Sts. Liphard and Urbicius
Prayer Book of Anne de Bretagne
Illuminated by Jean Poyer
The Pierpont Morgan Library, Purchased in 1905
This prayer book was commissioned by Anne de Bretagne, wife of two successive kings of France, Charles VIII and Louis XII, to teach her son, the dauphin Charles-Orland (1492–1495), his catechism. It was painted in Tours by Jean Poyer, an artist documented as working for the queen. The book is richly illustrated, and its thirty-four airy, light-flooded miniatures are among the most delicate examples of late-fifteenth-century art.
Sts. Liphard and Urbicius (fol. 23v, left)
St. Liphard is identified as an abbot in chasuble (the ornate vestment worn by the priest at Mass) and miter (liturgical headdress) he wears as well as the crozier (symbolic staff) he is holding. He offers a blessing from a book held by a monk who is probably meant to be St. Urbicius.
Urbicius was the sole companion with whom Liphard had retired in solitude and who succeeded Liphard as head of the religious community that came into being around the two at Meung-sur-Loire.