Or Ai Ge Trop Dormi: A Study of the Unfinished F-Pn fr. 12786

261 Pages·2018·4.45 MB·English

by  Frieda van der Heijden

Or Ai Ge Trop Dormi
A Study of the Unfinished F-Pn fr. 12786
Frieda van der Heijden

Royal Holloway, University of London
Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
August 2018
Abstract

F-Pn fr. 12786 was made in the early fourteenth century in Northern France. Codicological and
palaeographic evidence suggests that the middle of the three codicological units may have been
produced before the others, perhaps because the high demand for the texts in this unit made
such an approach commercially interesting. The two codicological breaks are both obscured by
the incomplete nature of the texts ending immediately before these moments, and it is unclear
whether the texts were intended to be completed. Other aspects of the manuscript have likewise
been left uncompleted: the scribe left spaces for miniatures, initials, and musical notation, but
these have never been added. Although the absence of these features must have impoverished
the reading experiences of the book’s readers, no-one added the illustrations, the initials, and the
notation for both monophonic and polyphonic songs, suggesting that the users of fr. 12786
considered the manuscript finished enough for their purpose. Users’ traces show that the book
remained in use for many centuries and in various ways.
The manuscript transmits a collection of diverse contents in which some anthological
tendencies can be observed. Many manuscripts containing such collections survive, and in this
respect, fr. 12786 is situated firmly in a tradition of compilation in which collections were
assembled of a combination of usually devotional and moralising texts, often also scientific
texts and romances, and in certain cases even music. Fr. 12786 stands out most because of its
collection of relatively complex song. This song collection is unique and contains the largest
surviving collection of polyphonic rondeaux. It appears to have been organised roughly by
genre, and also in an order of increasing complexity or difficulty. The texts in this collection are
part of a large network of song transmission, in which fr. 12786 finds itself, albeit on the
periphery.
An ex libris which can clearly be seen under ultraviolet light shows that the book
belonged to Jean Sala, a manuscript collector in Lyon in the early sixteenth century. It came to
the Bibliothèque nationale between 1815 and 1830, and remains there until today.

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Declaration of Authorship

I, Frieda van der Heijden, hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it are entirely
my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated.

Signed: ________________________________________

Date: __________________________________________

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Acknowledgements

First and foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my supervisors. My primary
supervisor, Dr Helen Deeming, has been an inspiration to me since we first met. She has
motivated me, encouraged me, and with her positive attitude she has given me confidence and
additional joy in conducting my research and writing my thesis. Her expertise and
resourcefulness helped me gain new insights into manuscripts and song, and I have thoroughly
enjoyed our discussions on seemingly minute details in palaeographical evidence or the
structure of a song. I consider myself very lucky to have worked with her.

Prof Ruth Harvey kindly stepped in as my secondary supervisor. I have gotten to know her as
kind, inspiring, and very intelligent. She patiently spent many hours with me as I struggled
through my translations of the unica in fr. 12786, and offered me thorough and helpful advice
and feedback on my written work. She has guided me through areas that were foreign to me,
such as didactic textual genres, and the Old French language, always offering examples to
provide a framework in which I could place my new knowledge. It has been an honour to work
with Prof Harvey in the final years before her retirement.

I have been fortunate to have received two scholarships. I feel very privileged to have been the
first recipient of the Mayled Scholarship in Historical Musicology. Humbled by the generosity
of Christopher Mayled (1962-2013), I hope to have done justice to his legacy. I am also proud
to have been a TECHNE Associate; I feel fortunate to have had the opportunities offered by
TECHNE and lucky to have been part of such an interesting and diverse group of artists and
researchers.

I am grateful to Prof John O’Brien, who has kindly taken the time to explain to me how the
sixteenth-century second-hand book trade worked and who has given me an insight into the
world of manuscript collectors of that time.

I would also like to thank Elise Nicolas at the Médiathèque Voyelle in Charleville-Mézières for
her kind assistance, all staff at the Richelieu Building of the Bibliothèque nationale de France in
Paris, as well as all those who helped me in the Senate House Library, the British Library, the
Warburg Institute, and the libraries at Royal Holloway.

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Additionally, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my friend M. Selim Yavuz, who
helped me with my many computer-related issues, who even taught me to how use new
software, and whose friendship has been a great support throughout the PhD.

