French language and literature of Middle Ages

The French Danse Macabre (Paris, 1424-25), a key work in the spread of the Dance of Death genre, has been the focus of a long tradition of academic research. However, no recent scientific edition of this text is available, and its manuscript and printed tradition needs further investigation. This complex and multilingual textual tradition will be, for the first time, addressed in its entirety, and some preliminary results of the census of the witnesses will be presented here. The purpose of this paper is thus to provide a panoramic overview of the largely neglected extant French manuscripts, as well as of the earliest incunabula and captioned mural paintings witnessing the Danse. Finally, the catalan and latin translations of this text and its italian reworking will be briefly discussed.

Key words: Dance of Death; Middle French; Exposed writings; Multilingual textual tradition; Transmission and reception.

“From ‘Diseases of Women’ to ‘Secrets of Women’: The Transformation of Gynecological Literature in the Later Middle Ages,” Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 30 (2000), 5-39 – Abstract

This study documents a subtle but highly illuminating change that occurred in texts on women’s medicine over the course of the later Middle Ages: a change in title. Whereas all texts addressing the particular medical conditions of women’s bodies that circulated in the early and central Middle Ages had simple descriptive titles like “On the Conditions of Women” or “On the Sufferings of Women,” from the 13th century on we begin to see the word “secret” in the titles and in other rhetorical elements of these texts. It is argued that the language of secrecy comes particularly into play when the focus of such texts narrows from gynecological and obstetrical topics in their full range, to a more limited concentration on fertility and generation. This development is particularly interesting since, in earlier centuries, the topics of generation (i.e., the theoretical aspects) and gynecology and obstetrics (the practical descriptions of diseases and their cures) had been addressed in separate texts. Also addressed is the way texts on women’s medicine became juxtaposed to works on “generation,” or incorporated into codicological contexts that suggested that the works were being read for reasons other than therapeutics. A final sort of intervention was actual adaptation of texts on women’s medicine, omitting sections on, for example, uterine diseases and focusing only on reproduction.

Latin was the main language used for medical writing in the early Middle Ages, but from the late 12th century on, first Hebrew and then various European vernacular languages produce writings on women’s medicine, and these follow some of the same shifts seen in Latin works. (Languages covered include Hebrew, French, English, Dutch, Italian, and German.) The study is based on direct consultation of manuscripts in various languages from across Europe, including New York Academy of Medicine, MS SAFE; Oxford, Pembroke College, MS 21; and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Ashmole 399. In addition, medieval library inventories are surveyed, including those of the Sorbonne and St-Victor in Paris. The Trotula texts make up the bulk of material surveyed, though there is also incorporation of other texts on women’s medicine.

Au Moyen Âge, la langue française n’existait que sous une forme dialectalisée, que l’on écrivait différemment à travers ce qu’il convient d’appeler la « francophonie médiévale » (royaume de France, Îles Britanniques, Saint Empire, royaumes croisés, etc.). Bien qu’à l’écrit, ces variations graphématiques aient pu perdurer jusqu’au 17e siècle, on peut observer un processus de dérégionalisation et de normalisation à l’œuvre dès la fin du 13e siècle. Le moyen français a souvent été décrit comme largement standardisé d’après le dialecte « francien » ou parisien (Marchello-Nizia 2005), quoiqu’il ait récemment été démontré qu’il n’y avait aucune corrélation entre la norme écrite développée à Paris d’une part, et le mélange dialectal qu’on y parlait (Videsott 2010, Gruebl 2013). Ce point de vue « parisianiste » n’est en outre appuyé par aucune analyse quantitative des variations graphématiques dans les documents écrits de l’époque, laquelle devient à présent possible grâce à la numérisation et l’accès en ligne de milliers de textes (Dictionnaire du moyen français, Base de français médiéval, Anglo-Norman Dictionary, Online Froissart, Christine de Pizan Project), et au développement de lemmatiseurs très performants.
L'article qui suit propose une méthodologie pour sonder le corpus du DMF, en recensant les graphèmes régionaux détectés lors de recherches sur la provenance géographique de différents manuscrits du Moyen Âge tardif. Les données exploitables grâce cette méthode de localisation transversale ont énormément à nous apprendre, aussi bien sur l’histoire de la langue française (standardisation, dialectologie historique, sociologie du langage) que sur son histoire littéraire (géographie de la production culturelle, diffusion des œuvres). A moyen terme, l’objectif est de produire un atlas linguistique cartographiant la distribution de ces textes à travers la francophonie médiévale.

