Troianalexandrina

We owe the first medieval representation of Aristotle as writer to Walter of Châtillon in his Alexandreis (1178 to 1182), a poem written during a period in which the logica nova penetrated the schools thanks to the complete translation of the Stagirite’s Organon. On the other hand, this literary construction inaugurates the representation of the Stagirite in French texts, in a context where Aristotle’s treatises remain proble­matic. Walter of Châtillon’s Aristotle is a cleric whose primary role is to educate a young Alexander the Great; however, the magister seems to be more involved in a different task: writing the Sophistic Refutations. Aristotle is then elevated to the rank of rhetorical warrior. This image seems to influence French authors such as Henri d' Andeli and Henri de Valenciennes, who exploit the double semantics of elenchos, which is both the Greek title of the Sophistic Refutations and a refutation argu­ment, in their own stories.

A Franciscan intellectual, preacher, and collector of exempla, John of Wales was constantly looking for new forms of pastoral in­struction compatible with the social and political reality of his day. This search led John to turn to images of ancient philosophers appearing in his writings as actores rather than autores. Reinventing the bio-doxo­graphic genre, John filled his -loquia sequence with accounts of pa­gan sages, referring to their writings mainly to complete their portraits. Despite the marked influence of John of Salisbury, the way in which John of Wales represented historical figures of intellectual heritage is innovative for medieval historiography; nevertheless, it closely mimics the typical model for describing Franciscan saints. The philosopher in John's writings appears as an idealized and mythologized other. John takes the liberty of emphasizing the virtues and vices of philosophers, depending on what meaning he wants to attribute to his message. A particular set of characteristics is integral to John's view of the ancients. They are highly educated and humble, enthusiastic about learning, and share John’s opinion that teaching by giving a good example is the method. They show great sobriety and patience, promote poverty, and have no fear of death. There is much in their behavior that a Franciscan might find admirable.

Although the first medieval versions of the Trojan War, whe­ther written in Latin or in the vernacular, do not resort to Homer's Iliad, they nevertheless mention the ancient poet's name. A profile of him is already taking shape: questioned for not being an eyewitness, or for his narrative's supernatural aspects, yet admired, his authority is called upon to discriminate between rival paradigms of writing and to assert the path of medieval authors' own poetics. New representations emer­ged when his work became better known at the end of the Middle Ages, supporting new poetic choices and linked, for example, to re-mytholo­gization. The treatment of the ancient aedic poet thus reveals literary positioning and poetic changes throughout the Middle Ages: as a lite­rary ghost, Homer attests to the abundance of poetic resources within Trojan matter.

The way Homer was forgotten or even disregarded in the me­dieval West until the mid-fourteenth century is well known. In addition to the loss of his works, medieval literature specialists insist on the role of Homer as a negative reference, especially in relation to the Tro­jan War, before its gradual re-evaluation in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. This dismissal of the Homeric corpus, however, is far from being unambiguous. This essay proposes to study the figure of Homer and its variations in medieval learned culture outside Trojan narratives. It first examines the different way Homer's works, and through them, the figure of the poet itself, are present in the Middle Ages, before ex­ploring the image(s) simultaneously elaborated by some historical and encyclopaedic texts, in Latin and in French.

Noirons li Arabis is one of the many unica that punctuate the ms. L.11.14 of the National University Library of Turin, damaged by the fire of 1904. The present contribution provides a new study on this narrative unit, now almost illegible to the naked eye apart from a few sections having survived the flames. My examination takes as its point of departure a re-establishment of the critical text largely based on the editions published before the fire and focuses on the figure of Virgil and his fictitious genealogy, while situating this narrative unit within the general structure of the manuscript.

This article offers a reappraisal of the "birth of the French author" in medieval manuscripts by drawing attention to how such a phenomenon was highly influenced by the writerly culture of the ti­me's relationship to the ancient auctores. Focusing mainly on manus­cript Paris, Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal 3142 (ca. 1285), it proposes to shift the scholarly conversation on medieval French authorship away from "subject" and "subjectivity". Instead, using a manuscript and da­ta-based approach, it shows how French authorship may have been an experimental codicological phenomenon collectively manufactured by clients, "editors", and poets to subvert and deconstruct Latin theories and practices of authorship inherited from Antiquity.

This article analyses the question of authorship in the Dit d'Aristote by Rutebeuf. While the medieval poet claims to have been inspired by Aristote, his actual source was not any of the Greek philosopher's words, but a medieval Latin poem: Walter of Châtillon's Alexandreis. By disregarding his medieval Latin inspiration in order to place himself under the direct tutelage of the ancient Greek philosopher, the French writer aspires to endow his clergy with an even greater au­thority vis-a-vis his princely addressee. Yet Rutebeuf himself will fall prey to a similar manoeuvre, since, in tum, his poem will be anony­mised by a scribe at the end of the 13th century. In sum, this specific example highlights a cultural context in which every instance of author­ship results from a complicated negotiation with those who authorise, transmit, and receive any given work.