little angel (Angelot) quite naked;" a
Bacchante with a thyrsus, "A woman holding a
long thing in her hand" (une femme qui
tient une longue chose en sa main) ; and so
of a thousand others. But, the cameos
executed at the time left no doubt as to the
subject represented. In the Testament of Queen
Joan (d'Evreux), an opening picture (tableau
cloant) is described of silver gilt, in the
middle of which is a cameo of the Annunciation
of Our Lady, strewn with pearls and
precious stones, and priced at thirty francs.
The treasury of King Charles the Fifth of
France contained numberless cameos,
inserted in reliquaries, rings, crucifixes, and
other objects. A purse is mentioned that
held the cross which the Emperor
Constantine always carried about him in battle.
It was enclosed in a golden jewel,
ornamented with a large cameo, on which was
carved in relief (enlevé) the image of Our
Lord, eight large balass rubies, and ten large
pearls. Belonging to King Charles the
Sixth of France was "A small golden
picture, longish and hollow-shaped (sur façon cle
fons de cuve), of the size of the hollow of the
hand, or thereabouts ; in which is a small
image of Our Lady, whose face and hands are
of cameo, the body down to the waist
of sapphire ; she holds her naked child,
made of cameo, and the said picture is
enriched with three balass rubies, three
sapphires, six pearls, and hangs by a hook."

But, besides religious subjects, portraiture
and the pursuits of the time were introduced.
Thus, in the inventory of the Duke
of Berry (in the year fourteen hundred and
fifteen), is "A ring of gold, in which is the
face of my lord (the Duke) counterfeited on
a cameo;" and "A large square cameo, in
which is a man sitting under a tree, holding
a hawk on his fist, and a dog before him,
with a net spread out, the border of which
net is enamelled with fleurs-de-lis."

Before I quit the subject of cameos, I may
observe that there was a description of
painting employed generally in the miniatures
of illuminated manuscripts, called
painting in cameo (peinture en camahieu),
which consisted in the simple contrast of
black on a white ground ; but the use of the
term did not obtain till after the Renaissance.

The treasury of Louis of Anjou was not
without reliquaries. These cases for relics
were of all sizes from the largest, in the shape
of a church (commonly called a chasse), to
the medallion which was worn round the
neck ; sometimes they assumed the form of
busts in silver, of detached limbs covered
with metal, of candles containing the Holy
Innocents, of bones, crystals and pictures,
such as have been described ; and the
contents were always regularly ticketed, I suppose
for fear of mistakes. Of religious relics
all travellers in Catholic countries have seen
enough, but there were others to which more
real interest was attached — relics of affection
and those that were truly historical. In the
inventory of Piers Gaveston, the favourite of
our Edward the Second, appears "A cup of
gold, enamelled in blue, which Queen Alionore
gave to the King that now is, with her blessing"
(od sa béniceon). A bequest from Queen
Joan of Evreux to Queen Blanche of Navarre
—she was called by her countrymen "Beautiful
Wisdom" (Belle Sagesse) — consisted of
"a small diamond which the King of Navarre,
brother of my lady, gave formerly to me, the
same which he always wore on his person,
because it had belonged to their father, whom
God absolve." And in the will of John of
Gaunt, the father of Henry of Lancaster, is
this entry : "An ancient clasp of gold (fermail
d'or del veil manere), written all over
with the names of God, which my very
honoured lady and mother, the Queen, whom
God absolve, gave me, commanding that I
should preserve it, with her blessing, and I
will that he keeps it with the blessing of
God and mine." Somewhat less authentic,
perhaps, is a gold ring with a sapphire, of
which mention is made in Pier Gaveston's
inventory, said to have been forged (forged,
indeed!) by the hands of Saint Dunstan. A
certain pair of tongs, which the same saint so
deftly used, would have made an invaluable
relic! In thirteen hundred and fifty-nine,
when John of France was prisoner in
England, he gave Edward the Third a cup, which
had descended to him from Saint Louis, out
of which the latter used to drink, and
Edward gave his captive, in return, the goblet
he habitually drank from. One of the legacies
of Queen Joan of Evreux to Philip of Valois
was a weapon which had belonged to Louis
the Ninth ; the pointed knife which hung
at his side when he was taken prisoner at
Massoys (Mansourah). Relics of Saint Louis,
indeed, were held in the highest estimation
from his triple claim as warrior, saint, and
king ; his cups, his daggers, his books of
prayer, were preserved, and his garments
even to the meanest. The inventory of
Charles the Sixth mentions, for instance,
"The shirt of Saint Louis, of which one
sleeve is wanting, a piece of his cloak, and
a roll of parchment, in which, written with
his own hand, are the instructions he sent
to his daughter." The psalter, also, in which
Saint Louis learnt to read, was amongst the
relics possessed by the Dukes of Burgundy.
These princes had another relic, the
genuineness of which may be doubted. "A large
wild-boar's tusk, said to be one of Garin's,
the wild-boar of Lorraine." This animal
cuts a conspicuous figure in the Romance
of Gaherin le Lorrain. Something more to
the purpose in the Dijon collection was a
sword that had belonged to the famous hero
Bertraud du Guesclin (une espée de guerre
qui fut à Messire Bertram! de Glaiquin).
There is an entry made in the inventory
of Amboise of the claim of another renowned