La mise en prose des Vigiles des morts de Pierre de Nesson, texte inconnu attribuable à Jean Miélot

Abstract

In 1457, the Burgundian copyist and writer Jean Miélot transcribed in his own hand most of the Latin and French prayers added to a personal book of hours belonging to Philip the Good, who had inherited it from his grandfather, Philip the Bold (BRUSSELS, KBR, ms. 11035 – 37). Among these is a prose version of the Vigiles des Morts by the French poet Pierre de Nesson. This article presents this text, unknown to philologists until now, and suggests that it should be attributed to Jean Miélot ; this copy (the only evidence of this text) would therefore be an autograph manuscript. A study of the way the translator has turned the verse of the Vigiles into prose enables us to refine our knowledge of the nature and role of the drafting and copying work performed by Jean Miélot for the Duke of Burgundy.