The Temperate and the Intemperate: Miniature from Valerius Maximus, Faits et dits mémorables des romains, translation by Simon de Hesdin and Nicolas de Gonesse of Facta et dicta memorabilia

Master of the Dresden Prayer Book; Valerius Maximus

about 1475–1480

Tempera colors and ink, Tempera Colors, Ink

J. Paul Getty Museum

The Memorable Deeds and Sayings of the Romans, a compilation of stories about ancient customs and heroes written in the first century A.D. by Valerius Maximus, was widely used in the Middle Ages as a textbook for rhetoric. The museum's cutting comes from a French translation of the original Latin text made for Jan Crabbe, abbot of the Cistercian Abbey at Duinen, south of Bruges. This large miniature appeared at the beginning of book two, Concerning Morals and Customs. In a spacious dining hall, Valerius, dressed in blue on the left, instructs the Emperor Tiberius, to whom he dedicated his book, on the value of temperance. Valerius p