Nature and Authorship in Brunetto Latini and Guillaume de Machaut

With a larger diffusion of manuscripts towards the end of the Middle Ages, the poets’ adaptations of literary discourses and revisions of their own works show a growing awareness of personal responsibility for their writings. This article examines new links between pivotal texts by Brunetto Latini and Guillaume de Machaut. It shows that both poets presented themselves as supreme ‘translators’ of knowledge, recipients of traditional images of Nature, but that taking up in particular from innovative poetics of Nature in the Romance of the Rose written by Guillaume de Lorris and continued by Jean de Meung, they were concerned with their work in the making, their craftsmanship, but also their claim to authorial achievement. It shows, for instance, the relevance of the first part of the Rose for Latini in Il Tesoretto and the importance of the entire Rose for Machaut in his Prologue to his entire work. Finally, as both mediating first-person protagonists bestowed by Nature, the article demonstrates their self-awareness as participating authors, mindful of the unity of their works and legacy in their respective language and artistry.