MS Glasgow Hunter 252 is the sole surviving manuscript copy of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. The present PhD thesis, funded by a Glasgow University Scholarship and supervised by James Simpson and Peter Davies, explores the language of this collection of bawdy tales, attributed to the court of Philippe III de Bourgogne (1396-1467). Most existing studies on the language of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles have offered a literary (e.g. stylistic, narratological) perspective, and very few have considered the document within the wider context of French historical linguistics. The present thesis aims to fill this gap by: 
- Presenting elements of linguistic interest within the document (dialectalisms, archaisms, rare features, cultural references, etc.), through a comprehensive survey of phonology, morphology, syntax and vocabulary. 
- Expanding and reassessing existing theories on orthographic standardisation and dialectal input in written and, more speculatively, spoken Middle French.
- Providing scriptological evidence towards the localisation of other textual resources within the online Dictionnaire du moyen français (1330-1500).
- Investigating the authenticity of the mise-en-scène of the Cent Nouvelles Nouvelles; reflecting on linguistic practices and note-taking at the Court of Burgundy.
- Exploring spoken language as rendered by direct speech passages, with special consideration of linguistic variation and stereotyping.
- Publishing textual databases for future analysis (tables of main spelling variants, alphabetical list of words, etc.).

This dissertation addresses the social significance of parlour games as forms of cultural expression in medieval and early modern England and France by exploring how the convergence of textual materialities, players, and narratives manifested in interactive texts, board games, and playing cards. Medieval games, I argue, do not always fit neatly into traditional or modern theoretical game models, and modern blanket definitions of ‘game’—often stemming from the study of digital games—provide an anachronistic understanding of how medieval people imagined their games and game-worlds.

Chapter 1 explores what the idea of ‘game’ meant for medieval authors, readers, and players in what I call ‘game-texts’—literary texts that blurred the modern boundaries between what we would consider ‘game’ and ‘literature’ and whose mechanics are often thought to be outside the definition of ‘game.’ Chapter 2 examines how recreational mathematics puzzles and chess problems penned in manuscript collections operate as sites of pleasure, edification, and meditative playspaces in different social contexts from the gentry households to clerical cloisters. The mechanics, layout, narrative, and compilation of chess problems rendered them useful for learning the art and skill of the game in England. Chapter 3 traces the circulation, manuscript contexts, and afterlives of two game-text genres in England—the demandes d’amour and the fortune-telling string games—in order to understand how they functioned as places of engagement and entertainment for poets, scribes, and players. Chapter 4 illustrates how narrative and geography became driving forces for the development and rise of the modern thematic game in Early Modern Europe. This chapter charts how changing ideas of spatiality enabled tabletop games to shift from abstract structures enjoyed by players in the Middle Ages, in which game narratives take place off a board, to ludic objects that incorporated real-life elements in their design of fictional worlds—thereby fashioning spaces that could visually accommodate narrative on the board itself.

This dissertation places games into a more nuanced historical and cultural context, showing not only the varied methods by which medieval players enjoyed games but also how these ideas developed and changed over time.

In the mid-thirteenth century, the Dominican friar Vincent of Beauvais compiled the largest encyclopedia ever during the Middle Ages: the fourfold Speculum maius, whose Latin Speculum historiale became by far its most copied and widespread volume. During the 1320's and early 1330's, Jean de Vignay translated the whole Speculum historiale into French and dedicated the work to the French queen Joan of Burgundy, wife of Philip of Valois. This dissertation consists in a partial critical edition of this French translation, the Miroir historial. Two books have been selected: Book I, which contains Vincent's prologue to the whole encyclopedia, and Book V, featuring one of the longest medieval histories of Alexander the Great. Book I's obvious interest lies in that it is the most detailed account of an encyclopedist's work, providing us with one of the most valuable insights into a compiler's mind and philosophy. Book V is certainly one the most influential histories of the Macedonian emperor, which inspired many late medieval and Renaissance authors, although very few scholars have looked into it and thoroughly examined its structure, contents and sources.

