Colard Mansion exhibition at Groeningemuseum in Bruges

Recently, I took advantage of an extended holiday weekend to spend time with my family on the coast. 

We booked a hotel in De Haan Vosseslag. 

There, you can find one of the few stretches of Belgian beach, where sand dunes remain pretty much in natural state as opposed to sporting ugly apartment buildings. 

Another reason is that on the way from Brussels we had to pass by Bruges.

The plan was to visit Groeningemuseum. Built on the site of an Augustinian Eekhout Abbey, of which only a gate and garden grounds remain today, it features a collection of Flemish Primitive art, including works by Jan van Eyck. But, more importantly, there were only two weeks till the end of an exhibition I very much wanted to see - Haute Lecture by Colard Mansion: Innovating text and image in medieval Bruges.

I was not disappointed. Neither was my family, I think.

The exibition sheds light on Colard Mansion, a medieval scribe and printer who worked in Bruges in the second half of the 15th century. Little is known about him, including his date and place of birth and death, education or family background. Since Mansion produced almost exclusively French-language books, scholars only guess that he may have come from the French-speaking part of the Burgundian Netherlands. We do know that he was married, and that his wife died. The last archival evidence, from 1484, notes that "he has fled". This lends an aura of mystery as regards to his fate. We just don't know what happened to him.

If medieval book production is esoteric enough, then imagine dedicating an entire exhibition to such an obscure figure. I certainly have not heard about Mansion until now. 

Mansion's printer's device

If my own experiences are any judge or the look on the faces of visitors, the curators have succeeded in sparking a lot of interest. This has been an international collaborative venture. Illuminated manuscripts, incunabula, engravings and even paintings helpful in telling the story have been brought from many places, including the famed Morgan Library and Museum in New York, a number of aristocratic residences in the United Kindom, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.


Some of the treasures on display are amazing, including the first-ever book printed in English. Mansion collaborated with William Caxton, a merchant, diplomat and printer, who printed the earliest English-language books in Bruges, before setting up shop back in England. At the turn of the 18th/19th century, considered the height of bibliomania among English aristocrats, there was a craze for Caxtons. Today, scarce Caxton copies are priceless.

Recuyell of the histories of Troy, published by William Caxton around 1473/4, the first book in English

The exhibition is not just a feast for bibliophiles. It showcases many facets of medieval printing. Among the artifacts you will see the ONLY set of 15th century typecasts left in Belgium. It tells the story of the relationship between artists and patrons. Book-printing was a risky business. One had to have influential patrons and clients to rely upon. Full of thriving and self-confident merchants Bruges at the time was an ideal market for luxury books and illuminated manuscripts. The exhibition also traces the influence of one type of artistic medium on art in other forms, and shows evidence of the use of early books.

Let's go back to Colard Mansion.

The colophon states that this is the first work by Mansion

Well, little that we know about him relates only to Mansion's time in Bruges, from 1457 to 1484. Thanks to few clues enshrined in perpetuum in archival documents, scholars have been able to piece together but a very incomplete curriculum vitae.

We do have a record of Mansion's signature from a contract he wrote.

Art historians know where he had his workshop in Bruges. Mansion initially rented space from the canons of St. Donatian's Church. Later, he moved to Eekhout Abbey, where the book producers;' and merchants' guild, of which Mansion was the dean for two years, maintained a chapel.

Eekhout Abbey and St. Donatian's Church and Cloister

We do have an idea of what Mansion looked like. That's because he incorporated his image in a number of miniatures gracing the pages of books he printed.

This miniature could reveal the interior of Mansion's workshop.

A depiction of Mansion as an author  (in his study? workshop?)

And, of course, we know about him thanks to his legacy. Mansion produced some outstanding works. They are testimony to his wonderful skill and versatility as a scribe, translator, printer-inventor (he came up with new font types) and book entrepreneur. In fact the exhibition brings together all of Mansion's works. Imagine: these books have travelled across land borders, the Atlantic Ocean and the English Channel to come home, at least for a while, after more than 500 years!

Frontispiece miniature of Colard Mansion presenting his book to Louis of Bruges, a powerful courtier and patron of the arts.

Woodcut depicting Ovid and the Creation of the World from Ovidius' Métamorphose, Mansion's masterpiece

Needless to say, I encourage you to visit this exhibition before it closes.

An incredibly beautiful, uniquely shaped illuminated book of hours, Codex Rotundus, in French and Latin. The metal clasps are stylized in a monogram of Adolph of Cleves, the first owner of this book.

P.S. The information and illustrations in this blog entry owe in large measure to Colard Mansion: Incunabula, Prints and Manuscripts in Medieval Bruges, edited by Evelien Hauwaerts, Evelien de Wilde and Ludo Vandamme, and published in Ghent by Snoeck.