Presenting a “new” history of medieval French literature based largely upon the
impact of historical and social phenomena, scientific advancements, and
linguistic and cultural singularities, Les Enluminures’ comprehensive project
(exhibition, catalogue, and colloquium) centers on a group of manuscripts
written in the French language between c. 1300 and c. 1550. While the earliest
written records date from the ninth century, French was not widely used until
the 13th- century. Many factors influenced the shift from Latin to the “mother
tongue.” The change from an agrarian- to a commercial–based economy throughout
towns and cities imposed a need for the middle class to understand each other
both in written and spoken forms. The centralization of French government and
the rise of a nation state under King Philip Augustus (reigned 1180-1223)
dictated a need for a language through which the court and the nobles could
wield power far and wide. Not surprisingly, women played a pivotal role in the
rise and evolution of medieval French, as they began to forge a place for
themselves within a literary canon. Male writers increasingly chose to feature
women, which constituted a devoted audience for their works of literature and
theology. As a result of these efforts, French was well established as the
language of literature, historical record, and personal expression by the 15th-
century.
The exhibition explores these instrumental developments thematically,
culminating with a section on manuscripts in the age of print culture, as
technological proved to be decisive factor in the rapid advancement, adoption,
and standardization of the “mother tongue.” Whereas, in 1501, only 10% of books
published in Paris were in French, by 1575, 55% of all books published in Paris
were in French. The triumph of the French language over Latin was thus
virtually complete by the end of the 16th-century.
Rather than grouping works by genres or periods, the exhibition is organized in
sections as follows:
I. Literature and Science: the Rise and Affirmation of the Vernacular; II.
Philosophy, Theology, and Mirror of Princes: Translations and Adaptions of the
Classics; III. History and Genealogy: the Nation and the Individual; IV. Women
Writers and Women Bibliophiles: Memory and Self-Assertion; V. From Manuscript
to Print: the Circulation of Texts and the Triumph of the French
Vernacular.
The title of the exhibition is taken from a quote from Jean de Meun, one of
authors presented in the exhibition, who with Guillaume de Lorris wrote the
celebrated Roman de la Rose. In c. 1325, Jean described writing in French as
“speaking as I learned from my mother,” or “speaking in my mother
tongue.”
Mostly illuminated, the manuscripts on view encompass a wide variety of
subjects ranging from literature and science, to philosophy and theology, and
history and government. So rare are illuminated manuscripts in the French
language of this period that this project would not be possible without the
purchase of a substantial group of previously unpublished manuscripts from the
Collection of Joost R. Ritman, founder of the Bibliotheca Philosophica
Hermetica.
Exhibition
Catalogue
Published in full color, the accompanying scholarly catalogue will include
detailed descriptions on the works presented within the exhibition, along with
comparative material, a preface, an introduction, and an extensive
bibliography. In conjunction with the accompanying exhibitions and the
colloquium, the catalogue contributes to the ongoing re-evaluation of medieval
literary and art history by examining the complex relationships between text
and image in manuscripts as reflections of communal and individual identity and
as testaments to the dynamic intersection of literature and art. Catalogue
sections will shed new light on many of the exhibition’s themes; and also serve
as session titles for the Paris colloquium.
Paris Colloquium
A study day or colloquium is planned for Saturday, May 17, 2014 at the Institut
National d'Histoire de l'Art (INHA) with talks encompassing themes explored
within the exhibition along with new research related to the rise and
affirmation of the French language in the production of literary manuscripts
from c. 1200 to 1550.
Press Contact : Cecilia Bonn, e. cbonn@nyc.rr.com, t. 212
-734-9754
GALERIE LES
ENLUMINURES
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“Au parler que m’aprist ma mere”
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