This dissertation features two previously unpublished books in addition to giving access to the most extensive extract from the Miroir historial that has ever appeared in print. The edition includes a thorough examination and identification of every source used by the translator but also by Vincent de Beauvais. The investigation shows, among other things, that nearly three quarters of the history of Alexander are in fact an abridged version of the account found in Helinand of Froidmont's Chronicon (Books XVII and XVIII), to which Vincent added additional sources, mainly theological and philosophical. The edition is based on three fourteenth-century manuscripts and includes a detailed analysis of the translator's life and works, a glossary as well as an index of all the proper nouns.

The Arthurian romance is usually characterized by figures who, from an elevated position (castle’s balconies and windows, towers, tribunes), observe duels, landscapes or the entrance of mysterious characters. The paper suggests an interpretation of this literary motif as a rewriting of the Homeric teichoskopia, the ‘viewing from the walls’ which we can find in Iliad 3 (vv. 121-449). According to this hypothesis, the analysis conducted on a corpus on fifteen romances (12th to 16th century) shows how the teichoskopia of classic epic literature has been reactivated by the Arthurian cycle principally in two directions: first as a projection of observing characters to the dimension of elsewhere in the Arthurian world; in the second place as an instrument of ratification of knight’s valor on the occasion of chivalric tournaments and battles. Referring to this second assumption the present study also highlights the more important role played by women in the observing public of Arthurian teichoskopia compared with their classic antecedents. This change of importance seems to be a consequence of the crisis of traditional chivalric code which marked the medieval society by the end of 12th century. A register of the motif occurrences in the corpus is proposed at the end of the paper.

This edition of Lydgate’s 'Dance of Death' offers a detailed comparison of the different text versions of the poem, as well as a new scholarly edition and translation of Marchant’s 1485 French 'Danse Macabre' publication, along with an art-historical analysis of its woodcuts.
Richly illustrated, the book addresses the cultural context and historical circumstances of Lydgate’s poem and its model, the mural of 1424-25 in Paris with the accompanying French poem, as well as their precursors, notably the 'Vado Mori' poems and the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead. It discusses authorship, the personification and visualisation of Death, and the wider dissemination of the Dance in medieval wall painting, print, and drama. The edited texts include commentaries, notes, and a glossary.

Rethinking the medieval prosimetrum not as strictly the mixing of prose and verse, but as the mixing of narrative and song.  That songs are framed by narration to generate notions of subjectivity also has implications for contemporary discussions of the lyric.

The medieval prosimetrum challenges many prevalent theories of the lyric because of the way it seems to personalize highly conventional and anonymous songs when placed within the context of a narrative frame. The article analyzes a tradition of knights listening to other knights complaining in song of their resistant loves in Chaucer’s The Knight’s Tale and the Tristan en prose.

[Now available through open access from Speculum: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1017/S0038713415002316]

Among those witnesses of John Gower's works that are known to have been produced during his lifetime, the Trentham manuscript (London, British Library, Additional MS 59495) stands out for its remarkable design as a seemingly planned trilingual collection. The manuscript, usually dated to the first year of Henry IV's reign, exclusively contains Gower's poetry—showcasing his virtuosity in English, French, and Latin. A number of its poems are either addressed to or invoke Henry, yet nothing is known about the history of this manuscript before the seventeenth century. As a result, scholarship on the Trentham manuscript (henceforth Trentham) tends to foreground the question whether this compilation was ever presented to Henry. I will adduce fresh evidence to establish the early provenance of Trentham and show that the manuscript remained in Southwark until the middle of the sixteenth century. Second, I will offer a new context for the composition of Trentham by reading the collection against the background of Anglo-French relations during the first months of Henry's rule. Finally, I will argue for Gower's personal involvement in and continued ownership of this manuscript.

