Arthurian Material in a Late-Medieval French Miscellany: Poitiers, Bibliothèque Municipale, ms. 215

Arthurian Material in a Late-Medieval French  Miscellany: Poitiers, Bibliothèque Municipale,  ms. 215

Pratt, Karen

“Li premerains vets”: Essays in Honor of Keith Busby, Jones, Catherine M. and Logan E. Whalen (Eds.)Amsterdam/New York, NY, (2011)

Abstract

Manuscript 215 is described in the catalogue of the Média- thèque François Mitterand in Poitiers as a late 15th-century “recueil de mélanges et d’extraits” (62). The whole codex seems to have been written by one scribe and decorated throughout by the same hand. It comprises historical texts, extracts from the auctores, some “factual” information (dates and measurements), moral aphorisms and short poems, and
may have been an encyclopedia of exemplary material designed for a late-medieval aristocratic male. This miscellany contains four texts with Arthurian connections: two lists of Knights of the Round Table, a copy of the Serments, lois et ordonnances de la Table Ronde, and reference to King Arthur in the context of the Neuf Preux. It is the aim of this contribution in honor of Keith Busby, who was once a student at the CESCM in Poitiers, to consider the role this material plays within the codex and to demon- strate the importance of manuscripts in regional libraries for our understanding of the production and dissemination of Arthurian material in the late Middle Ages.

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