MS M.1044, fols. 67v–68r

Download image: 
Gaston III Phœbus, Count of Foix
1331–1391

Livre de la chasse

Paris, France
ca. 1406–1407
381 x 290 mm

Bequest of Clara S. Peck, 1983

MS M. 1044
Page description: 

Hunting and Taking the Hart
A page, after many years of working with hounds, became a true hunter at age twenty, by which time he had at least two horses. By then he would know how to follow the lymerer and to sound his horn or holla, signaling his fellow huntsmen to join the chase when the right hart had been identified. Here two well-dressed mounted huntsmen, blowing their horns, pursue a great stag that has already been dislodged. The dogs join the chase, helping to exhaust the stag. Were the hart's antlers to kill or wound a dog, he would immediately be killed with a sword or arrow. The hunters are dressed in green, as Phoebus specified for reasons of camouflage.

Credits: 

Image courtesy of Faksimile Verlag Luzern