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Virtuous and Sinful Uses of Temporal Wealth in the Breviari d'Amor of Matfre Ermengaud (MS BL Royal 19.C.I)

important aspect of the influence exerted by the mendicant orders on the laity of the latter Middle Ages was their teaching on the uses of material wealth. Historians have investigated how their views, discussed in complex Latin summas, were imparted to society at large by the vernacular word.1 But images also played a role in the process of transmission, especially those accompanied by text. We find some remarkable examples in London, British Library Royal MS ig.C.1, one of the oldest surviving copies of the Breviari d'Amor.2 The Breviari, usually described as an encyclopedic poem, consists of 34,597 lines of medieval-Occitan verse, written in octosyllabic couplets in the tradition of the legendary troubadours of Provenge.3 Throughout its verses the author, Matfre Ermengaud, expresses his views on virtuous and sinful uses of temporal wealth. Those views reflect the complex arguments developed by mendicant schoolmen, but are presented in the Breviari in the vernacular and in a manner accessible to the lay reader. Matfre recommends spending on charitable works and condemns those who squander their fortune on the pursuit of worldly vanities, themes which are ingeniously illustrated in Royal MS 19. C.I. This article investigates how three miniature cycles, the Works of Mercy, the so-called Vainglory Cycle and the Ten Torments of Hell illustrate the virtuous and sinful uses of wealth, and the inexorable consequences of the choice.