Final Report Summary - THE LAST SONG (The Last Song of the Troubadours: Linguistic Codification and Construction of a Literary Canon in the Crown of Aragon (14th and 15th centuries))
The chief objective of this project is to study a specific corpus of poetry written in the Crown of Aragon between the 14th and 15th centuries. In order to develop this investigation, three interconnected lines of research have been settled upon: 1) Edition and study of chansonnier VeAg and older sources; 2) Edition and study of two seminal works on the grammar of poetics: Leys d’Amors and Doctrina d’Acort; 3) Analysis of the influence exerted by French and Occitan poetry on late medieval Catalan literature, including: 3.1) Edition of the Roman de Cardenois; 3.2) Edition of a Diplomatari collecting notices on musicians, jongleurs, musical instruments and manuscripts (13th-15th centuries).
1. All texts in chansonnier VeAg and associated sources have been thoroughly transcribed and “treated” according to the editorial methodology developed by Zinelli and Alberni, publicly presented and refined on several occasions.
This post-Avalle approach to the chansonnier, as proposed in Alberni-Zinelli 2012, pays special attention to the diachronic stratification of all poems transmitted in various sources (collation); nevertheless, we take into account the unique specificity of the document and its role in the construction of a poetic language gradually shifting towards a reliable standard Catalan vernacular. This new approach to the Catalan textual corpus has proved very fruitful: we are now able to grasp the troubadour sources that fed Catalan chansonnier VeAg, the great collector of late courtly love poetry in the Crown of Aragon. This scientific achievement is stressed by the innovative display of our digital edition. It should really be considered as a knowledge and technology transfer output, since it has been conceived both as an accurate scientific critical edition and as a user-friendly display of the results of the research.
2. Reflection on poetics and grammar has led us to consider a major extension of the second line of research: apart from the texts in MS. BC 239 (critical edition and study of the Doctrina d'Acort by Dr. Ventura, completed), another work has been taken into account, the Leys d’Amors, a great compendium on rhetoric and poetry compiled in 14th C. Occitania that played an important role in the reception of the troubadour tradition in the Crown of Aragon. Dr. Fedi has been engaged in the publication of a new critical edition of the text based on the first complete recension of all known MS. The complex relationship between the MSS is displayed by means of a critical apparatus purposely created, comprising five different sections of variant readings. This should be considered as a major groundbreaking result: it will give access to a long forgotten work in a new, philologically established text. The original (circa 800 pages) has already been delivered to Edizioni del Galluzzo for printing.
3.1. Transcription and edition of the Roman de Cardenois have been completed. We’ve also completed a thorough linguistic study and the collation of all lyrical citations by Guillaume de Machaut in the roman, that stands out as an episode relevant to the reception of the works of Machaut outside France. The text will be published by H. Champion, Classiques Français du Moyen Age (ready for printing).
3.2. Archive research has been conducted in order to comprehend the channels by which French poetry and music made their way into the Catalan court. More than 4.000 documents, of which 2.500 completely unpublished before, have been transcribed and will be soon accessible in the project’s webpage. This new regesta, enriching and complementing older data, will be a powerful tool for further research on the presence of musicians, jongleurs, musical instruments and manuscripts in the Crown of Aragon, and is to be considered a major scientific achievement.
Keywords: textual criticism, late Troubadour poetry, analysis of textual and linguistic sources, formal analysis, versification, music, edition in digital format, data base and metric repertoire, reflexion on medieval poetics and grammar.
1. All texts in chansonnier VeAg and associated sources have been thoroughly transcribed and “treated” according to the editorial methodology developed by Zinelli and Alberni, publicly presented and refined on several occasions.
This post-Avalle approach to the chansonnier, as proposed in Alberni-Zinelli 2012, pays special attention to the diachronic stratification of all poems transmitted in various sources (collation); nevertheless, we take into account the unique specificity of the document and its role in the construction of a poetic language gradually shifting towards a reliable standard Catalan vernacular. This new approach to the Catalan textual corpus has proved very fruitful: we are now able to grasp the troubadour sources that fed Catalan chansonnier VeAg, the great collector of late courtly love poetry in the Crown of Aragon. This scientific achievement is stressed by the innovative display of our digital edition. It should really be considered as a knowledge and technology transfer output, since it has been conceived both as an accurate scientific critical edition and as a user-friendly display of the results of the research.
2. Reflection on poetics and grammar has led us to consider a major extension of the second line of research: apart from the texts in MS. BC 239 (critical edition and study of the Doctrina d'Acort by Dr. Ventura, completed), another work has been taken into account, the Leys d’Amors, a great compendium on rhetoric and poetry compiled in 14th C. Occitania that played an important role in the reception of the troubadour tradition in the Crown of Aragon. Dr. Fedi has been engaged in the publication of a new critical edition of the text based on the first complete recension of all known MS. The complex relationship between the MSS is displayed by means of a critical apparatus purposely created, comprising five different sections of variant readings. This should be considered as a major groundbreaking result: it will give access to a long forgotten work in a new, philologically established text. The original (circa 800 pages) has already been delivered to Edizioni del Galluzzo for printing.
3.1. Transcription and edition of the Roman de Cardenois have been completed. We’ve also completed a thorough linguistic study and the collation of all lyrical citations by Guillaume de Machaut in the roman, that stands out as an episode relevant to the reception of the works of Machaut outside France. The text will be published by H. Champion, Classiques Français du Moyen Age (ready for printing).
3.2. Archive research has been conducted in order to comprehend the channels by which French poetry and music made their way into the Catalan court. More than 4.000 documents, of which 2.500 completely unpublished before, have been transcribed and will be soon accessible in the project’s webpage. This new regesta, enriching and complementing older data, will be a powerful tool for further research on the presence of musicians, jongleurs, musical instruments and manuscripts in the Crown of Aragon, and is to be considered a major scientific achievement.
Keywords: textual criticism, late Troubadour poetry, analysis of textual and linguistic sources, formal analysis, versification, music, edition in digital format, data base and metric repertoire, reflexion on medieval poetics and grammar.