Reinardus. Yearbook of the International Reynard Society - Volume 30, Issue 1, 2018

L’articolo intende dare conto del ritrovamento di un nuovo testimone del volgarizzamento veneto dell’Esopus attribuito a Gualterus Anglicus, del quale era precedentemente noto un solo codice (London, British Library, 38023), edito da Vittore Branca. Il manoscritto che qui si presenta (segnato Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, It. Z 74 (4826)) reca anche il testo integrale della fonte latina e si configura dunque come un esemplare notevolissimo nell’ambito della fortuna della favolistica esopica in Italia. L’analisi fornisce una descrizione il più accurata possibile del codice e del suo corredo illustrativo, e illumina i rapporti dei due testimoni latino e veneto in esso compresi con il resto delle rispettive tradizioni testuali. Particolarmente interessante risulta inoltre l’esame dell’aspetto linguistico del testo veneto: la maggiore antichità del codice Marciano (trecentesco) rispetto al (quattrocentesco) Londinese consente infatti di delineare con maggiore chiarezza le diverse componenti di base della lingua del volgarizzamento.

La Chevalerie de Judas Macchabée et de ses nobles frères, roman en vers daté de 1285, utilise à plusieurs reprises les animaux comme motifs narratifs symboliques. Certains animaux (dont l’anabulla un des noms de la girafe au XIII^e siècle) sont empruntés au Liber de natura rerum (LDNR) de Thomas de Cantimpré. L’analyse du texte de la Chevalerie et l’illustration de son unique témoin manuscrit (Paris, BnF Fr. 15104) montre que l’auteur s’est non pas inspiré du texte de Thomas de Cantimpré, mais de l’illustration du manuscrit 320 de Valenciennes (témoin du LDNR), dont le programme iconographique (dont ont été conservées les instructions pour l’enlumineur en notes marginales) présente des écarts par rapport au contenu textuel – erreurs qui seront transmises dans des témoins enluminés postérieurs du LDNR. Ainsi, l’anabulla et l’aloy y sont représentés comme des éléphants, alors qu’il s’agit respectivement d’une girafe et d’un élan. L’auteur de la Chevalerie décrit dans son roman ces deux animaux comme des éléphants, montrant par-là que sa source n’est pas le texte latin du LDNR, mais des illustrations “fautives” d’un témoin manuscrit particulier.

Food and drink play many different roles in the art of the fabliaux, ranging from more or less brief depictions of everyday hospitality to significant contributions to plot and especially to trickery. This article focuses primarily on Le Prestre et Alison, comparing its techniques with those of some other fabliaux. The language of food functions on several levels in this fabliau: it is a means of characterisation, a sign of status and power, and a narrative motif whereby power relations are first established and then subverted. Roast goose in particular, along with fish, capons and spices, provides echoes and associations both within and beyond the text, and forms a focus for the shifting relations as a powerful man is outwitted by women who trade in foodstuffs. As the analysis proceeds it becomes evident that this fabliau has been undervalued.

Am Anfang der europäischen Tierepik steht der Roman de Renart, eine Sammlung altfranzösischer Erzählungen. Ausgehend von ihm verbreitet sich der Erzählstoff in einer deutschen und einer niederländischen Erzähltradition über Europa. Auch wenn die Fassungen auf derselben stofflichen Vorlage basieren, zeigen bereits die je unterschiedlichen Erzählstrukturen, dass die Dichter beim Wiedererzählen jeweils eigene Akzente gesetzt haben. Dies hat auch Folgen für den Umgang mit Themen wie 'Treue', einem Schlüsselbegriff der höfischen Kultur. Der vorliegende Beitrag untersucht Le Roman de Renart, Van den vos Reynaerde und Reinhart Fuchs anhand einer ihnen gemeinsamen Szene, nämlich der ersten Vorladung des Fuchses durch den Bären. Nach Erläuterungen zum Bedeutungsspektrum von 'Treue' werden die drei Fassungen miteinander verglichen. Dabei ist zu fragen, wie der niederländische Dichter und der deutsche Dichter den gegebenen Erzählstoff umgestaltet haben und wie in ihren Erzählungen 'Treue' auf narrativer und semantischer Ebene präsentiert wird.

