L’autel de Lichtervelde et la genèse du manuscrit C de la collection épistolaire d’Étienne d’Orléans, évêque de Tournai (Paris, BnF, lat. 8630A)

Abstract

Stephen of Orléans, better known as Stephen of Tournai (1128-1203), was successively abbot of Saint-Euverte in Orléans (1168-1176), abbot of Sainte-Geneviève in Paris (1176-1192) and bishop of Tournai (1192-1203). His correspondence - 315 letters in all - is preserved in six medieval collections (or editions). The most important collection (it contains a total of 302 letters and documents, of which a third concerns his period as bishop of Tournai) is the one which can be found in what Jules Desilve, the last editor, called the first family of manuscripts. The archetype of this collection is manuscript C (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, lat. 8630A), which is unfortunately mutilated (three quires and no less than 42 leaves are lacking). This manuscript was compiled in 1198 (and at the beginning of 1199) in four phases by a main scribe (hand A) who was assisted by ten or so other scribes. The collection contained in manuscript C and the other manuscripts of the first family (V, G and P) betrays a strong link with Tournai. It contains not only a large number of letters dating from Stephen’s period as bishop, but also some documents from the cathedral archives of Tournai. Moreover, the main hand of C also wrote an original charter of the chapter of Tournai from 2 April 1198 concerning the altar of Lichtervelde. The manuscript was consequently written by someone in the direct entourage of the bishop of Tournai. On this basis, we may suppose that the main scribe of C, who was at the same time the compiler of this collection, was either the bishop’s chaplain, Marcel, a canon of Sainte-Geneviève who accompanied Stephen to Tournai and who became abbot of Cysoing at the end of 1198, or Stephen’s own brother, also called Stephen, who is attested as canon of Tournai between 1193 and 1201.