Avignon in literature
Avignon in Literature refers to the past and present work of the French city of Avignon in literature . Avignon and the Papal Palace have often served as the setting for literary acts, especially in French literature . The best-known works are probably Gargantua and Pantagruel by Rabelais or the letters from my mill by Alphonse Daudet , which refer to the time of the popes. There are also numerous mentions of well-known travelers such as Francesco Petrarca , Anne Marguerite Petit Du Noyer or Stendhal , whose impressions and views are quite different. Avignon is described by some as a peaceful, idyllic city in which it is good to live. Others, such as Prosper Mérimée , are amazed at the imposing Papal Palace, which, due to its fortress-like character, sometimes meets with dislike. Perhaps the most uncomfortable in Avignon was Petrarch, who felt downright repulsed by the big city and preferred to live in Fontaine-de-Vaucluse .
Literary tourism
In the fifth volume of Rabelais' novels Gargantua and Pantagruel , the son of Grandgousier, accompanied by brother Jean des Entomeures and Pamurge, visit the city of Avignon, which Rabelais knew well from his studies at the University of Montpellier . Impressed by the large number of its church towers, he renamed it "Bell Island" (l'Isle Sonnante) and moved the plot to the time of the Great Western Schism . The first six chapters are devoted to this visit.
The Marquise de Sevigne praised during the arrival of their daughter Françoise in Avignon in 1671 the charm of this city, which they knew only from the descriptions of her daughter ago:
“We are here in a perfect and deep calm, a peace, a silence that is completely in contrast to your stay in Avignon. You may already be in this splendid city and will be welcomed with cheers. I like your letters from Avignon very much, my dear daughter, I read them and read them again. It feels like I am there, like participating in your success. Finally I enjoy your beautiful sun, the lovely banks of your beautiful Rhône, the mildness of your air. "
Even Anne Marguerite Petit Du Noyer (1663-1779) the beauty of the city fell. During her stay in Avignon, she expressed her enthusiasm and astonishment in the Lettres historiques et galantes de deux dames de condition dont l'une estoit à Paris & l'autre en province :
"The location of the city is enchanting, the Rhône washes its walls, outside there are only gardens and meadows, inside magnificent buildings, the estates of the Mademoiselles from Mont-Réal and Crillon are the most beautiful you get to see there."
The liberal Protestant noticed that the people of Avignon led a very idyllic life, because she explains:
“Monasteries of men and women still adorn this lovely city, which lies under a very blue sky and under the mildest rule in the world, since it is only under the supervision of the Pope, exercised by a deputy delegate who is still a man of Rank is and can easily be taken into account. You have no idea what taxes or poll taxes are, everyone is rich and exudes joy. The ladies are courteous, the gentlemen exhaust themselves; the game, which one could call general amusement, is played here as far as one wants. "
In the Notes d'un voyage dans le Midi de la France, Prosper Mérimée reported on his visit to Avignon in 1834 and of the Papal Palace, which he put on his first list of historical monuments from 1840. His impressions were weakened, however, as he also judged the old papal city negatively:
“The general aspect of Avignon is that of a battlefield. All large buildings have a military style, palaces and churches look like fortresses. Battlements and pitched oriels crown the church towers, ultimately everything points to civil wars and uprisings. "
Stendhal visited Avignon at the same time. It was a return to his roots for him, as the family of one of his grandfathers came from here. In his book Mémoire d'un touriste , published in 1838, he reports on the Papal Palace, disregarding the historical facts regarding Giotto and the Inquisition:
“Today the palace is being ruined in a strange way: it serves as barracks, soldiers tear down the wall and sell the painted heads on Giotto's frescoes to the bourgeoisie. Despite the large amount of damage, its massive towers still rise to a considerable height. I notice that it was built with the utmost Italian distrust; the inside is therefore well protected against enemies who would invade the courtyards, whereas the outside is well protected against enemies who might want to take the outside. With the keenest interest I ran through the storeys of this peculiar fortress. I looked at the so-called stake on which the Inquisition would have placed the wicked who would not admit his crime, and the charming heads that are on the frescoes by Giotto. The red outlines of the original drawing are still visible on the wall. "
In 1877 Henry James organized a tour of France on which he visited Avignon for the third time, the city that had always disappointed him. Just like the Papal Palace, which for him was "the scariest of all historical buildings". He went there when the mistral was blowing stormily and said in one sentence:
"This enormous bare ground without ornament nor grace, deprived of their battlements and disfigured by dirty modern windows, located on the Rocher des Doms , overlooking the Rhone, which it dominates and overlooks what the St. Benezet Pont left stayed. "
In 1925, after a trip to France , Joseph Roth compiled his notes under the title Les villes blanches . After the end of the 19th century , young Central European architects became enthusiastic about the architecture of southern Italy. The Austrian romantic wanted to pursue this search in southern France and discovered Avignon. He was fascinated by the city of the Popes as a place that was “both Jerusalem and Rome, ancient times and the Middle Ages”. His search became mystical then:
