GUILLAUME CAOURSIN, review

Guillaume Caoursin (1430 - 1501) is an extremely important figure in the history of the order. Thanks to him we have such colourful miniatures depicting the brothers of the Order of St. John of the 15th-16th centuries.
Wilhelm von Caoursin, Guillaume Caoursin or Caoursin (German: Wilhelm von Caoursin, French: Guillaume Caoursin; 1430, Douai - 1501) - historian and diplomat.
At forty he was vice-chancellor and secretary of the Order of St. John. His works were first published in Ulm in 1496. The main of them, "Obsidionis Rhodiae descriptio", was soon after its publication translated into German (Strasbourg, 1513), Spanish (Seville, 1526), Italian (undated) and English. Caoursin compiled the collection of the statutes of the order approved by the Grand Master and the Chapter in 1493: "Volumen stabilimentorum Rhodiorum militum sacri Ordinis Hospitalis sive Johannis Hierosolymitani".

Obsidionis Rhodiae descriptio, 1496
As mentioned, this is Caoursin's main work.

Historia Von Rhodis Wie ritterlich sie sich gehalte[n] mit dem Tyrannischen keiser Machomet vb Turckye[n] lustig vn[d] lieplich, Strasbourg, translation 1513
Since at that time there were still no printing presses, the images were redrawn anew. Sometimes the author changed the composition or added his own vision, yet as we can see the subject remained the same.

Seville, 1525-1527
The original is in the Bibliotheque National, Paris, MS lat. 6067.
As we can see, the author-translator drew the same subjects, but already in colour. Plus several subjects absent in the original were added.

Publication date unknown
Another illustrated translation of Caoursin

© Enton, 2012