Finally, I would like to thank my family and my friends for their support and for believing in me
throughout the journey that has been this PhD, in particular my mum, who has read all my
work, on whom I practised each of my conference papers, who has always been there for me to
motivate me, to listen to my complaints about writer’s blocks and obstacles as well as my
ramblings about prickings and ruling or about some obscure deleted comment in the margins,
and who has given me the confidence to start this PhD in the first place.

Thank you.

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Library Sigla

A-Iu Innsbruck, Universitätsbibliothek
A-Wn Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek
B-Br Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Alber 1er
B-LVu Leuven, Universiteitsbibliotheek
B-M Mons, Bibliothèque de l’Université UMONS
B-Tm Tournai, Bibliothèque municipale
CH-Beb Bern, Burgerbibliothek
CH-Cobodmer Cologne (Geneva), Biblioteca Bodmeriana
CH-Gpu Genève, Bibliothèque publique et universitaire de Genève
CH-LAac Lausanne, Archives Cantonales Vaudoises
D-BAs Bamberg, Staatsbibliothek
D-Bkk Berlin, Staatsbibliothek und Preussischer Kulturbesitz,
Kupferstichkabinett
D-Mbs Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
D-W Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek
DK-Kk Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek
F-AI Albi, Bibliothèque Municipale
F-AM Amiens, Bibliothèque municipale
F-AS Arras, Bibliothèque municipale
F-B Besançon, Bibliothèque municipale
F-CA Cambrai, Bibliothèque municipale
F-CH Chantilly, Bibliothèque du Musée Condé
F-CHch Chantilly, Bibliothèque et Archives du Château
F-CHRm Chartres, Bibliothèque municipale
F-CV Charleville-Mézières, Mediathèque Voyelles
F-Dm Dijon, Bibliothèque municipale
F-DRAm Draguignan, Bibliothèque municipale
F-E Épinal, Bibliothèque municipale
F-Ge Grenoble, Bibliothèque municipale
F-Lm Lille, Bibliothèque municipale
F-LYbl Lyon, Bibliothèque de Louvain
F-LYm Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale
F-LYpa Lyon, Palais des Arts
F-ME Metz, Bibliothèque municipale
F-MEL Melun, Bibliothèque municipale
F-MO Montpellier, Faculté de Médicine
F-NAm Nancy, Bibliothèque municipale
F-Pa Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal
F-Pi Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Institut de France
F-Pn Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France
F-Psg Paris, Bibliothèque Sainte-Geneviève
F-R Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale
F-RE Rennes, Bibliothèque de Rennes Métropole
F-RS Reims, Bibliothèque municipale
F-T Troyes, Bibliothèque municipale
F-TOm Tours, Bibliothèque municipale
GB-AB Aberstwyth, Llyfryell Genedlaethol Cymru
GB-Ccc Cambridge, Corpus Christi College
GB-Ce Cambridge, Emmanuel College
GB-Cfm Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum
GB-Ct Cambridge, Trinity College
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GB-CHEp Cheltenham, Phillips Library
GB-Cu Cambridge, University Library
GB-H Hereford, Cathedral Library
GB-Lbl London, British Library
GB-Mr Manchester, John Rylands Library
GB-NO Nottingham, University Library
GB-Ob Oxford, Bodleian Library
GB-WO Worcester, Cathedral Library
I-Fl Florence, Biblioteca Medicea-Laurenziana
I-Ma Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana
I-Mb Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense
I-MOe Modena, Biblioteca Estense
I-Rvat Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana
I-Tn Turin, Biblioteca Nazionale Universitaria
NL-Au Amsterdam, Universiteitsbibliotheek
NL-DHk Den Haag, Koninklijke Bibliotheek
RUS-SPsc Saint Petersburg, Rossijskaja nacional’naja biblioteka
US-BEb Berkeley, University of California, Bancroft Library
US-CA Cambridge, Harvard University
US-Cu Chicago, University Library
US-NHub New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript
Library
US-NYmm New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Cloisters Library
US-NYpm New York, Piermont Morgan Library and Museum

