Butterflies

Chasing Butterflies 

Soþli þei are not wyse, þei are like to þe children þat rennen after a boterflye, and for þei loken not to heore feet, þei falle sum-tyme & breken here leges. What is al þe pompe of þis world in richesse or iolyte but a boturflye?

Mixed Life, Walter Hilton

Chasing butterflies seems to largely be a pastime of the very young, but there are also a few miniatures that use a far more serious-looking adult – sometimes even armed with a bow and arrow -- hunting or pursuing butterflies, often with more of a droll intent on the part of the illustrator.

Wheþere will 3e folowe and take flyes and flyand botirflyes wiþ childer

St. Mary of Oignies, Douce 114 (1420-1450)

A nude man holds a cloth as he pursues a butterfly, the Psalter-Hours of Yolande de Soissons (PML M.729, fol. 346r), last quarter of the 13th century

Marginal illustration with ladies, one of whom seems to carry a butterfly net (Walters W.109.27V), late 13th century

A man wielding a sword and buckler attacks a butterfly, the Smithfield Decretals (Brit. Lib. 10 E IV, fol. 91v), c. 1300-1340

An archer aims at a butterfly, Bible historiale (BNF Fr. 156, fol. 36v), 1st half of the 14th century 

Boys with butterflies on strings, the Queen Mary Psalter (Brit. Lib. Royal 2 B VII, fol. 163v), c. 1310-1320 

An ape aims an arrow at a butterfly, La Queste del Saint Graal (Brit. Lib. Royal 14 E III), c. 1315-1325 

An ape tries to catch a butterfly (fol. 45v), boys catching butterflies with hoods (fol. 132v), and girls catching butterflies with hoods (fol. 135r), Romance of Alexander (Bodl. 264), c. 1338-1344 

Machaut playing and catching butterflies with his hood, Dit de l'Alérion (BNF Fr. 1586, fol. 59r), c. 1350-1355

Age: Children play with toys and catch butterflies, Omne Bonum (British Library Royal E VII, fol. 67v), c. 1360-1375 

A man uses a hood to pursue a butterfly, the Hours of Charlotte of Savoy (PML M.1004, fol. 133r), c. 1420-1425

Nude men chasing butterflies on fols. 78r and 78v of a book of hours (PML M.261), c. 1495-1503

Hunting butterflies with nets, the Breviary of Eleanor of Portugal (PML M.52, fol. 5r), c. 1500-1510

Boys catching butterflies (using their hats?), the Golf Book (Brit. Lib. Add. 24098, fol. 24v), c. 1540 

Table-carpet with the Story of Gombaut and Macée, c. 1600

Boy chasing a butterfly by Guercino

Bien les connois treske s'enfanche
C'alloient tendre as pavillons

Le jeu de la Feuillée, Adam de la Halle

Butterflies

Butterfly on Heraldic Art

Butterfly, book of hours (MS M.358 fol. 111r), ca. 1440-1450 

Butterfly, Horae ad usum Romanum, dites Grandes Heures d'Anne de Bretagne (BNF  Latin 9474 fol. 17v, 1503-1508 

Warrior outfit, Codex Mendoza, (fol. 20v), 1541

Glyphs, fol 486r, 533r, 544r, 594v, 594r, 608r, 613v, 631r, 711r, 733r, 738r, 751r, 762v, 858r, 879v Matrícula de Huexotzinco, 1560

Iconography, Florentine Codex fol. 100v, 100r, and 101r, 1577

Waistcoat, Victoria & Albert Museum T.4-1935, ca. 1620-1625

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