Featured on PDR in the collection The Little Book of Love

A Valentine's gift to top all Valentine's gifts - the Petit Livre d’Amour (Little Book of Love) was an ornate bespoke book given by the 16th-century Lyon-born poet Pierre Salas to his then lover and future wife Marguerite Bullioud. It measures just 5 by 3.7 inches, hand-written by Salas with gold ink and beautifully illuminated by an artist identified as the "Master of the Chronique scandaleuseas". The work begins with a few pages of prose describing the relationship between the author and the woman he loves before then presenting the rest of the book, 12 "iconologues", a combination of prose and poetry on the left-hand page - including the initials M, for Marguerite and P, for Pierre, scattered about in various forms - and on…

Artist

Date

ca. 1500

From

Petit Livre d’Amour


Underlying Rights

Public Domain Worldwide

Digital Rights

No Additional Rights

  • Source encourages re-use (though technically still in copyright in UK)
  • See their general rights page
  • We offer this info as guidance only

Image Size

800 x 516 Higher res available?

 Download Image