Add. 54180, f.188v La Somme le Roi (A Survey for a King), c.1295 Paris

La Somme le Roi c. 1295 Language: French, Old Source/Shelfmark: Add. 54180, f.188v. (A Survey for a King) was written for the children of Philip III of France (r. 1270 –1285) by their tutor, Friar Laurent, who was also the King’s confessor. The work is a guide to virtue, contrasting it to vice, based on the principles of the Christian faith. Top left compartment: Sobriety as a crowned female figure standing on a bear holding a medallion of a green parrot, with an inscription above 'sobriete'. Top right compartment: Gluttony as a young man seated at a full table and vomiting, with an inscription above 'gloutonnie'. Bottom left compartment: A seated man cutting a loaf with his dog waiting at his side. Bottom right compartment: Dives dining at table and ordering his steward to bar the way to Lazarus, dressed as a pilgrim with two dogs licking the sores on his legs; beneath, in an additional compartment, Dives in Hell, in a cauldron fanned by two devils with bellows, with an inscription 'le riche homme aver')