Old French Research Articles

An Unedited Version of the Medieval French Heraldic Oath

An Unedited Version of the Medieval French Heraldic Oath

:Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature

:<i>Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature</i>

Wide variations in Medieval French unambiguous V2 configurations are due to register

Abstract Quantitative studies of V2 in Medieval French have produced diverging results with respect to the rate of use of V2 and the informational value of the initial XP. These divergences are hypothesized to relate to the register of investigated texts. The hypothesis is verified by the systematic analysis of unambiguous V2 (with an expressed post-verbal subject) with respect to rates of use and informational value of XPs in three register-differentiated Anglo-Norman prose legal texts from the 1260–1300 period. On rates, unambiguous V2 is three times more frequent in the most formal, legal treatise text than it is in the less formal, court dialogues. On informational value, indications are provided that the XP tends to have a Focus value more often in more formal texts. Register thus impacts the behavior of unambiguous V2 configurations in Medieval French; using data less remote from the primary competence of speakers helps in approaching the effective curve of change.

Samuelson, Charlie. Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature

<scp>Samuelson</scp>, <scp>Charlie</scp>. <i>Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature</i>

«Арабо-латинский вопрос». Рецензия на: Брене Ж.-Б. Что значит мыслить? Арабо-латинский ответ / Пер. с фр. Д. Шаховой. М.: Ад Маргинем Пресс, 2024. 152 с.

The review is devoted to the work of the French medievalist and historian Jean-Baptiste Brené (born 1972) “Que veut dire penser? Arabes et Latins” (2022), first published in Russian. The author critically examines Brené’s excursions into the history of Arab Peripatetism and proves their irrelevance to the stated topic of the book. At the same time, the reviewer demonstrates postmodernist essence of treatise main idea — the postulate about the positive openness of cognition “cosmic” phenomenon.

Medieval French Literary Culture Abroad, Jane Gilbert, Simon Gaunt (†), William E. Burgwinkle

Medieval French Literary Culture Abroad, Jane Gilbert, Simon Gaunt (†), William E. Burgwinkle

Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature by Charlie Samuelson (review)

Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature by Charlie Samuelson (review)

The Sense(s) of Medieval French

The Sense(s) of Medieval French

Manner change in early French unharmonic obstruent-sonorant clusters

This diachronic constraint-based analysis details shifting reflexes in Proto-French (PF) and early Old French (OF) (approximately 2nd-12th centuries) towards the repair of underlying obstruent-nasal clusters, especially where the obstruent is coronal, as well as phonotactically dispreferred /tl, dl/. In earlier PF, deletion and gemination prevail, with gemination broadening scope from flat-sonority clusters to some obstruent-sonorant clusters, including /dl/ and variably obstruent-nasal. Late PF /dn/ assibilates to [zn], avoiding a suboptimal syllable-contact sonority contour, with the end result of both processes finalizing a broader coda obstruent ban before OF. Early OF ecclesiastic loanwords from Latin re-introduce underlying medial obstruent-nasal and /tl, dl/ clusters, with the cluster-final sonorant undergoing the novel repair of rhotacization (/n/ or /l/ " [r]), representing an extension of manner change seen in earlier spirantization and assibilation in the native lexicon. The unified optimality-theoretic analysis identifies and argues for a multi-stage shift in the prioritization of constraints governing the intersecting deletion, gemination, spirantization, assibilation, and rhotacization processes, and their interaction with syllabification, sonority, and phonotactics.

Veiled Reading, Reading Veils: Textile Curtains and the Experiences of Medieval French Manuscripts, 1200–1325

Abstract: Building on groundbreaking studies by Christine Sciacca and Morgan Simms Adams, this article addresses an understudied phenomenon of medieval French manuscript culture: the sewing of textile curtains—fabric pieces made of silk, linen, or cotton gauze—above or beside illuminations to protect and veil them. Presenting a corpus of forty-six manuscripts of medieval French texts that once contained curtains, I demonstrate how this practice extended beyond the realm of Latin and devotional books to some of the most popular vernacular illuminated book traditions of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries. Through a series of examples, the different performative potentialities of the veil—its affordances—are shown to far exceed its presumed protective function. Indeed, I argue that the textile curtain, operating at the intersection of touch and sight, should be considered an important part of how certain French books were experienced in the Middle Ages.

