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Manuscripts and Basic Resources
Chrétien de Troyes (c. 1135 - between 1181 and 1191). We know very little about him, and his name is rarely cited in medieval works. He was writing at the Court of Champagne, rich in literary tradition, and associated with authors like Andreas Capellanus, Gace Brulé, Gautier d'Arras, and Geoffroi de Villehardouin. Chrétien wrote for Marie de France. His romans are in octosyllabic couplets with very rich rhyme. Where his sentence or thought escapes the couplet, it is usually for a specic purpose or emphasis. These works are at the inspiration heart of the evolution of arturian stories and the grail legend in European literature. Attribution is at issue both ways, with works by Chrétien de Troyes being attributed to Gautier [Walter] Map, and Chrétien Legouais de Sainte-More. On the other side, we have very unlikely attributions to Chrétien in La Mule sans frein, a short verse roman featuring Gauvain, as well as a translation of the Gospel of Nicodemus. The attribution of Guillaume d'Angeterre is doubted by most scholars examining the text for this reason, but the issue is still under research, very recently using "pattern recognition". I have included available manuscripts, because the question is still somewhat open. The page features links to whole facsimiles of medieval manuscripts containing one or more of Chrétien de Troyes' works. There is a section devoted to partial facsimiles, and one devoted to manuscripts for which I could only find a description. One section is devoted to the individual works, as they are represented by transcriptions, synoptic transcriptions, editions, translations, basic studies (including summaries), and performance documents. The last section includes studies of Chrétien de Troyes' works, dictionaries, bibliographies, and links to more general arthurian resources. This page is part of the Andy Holt Virtual Library's "Manuscripts of Medieval France with Vernacular Texts", a collection of over 1000 links to manuscript facsimiles, which will include nearly all of the French medieval literarary canon, and much more. Some material on Chrétien de Troyes has already been introduced in "Textual Sources of French Vernacular Grail Stories". |
MS Berne, Burgerbibliothek, 389 - Amors tençon et bataille [f. 18r-v] ARLIMA description MS Montpellier, Bibliothèque interuniversitaire, Section médecine, H 252 - Yvain, f. 1r-12v ARLIMA description MS Oxford Bodleian Library, Michael 569 - Cligès fragments MS Oxford Bodleian Library, Michael 569 [brief description] MS Paris BNF fr.765 - D'Amors, qui m'a tolu a moi, f. 17v-18r ARLIMA description MS Paris BNF fr. 845 - D'Amors, qui m'a tolu a moi, f. 17v-18 ARLIMA description MS Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, français, 1374 - Erec et Enide f. 21ra-64rb ARLIMA description MS Paris BNF fr.12615 - D'Amors, qui m'a tolu a moi f. 45v-46r ARLIMA description MS Paris BNF fr. 24403 - Erec et Enide ARLIMA description |
Très plaisante et récréative hystoire du très preulx et vaillant chevallier Perceval le Galloys (1530) |