, pp. 403–404 Entitled ''Imaginacion de vraye noblesse'', it employed the '' lettre bastarde'' script commonly used in Flanders, and only later coming into use in England. The work itself was given an English version within a couple of years, by

John Skelton John Skelton may refer to: *John Skelton (poet) (c.1460–1529), English poet. * John de Skelton, MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency) *John Skelton (died 1439), MP for Cumberland (UK Parliament constituency) *John Skelton (American footb ...

. The original author has traditionally been given as

Guillebert de Lannoy Guillebert de Lannoy (also Gilbert, Guilbert or Ghillebert; 1386–1462), was a Flemish traveler and diplomat, chamberlain to the duke of Burgundy, governor of the fort of Sluys, and a knight of the Golden Fleece. He was the son of Guillebert I ...

, but it is now argued that the work was by his brother

Hugues de Lannoy Hugo van Lannoy (French: 'Hue' or 'Hugues de Lannoy'; 1384 – 1 May 1456), Lord of Santes, was a Flemish statesman in the service of the Dukes of Burgundy, most notably Philip III who founded the Order of the Golden Fleece. Biography He was a ...

. In either case, the work has strong associations with Poulet's home city of Lille. The manuscript, now British Library Royal MS 19 C viii, was once seen, together with the Charles d'Orléans MS Royal 16 F ii below, as entirely the product of a workshop of immigrant specialists headed by Poulet at Sheen, and so "key early evidence of the Tudors' revival of English court culture". However it is now thought that Poulet scribed the pages at Sheen – the colophon is dated 30 June 1496 – but then sent them to one of the best Bruges workshops to be decorated, using his contacts there. A similar conclusion is less firm in the cases of some of the miniatures in the Orléans manuscript, one of which appears to depict London accurately. Either

Bernard André Bernard André, O.E.S.A. (1450–1522), also known as Andreas, was a French Augustinian friar and poet, who was a noted chronicler of the reign of Henry VII of England, and poet laureate. A native of Toulouse, André was tutor to Prince Arthur o ...

or Poulet (considered more likely) compiled the manuscript MS Royal 16 F ii of the poetry written by

Charles, Duke of Orléans Charles of Orléans (24 November 1394 – 5 January 1465) was Duke of Orléans from 1407, following the murder of his father, Louis I, Duke of Orléans. He was also Duke of Valois, Count of Beaumont-sur-Oise and of Blois, Lord of Coucy, and t ...

, long held prisoner in England, at least according to the usual account, in which it was prepared for presentation to

Arthur, Prince of Wales Arthur, Prince of Wales (19/20 September 1486 – 2 April 1502), was the eldest son of King Henry VII of England and Elizabeth of York. He was Duke of Cornwall from birth, and he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester in 1489. As ...

; it has been suggested that the editor selected from the poems those that would recommend marriage to the prince. It was given to Prince Arthur in 1501, and passed into the Royal Library, being held at Richmond. However Janet Backhouse has suggested that the manuscript was originally a product of the reign of

Edward IV Edward IV (28 April 1442 – 9 April 1483) was King of England from 4 March 1461 to 3 October 1470, then again from 11 April 1471 until his death in 1483. He was a central figure in the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars in England ...

, with the decoration left incomplete on his death, and then with illuminations added around 1500, presumably under Poulet's supervision.Kren & McKendrick, pp. 398–400

References

*Arn, Mary-Jo (2000), ''Charles d'Orléans in England, 1415–1440'' (2000)
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*Kren, T. & McKendrick, S. (eds), ''Illuminating the Renaissance: The Triumph of Flemish Manuscript Painting in Europe'', Getty Museum/Royal Academy of Arts, 2003,

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Poulet, Quentin 15th-century Roman Catholic priests 16th-century English Roman Catholic priests People from Burgundy (French region) Medieval European scribes