Sebastian Sobecki (2015). Ecce patet tensus: The Trentham Manuscript, In Praise of Peace, and John Gower's Autograph Hand. Speculum, 90, pp 925-959. doi: 10.1017/S0038713415002316.

http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0038713415002316

Nel prologo della Storia di Merlino, composta da Paolino Pieri intorno al 1324, ci si imbatte nella narrazione delle diverse “traduzioni” delle profezie di Merlino commissionate dall’imperatore Federico II, che donò al re di Francia una versione francese dell’opera (originariamente trascritta in ebraico); quindi «la fece scrivere in saracinesco, e presentolla al soldano di Babillonia; e in latino anche la fece scrivere, e presentolla al papa». Il racconto riflette efficacemente, nello specchio suggestivo della leggenda, la centralità del problema della translatio nell’universo arturiano, e in particolare nel suo fortunato “spin-off” incentrato sul mondo magico della vita e delle profezie di Merlino. Attorno a tale problema ruota The Medieval Merlin Tradition di Laura Chuhan Campbell, dedicato alla complessa storia dei testi che compongono la tradizione merliniana, alla loro stratificazione e alla loro ricezione in Francia e in Italia.

Robert de Reims, also known as “La Chievre de Rains,” was among the earliest trouvères—poet-composers who were contemporaries of the troubadours but who wrote in the dialects of northern France. This critical edition provides new translations into English and modern French of all the songs and motets ascribed to him, along with the original texts, the extant music, and a substantive introduction.
Active sometime between 1190 and 1220, Robert was an influential figure in the literary circles of Arras. Thirteen compositions set to music are here attributed to him, including nine chansons and four polyphonic motets that were broadly disseminated in the thirteenth century and beyond. Robert’s work is exceptional on a number of fronts. He lavished particular care on the phonic harmony of his words. Acoustic luxuriance and expertise in rhyming, grounded in the play of echoes and variation (often extending into the music), constitute the hallmark of his poetry. Moreover, he is the earliest trouvère known to have composed a parodic sotte chanson contre Amours (silly song against Love).
Located clearly at the nexus of monophonic song and polyphony, Robert’s corpus also poses the intriguing question of trouvère participation in the development of the polyphonic repertory. The case of Robert de Reims jostles and tempers the standard history of the chanson and motet.
Accessible and instructive, this trilingual critical edition of his complete works makes the oeuvre of this innovative and consequential trouvère available in one volume for the first time.

The aim of this thesis is to examine the relationship between religion and shame as portrayed by characterizations of Perceval in the original French text of Le Conte du Graal (Perceval) by Chrétien de Troyes and in the Norwegian translation Parcevals saga (author unknown). This will provide an examination of how shame is represented, what its portrayal means for the narrative itself and why it may be represented this way due to religious and cultural influences in Norse and French society.

The main focus will be on the association of shame and sin and how the relationship between the two is viewed in both cultures as depicted in the two narratives. The portrayal of emotions other than love in the romances has not often been examined by scholars, particularly in a psychological context. Leah Tether´s Master´s thesis, Beyond the Grail: The Roles of Objects as Psychological Markers in Chrétien de Troyes´ Conte du Graal,examines Perceval´s perception of objects in the story and their gradual acquisition of deeper, symbolic interpretation as he matures. Sylvester George Tan similarly explores the idea of unconscious sin and asks whether or not Perceval is unfairly castigated for his actions within the narrative in his article, Perceval‘s Unknown Sin: Narrative Theology in Chrétien‘s Story of the Grail.‖

However, these works do not consider theology and its psychological influences on an individual and, by extension, his culture as represented in literature.

I will examine Perceval´s psychological state as it relates to his shame in two versions of the narrative in order to argue that the Norse-Icelandic audience placed much less importance on religion in general and on shame at committing a sin specifically.

In conclusion, this project will examine the emotional and mental trials of Perceval in the French and Norse-Icelandic versions of the story after committing a great sin in order to shed new light on this element of Parcevals saga and the Scandinavian culture it represents.

This edition of Lydgate’s 'Dance of Death' offers a detailed comparison of the different text versions of the poem, as well as a new scholarly edition and translation of Marchant’s 1485 French 'Danse Macabre' publication, along with an art-historical analysis of its woodcuts. Richly illustrated, the book addresses the cultural context and historical circumstances of Lydgate’s poem and its model, the mural of 1424-25 in Paris with the accompanying French poem, as well as their precursors, notably the 'Vado Mori' poems and the Legend of the Three Living and the Three Dead. It discusses authorship, the personification and visualisation of Death, and the wider dissemination of the Dance in medieval wall painting, print, and drama. The edited texts include commentaries, notes, and a glossary.

