>> Hello, my name
is Nathan Dorn.
I'm the Curator of the
Rare Books Collection
of the Law Library of Congress.
What I'd like to do today is
to talk about a recent addition
to the Law Library's
rare books collection.
This is a remarkable 15th
century manuscript of work
on the laws of combat
for knights called L'Arbre des
Batailles, The Tree of Battles,
by the Provencal
author Honore Bouvet.
The book's author was born
around the year 1350 to a family
in the town of Volonne
in Provence.
A Doctor of Canon Law trained
at the University of Avignon,
Bouvet received a pension from
the French King Charles VI
who employed him in
diplomatic affairs.
Bouvet was a scholar of law,
but he chose to write this book
for an audience of
non-specialists,
which in this case meant knights
and heralds, people who are apt
to find themselves in combat
and who needed an
accessible reference work
for the legal questions
that came up for them
in the field of battle.
This work is divided
into four books.
In the first two books,
Bouvet offers an overview
of history based in part on the
Book of Revelation and in part
on Paulus Orosius' Historiarum
Adversum Paganos Libri Septem,
which was a narrative history
of Greek and Roman antiquity
that was popular in Western
Europe in the Middle Ages.
The third and fourth book, which
make up about three-quarters
of the whole work, discuss
questions that relate to battle.
There Bouvet brings up
legal and moral principles,
issues of strategy and efficacy
versus custom and virtue.
He touches on the
rules governing coats
of arms and trial by combat.
He relates to various
practical aspects of war,
including compensation
for combatants, ransom,
and relations with
non-combatants.
He's one of the earlier voices
of compassion for non-combatants
and outrage at knights
who do harm to peasants.
These topics are organized
into 140 short scholastic-style
questions and answers
that present his analysis
in an easy-to-grasp form.
The work was very popular.
There are over 90 manuscripts
of the surviving collections
throughout the world.
The Law Library owns one
additional 15th century
manuscript copy of it.
It was adapted in other
works by medieval authors,
such as the poet
Christine de Pisain,
and it was often translated
with the translation prepared
in Scotland as early
as the year 1456.
This manuscript was
most likely produced
in northern France
around the year 1479.
The binding, which is
from the 18th century,
is brown calf over pasteboard.
The manuscript once belonged
to Sir Thomas Phillipps
and still has on its spine
the small paper label
with the number Phillips
assigned to it.
There's an impressive miniature
on the verso of the second folio
which depicts L'arbre
de Douleur,
or The Tree of Suffering,
an image that Bouvet
touches upon in his work.
It's a tree with several
layers of branches
in which various scenes and
actors appear in each layer.
At the top appears the figure
of Fortune and her wheel.
In the upper branches,
the ecclesiastical leadership
can be seen at the left
and the secular rulers
at the right.
The second level shows a
battle of mountain soldiers.
At the lowest level, knights
fight with axes on the left,
and soldiers hassle
peasants on the right.
As a reminder, rare book service
is available at the Law Library
on weekdays by appointment.
We hope to hear from you.
Thank you.