Les doubles funérailles d'Anne de Bretagne

Duchess of Brittany and Queen of France for the second time, wife of Charles VIII and then Louis XII, Anne dies in Blois on 9 January 1514. Her funeral lasts seventy days. A long land convoy leads her body to Paris and Saint-Denis, then a short voyage, fluvial, brings her heart to Nantes where her exceptional golden box remains the symbol of the mystical relationship between the people, its sovereign and its territory. The multiplicity of rites, sometimes new, and the richness of the ceremonies reveal the power of the Crown, the importance of the Bretons, the rank of each, the weight of the Church and the role of the quest for salvation. Through the crossed glances of the historian, who interprets the texts, the art historian who decrypts the miniatures, and the archaeologist, who makes objects speak, the reader discovers from day to day the political organization, the technical preparation, the unfolding and the radiance of the most grandiose royal funeral that knew France at the beginning of the Renaissance.--Translation of page 4 of cover by Payot Librarie.