Contenu du sommaire

De vieil mesrien neufve maison. The rondel by Maistre Alain rewritten in nouvel langage by Jean Regnier (Livre de la Prison, v. 4343–4474)Provisionally released after fifteen months in prison to raise money for his ransom, Jean Regnier took to the hills. This happened in May and a song that suited his mood, written by Alain Chartier, came to mind and to his lips. Regnier transcribed the text and inserted it into his Livre de la Prison. The model being set – a simple twelve-line rondel – Regnier rewrote it his own way in order to be precise about how he felt. One possibility is that he applied the fatras style to every rewritten verse, creating a kind of serventois. Regnier thus confirmed his attention to technique, his taste for formal innovation, and, in this, his artisanal sense of poetry, all of which place him as a precursor to the Grands Rhétoriqueurs.

A Forest Community in the 14th and 15th Centuries. Aix-en-Othe (Champagne)A peasant community in the heart of the Forest of Othe in Champagne at the end of the 14th century into the 15th century is described through the accounting records of the activities of its inhabitants: iron workers, from extraction to processing and transport; woodworking craftsmen; members of families on the plateaus and in the valley of the Vanne who assumed supervisory and administrative responsibilities in the name of the Bishop of Troyes; and last-ditch efforts to preserve the iron industry. An exceptional survey document from 1461 on people's legal status provides a portrait of a society as it described itself over several generations of families. Fifty years later, iron work had almost completely disappeared. Fuel wood and wood ash became the primary resource, and deforestation led to settlement of plowed land by newcomers, radically changing traditional activities and social ties.

The Isotopy of the Leap in Béroul's Tristan and the Tristrant by Eilhart von Oberge
Based on an inventory and a detailed examination of the morphological and lexicological paradigm of the verb “salir”, the study shows how the isotopy of the leap is an essential foundation of Béroul's Tristan and Eilhart von Oberge's Tristrant, and how it makes it easier to understand the consistency and senefiance (importance) of the “common” version. Focusing initially on the two famous episodes of the “Flour on the Floor” and the “Leap from the Chapel”, the author extends his analysis to the tale's structures, the various reprises and variations of the theme from one text to the other, finally to reveal a “poetics of the leap”. The leap seems to be a new key to the reading of Tristan subject matter: an aesthetic principle in Béroul's narrative that proceeds in successive bursts, an archaic and mythical hero's signature, symbol of Tristan's wild aspects and his affinity with transgression.

Adolf of Waldeck as Provost of Utrecht (1286–1301): The Long Prelude to a Short Bishopric in Liège (1301–1302)This paper recounts the tumultuous journey of Adolf of Waldeck from his accession to the office of Provost of the Cathedral chapter of Utrecht (ca 1286) to his appointment as Bishop of Liège (1301). During these fifteen years, he managed to climb to the highest spheres of power in the bishopric of Utrecht and to assert himself as the most powerful clergyman after the bishop. He carried out a policy of opposition to the bishops John of Nassau (1267–1290) and John van Sierck (1291–1296), with whom he had extremely contentious relations, but was an unfailing supporter of William Berthout (1296–1301). At Berthout's death, Adolf attempted to gain the episcopal see by becoming the key player for the House of Dampierre, for which Berthout had been the spearhead in Utrecht and which was opposed to the candidacy of Guy van Avesnes, a representative of the House of Hainaut. Thus competition in Utrecht was one of the episodes in a much broader political struggle that tore apart the Dutch principalities. The House of Hainaut stood in opposition to the House of Flanders, with support from higher authorities (the Pope, the King of France, the King of England, and the King of the Romans) favoring one or the other.