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The Court of Burgundy: Studies in the History of Civilization
362 pages, Paperback
Published February 14, 2026
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September 4, 2026
“Twenty-eight musicians were seated in a huge pasty… A fool rode on a bear through the wintry landscape. Here in a desert tigers and serpents engaged in furious combat; there a savage passed up and down through the land seated on a camel. Now the scene was transported to India where in a forest wild animals, moved by clockwork, sought their prey.” The Pheasant Banquet, the Ducal Palace, 17 Feb 1454 (p. 143)
Tena and I hope to be in Burgundy in the fall of 2027, so I wanted to read a bit about the high history of the Dukes of Burgundy before we go. Among other things, I plan on admiring their fancy tombs in Dijon’s fine arts museum.
I typically enjoy social histories such as this. The subject is the Burgundian court at the end of the knightly era; the tail end of the Middle Ages and the pale beginnings of the Renaissance. Cartellieri gives you enough of the convoluted, back-stabbing political history to situate you.
In the 1400s, the Dukes of Burgundy ruled over an incredibly wealthy patchwork of territories spanning from eastern France to the Low Countries (modern day Benelux). Although the dukes remained feudal vassals of the French crown for Burgundy itself, they increasingly behaved like independent monarchs. So, their legendary, over-the-top feasts were not simple parties. They were calculated, theatrical exercises in state-building, political legitimation, and geopolitical diplomacy.
They asserted their independence and sovereignty not only through diplomacy and war, but by using their extreme wealth to claim cultural and moral supremacy, as many of the world’s plutocrats still do today. Burgundy relied heavily on foreign alliances to keep France in check, so this political theatre mattered: staggering visual spectacles spread word of Burgundian power across the continent.
“And as for the Dwyks coort, as of lords, ladys and gentylwomen, knyts, sqwyers and gentylmen, I hert never of non lyuk, save kyng Artourys cort.” John Paston (p. 135)
The chapter on Feasts is one of the best, but there are chapters on all aspects of courtly life at the time: the duke and his court, knights, ladies, jousts and tourneys. This was also the time, in literature, of such things as Guilaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s The Romance of the Rose, and Christine de Pisan’s The Book of the City of Women. Such works, at the magnificent Bibliothèque de Bourgogne, are also discussed in this book.
The author writes in an accessible, easy to read style. Be aware, though, that he uses a lot of quotations in French and Latin so, if you don’t know these languages at least a little, you’d need to type bits into Google. I don’t think it would ruin the book if you didn’t bother, though. After spending 282 pages among people who regarded magnificent display as practically a theory of government, I don’t think those tombs are going to look quite so much like fancy tombs anymore. They’re the final performance of precisely the culture Cartellieri has been describing.
P.S. I downloaded this book for free from archive.org.
Tena and I hope to be in Burgundy in the fall of 2027, so I wanted to read a bit about the high history of the Dukes of Burgundy before we go. Among other things, I plan on admiring their fancy tombs in Dijon’s fine arts museum.
I typically enjoy social histories such as this. The subject is the Burgundian court at the end of the knightly era; the tail end of the Middle Ages and the pale beginnings of the Renaissance. Cartellieri gives you enough of the convoluted, back-stabbing political history to situate you.
In the 1400s, the Dukes of Burgundy ruled over an incredibly wealthy patchwork of territories spanning from eastern France to the Low Countries (modern day Benelux). Although the dukes remained feudal vassals of the French crown for Burgundy itself, they increasingly behaved like independent monarchs. So, their legendary, over-the-top feasts were not simple parties. They were calculated, theatrical exercises in state-building, political legitimation, and geopolitical diplomacy.
They asserted their independence and sovereignty not only through diplomacy and war, but by using their extreme wealth to claim cultural and moral supremacy, as many of the world’s plutocrats still do today. Burgundy relied heavily on foreign alliances to keep France in check, so this political theatre mattered: staggering visual spectacles spread word of Burgundian power across the continent.
“And as for the Dwyks coort, as of lords, ladys and gentylwomen, knyts, sqwyers and gentylmen, I hert never of non lyuk, save kyng Artourys cort.” John Paston (p. 135)
The chapter on Feasts is one of the best, but there are chapters on all aspects of courtly life at the time: the duke and his court, knights, ladies, jousts and tourneys. This was also the time, in literature, of such things as Guilaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun’s The Romance of the Rose, and Christine de Pisan’s The Book of the City of Women. Such works, at the magnificent Bibliothèque de Bourgogne, are also discussed in this book.
The author writes in an accessible, easy to read style. Be aware, though, that he uses a lot of quotations in French and Latin so, if you don’t know these languages at least a little, you’d need to type bits into Google. I don’t think it would ruin the book if you didn’t bother, though. After spending 282 pages among people who regarded magnificent display as practically a theory of government, I don’t think those tombs are going to look quite so much like fancy tombs anymore. They’re the final performance of precisely the culture Cartellieri has been describing.
P.S. I downloaded this book for free from archive.org.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review