Le canaries

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Page of version G ( fol.2r )
Page of version B (fol.1r)

Le Canarien is the chronicle of the diplomatic, missionary and warlike actions of Jean de Béthencourt , Gadifer de La Salle , their soldiers and the clergy in the subjugation and Christianization of the indigenous population of the Canary Islands from 1402 onwards. The first version of the report was made in the course of events written in French in Lanzarote by the clergymen Pierre Bontier and Jean Le Verrier. Le Canarien is the most important source of information about the way of life of the indigenous people of the Canary Islands .

Origin of the original version

The original version of the report, which no longer exists today, was written by Jean Le Verrier, Chaplain Gadifer de La Salles, and Pierre Bontier, Chaplain Jean de Béthencourts. Since the clergy did not always take part in the fighting and the dangerous visits to the other islands themselves, they wrote down the participants' reports after the end of these events. It can be assumed that Gadifer de La Salle, who was personally involved in all these endeavors, dictated the texts to the chroniclers, if not dictated them. It follows that the representations are shaped by the view of the soldiers, but also by the expectations of the clergy.

Contents of the chronicle

The chronicle describes the entire course of the journey from leaving France to Jean de Béthencourt's return to his hometown Grainville-la-Teinturière . In addition to describing the course of action, the chronicle is very extensively devoted to the description of the landscape, the nature of the soil, the water supply and the fertility of the Canary Islands. The differences in appearance, language, way of life, customs and beliefs of the indigenous people of the individual islands are described in detail.

Versions of the Chronicle

Version G or Codex Egerton 2709

Version G is an illuminated manuscript . It consists of 36 sheets , each of which is described on the front and the back . They are 26.7 × 17.7 cm in size. It was probably made between 1404 and 1420 for the Duke of Burgundy Johann Ohnefurcht . The design is attributed to the workshop of the master of the Cité des Dames . The text is an incomplete copy of the original version of Le Canarien, which was made with the consent of Gadifer de La Salle, probably even on his initiative. It is very likely that he changed some parts of the original text and added parts. The Duke of Burgundy Philip the Good mentioned the manuscript in the inventory of his library of 1420. The Code is located since 1888 in the collection Egerton of the British Library . It is therefore also called Codex Egerton 2709. In 1896, the French historian Pierre Margry published the first printed edition of Version G of Le Canarien. (Pierre Margry: La Conquête et les conquérants des îles Canaries. Nouveles recherches on Jean IV de Béthencourt et Gadifer de La Salle. Le vrai manuscrit du Canarien . Paris 1896. )

Version B or Codex Montruffet

The manuscript of Version B comes from Jean V. de Béthencourt, the only son of Morelet, brother of the conqueror Jean IV. De Béthencourt. It consists of 88 sheets, each of which is written on the front and back. They are between 18 and 20.5 cm high and between 11 and 12 cm wide. There is evidence that all of Manuscript B was written between 1488 and 1491. The author of version B seems to have owned the template for the illuminated manuscript of version G. In 1630, Pierre de Bergeron published the first printed edition of the manuscript B. (F. Pierre Bontier, Jean Le Verrier: Histoire de la premiere conqueste et descouverte des Canaries, faite des l'an 1402 par messire Jean de Béthencourt, chambellan du roy Charles VI, escrite du temps meme par F. Pierre Bontier et Jean Le Verrier, et mise en lumiere par M. Galien de Béthencourt . Ed .: Pierre Bergeron. Paris 1630. ) In the more than two hundred years from this publication to its discovery of version G in 1887, the chronicle published by Bergeron was considered by historians to be a reliable source for research into the indigenous people of the Canary Islands. Version B, named after a previous owner, the Marquesa Emma de Mont-Ruffet, also called Codex Montruffet, is kept in the city library of Rouen .