“When I found myself in front of one of the great gates that were set in the white fortress wall like gray stones in a silver ring, when I saw the tinned towers, the noble strength, the aristocratic steadfastness, the fearless beauty of these stones, I understood how a heavenly power could take a completely earthly form and that it has no need to conform to the rules of this life. I understood how they could ensure their military security without deterioration and that there is a militarism that has nothing in common with terrestrial militarism, not even weapons. It was the popes who understood the fortified places. They were religious places. They represented a sacred potential. I understand how they could keep the peace. There are peaceful places and weapons that help peace and prevent war. "
The scholar Pierre-Jean Rémy states in the preface to a book dedicated to the townhouses of Avignon:
“Perhaps the Avignon summer is the tree that hides the forest from us. The summer with its tourist streams, the festival of course, but also with the large exhibitions, the 1001 encounters around the Place de l'Horloge , the colloquia of the Papal Palace: the population of Avignon grew at that time and multiplied to the rhythm of the thousands of visitors, Dozens of languages spoken there. And then comes autumn. Avignon is rediscovering the life that is her own, that of a great and beautiful city that had its glorious times and its tragic days, where the winds of history, religion, painting and poetry blew, the gate of which is still deep in is rooted in its rock, the shining signs. Summer goes by, Avignon becomes Avignon again, beyond the crowds that so often clog the city. "
Poems, reports, short stories and novels
Francesco Petrarca loved Fontaine-de-Vaucluse, but could not really enjoy the city of Avignon, which he compared to a "new Babylon" . He showered them with the worst slander and gossip: “Oh Avignon, is it that you worship Rome, your sovereign? Woe to you if this suffering person begins to wake up! ” For him, Avignon was “ the hell of the living, the cesspool of the earth, the most disgusting of all cities ” , “ the home of the wretched figures and half-apes ” , “ the most boring city in the world ” or “ the dreary home of all vices, all calamities and all misery ” .
He also added: "The court of Avignon [was] a devouring abyss that nothing could fill." Finally, it is credited with the phrase "Avignon, bilge of all vices" , which has been widespread since then and was formulated in a similar way by the poet: "Avignon is no longer a city, it is a bilge of all crimes and atrocities" .
The melancholy of Jean Dupin are undated, but in 1510 by Michel le Noir in Paris were probably printed. Jean Dupin began to write it in 1324 and finished it in 1340. In two stanzas the moralist criticizes the nepotism under John XXII. and the construction of the papal palace fortress under Benedict XII. on which "the Pope closes himself off" .
Under feudal rule in Provence,
the Pope (moves into) his residence
within the city of Avignon.
There he holds his court, but his sex
takes advantage of every advantage
The fangs, the reverend ones.
Our Pope moans:
…
His cage is well guarded;
He locks himself up on his palace
And no poet speaks to him
If he doesn't wear anything gold.
In the fourteenth century Jean Froissart described in his chronicles the reception organized by Clement VII and his cardinals in the papal palace in autumn 1389. At that time Charles VI came. visiting with his brother and uncles from Berry and Burgundy. He served them a "nice, long and rich dinner" . After the festivities and dances offered by the king, “the ladies and maids of Avignon” received a lot of generosity from the ruler.
In 1855 the first edition of Armana Prouvençau published a poem entitled La cansoun di felibre . It comes from Théodore Aubanel , one of the three main characters of the Félibrige movement. The poet sings about the papal palace in a stanza:
Dóu goutigue Avignoun
Palais e tourrihoun
Fan de dentello
Dins lis estello.
The Pope's mule is one of the most famous stories by Alphonse Daudet and appeared in the Letters from My Mill in 1870 . In it he describes a papal city that is just as imaginary as his pontifex Bonifacius, but which was passed on to posterity: “Anyone who has not seen Avignon at the time of the popes has seen nothing. ... Oh! the happy time! The happy city! Halberds that did not cut; State prisons, to which wine was sent to refresh the prisoners. Never lack; never war ... This is how the Popes of Avignon knew how to rule their people, that is why their people have pained them so much! ... "
In 1897, in Le poème du Rhône, Frédéric Mistral praised Avignon and the Papal Palace with the same admiration: “This is Avignon and the Papal Palace! Avignon! Avignon on its huge rock! Avignon, the bell-ringer who erected the tops of her church towers one after the other, all sown pieces of jewelry. Avignon, the godchild of the Holy Father, who saw the boat and anchor in the harbor and carries the keys in her crenellated belt; Avignon, the gallant city that the Mistral binds and confuses and that has been preserved in its carefree to see the glory so shine. "
Some recent authors have chosen Avignon as the setting for their stories. Among them is L'anonyme d'Avignon , a 1992 novel by Sophie Cassanes-Brouquin in which his hero, the young Toulouse de Maynial, goes to Avignon after the departure of the Popes, where they await a hypothetical return and the papal palace is a symbol of lost splendor. The first part takes place in the abandoned city, where the young man learns the techniques of painting. Thanks to his master, he discovered the great old artists Simone Martini and Matteo Giovanetti there and, without knowing it, took part in the founding of the Avignon School , whose works and artists influenced all of Europe.
