La condicion de l'hystoriographe : enquête sur une figure et un statut dans l'œuvre de George Chastelain

Abstract

La condicion de l’hystoriographe: an inquiry into a position and a status in the work of George Chastelain. In 1455 the duke of Burgundy, Philip the Good, entrusted George Chastelain with the writing of an official chronicle of his reign. This mission, which the writer carried out alongside similar tasks, was intended to compete with the Dionysian tradition of the Grandes Chroniques de France. As he tried to please his client, Chastelain invented a new position for the historian, namely that of the hystoriographe, which broke away from French traditions. Choosing this title rather than that of croniqueur, the writer subtly interpreted the new historiography he was inventing: he claimed for the historian a non-clerical status, and the right to a carefully worked-out understanding with the prince; his writing alternated between reported facts and their interpretation; he introduced oratorical genres into his Chronique. While he was working on this ambitious project (1455 to 1470), the first indiciaire turned the medieval status of French chronicler into that of Burgundian rhetorician, a status that was as problematic as it was original.