Differences in content

From the beginning up to and including chapter LXIX, the text refers to the first two years of the actions in the Canary Islands. This part of version B reproduces the same text as version G almost verbatim with some changes. The changes that were introduced in version B served to recognize Jean de Béthencourts of paramount importance in the conquest. Version G clearly shows that Jean de Béthencourt and Gadifer de La Salle undertook this conquest together, together and on the condition of equality. The aim of version B is to show that Gadifer was only one of the men under Béthencourt's command. In general, the additions in version B do not contain any new information, but rather interpret what has happened.

Chapters LXX up to and including LXXVI contain the conquest of Fuerteventura and the conversion of the kings up to Béthencourt's first trip to France. The Codex Egerton 2709 is an incomplete, edited copy of the original of the Le Canarien. Playback stops before the events described in the second part of version B. There are many indications that the source of version B is the continuation of the now lost model of the Egerton 2709 code and that here, too, changes were made by Jean V. de Béthencourt when editing the text. Some formulations show that the author of the text was not familiar with the biography of his uncle Jean IV. De Béthencourt, that he did not speak Spanish and did not know the Canary Islands. It seems that he did not always understand everything he wrote.

Chapters LXXVII to the second section of chapter LXXXVIII deal with Béthencourt's journey to Normandy, his return to the islands, his expeditions to Gran Canaria, La Palma and El Hierro, his journey to Castile and Rome to his final return to Normandy . With the exception of the expeditions to the western islands, the reports in these chapters have no reference to version G. The information on the voyage to Normandy contradicts the documents that are available in France about this period. It is certain that Jean de Béthencourt was not in Normandy in the spring of 1405. The times given about the visits to the more western islands seem largely implausible. The descriptions of these trips suggest that they were undertaken, but the times and details of the course appear uncertain.

The second part of chapter LXXXVIII describes the last years of Jean de Béthencourt's life. This part of version B describes a period by which the copy of version G was already completed. The facts mentioned in this part of Le Canarien contradict to a large extent other documents that exist in France.

Illustration of the manuscripts

The only pictorial representation of version G

Egerton Code 2709

The Egerton Codex was written on parchment . The design of the manuscript is not so important in terms of quantity, but because of the high quality of the only miniature that precedes the text in the manner of a frontispiece on sheet 2 on the right-hand side. The picture shows a ship with two men in armor with drawn swords on the stern fort . They are apparently supposed to represent Gadifer de La Salle and Jean de Béthencourt. Two of the flags shown cannot be assigned. The bottom flag and the pennants correspond to the coat of arms of Gadifer de La Salles. The coats of arms on the side of the ship's fort cannot be identified either. The beginning of each new chapter is indicated with an initial three lines high. These initials show a very differentiated plant-like ornamentation in different colors on a gold background.

Figure before chapter LXXXIII of version B

Code of Montruffet

The Montruffet Codex was written on paper . It is characterized by 85  pen drawings that are approximately 7.5 × 11 cm in size. They are usually found at the beginning of the chapter whose content they represent. What is striking is the wealth of scenes with very different image compositions and the representation of details. These images approach the text in terms of content, but do not reflect historical reality. In some of the pictures you can see different places in Normandy in the landscapes that are depicted behind the characters. The illustrator apparently had no knowledge of the Canary Islands. The type of perspective representation that was partially used appears surprisingly advanced for the time it was created at the end of the 15th century. The color scale used is very simple. A brownish tone predominates. The outlines are shown in black. Red is used for the frames and rarely for details in the picture. Larger areas are usually laid out in a washed-out ocher tone. In some cases, the shade of ocher is replaced with a gray. White paint creates lighting effects.

The frontispiece shows Jean de Béthencourt's coat of arms with two men wearing only a loincloth holding shields. In addition to the illustrations, the Montruffet code is adorned with two initial letters designed with gold and many colors. One of them shows the coat of arms of Jean de Béthencourt, the upright lion.

