Multum prodest circa honesta officia occupari.Jacques de Vitry et les artisans en France au XIIIe siècle. Édition du sermon ad artifices mechanicarum artium (Serm. ad stat. 62)

Abstract

Jacques de Vitry (ca 1165 ? - 1240) was one of the most renowned preachers of his time. The 74 Sermones uulgares uel ad status belong to an uncommon genre of preaching, namely a collection of model sermons organised according to different audiences representing the various classes (status) of medieval society, both religious and lay. Sermon 62 is addressed to manual laborers. The choice of the biblical theme: Labores manuum tuarum quia manducabis, beatus es et bene tibi erit (Ps. 127:3), suggests a positive approach to this social group and testifies to the change in the Church's attitude towards them that was already evident in the twelfth century. Vitry stresses that for all craftsmen, whatever their trade, their talent is a gift from God through which they are called to contribute to the common good. To illustrate his recommendations and warnings, he uses biblical and patristic quotations, but above all edifying anecdotes or exempla. The edition of Sermon 62 is based on eleven of the fifteen manuscript witnesses of the collection Sermones uulgares uel ad status that preserve our text. It follows the editing principles established by J. Longère for the first 36 sermons (CC CM, 255; 2013). The Franciscan preacher Guibert of Tournai († 1284) used this sermon in his own Sermones ad status diuersos. An appendix lists those borrowings by referring to the text as it is transmitted in MS Paris BnF lat. 15943.