In the crime novel Panique au Palais des Papes by Henri Coupon, which was published in 2000, the author chooses Avignon and the festival as the setting for a terrorist action.
Finally, the novel Die Prophezeiung von Avignon by Emmanuelle Rey-Magnan and Pascal Fontanille was published in 2007, which further processes topics from the television series of the same name and makes Avignon and the Papal Palace an esoteric stronghold.
literature
- Anne Bourret-Porée: Demeures secrètes du vieil Avignon , Barbentane, 2000, ISBN 978-2841352098
Remarks
- ^ Rabelais: Le Cinquième et dernier livre des faits et dits héroïques du bon Pantagruel , Paris, 1994.
- ↑ Notice on the base Joconde du Ministère de la culture.
- ↑ Françoise, Countess von Grignan, stayed with her husband, the Count and Governor of Provence, in Avignon, who occupied the city militarily on behalf of Louis XIV.
- ^ Anne Bourret-Porée: Demeures secrètes du vieil Avignon , Barbentane, 2000, p. 59 .
- ^ Anne Bourret-Porée: Demeures secrètes du vieil Avignon , Barbentane, 2000, p. 14 .
- ↑ The vice delegates who ruled Avignon at the beginning of the 17th century were Raniero d'Elci (1719-1731), F.-M. de Gonteriis (1731) and Philippe Bondelmonti (1731-1739).
- ^ Anne Bourret-Porée: Demeures secrètes du vieil Avignon , Barbentane, 2000, pp. 14-15 .
- ↑ Prosper Mérimée: Notes d'un voyage dans le Midi de la France , 1835, pp. 142-143 .
- ^ Stendhal: Mémoire d'un touriste , Paris, 1854, pp. 211–216 .
- ^ Henry James: A Little Tour in France , French Voyage en France , Robert Laffont, 1987, Paris, p. 280 , pp. 235–241 .
- ^ Joseph Roth: Les Villes blanches. Croquis de voyage, récits , Seuil, Paris, 1994, p. 409 , pp. 144-154 ; first edition under the title Travel Pictures , 1976.
- ^ Anne Bourret-Porée, Demeures secrètes du vieil Avignon , Ed. Équinoxe, Barbentane, 2000, p. 17 .
- ↑ In 1335 and 1336 Petrarch had made two petitions to Benedict XII. turned to urge him to come to Rome. Faced with the hostility of Bologna, which was under the protection of the Pope, he was rejected. Since then, the young man has treated the Pope as a die-hard drunkard .
- ↑ Dominique Paladihle, Les papes en Avignon ou l'exile de Babylone , Librairie Académique Perrin, Paris, 1975, pp 175-179 .
- ^ Jean Dupin, Le champ vertueux de bonne vie, appelé Mandevie ou les Mélancolies sur les conditions de ce monde .
- ^ Jean-Noël Paquot, Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire littéraire de dix-sept provinces , Paris, 1769, Google books.
- ↑ Quoted by Jean Batany, Benoît XII et la construction du palais des papes jugé par un moraliste contemporain , in Avignon au Moyen Âge, texte et documents , IREBMA, Avignon, 1988, verses 118-129, d'après le ms. Fr. 451 , pp. 90–91, de la Bibliothèque nationale, avec corrections prices dans le ms. E. 586 , de la bibliothèque municipale de Besançon.
- ↑ Chroniques de Jean Froissart, p. 15ff, La réception du roi Charles VI par Clément VII au palais des Papes.
- ↑ "Gothic Avignon / Palace and door pivot / Made from the points / the stars".
- ↑ Alphonse Daudet: The Pope's mule
- ↑ Frédéric Mistral, Le poème du Rhône , Éd. J. Laffitte, Marseille, 1980, ISBN 9782734805632 ; ou Éd. William Blake et cie, Bordeaux, 1997, ISBN 9782951012929 . Voir aussi en provençal: Lou Pouèmo dóu Rose ( Memento from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 385 kB)
- ^ Sophie Cassagnes-Brouquet, L'Anonyme d'Avignon , Éd. du Rouergue, Millau, 1992, ISBN 2-905209-56-9 .
- ^ Henri Coupon, Panique au Palais des Papes , Ed. de l'Aube, Collection L'aube noire , Paris, 2000, ISBN 287678565X .
- ↑ Emmanuelle Rey-Magnan et Pascal Fontanille, La Prophétie d'Avignon , Éd. Michel Lafon, Paris, 2007, ISBN 2749906539 .