Assessment of historical correctness

In the period from the publication of version B in 1630 to the discovery of version G in 1887, historical scholarship assumed a high degree of truth in the present description. The recognizable differences between the two versions prompted various historians in the 20th century to compare the information in Le Canarien with other historical sources. A very detailed review was published in 1959–1965 together with a new translation of both versions into Spanish under the title Le Canarien, crónicas francesas de la conquista de Canarias, publicadas a base de los manuscritos con traducción y notas históricas criticas (Le Canarien, French Chronicles of the Conquest of the Canary Islands, edited on the basis of the manuscripts with a translation and historical-critical notes) published by Elías Serra and Alejandro Cioranescu . In the following years, the Apéndices a los tres volúmenes de Le Canarien (appendices to the three volumes of Le Canarien) were added to this publication . A. Documents from France and Spain included. This investigation found that a large part of the events described in version G and in the first parts of version B can be substantiated by other documents. However, the chronological assignment in version B is obviously not always correct. After studying the relevant documents, Cioranescu considers the reports of events that relate to the time after Béthencourt finally left the Canary Islands to be largely unreliable.

literature

  • Alejandro Cioranescu (Ed.): Le Canarien: crónicas francesas de la conquista de Canarias (=  Fontes rerum canarium ). Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 1959 (Spanish, mdc.ulpgc.es [accessed January 23, 2017]).
  • Alejandro Cioranescu: Juan de Bethencourt . Aula de Cultura de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1982, ISBN 84-500-5034-0 (Spanish).
  • Alejandro Cioranescu: Crónicas francesas de la conquista de Canarias: Le Canarien . Ed .: Antonio Álvarez de la Rosa, José M. Oliver Frade. Idea, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2004, ISBN 84-96407-00-4 (Spanish).
  • Eduardo Aznar et al .: Le Canarien: Retrato de dos mundos I. Textos . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-58-2 (Spanish).
  • Eduardo Aznar et al .: Le Canarien: Retrato de dos mundos II Contextos . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLIII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-59-0 (Spanish).

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Eduardo Aznar et al .: Le Canarien: Retrato de dos mundos I. Textos . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-58-2 , p. 11 (Spanish).
  2. ↑ Alejandro Cioranescu: Juan de Béthencourt . Aula de Cultura de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1982, ISBN 84-500-5034-0 , p. 247 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ Eduardo Aznar: Le Canarien: Retrato de dos mundos I. Textos . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-58-2 , p. 39 (Spanish).
  4. ↑ Eduardo Aznar: Le Canarien: Retrato de dos mundos I. Textos . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-58-2 , p. 33 (Spanish).
  5. ↑ Detailed record for Egerton 2709. Retrieved June 28, 2017 .
  6. ↑ Alejandro Cioranescu: Juan de Béthencourt . Aula de Cultura de Tenerife, Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1982, ISBN 84-500-5034-0 , p. 278 (Spanish).
  7. ↑ Etelvina Fernández González, Fernando Galván Freíle: La ilustración de los manuscritos de Le Canarien . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLIII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-59-0 , p. 180 ff . (Spanish).
  8. ↑ Eduardo Aznar: Le Canarien: Retrato de dos mundos I. Textos . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-58-2 , p. 19 (Spanish).
  9. ↑ Etelvina Fernández González, Fernando Galván Freíle: La ilustración de los manuscritos de Le Canarien . In: Eduardo Aznar, Dolores Corbella, Berta Pico, Antonio Tejera (eds.): Le Canarien: retrato de dos mundos (=  Fontes Rerum Canarium ). tape XLIII . Instituto de Estudios Canarios, La Laguna 2006, ISBN 84-88366-59-0 , p. 185 ff . (Spanish).
  10. ^ New edition of the translations: Alejandro Cioranescu: Crónicas francesas de la conquista de Canarias: Le Canarien . Ed .: Antonio Álvarez de la Rosa, José M. Oliver Frade. Idea, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 2004, ISBN 84-96407-00-4 (Spanish).

Web links

Commons : Le Canarien  - collection of images, videos and audio files