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Recalling his visit to the Burgundian court of Philip the Good in 1466, the Bohemian nobleman Leo of Rozmital remarked:

when we arrived at the castle where the old duke resided, the duke Charles [the son of Philip the Good] dismounted and asked my lord to do the same. Then tak- ing him by the hand he led my lord into the presence of the old duke. The duke was seated in a hall on a throne which was hung with cloth of gold woven with great splendour, as befitted the ducal hall [...] when they knelt a third time, at last the old duke gave his right hand to his son and afterwards to my lord. Then with one in either hand he led them into his chamber through nine other rooms.

Leo described an elaborate residential complex of multiple connected rooms, in which function and furnishings were mutually dependent elements. Studies of the architecture of the elite residences of later medieval Europe have confirmed this picture of an elaborate complex of rooms. Yet, in spite of the implication that function and furnishings were mutually dependent elements, there has been relatively little investigation of furnishings and still less of furnishings as an ensemble. Given the evidential constraints, this is perhaps not as surprising as it seems. Detailed contemporary descriptions of interiors are rare. Inventories taken on a ruler’s death do record furnishings, but one inventory can include close to a thousand objects. Thus, historians and art historians have tended to single out one type of object from these lists to examine in greater detail. Within specific court contexts, a range of individual objects have been subjected to detailed scrutiny, including devotional diptychs, books, textiles, and metalwork.

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