Publication. Kristin Bourassa, “The Memory of Philippe de Mézières in Songe du viel pelerin Manuscripts"

Bourassa, Kristin. “The Memory of Philippe de Mézières in Songe du viel pelerin Manuscripts.” French Studies, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1093/fs/knz025.

Abstract

This article argues that the biography of Philippe de Mézières, primarily known from two manuscripts of his Songe du viel pelerin of 1389 (Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS n. a. fr. 25164, and Paris, Bibliothèque de l’Arsenal, MSS 2682–83), originated in a third copy of the Songe, the Cleveland Public Library manuscript (John G. White Collection, MS F. 4091.94. M579s), in which the biographical text is visible under UV light. It demonstrates that the Cleveland manuscript was commissioned in 1471 by Guillaume Romain, provincial of the Celestine Order, for the convent of the Paris Celestines in which Philippe had lived from 1380 until his death in 1405. The textual contents of the biography craft an image of Philippe as a model member of the Celestine community, and of the Paris Celestines as a valuable source of advice and counsel to French kings. The Cleveland manuscript, designed for members of the Paris Celestine community, provides an important example of the way texts such as the Songe du viel pelerin could have manuscript afterlives beyond the original context for which they were produced.

Image: Cleveland Public Library, John G. White Collection, MS F. 4091.94. M579s, f. 1r