f “Le Libro de Alexandre dans son contexte: clerge, royautée et chevalerie lettreé au XIIe siècle"

The anonymous author of the Libro de Alexandre introduces himself as a cleric. He is even proud of being a member of this sacerdotal and cultured category, which he considers far superior to entertainers (joglaría). The difference between the two classes is both moral and literary: the anonymous author can use sophisticated rhymes, which depend necessarily upon writing and reading. In contrast, entertainers use only oral resources. The clerics share their academic knowledge with some erudite knights or milites literati, knowing Latin. These mutual interests in classical authors are related to an elitist conception of the mater of Rome, as expressed in the beginning of Roman de Thebes, excluding all but clerics and knights as its listeners. Alexander the Great is the perfect model for miles literatus, knighted and educated, as good in war as in academia, in particular at quadrivium sciences. This model of fortitudo and sapientia in the same person appears in letters praising several princes at the end of the twelfth century, such as Henry of Champaign or Philip of Flanders. The Libro de Alexandre is thus a typical work of the cultural Renaissance and of the royal courts of around 1200. In this period, clerics and knights work together to build the modern State.