The tale of the war of the mice against the cat has a history of several thousands of years. First known from ancient Egypt, it was wide-spread in Classical antiquity, would remain popular in the Near East until modern times, and also was widely known in Europe in medieval and early modern times in paintings, prints, songs, and mock-epics. In China the most popular tale on the antagonism of mice and cats was the tale of their underworld court case. Starting from the first half of the nineteenth century, some versions of that tale also include an account of the war between the two species. Only one stand-alone treatment of the theme is known from an edition of the 1920s. In Japan the theme of the war of the mice against the cats also makes its first appearance in print in the first half of the nineteenth century. No direct foreign influence can be discerned in the emergence of this theme in either country.

Known to Roman de Renart scholars as MS I, the manuscript BnF, f. fr. 12584 has received surprisingly little critical attention. The codex was discounted in early but influential appraisals by philologists like Ernest Martin, who characterised its late Renart text as absurdly abridged and useless in the reconstitution of an archetypal original. More favourable assessments of both the Renart text of MS I and its remarkably copious system of illustration have since appeared, especially thanks to the forensic attention of Ettina Nieboer, who proposed an intriguing solution to the many riddles of the copy: it seems to have been commissioned by Guy de Roye, Archbishop of Tours. Over two decades later, however, Nieboer’s analyses remain the most detailed treatments of the codex.

My aim in this article is to call for renewed attention to MS I by exploring the neglected obverse of the abridging and suppressing patterns that Nieboer discovered. I argue that a certain tendency to police the Renart, or render it manageable, can indeed be detected in MS I in the plenitude of its present state: the book opens with a devotional painting of the Virgin Mary and contains extensive maniculae highlighting proverbial material. However, to stop here would be to leave the tale incomplete: the book also stages a pronounced resistance to these systems of control, illustrating across its many folios the sheer impossibility of imposing order upon the Roman de Renart.

Que la littérature et l’art du Moyen Âge central contiennent de nombreuses références – directes ou indirectes – au Physiologus est bien connu. Il manque toutefois une vue d’ensemble et synthétique des diverses occurrences qui puisse donner la mesure de leur ampleur, de leur diversité et aussi de certaines de leurs spécificités. En outre, on ignore parfois qu’elles s’insèrent dans une tradition aussi longue que fournie, du moins au niveau textuel. Pour toutes ces raisons, on voudra bien trouver ici une mise en perspective de cette source d’inspiration importante, un certain nombre d’études de cas et d’exemples significatifs de même que quelques réflexions susceptibles de nourrir les études à venir.

Van den vos Reynaerde is interpreted as the satiric textualization of a particular social discourse. In the first part, the objectives are the three estates: clergy, nobility and peasants. The second part is focussed on the dysfunction of authority, its lack of moral and social legitimation and the relation individual-authority. The medieval society is criticized in a goliardic-inspired manner, where the satiric subject reflects through inversion the satiric objective. It is pointed out that the text contains a parody on the biblical story of Judith and Holofernes, to discern whether opposing a repressive authority allows for ‘just war’. The results of this study challenge the conventional interpretations of Van den vos Reynaerde based on an Arthurian courtly context. The author’s profile and intended public are reviewed with respect to these conclusions.

Just before 1261 the Dominican inquisitor Stephen of Bourbon (d.1261) visited an area of south-eastern France known as the Dombes, in the diocese of Lyons and there found that women were venerating a certain St Guinefort as a healer of children. He was extremely pleased to hear this, until he discovered that St Guinefort was not a holy man, but a greyhound. Furthermore, he discovered that the women of the Dombes were involved in a rite which allowed for the death of sickly babies. The medieval Church was unwavering in its condemnation of infanticide. Yet Stephen of Bourbon chose to shut down the rite, rather than impose more severe penalties, suggesting that he did not suspect ritual murder. The Church’s censure was not just a ban on a non-orthodox cult, or a theological statement that animals could not be saints, or a crackdown on magical and heretical practices – although it was all these things. It was also the condemnation of a healing cult that had got badly out of hand. The legend of St Guinefort the Holy Greyhound reveals the medieval Church engaged in a familiar struggle: to balance popular piety with orthodox teaching.

This article offers a survey of fifty years research into Reynardian iconography. It analyses secondary and primary sources: it discusses a number of book length studies, it shows trends in articles, makes suggestions for further research, describes the properties of and the main research on the major illustration cycles of Reynardian literature and ends with an annotated bibliography.