This essay claims that Chaucer's Knight fights in the siege of Algeciras, not in 1342-44 for King Alfonso XI, a Christian against Muslims, but in the last days of July 1369 for Sultan Muḥammad V of Granada, a Muslim king, against fellow Christians.  How does it come to this?

Download the full text: ojs.uv.es/index.php/MCLM/article/view/3902/7068

The present article focuses on ff. CXLr-CLIVr of manuscript Miscelˑlània 26, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Barcelona, which contain the only extant version of the fifteenth-century Catalan translation of the French "Danse Macabre". The article contains a philological study of this section of the manuscript, with particular attention to the relationship between the Catalan version of the "Danse Macabre" and its French sources: this study serves as an introduction to a new critical edition of the Catalan translation proposed in the second part of the article. The critical text consists of a parallel edition of manuscript lat. 14904, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris (MS BnF lat. 14904), which proves to be the witness of the French poem closest to the lost exemplar used by the Catalan translator. Both editions aim at finding a balance between readability and a conservative approach which preserves the historical character of the manuscripts. The critical text is preceded by editorial criteria and accompanied by a literal translation into modern English and editorial notes.

KEYWORDS

Dance of Death; Danse macabre; Dansa de la Mort; Dança de la Mort; critical edition; Catalan literature; textual transmission and reception; medieval translation; manuscript tradition; Pere Miquel Carbonell; manuscript Miscel•lània 26, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó; manuscript lat. 14904, Bibliothèque Nationale de France; Abbey of Saint Victor in Paris; John Lydgate.

EN CATALÀ:

La traducció catalana quatrecentista de la “Danse macabre” francesa: edició crítica del ms. Miscel•lània 26, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, i traducció a l’anglès

RESUM

El present article se centra en els ff. cxlr-clivr del manuscrit Miscel•lània 26, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó, Barcelona, que contenen l’única versió conservada de la traducció catalana de la Danse macabre francesa. L’article inclou un estudi filològic d’aquesta secció del manuscrit, amb atenció particular a la relació entre la versió catalana de la Danse macabre i les seues fonts franceses : aquest estudi serveix d’introducció a una nova edició crítica de la traducció catalana, proposada en la segona part de l’article. El text editat presenta edició en paral•lel de la versió catalana i del manuscrit lat. 14904, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris (MS BnF lat. 14904), que resulta ser el testimoni del poema francès més proper a l’exemplar perdut emprat pel traductor català. En ambdues edicions se cerca un equilibri entre fàcil lectura i transcripció filològica per conservar el caràcter històric dels manuscrits. L’edició crítica és precedida pels criteris editorials, i seguida d’una traducció a l’anglès actual, i per notes d’edició.

PARAULES CLAU

Dansa de la Mort; danses macabres; Danse macabre; edició crítica; literatura catalana; transmissió i recepció textuals; traducció medieval; tradició manuscrita; Pere Miquel Carbonell; manuscrit Miscel•lània 26, Arxiu de la Corona d’Aragó; manuscrit lat. 14904, Bibliothèque Nationale de France; abadia de Sant Víctor a París; John Lydgate.

Il codice quattrocentesco fr. 1801 della Bibliothèque Nationale de France tramanda una raccolta di preghiere e di opere devozionali che faceva parte della ricca biblioteca privata della regina Carlotta di Savoia, moglie di Luigi XI di Francia. Il florilegio include un'inedita vita di santa Margherita in versi francesi, di cui si propone l'edizione e lo studio, nel tentativo di meglio collocarla nell'orizzonte storico-culturale a cui appartiene.

This paper describes the purpose and process for creating Je Christine, a touring solo performance of selected works by Christine de Pizan which premiered in 2017. Conditions in the TV and film industry prior to the escalation in 2016 of the #MeToo Movement prompted my decision to abandon a successful on-screen career. In order to rebuild my career in a way that would afford me more control over my working conditions and the content of my projects, I undertook the creation of a one-woman stage show centered on a historical figure. I will explain my reasons for choosing Christine de Pizan as the subject of the show and describe how that choice created obstacles and opportunities during development of the project. I conclude by exploring the changes effected in my life and in my experience as a professional performer as a result of working closely with Christine's works.