The Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing (Book of the Deeds of Jacques de Lalaing), a famous Flemish illuminated manuscript, relays the audacious life of Jacques de Lalaing (1421–1453), a story that reads more like a fast-paced adventure novel. Produced in the tradition of chivalric biography, a genre developed in the mid-fifteenth century to celebrate the great personalities of the day, the manuscript’s text and illuminations begin with a magnificent frontispiece by the most acclaimed Flemish illuminator of the sixteenth century, Simon Bening.
 
A Knight for the Ages: Jacques de Lalaing and the Art of Chivalry presents a kaleidoscopic view of the manuscript with essays written by the world’s leading medievalists, adding rich texture and providing a greater understanding of the many aspects of the manuscript’s background, creation, and reception, revealing for the first time the full complexity of this illuminated romance.
 
The texts are accompanied by stunning reproductions of all of the manuscripts’ miniatures—never before published in color—as well as a plot summary and translations, allowing the reader to follow Jacques de Lalaing on his knightly journeys and experience the thrilling triumphs of his legendary tournaments and battles.
 

Table of Contents:
Foreword by Tim Potts Acknowledgments by Elizabeth Morrison Introduction by Elizabeth Morrison Timeline of the Life of Jacques de Lalaing by Alexandra Kaczenski Part 1: Text and Miniatures Plot Summary by Zrinka Stahuljak Illuminations and Translation (trans. by Zrinka Stahuljak) Part 2: Essays 1) Wim Blockmans: Jacques de Lalaing: The Vitality of the Chivalric Ideal in the Burgundian Netherlands 2) Rosalind Brown-Grant Jacques de Lalaing and Chivalric Biography 3) Zrinka Stahuljak The Long Middle Ages of Jacques de Lalaing: Medieval Genres and the Writing of History 4) Elizabeth Morrison Creating the Ideal Knight through Illumination: The Artists of the Getty Lalaing 5) Hanno Wijsman The Visual Tradition of the Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing 6) Margaret Scott Clad in Crimson and Gold: Dress in the Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing 7) Tobias Capwell Armor, Weapons and Combat in Getty Ms. 114 8) Anne-Marie Legare A Family Text: The Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing Appendix 1: Description of the Manuscript by Elizabeth Morrison Appendix 2: TK Appendix 3: Genealogy of the Lalaing Family Bibliography Index