Contenu du sommaire : Le Moyen Age 2016/3-4

The Geste des Loherains and the Carolingian Annals
Time and again, the ties that connect French chansons de geste to history have been studied carefully and, in general, the conclusion has been that the poems have only had a distant relationship with the past as transmitted by texts considered historical. For Geste des Loherains, the matter seemed closed after the findings of Gaston Paris and Ferdinand Lot. Yet, if one considers episode patterns and character types, it is fairly easy to find undeniable correspondence in the poems of the Garin le Loherain, and even more of the Gerbert de Metz, with this or that episode recorded in the Carolingian annals (with the Annales de Saint-Bertin taken here as a primary reference). To cite only the most significant examples: the characters of Fromont and Fromondin are both fictional embodiments of the fiery and unfortunate Pepin II of Aquitaine; the episode in which the Saracens set fire to Bordeaux appears clearly to transpose events in the reign of Charles the Bald linked to incursions into Normandy. The approach used reveals the scholarly aspect of at least part of the Geste des Loherains.

The Couple – Between Reality and the Law: The Invalidity of René II of Lorraine and Jeanne d'Harcourt's MarriageThis paper reviews the failure of the marriage of René II, Duke of Lorraine, and his first wife Jeanne d'Harcourt, a failure made concrete with the separation of the spouses by court order in 1485. The aim is to examine what this example reveals about the application of canonical rules in matrimonial affairs at the end of the Middle Ages, and to discover what this case shows about how a princely couple operated while separated. The paper first reviews the relatively unfamiliar conjugal life of the duke and Jeanne. It then examines the legal steps taken by the duke to have his union declared void, and presents a tentative evaluation of the validity of the procedures involved. Finally, the paper sheds light on the previously unpublished negotiations held between the duke and Jeanne d'Harcourt around their separation.

Jean Gerson's Josephina and the Medieval Tradition of Biblical Narrative Poetry
The Josephina, written by Jean Gerson at the beginning of the fifteenth century, is a Virgilian poem of biblical content. It was the first in a genre of which De partu Virginis by Jacopo Sannazzaro would be the most famous example. To understand Gerson's motivation and originality, it is necessary to clarify the cultural context in which he wrote. This paper reviews the ancient and medieval traditions that might have inspired him: hagiographic and historical narrative poems of scriptural discussion written in hexameter, devotional literature with subject matter from the Bible or the Apocrypha that grew out of the Devotio moderna. Two works – Petrarch's Africa and the Dictamen de laudibus beati Joseph by Pierre Poquet – seem to have been particularly significant. This demonstrates that Gerson was both rooted in that tradition and sensitive to the newer cultural demands of the times.

Canon Henri ex Palude († 1515) and the Cantorial Baton of Saint-Lambert Cathedral in Liège
In 1495, Henri ex Palude, the canon and cantor of Saint-Lambert Cathedral in Liège, and a gifted, valued, and influential individual, gave the chapter a new and sumptuous cantorial baton. This cantor's baton, the badge of a cantor's liturgical duties, was a long shaft with a jeweled end of complex typology and remained in use until the end of the Ancien Regime. Although the baton has been lost, it is now known to us through a recently discovered heraldic drawing by the Canon of Wissocq, who, himself great-cantor in the seventeenth century, has left us a detailed description of the object. The jeweled end of the cantorial baton in use at Aix-la-Chapelle is preserved in the cathedral treasury. From its era, style, and typology, it is very much like the baton of Liège. By comparing these batons, we can make various hypotheses about their creator and the circumstances in which they were made, which can be linked to certain political events, such as Charles the Bold's visit to Aix and the reconciliation of the Marck and Hornes lineages in Liège. Combining historical, heraldic, and archeological approaches allows a better understanding of an important and lost object in the patrimony of the Church of Liège.