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Contents

Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... 1
Declaration of Authorship ............................................................................................................. 2
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 3
Library Sigla ................................................................................................................................. 5
Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 7
Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 9
Chapter 1. An Open Book ........................................................................................................... 15
1.1. Codicological Unity? .................................................................................................. 15
1.2. Prickings and Ruling ................................................................................................... 27
1.3. The Scribe ................................................................................................................... 34
1.4. Foliation ...................................................................................................................... 42
1.5. Rebindings .................................................................................................................. 44
1.6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 49
Chapter 2. Under Construction ................................................................................................... 51
2.1. Missing Miniatures ..................................................................................................... 52
2.2. Intended Initials .......................................................................................................... 68
2.3. Needing Notes ............................................................................................................. 85
2.4. Planned Production ..................................................................................................... 92
2.5. Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 97
Chapter 3. Compiling a Collection ............................................................................................. 99
3.1. Miscellaneous Anthologies and Anthological Miscellanies ....................................... 99
3.2. “Spasms of Planning” ............................................................................................... 106
3.3. Other Witnesses ........................................................................................................ 115
3.4. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 138
Chapter 4. Comparing Notes ..................................................................................................... 140
4.1. The Network of Songs and Books ............................................................................ 141
4.2. The Organisation of the Song Collection .................................................................. 165
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4.3. The Music in the Roman de la Poire ......................................................................... 186
4.4. The Son Poitevin ....................................................................................................... 192
4.5. Singing Songs? .......................................................................................................... 195
4.6. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 198
Chapter 5. The Real Readers .................................................................................................... 200
5.1. Intended Users .......................................................................................................... 200
5.2. Real Users ................................................................................................................. 203
5.3. Bibliothèque Nationale ............................................................................................. 222
5.4. “Riens ou Cela” ......................................................................................................... 226
5.5. Conclusion ................................................................................................................ 237
Conclusion ................................................................................................................................ 240
Index ......................................................................................................................................... 245
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................. 250
Secondary sources ................................................................................................................. 250
Websites ................................................................................................................................ 258
Software ................................................................................................................................ 260

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Introduction

“All men by nature desire to know.” The opening words of Aristotle’s Metaphysica, cited by
Richard de Fournival in his thirteenth-century Bestiaire d’Amours as well as by numerous other
authors both during the Middle Ages and since, offer a reasonable explanation for all research.
The present study, likewise, was born from a desire to find as much as possible about one
manuscript, a single book that will provide an insight into medieval book production, textual
transmission, reading practices, and more.
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, français 12786, henceforth referred to as fr.
12786, appears to be unfinished: blank spaces have been left by the scribe where musical
notation, initials, and miniatures were once intended, but for unknown reasons the manuscript
was left in an uncompleted state. The book contains a seemingly miscellaneous collection of
texts in Old French consisting of devotional, scientific, allegorical, and moralising texts as well
as romances in verse, prose, and song.
Although some of the texts have been roughly dated to various decades within the
thirteenth century, palaeographic evidence suggests that the manuscript was made in the early
fourteenth century, and while there are some exceptions within recent scholarship, there seems
to be general consensus on this dating. An example of such an exception of a recent work in
which fr. 12786 is dated to the late thirteenth century is Keith Busby’s Codex and Context.1
Busby refers to the dating (and localising) of the book by Edmond Faral and Julia Bastin in their
edition of the works by Rutebeuf, a poet to whom two texts in fr. 12786 are or were attributed.2
One of the first studies in which the manuscript is mentioned and also dated is the 1870 article
“Verlorene Handschriften” by Julius Brakelmann; the German medievalist who worked in the
Bibliothèque nationale in Paris already concluded that fr. 12786 was made in the early
fourteenth century.3 As there is no internal evidence in the texts of fr. 12786 to support a more
precise estimate of when it was made, the dating will have to be, to borrow a term from Keith
Busby and Christopher Kleinhenz, “permanently provisional”.4
Based on palaeographic, linguistic, and textual features in the manuscript, we know that
it must have been made in the North of France. Few scholars touch upon the matter of the
location of origin, and most who do remain deliberately vague. However, Faral and Bastin, and
later also Busby, locate fr. 12786 to Île-de-France or Champagne; and Eberhard König and
Gabriele Bartz refer to the book as “das Pariser ms. fr. 12786” in their Leuchtendes Mittelalter,

1 Busby 2002: p. 587.
2 Faral and Bastin 1959-60: pp. 12-17; 25-26.
3 Brakelmann 1870: pp. 104-8.
4 Busby and Kleinhenz 2015: p. 220.
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