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Matthew W. Morris, "Jean D'arras and Couldrette: Political Expediency and Censorship in Fifteenth-Century France"
Matthew W. Morris, "Jean D'arras and Couldrette: Political Expediency and Censorship in Fifteenth-Century France"
Matthew W; Morris
Oxford College of Emory University
I
that the newly victorious royal power would block from the press- Englishman and back to Frenchman again. Froissart, for example,
es a work posing such a threat to a still fragile order-a work after having served the Queen of England (Philippe de Hainaut),
which owed its very inception to the political rivalry between the passed into the service of princes devoted to France.
Valois and a family that numbered among the fiercest of the rebel 7 According to the prologue of the prose version, Jean de Berry
French barons determined to end Valois rule: the Parthenays of was further urged to have such a work executed by his cousin,
Poitou.
Josse de Luxembourg, Marquis of Moravia. Jean de Berry, Marie,
and Josse were grandchildren of Jean l'Aveugle, King of Bohemia
Notes
and Count of Luxembourg (Stouff 2).
8 The Poitevins were descendants of the Celtic PictOnes, who
1 The significance of the attempt by the Lusignans at linkage retained belief in the tutelary spirit of the territory (Pictavia) as the
with a supernatural being has to do with Melusine's origins as a personification of the sovereignty of the land. According to Celtic
Celtic deity. To the inhabitants of Poitou-Pictavia,land of the belief, the "sovereignty" (in this case Melusine) sought out and
Celtic Pictones in pre-Roman times-Melusine was the anthro- chose union with the legitimate ruler of the land (Lehoux v.l, 343).
pomorphic representation of the sovereignty of the land whose
9 With the Edit de Moulins in 1556, it was forbidden by royal
right and privilege it was to recognize and form union with the lig-
authority to the Parlement and prevot de Paris to grant any "conge
itimate ruler of the territory.
d'imprimer" (a privilege they held formerly). Charles IX forbade
2 By the end of the fifteenth century, seven printed editions of the printing of "aucun livre, carte ne peinture sans l'expres com-
Jean d'Arras's prose version had appeared in France, the first dat- man dement et conge de Sa Majeste et de son Conseil prive." Le
ing from 1478. Some thirty further editions of this prose version pouvoir royal cherche a reserver Ie monopole du contra Ie de l'im-
appeared in following centuries (Morris 20). prime, qu'il s'attribue par l'edit de Moulins en 1566 (Minois 56).
3 This edition was published in Geneva by the German printer 10 One of the chief aims of the monarchy after the advent of
Steinschaber von Schweinfurth (Meyer 7). the press was to see that it was used in service of its propaganda
4 Desaivre, pp. 244-68 and Jean d'Arras, L'Histoire de la Belle (both interior and exterior) in forming public opinion (Minois 20).
Melusine, Reproduction en fac-simile de l'edition de Geneve
imprimee par A. Steinschaber en 1478. Ed. W. J. Meyer. Paris:
librarie Ed. Champion, 1924, pp. 11-12. Works Cited
5 It was probably due to a familiarity with many of the ele-
ments (giants, monsters, serpents, etc.) in Melusine that the people Armstrong, Elizabeth. Before Copyright: The FrenchBook-
of Germany and Eastern Europe showed a special liking for the Privilege System1498-1526. Cambridge: Cambridge University
fairy of Poitou; they consequently found a great rapport between Press, 1990.
the story of Melusine and their own legends and folklore. Brown, Cynthia J. Poets, Patrons, and Printers: Crisis of
Authority in Late Medieval France. Ithaca: Cornell U P,1995.
6 The term "Englishman" did not necessarily imply that one Delisle,Leopold. Le Cabinet des manuscrits de la Bibliotheque
was an inhabitant of England. One distinguished between the Imperiale, vol I. Paris: Imprimerie Imperiale, 1868.
English of the French nation and the English of the English nation. Desaivre, Leo. Le My the de la Mere Lusigne. Mem. Soc. de statis
It often happened that a man divided his life into periods of loyal- tique, science, lettres et arts des Deux Sevres, t. xx. Niort: 1882,
ty to the two warring nations. A Frenchman could turn p.239.
42 43
Herbet, Felix. "Le Roman de Melusine" Revue de I'Aunis de la
Saintonge et du Poitou t. IX. Niort: L. Couzot, 1869.
Lehoux, Fran~oise. Jean de France,due de Berry. Paris: A. et
J. Picard, 1966.
Meyer, W.]. L'Histoire de la Belle Melusine (deJean d'Arras),
Reproduction en fac-simile de I'edition de Geneve imprimee par
A. Steinschaber en 1478. Paris: librarie Ed. Champion, 1924.
Minois, Georges. Censure et Culture sous l'ancien regime.S.L.:
Fayard, 1995.
Morris, Matthew W. A CriticalEdition of Melusine, A Fourteenth-
Century Poem by Couldrette. Dissertation: Universityof
Georgia, 1977.
Radiguer, Louis. Mattres Imprimeurs et ouvriers typographes
(1470-1903). Paris: SocieteNouvelle de Librairie et d'eedition,
1903.
Stouff, Louis. Essai sur Melusine, roman du XIVe siecle,par Jean
d'Arras. (Dijon: Universite de Dijon, 1930.
Thompson, ].W. The Medieval Library. Chicago: Universityof
Chicago Press, 1939.
Thuring von Ringeltigen, Die Historie von einer Fraugennant
Melusine, die eine Meerfei und dazu eine geboren Konigin gewe
sen. Deutsche Voisbucher. Munchen: Wilhelm Langesiesche-
Brandt Ebenhausen, 1912.
Woledge,Brian. Bibliographiedes romans et nouvelles en prose
franfaise anterieursa 1500. Geneve et Lille:Droz, 1954.
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