# Le Roman de Fauvel [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [MINIATURIST, French]() - Date: 1301-1350 - Technique: Manuscript \(MS français 146\), 460 x 330 mm ## Commentary Le Roman de Fauvel c. 1316 Manuscript \(MS français 146\), 460 x 330 mm Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris This pen drawing is an illustration to a novel. The Roman de Fauvel is a satiric 3,000-line poem written anonymously by French monarchal cleric Gervais de Bus in the years between 1310 and 1314. At that time, France was under the notorious rule of Philippe IV, "The Fair," who had relocated the seat of the church from Rome to Avignon and was in the midst of conducting a brutal campaign of annihilation against the Order of the Knights Templar. The poem is an allegorical tale of a horse; "Fauvel" is proclaimed Lord of people, and his subjects go out of their way to provide him comfort. The allegory provides a bully pulpit from which de Bus is able to speak out against the church, the Pope, the laity, the Knights Templar, the king, and practically the whole of French society of his day. The Roman de Fauvel was widely circulated throughout fourteenth century France; no less than 12 contemporary manuscripts of the work are known to exist. The most elaborate of these manuscripts is a volume in the Bibliotheèque Nationale, fonds français 146. ## Related artworks - [A History of Western Saints]() - [Antiphoner]() - [Aristotle: De Interpretazione]() - [Aristotle: Works]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Augustinus Hipponensis: Quaestiones et locutiones in Heptateuchum]() - [Beatus of Liébana: Commentary on the Apocalypse]() - [Belleville Breviary]() - [Bible Historiale]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() - [Bible moralisée, part I.]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()