Performance(s) en recueil: BnF fr. 25566, textes, métatextes et contextes

My dissertation, titled “Performance(s) en recueil dans Paris, BnF, fr. 25566 : textes, métatextes et contextes” is the study-case of a 1300 medieval anthology written in Picard, containing a significant number (for the period) of plays among a set of very diverse texts, including the complete works of Adam de la Halle. In this study, I explore the intertextuality and metatextuality within this manuscript in terms of performance, building on 21st century scholarship, from historians like Carole Symes to art historians like Alison Stones through reception theorists like Nancy Regalado: any study of literary medieval manuscripts is effectively based on a study of the art of performance. The first chapter, “la scène du manuscrit”, establishes the coherence and scope of the medieval manuscript project by comparing the numerous theories about the codex composition and the relation between the manuscript codilogical structure and the arrangement of literary and nonliterary works. The movements of all components within the defined stage shows that the complete works of Adam de la Halle, at the start of the manuscript, functions as a prologue to the rest of the volume. Both the second and third chapters analyze the textual and material echoes and parallelisms between this prologue and the body of the manuscript and show that performance is at the heart of their conversation. The second chapter, “le théâtre en jeu”, examines the flow of interactions on a page between music, text and internal rubrics, spotlighting the midpoint of the manuscript (Renart le nouvel and the Quatre évangélistes), the series of plays in the prologue (Jeu du pèlerin, Jeu de Robin et Marion, Jeu de la feuillée and Jeu de saint Nicolas) and finally the series of three Trois morts et trois vifs. The interplay on the page of all levels of performing a text, verbal, pictorial, vocal and spatial, stages the reading process and reenacts a performative situation: an interaction, a communion between a performer and an audience. The third chapter, “enjeux performanciels”, considers how the virtuosity of musical transcriptions and their concentration in the lyrical works of Adam de la Halle (Chansons, Jeux-partis, Rondeaux and Motets) call for a vocal rendition and stimulate the visual sense, while mirroring the craftmanship of the copious illuminations and their showcasing of musical features in the Bestiaire by Richard de Fournival and its Réponse, Renart le nouvel and the Quatre évangélistes, Dit du cerf amoureux and Puissance d’Amour. By activating its reader’s senses through its coherent and cohesive materiality, MS BnF fr. 25566 offers a fluid spectrum of performances in potentia.