L’Église et la poésie : les débuts du Consistori del Gai Saber

Abstract

Passerai (Georges), The Church and poetry : the early stages of the Consistori del Gai Saber. The Consistori del Gai Saber was founded in Toulouse in 1323. The first “Mainteneurs” gave Guilhem Molinier the responsibility of drawing up the regulations of this academy, which established itself as a real university and conferred the title of “Docteur en Gaie Science”. The first chancellor wrote several versions of the Leys d’Amors, which are both a treatise on grammar and a code of moral standards. The study of theological works, in verse and prose, that accompany this long poetic treatise, reveals the rich philosophical and theological culture of the jurist from Toulouse. He is also the author of beautiful religious pieces, among which is a versified adaptation of Pierre-Jean Olieu’s Cavalier armat. Written in a context close to the spiritual Franciscan background, to which the troubadour Raimon de Comet also belonged, this work of poetry is reminiscent of Matfre Ermengaud’s Breviari d’Amor. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, the Church favoured the laity’s theological writings, which is particularly to the honour of Provençal literary writings at the end of the Middle Ages, and invites us to abolish the description of « declining literature » that is too often used to evoke that period.