LE ROMAN DE FAUVEL
DANS L'EDITION DE
MESIRE CHAILLOU DE PESSTAIN
    
A Facsimile of
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Français 146


Paris, BN fonds français 146, fol.42
Completely new halftone reproduction of Gervais de Bus' great poetic narrative written between 1310 and 1314 with interpolations of over 150 monophonic songs and polyphonic motets, including some of the works of Phillipe de Vitry. The name Fauvel is derived from the first letters of Flaterie, Avarice, Vilanie, Variété, Envie, Lascheté. Men of all walks and conditions try to cleanse Fauvel. The Roman is a sharp attack on the failings of the medieval church and the political establishment.

New York: Broude Brothers, 1990. 39 x 51 cm. 280 pp with 205 b/w facsimiles, 12 color illustrations. Cloth.          $575
                                          fol.42 (detail)


Manuscript 146 in the Fonds Français of the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, is an extraordinary and vivid witness to the history, society, and creative life of Fance during the turbulent second decade of the fourteenth century. A luxurious volume, MS fr. 146 preserves a collection of literary and musical works, a group of political tracts, and an important chronicle, all either unique to this manuscript or found here in states differing significantly from copies in other sources. The principal work in MS fr. 146 is Chaillou de Pesstain's edition of Le Roman de Fauvel, a satirical, allegorical narrative of interest not only to scholars of French literature but also to students of music, art, social, and political history.
 
Reproduced from negatives prepared by the Bibliothèque Nationale expressly for this publication, Broude Brothers' facsimile of MS fr. 146 presents black-and-white reproductions of the entire manuscript. The facsimile is preceded by a 50-page introduction by art historian François Avril of the Bibliothèque Nationale, musicologist Edward Roesner and romance philologist Nancy Rigalado of New York University. This introduction addresses the concerns of paleographers, art historians, musicologists, philologists, and historians, providing a thorough review of recent scholarship and offering new insight into this remarkable document.


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