La Josephina de Jean Gerson et la tradition médiévale du poème biblique narratif

Abstract

The Josephina, written by Jean Gerson at the beginning of the fifteenth century, is a Virgilian poem of biblical content. It was the first in a genre of which De partu Virginis by Jacopo Sannazzaro would be the most famous example. To understand Gerson’s motivation and originality, it is necessary to clarify the cultural context in which he wrote. This paper reviews the ancient and medieval traditions that might have inspired him: hagiographic and historical narrative poems of scriptural discussion written in hexameter, devotional literature with subject matter from the Bible or the Apocrypha that grew out of the Devotio moderna. Two works – Petrarch’s Africa and the Dictamen de laudibus beati Joseph by Pierre Poquet – seem to have been particularly significant. This demonstrates that Gerson was both rooted in that tradition and sensitive to the newer cultural demands of the times.