:Gender and Voice in Medieval French Literature and Song

:<i>Gender and Voice in Medieval French Literature and Song</i>

Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature. By Charlie Samuelson

Journal Article Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature. By Charlie Samuelson Get access Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature. By Charlie Samuelson. (Interventions: New Studies in Medieval Culture.) Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2022. 229 pp. Bill Burgwinkle Bill Burgwinkle King’s College, Cambridge, United Kingdom billburgwinkle@gmail.com Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar French Studies, knad102, https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knad102 Published: 04 May 2023

CREMMA Medii Aevi: Literary Manuscript Text Recognition in Latin

This paper presents a novel segmentation and handwritten text recognition dataset for Medieval Latin from the 11th to the 16th century. It connects with Medieval French datasets, as well as earlier Latin datasets, by enforcing common guidelines, bringing 263,000 new characters and now totaling over a million characters for medieval manuscripts in both languages. We provide our own addition to Ariane Pinche’s Old French guidelines to deal with specific Latin cases. We also offer an overview of how we addressed this dataset compilation through the use of pre-existing resources. With a higher abbreviation ratio and a better representation of abbreviating marks, we offer new models that outperform the Old French base model on Latin datasets, improving accuracy by 5% on unknown Latin manuscripts.

Making the Bible French: The ‘Bible historiale’ and the Medieval Lay Reader. By Jeanette L. Patterson

In this impressive analysis of the thirteenth-century Bible historiale, Jeanette L. Patterson blends a detailed history of the text’s manuscript tradition with a sharp enquiry into the intellectual priorities that animated its translation into French by Guyart des Moulins as well as subsequent expanded versions produced in later centuries. It is argued that Guyart des Moulins, his successors, and the lay public for whom they wrote shared literary expectations that were determined by a range of historical factors: the waning importance of the Latin Crusader states; the emerging popularity of reading among the laity; and specific understandings of literature’s capacity to convey truth in biblical texts as well as in secular poetry and prose. On this last score, Patterson maintains that the author and his lay readers commonly evaluated the truth of a text by the spiritual edification that the written work produced in the reader. Such an approach to literary truth did not oppose truth and fiction, thereby allowing even the more fantastical stories of the Bible to advance the sanctification of laypeople without compromising exacting standards of credibility. In one especially compelling illustration, Patterson describes how two different versions of the Book of Job (one complete, one highly redacted) were juxtaposed in certain copies of the Bible historiale. By combining the more theologically conservative redaction with the unabridged text, the French translator gave lay readers the power to discern which version of Job they were spiritually equipped to read. Thus, Patterson helpfully uncovers how Guyart des Moulins’s Bible did not simply embody a clerical conservatism but actively empowered the laity through specific redaction and translation strategies. By interpreting the Bible historiale in this way, Patterson identifies a culture of biblical translation and reader reception that valued transformative reader responses above overly literal translation, historical facticity, or the imperatives of ecclesiastical control. The success of these arguments should make this book of interest not just within a range of disciplines in medieval studies but also in hermeneutics and literary theory. In fact, one of the most compelling aspects of Patterson’s argumentative approach is the way that she identifies the latent origins of hermeneutical thinking in the medieval translation practices studied here. We come to learn that Guyart des Moulins and his heirs were not simply rendering sacred text from Latin into the vernacular; they were engaged with the biblical text in playful, nuanced, and even daring ways that prioritized reader response as the engine of translation. Patterson’s project also offers a crucial anglophone counterpart to a growing investment in the study of medieval French Bibles within francophone scholarship, evident in the recent collection Écrire la Bible en français au Moyen Âge et à la Renaissance (ed. by Véronique Ferrer and Jean-René Valette (Geneva: Droz, 2016)). Given Patterson’s thorough philology and insightful analysis, one hopes her book will occasion new interactions between francophone and anglophone discussions of vernacular biblical translations and their relation to medieval secular literatures.

JEAN RENART’S NOVELS (L’ESCOUFLE, GUILLAUME DE DOLE) AND THE ISSUE OF THE “REALISTIC MEDIEVAL NOVEL”

This article highlights the difference between Jean Renart’s novels and French novels of the “golden” 12th century. Its main feature is the absence of magic and Breton material. Instead, Jean Renart and some other 13th-century authors build their novels on the “material of reality”. During the 20th century, these novels were considered examples of the so-called “medieval realism”. Th e idea was introduced by French medievalist Anthime Fourier, who distinguished an “escape novel” (roman évasion) and a “mirror novel” (roman mirroir). Th e latter is a “refl ection” of reality, and the former is based on the Breton or Ancient Greek material. However, this distinction is controversial: the concept of “refl ection” of reality cannot be applied to 13th-century texts. More likely, the elements of “reality” — description of food, clothes, character’s appearance, and gestures — are also artistically transformed material, similar to the Breton material. They have a particular function and influence a character’s image and plot development. In this article, we analyze the elements of the “material of reality” and show how they are integrated in the novel’s universe. Also, this research provides a better insight into Jean Renart’s artistic methods: the “material of reality” becomes a canvas of which his text is made, transforming a “conte” into a “romans”.

