Note the dedication to the Duke of Longueville. Chapelain received a pension from this nobleman, allowing him to write this heroic epic about Joan of Arc. The poem's subject also allowed him to celebrate Jean de Dunois, a medieval ancestor of the house of Longueville who was one of the great military leaders of the Hundred Years War. Apparently Chapelain let thirty years go by before he published the first half of this masterpiece, leading some to argue that Chapelain wished to spin out his pension as long as he could. This is one of the first French books engraved by a painter. Claude Vignon (1593 1670) was a French painter, printmaker and illustrator who worked in a wide range of genres. Abraham Bosse (ca. 1604 1676) was another French artist, mainly as a printmaker and etcher. Most of his output was illustrations for books, but many were also sold separately.
