Fresh from the Royal Library

It’s that time again! In our permanent exhibition The Nassaus of Breda, we have welcomed three magnificent new manuscripts—handwritten books—on loan from the Royal Library. We rotate these books every six months so that we can continue to tell new stories.

An absolute crowd-puller is the Bible Historiale from 1330. This was a bestseller of the Middle Ages; the text was not written in difficult Latin, but in the vernacular (French). The magnificent miniatures tell the biblical story from the Creation to the Apocalypse.

Next to it lies an impressive history of the world. This book was intended for the nobility, such as Engelbrecht II or Henry III, to teach them wise lessons about loyalty and jealousy. It moves effortlessly from Greek mythology to the Roman era of Julius Caesar.

The third book is the famous Il Decameron. Henry III purchased this copy in 1531, a time when the plague was also raging in Breda. The book describes how ten young people fled the city of Florence because of the epidemic and told each other stories in the countryside to pass the time.

Did you know that the story of Il Decameron is still very much alive? There is a series on Netflix called The Decameron. Watch the series first and then come and admire the centuries-old manuscript here in our museum.