Writing "Home": Translating Belonging in Beves of Hampton

The word home does not have a direct analogue in medieval French, but it often emerges in Middle English romances translated from francophone sources. This essay examines what these translations can tell us about the valences of the word home in Middle English, demonstrating that it had connotations of belonging, emotional attachment, and power, as well as shelter or housing. I argue that understanding the uses of home can offer insight into the ideologies and geographic dynamics of a romance. In the case of Beves of Hampton, tracing the changes in the location of the protagonist's home indicates that one could have multiple homes and also sheds light on the text's Crusading agenda.

Simon Gaunt (4 July 1959–4 December 2021)

Simon Gaunt (4 July 1959–4 December 2021) Sarah Kay Simon Gaunt's death at the age of only 62, of complications arising from the treatment of multiple myeloma, was as shocking as it was unexpected. Within days, as the sad news rapidly spread, all the institutions he had worked for published notices of his passing. His funeral was an occasion for much grief and since then, the many communities of which he was a vital member have struggled to come to terms with their loss: his college, King's College London; the medievalist community in the United Kingdom and beyond; the world of French Studies. Simon's capacity to unite the personal with the professional, which was born of personal temperament and fostered by social conviction, meant that everyone he had worked with felt they had lost a friend as much as a colleague or mentor. For readers of Tenso, Simon Gaunt was above all a leading scholar of medieval Occitan studies, and it is this aspect of his life and legacy that this necrology highlights. Simon graduated with highest honors in French from the University of Warwick in 1985. As an undergraduate, he had benefited from the teaching of distinguished Occitanist Linda Paterson, and he stayed at Warwick to work with her on the doctoral dissertation which subsequently became Troubadours and Irony. The title of this, his first book, inscribed it in a lineage of British Occitan studies that began with Leslie Topsfield's Troubadours and Love, continued through Paterson's Troubadours and Eloquence (originally a doctoral dissertation directed by Topsfield), and was concluded by Troubadours and Irony. Essentially the structure of all three is the same: a series of chapters, each addressed to an individual troubadour, weave their way between closely argued readings of selected songs, which are often re-edited and always illuminatingly retranslated in the process. Their procession from love to irony via eloquence pinpoints significant developments in troubadour studies between the 1970s and 1980s. Troubadours are carefully individualized, the literary artistry of their compositions explored, and their sophistication demonstrated. Effectively this put an end to the still prevalent dismissiveness of the likes of Jeanroy [End Page 269] and provided an important counterweight to the contemporary systematic formalism of Zumthor and Bec. Following his contribution to this epoch-making inflection of the field, Simon Gaunt was elected in 1986 to a postdoctoral fellowship at Downing College, Cambridge, and would remain at Cambridge in one capacity or another for the next 12 years. This was a transformative period intellectually, thanks in part to the number of talented students with whom he worked, and also to the group of stimulating young medievalists with whom he bonded, all of whom went on to distinguished careers. His next monograph broke completely with the formula of The Troubadours and. … Gender and Genre in Medieval French Literature is powered by a theoretical argument about how genres are ideological constructions that create and perpetuate power structures, notably those of gender. The book is mainly about French, although Occitan songs dominate the chapter on lyric. The best chapters, to my mind, are those on narrative genres, especially the fabliau and hagiography; the romance chapter has also been widely influential. The success of Gender and Genre established Simon as an international scholar of Medieval French. The project that cemented his international standing as an Occitanist was the collaborative edition of Marcabru undertaken with Linda Paterson and Ruth Harvey, which took a decade to produce and was published in 2000; only a year before, in 1999, another collaborative volume, co-edited (with myself), The Troubadours: An Introduction, appeared with Cambridge University Press. The Marcabru edition, a formidable achievement by any standards, built on the editorial innovations of Aurelio Roncaglia and Peter Ricketts to replace the confessedly interim edition by Dejeanne. The Gaunt–Harvey–Paterson text is now also publicly available (though without translation or notes) on the RIALTO site; no one would think of working seriously on Marcabru without it. (The 1990s, incidentally, saw the name "Marcabru" feature more than any other writer of France in the title of Cambridge PhD dissertations!) The Troubadours: An Introduction also proved to be a widely used handbook. Simon...

