International Medieval Society, Paris
Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2007 Abstracts

Using an approach to manuscripts which considers each as implying a combination of individual performances by readers, scribes and the author-narrator, this paper considers how memory is displayed through the mise en page of Machaut's two dits containing musical lyric insertions – the Remede de Fortune and the Voir Dit – in the three complete-works manuscripts in which they both appear: Paris B. N. fr. 1584 (A), 9221 (E), and 22545-6(F-G).

 The analysis focuses on the tripartite nature of the manuscripts (text, image, music), with particular emphasis on evidence for the use of the scribal-performers' memory in the visual presentation of the music. For the Remede we see that A and F-G stand together in terms of their visual presentation and iconography, with E set apart owing to its use of different iconographical themes and overarching emphasis on visual impact of the musical insertions. Whereas in the Remede the lyric insertions with music are consistently presented "notées", this is the case in only one of the three manuscripts containing the Voir Dit, namely E, which here too stands apart from its fellows. However, the differences in presentation of the Voir Dit reveal more at play than iconographical programmes and visual beauty, although these of course remain important. Analysis shows that in the three manuscripts the roles of both the scribal- and reader-performers are challenged by the mise en page: their use of memory and their roles as re-creators apparently diminished by the increasing presence of the author-performer. The analysis offered therefore has important implications both for our understanding of the extent to which scribes' and readers' memories were a fundamental part of the production and reception of a manuscript and for the continuing question of the role of the author: who was responsible for, as Machaut puts it, "recalling everything properly"?