Roman de Fauvel
The Roman de Fauvel is a two-book French poetry of the 14th century. It is attributed to the notary Gervès du Bus , who worked at the Paris royal court, and has survived in 13 manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries.
Meaning of the name
Fauvel (from French fauve: pale yellow; see also Falbe ), a horse or donkey, is the protagonist of this satire . The name "Fauvel" is an acrostic poem from various vices:
- F laterie (flattery)
- A varice (greed)
- U / V ilanie (wickedness)
- V ariété (impermanence)
- E nvie (envy)
- L âcheté (cowardice)
In addition, it can be interpreted as a contraction of the old French terms faus (false, bad) and vel (faithless / the appearance). The color fauve (fallow) has also - perhaps due to its similarity to the French word faus - a negative connotation since the 12th century , which refers to hypocrisy and lies.
content
The first book describes the rapid rise of Fauvel: he leaves his stable and with the help of Lady Fortune ( Fortuna ) becomes a powerful ruler. Secular and spiritual rulers, including the king and the pope, make a pilgrimage to him, caress and flatter him as the symbol of hypocrisy and lies. The world over which Fauvel rules is bestorné (upside down / wrong way around ): the king stands above the pope, women above men, the poor become rich and the moon gives the sun its light. The time of the Antichrist seems to have dawned and the end of the world is near.
The second book begins with a detailed description of Fauvel's court in the Makrokosmos Palace , whose inhabitants include Charnalité ( carnality ), Avarice (greed), Envie (envy), Haine (venom), Paresse (laziness), Gloutonnie (voraciousness), Ivresse ( Drunkenness), Orgueil (arrogance), Hypocrisie (hypocrisy), Vilenie (wickedness), Barat (betrayal), Tricherie ( cheating ), Parjure (perjury), Hérésie (heresy), sodomy and others. Fauvel asks Dame Fortune for her hand, but she rejects him and suggests instead that he marry her maid, Vaine Gloire (vain glory). Fauvel agrees and the marriage takes place. Among the wedding guests are Fauvel's servants, the vices, and the virtues. After the extensive wedding celebration, the couple fathered many offspring, fauveaux , who soon dominated all of France. The novel ends with a prayer to the lily of purity , which is France's last and only hope.
The traditional manuscripts
Two different versions of the novel have survived. The earlier and shorter one from 1314 consists of 2 books and a total of 3280 octosyllabic verses (Book 1: 1226 verses, Book 2: 2054 verses). It is preserved in 12 complete manuscripts and 2 excerpts. The later and longer one has only survived in a single manuscript ( BNF fr. 146), but has a special meaning - especially for musicology -: it extends the text not only with illuminations and various poems, but also with numerous monophonic and polyphonic Pieces of music. Taken together, these form the most important corpus of monophonic and polyphonic pieces of music in the French Ars Nova . Among the interpolations are some motets that are attributed to the great composer and music theorist Philippe de Vitry .
This version of the novel cannot have been compiled before Philip V's coronation in Reims on January 9, 1317, since a verse in one of the interpolations refers to “Phelippe qui regne ores”. Another passage, in the Latin dit Hora rex es , refers to events shortly after Easter (April 3) 1317. According to the latest research, the date of origin is set to spring 1317.
Chaillou de Pesstain is named at the end of the first book as the originator of the interpolations: [C] i s'ensivent les addicions que mesire Chaillou de Pesstain ha mises en ce livre oultre les choses dessus dites qui sont en chant ("Here follow the additions, with which Monsieur Chaillou de Pesstain has provided this book, in addition to the preceding pieces of music ”). It is possible that at Chaillou to Geoffroy Engelor called Chalop , a notary, who by 1303 was working in the French chancery to 1334th Some of the compositions from BNF fr. 146 were written by himself, but most of them were taken from an earlier repertoire.
BNF fr. 146 consists of 100 folios . In front of the interpolated version of the novel by Gervès du Bus is a Complainte d'amour , next to it the manuscript contains eight French and Latin poems about political events from 1314/15 to 1317/18, 34 French songs by Jehannot de Lescurel and one anonymous Chronicle of the years 1300 to 1316.
Significance in literary history
In no way original in form and thought - the work can easily be grouped in the tradition of the medieval admonition regum or memorandum - Gervès du Buis offers such a vivid view of the moral situation of his time that the work was and is repeatedly the subject of critical research .