Interdisciplinarité et sérendipité. Une coopération franco-québécoise décisive en matière d’ethnologie et de littérature médiévale française

Les voies de la recherche pluridisciplinaire sont impénétrables. Elles le sont encore plus lorsqu’une trouvaille émerge en dehors de toute attente et de toute logique et lorsqu’elle apporte une solution nouvelle (simple et complète) à un problème structural ancien et non résolu. C’est l’une des définitions de la sérendipité en matière de sciences humaines et sociales. L’analyse structurale complète qu’un ethnologue québécois (Jean-Pierre Pichette) a procurée du conte type AT 910B (L’Observance des conseils du maître) éveille chez un philologue médiéviste une « sagacité accidentelle » mais fructueuse pour résoudre l’une des questions les plus rebattues et les plus impénétrables de la littérature médiévale française : l’origine non pas du graal mais du récit intégral où apparaît pour la première fois « un graal » dans un récit commandé par les conseils d’un maître.

Frederick Douglas Kelly Jr. (1934–2022)

Frederick Douglas Kelly Jr. (1934–2022) Wendy Pfeffer Douglas Kelly, the University of Wisconsin's Julian Harris Professor of Medieval French Emeritus, died on the morning of March 21, 2022 at the age of 87. In an email, Keith Busby described his late colleague as "one of the great medieval scholars of his generation." Kelly's research was devoted particularly to the topics of rhetoric and romance narrative of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Underlying all of his work is the notion that vernacular poetics were grounded in the Latin arts of poetry. Busby's encomium continued, "He was a great scholar and teacher and the best of men." Douglas received his BA, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Southern California (1956), his MA (1959) and Ph.D. (1962) from the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Once in Madison, he never left—he taught French, Italian, medieval Occitan, and Medieval Studies there for forty-three years, leaving teaching as professor emeritus. In an email, Julia Nephew, a former student, called Douglas "an inspiring and empathetic mentor." In a different email, Suzanne Hagedorn spoke of Douglas's "unfailingly gracious presence, his insightful comments on conference papers, his erudition and kindness." Among his many honors, we can list: Fellow of the Institute for Research in the Humanities, University of Wisconsin; Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America; and senior fellow for the Netherland Institute for Advanced Study. Douglas was a recipient of two significant University of Wisconsin recognitions: the Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and the Hilldale Award for the Humanities. The French branch of the Société internationale arthurienne awarded him its Prix Excalibur in 1995. Over the course of his career, Douglas received extramural grant funding from Phi Beta Kappa, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. I knew him as a welcoming, warm, and humble individual, open to ideas from all sides, ever inquisitive. My last interaction with Douglas was in 2019, at Kalamazoo, where he regretted simply [End Page 277] that he was perhaps getting too old to participate as actively in the congress as he would have liked. Though Douglas was better known as an Old French scholar, Occitan literature did not escape his purview. He was a long-standing member of the Société Guilhem IX. He discussed Flamenca in his important book Medieval Imagination; considered Flamenca and Jaufre in "Exaggeration, Abrupt Conversion, and the Uses of Description"; included Raimon Vidal de Besalù in The Arts of Poetry and Prose; and examined fourteenth-century lyric poets At de Mons and Raimon de Cornet in "The Late Medieval Art of Poetry" and again in "Translatio Poetriae." He was also the man responsible for Occitan as an area editor for Oxford Bibliographies in Medieval Studies. It is a sad day when a great scholar and a genuinely warm human being leaves our company. He will be missed. Wendy Pfeffer University of Louisville University of Pennsylvania OCCITAN-RELATED WORKS CITED Kelly, Douglas. The Arts of Poetry and Prose. Typologie des sources du Moyen Âge occidental 59. Turnhout: Brepols, 1991. Google Scholar ———. "Exaggeration, Abrupt Conversion, and the Uses of Description in Jaufre and Flamenca." In Studia occitanica in memoriam Paul Remy. Edited by Hans-Erich Keller et al. 2 vols. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute Publications, 1987. 2: 107–119. Google Scholar ———. "The Late Medieval Art of Poetry: The Evidence from At de Mons and Raimon de Cornet." In Études de langue et de littérature médiévales offertes à Peter T. Ricketts. Edited by Dominique Billy and Ann Buckley. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005. 681–692. Google Scholar ———. Medieval Imagination: Rhetoric and the Poetry of Courtly Love. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1978. Google Scholar ———. "Translatio Poetriae: Occitan Apprenticeship from the Latin Classroom to the Vernacular Court." In Le Poetriae del medioevo latino: Modelli, fortuna, commenti. Edited by Gian Carlo Alessio and Domenico Losappio. Filologie medievali e moderne 15. Venice: Edizioni Ca' Foscari, 2018. 91–128. Google Scholar Copyright © 2023 Société Guilhem IX ...

Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature by Charlie Samuelson (review)

Courtly and Queer: Deconstruction, Desire, and Medieval French Literature by Charlie Samuelson (review)