Catching Butterflies

Chasing butterflies seems to largely be a pastime of the very young, but there are also a few miniatures that use a far more serious-looking adult – sometimes even armed with a bow and arrow -- hunting or pursuing butterflies, often with more of a droll intent on the part of the illustrator.

See also La chasse aux papillons: jeu spontané des enfants, passion culturelle d'adultes.

Bien les connois treske s'enfanche
C'alloient tendre as pavillons

Le jeu de la Feuillée, Adam de la Halle

• A nude man holds a cloth as he pursues a butterfly, the Psalter-Hours of Yolande de Soissons (PML M.729, fol. 346r), last quarter of the 13th century
• Marginal illustration with ladies, one of whom seems to carry a butterfly net (Walters W.109.27V), late 13th century
• A man wielding a sword and buckler attacks a butterfly, the Smithfield Decretals (Brit. Lib. 10 E IV, fol. 91v), c. 1300-1340
• An archer aims at a butterfly, Bible historiale (BNF Fr. 156, fol. 36v), 1st half of the 14th century
Et pour chasser les papillons
Me voulais bien distingué
Et quand attraper les pouvais
D'un petit fil je les liais
Et puis je les laissais aller
Ou je les faisais voler.

L'Espinette amoureuse, Jean Froissart

• Boys with butterflies on strings, the Queen Mary Psalter (Brit. Lib. Royal 2 B VII, fol. 163v), c. 1310-1320
• An ape aims an arrow at a butterfly, La Queste del Saint Graal (Brit. Lib. Royal 14 E III), c. 1315-1325
• An ape tries to catch a butterfly (fol. 45v), boys catching butterflies with hoods (fol. 132v), and girls catching butterflies with hoods (fol. 135r), Romance of Alexander (Bodl. 264), c. 1338-1344
• Machaut playing and catching butterflies with his hood, Dit de l'Alérion (BNF Fr. 1586, fol. 59r), c. 1350-1355
Soþli þei are not wyse, þei are like to þe children þat rennen after a boterflye, and for þei loken not to heore feet, þei falle sum-tyme & breken here leges. What is al þe pompe of þis world in richesse or iolyte but a boturflye?

Mixed Life, Walter Hilton

• Age: Children play with toys and catch butterflies, Omne Bonum (British Library Royal E VII, fol. 67v), c. 1360-1375
• A man uses a hood to pursue a butterfly, the Hours of Charlotte of Savoy (PML M.1004, fol. 133r), c. 1420-1425


Wheþere will 3e folowe and take flyes and flyand botirflyes wiþ childer

St. Mary of Oignies, Douce 114 (1420-1450)

• Nude men chasing butterflies on fols. 78r and 78v of a book of hours (PML M.261), c. 1495-1503
• Hunting butterflies with nets, the Breviary of Eleanor of Portugal (PML M.52, fol. 5r), c. 1500-1510
• Boys catching butterflies (using their hats?), the Golf Book (Brit. Lib. Add. 24098, fol. 24v), c. 1540
• Detail from a 16th century tapestry, Les amours de Gombault et Macée
And ane of his felows said̛ vnto hym̛; “For God, what seke ye þer? Wiƚƚ ye go kepp butterfleis as barnys duse?”

An Alphabet of Tales

• Table-carpet with the Story of Gombaut and Macée, c. 1600
• Four putti catching butterflies, c. 1593-1665
• Boy chasing a butterfly by Guercino