Musicological importance
The 56 Latin and 113 French works preserved by the National Library of France (fr. 146) are divided into
- Songs in contemporary forms ( lays , rondeaux , strolls )
- Excerpts from liturgical chants
- Two to four-part motets from the Ars Antiqua and Ars Nova
They offer a broad cross-section of the repertoire that was available to the Parisian clergy at the time of its creation. The most recent of these pieces of music are most likely composed specifically for handwriting. The remaining pieces have been selected or edited to support the political and allegorical meaning of the novel. It is speculated that Philippe de Vitry himself participated in the editing of the novel. But it is not even certain that the Fauvel motets that Heinrich Besseler attributed to Vitry really come from him. The attributions are based on a text tradition that has been handed down mainly in Italian manuscripts from the late 14th and early 15th centuries and cannot be directly linked to Vitry.
Directory of the BNF fr. 146 contained musical works
Multi-part pieces
The individual vocal parts in the following list are each separated by slashes and named after the first words of the associated text. Non-texted voices are italicized and named according to the pitch of the voice.
- Favellandi vicium / tenor
- Mundus a mundicia / tenor
- Quare Fremduerunt / tenor
- Presidentes in thronis / Super cathedram / Ruina
- Jure quod in opere / Scariotis geniture / Superne matris gaudia
- In mari miserie / [Manere] ( / translation into modern notation )
- Ad solitum vomitum / [Regnat]
- Plange, nostra regio / Nulla pestis est gravior / Vergente
- Qui secuntur / Detractor est nequissima vulpis / Verbum iniquum et dolosum
- In principibus perpera / Ex corruptis arboribus / Neuma de alleluya
- Ve, qui gregi deficiunt / Quasi non ministerium / Trahunt in precipicia / Displicebat
- Vos pastores adulteri / Orbis orbatus / Fur non venit (attributed to Philippe de Vitry)
- Que nutritos filios / Desolata mater ecclesia / Filios enutrivi et exaltavi
- Fauvel nous a fait present / Ja voi douleur avenir / Fauvel: autant m'est si poise
- Rex beatus, Confessor Domini / Se cuers ioians / Ave
- O Philippe, prelustris Francorum / Servant regem misericordia / Rex regum
- O Nacio nephandi / Condicio nature / [M] ane prima sabbati
- Alieni boni invidia / Facilius / "Imperfecte canite"
- Veritas arpie / Johanne
- Ade costa dormientis / tenor
- J'ai fait nouveletement / La mesnie fauveline / Grant despit ai ie
- Inter amenitatis tripudia / Revertenti
- Sicut de ligno parvulus / Inflammatus invidia / Tenor
- Se me desirs / Bonne est amours / [A]
- Heu, Fortuna subdula / Aman novi probatur exitu / Heu me, tristis est anima mea (attributed to Philippe de Vitry)
- Quomodo cantabimus / thalamus puerpere / tenor
- Quoniam secta latronum / Tribum, que non abhorruit / merito hec partimur (attributed to Philippe de Vitry)
- Maria, virgo virginum / Celi domina / Porchier mieuz estre ameroie
- Omnipotens domine / Flagellaverunt Galliam
- Adesto, sancta trinitas / Firmissime fidem teneamus / Alleluya, Benedictus (attributed to Philippe de Vitry)
- Scrutator alme cordium / tenor
- Ihesu, tu dator venie / Zelus family / tenor
- In nova fert / Garrit Gallus / N [euma] (attributed to Philippe de Vitry)
- Bon vin doit / Quant ie le voi / Cis chans veult boire
Transfer to modern notation
A transfer of all polyphonic music pieces from the Roman de Fauvel is found in the following work, from which the above list is removed:
Leo Schrade: Polyphonic Music of the Fourteenth Century Volume I . Éditions de L'Oiseau-Lyre, Les Remparts / Monaco 1956
literature
- Gaston Paris: Histoire littéraire . Tome XXXII. Paris 1898
- Madeleine Tyssens: Scruter Fauvel. A propos d'un ouvrage récent. In: Le Moyen Age 2002/1, pp. 89-102
- Margaret Bent, Andrew Wathey: Fauvel Studies , Clarendon Press, Oxford 1998
- Karl Kügle: Fauvel . In: MGG², Sachteil Volume 3, Sp. 372–379
- Andrew Wathey: Fauvel, Roman de . In: New Grove, Dictionary of Music and Musicians , Volume 8, pp. 608-614
- Jean-Claude Mühlethaler: Fauvel au pouvoir: lire la satire médiévale , Champion, Paris 1994.
- Margherita Lecco: Ricerche sul Roman de Fauvel , Edizioni dell'Orso, Alessandria 1993.
Web links
- Literature on Roman de Fauvel at arlima.net
- Online version of Madeleine Tyssens' article (see literature; French)