Il lavoro si propone di dare l’edizione critica e commentata di un breve canzoniere milanese anonimo (quarantanove componimenti). La tesi è strutturata in tre parti: nella prima si ricostruisce la tradizione del testo, tramandato interamente da un solo testimone manoscritto attualmente in collezione privata, e parzialmente dal ms. Basevi 2441 della Biblioteca del Conservatorio “Luigi Cherubini” di Firenze. In questa parte si propone inoltre una datazione del canzoniere (l’ultimo decennio del XV secolo), si attribuisce la scrittura al copista Giovanni Battista Lorenzi e l’unica miniatura presente all’artista noto come “Maestro B. F.”, coppia spesso attiva a Milano tra Quattrocento e Cinquecento nella realizzazione di manoscritti di lusso. La seconda parte si concentra sull’opera, di cui indaga la struttura, i temi, lo stile e la metrica. Il canzoniere viene inoltre contestualizzato nel panorama della lirica cortigiana settentrionale del secondo Quattrocento. La terza parte è costituita dall’edizione critica e commentata, preceduta da una nota linguistica. Ogni lirica è accompagnata da un cappello introduttivo e dal commento ai versi, in cui, attraverso il reperimento di modelli e luoghi paralleli, si mette in luce lo stretto rapporto dell’autore con i poeti cortigiani contemporanei. / The work aims to provide a critical and commented edition of a short anonymous Milanese collection of poems (fourty-nine compositions). The thesis is structured in three parts: the first retraces the tradition of the text, handed down entirely from a single manuscript currently in a private collection, and partially from Florence, Biblioteca del Conservatorio, ms. Basevi 2441. In this part it is also proposed that this work was composed in the last decade of the fifteenth century, the scribe was Giovanni Battista Lorenzi and an artist known as “Maestro B. F.” was the miniaturist. They were active in Milan between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and worked in pair in producting luxury manuscripts. The second section focuses on the “canzoniere” and investigates the structure, themes, style, and metric. I try to contextualize this collection in the northern courtly poetry of the second half of the fifteenth century. The third part offers the critical edition, preceded by a linguistic note. Each poem has an introduction and a commentary, that discussing models, sources and loci paralleli, shows the author's close relationship with contemporary courtly poets.

Dans les années centrales du XVe siècle, un notaire corse du nom de Giovanni della Grossa écrit le tout premier récit historique de l’île dans un contexte géopolitique particulier où s’affrontent les partisans seigneuriaux de la Corse aragonaise et ceux de la Commune de Gênes. À la fois témoin et acteur des événements qui déchirent la Corse du Quattrocento, Giovanni della Grossa participe à la guerre géno-aragonaise en livrant sa vision du conflit : une Corse chaotique. À travers son récit, il entend réordonner sur le plan idéologique les partis politiques insulaires, à savoir communal et seigneurial. Pour ce faire, il invente des origines politiques à la Corse qu’il transforme en modèle. Ce modèle est celui d’une monarchie comtale régie par un comte de Corse dont sont issus les ennemis de la Commune de Gênes : les Cinarchesi. Cette légende politique, de surcroît sans fondements historiques, motive plusieurs réécritures de l’œuvre du notaire au cours du Cinquecento. Deux versions nous sont alors parvenues : la « version courte », éditée en 1594 sous le titre d’Historia di Corsica, et la « version longue », imprimée pour la première fois en 1910. Les Histoires de Corse désignent ainsi ce corpus historiographique complexe qui comprend deux compilations historiques de plusieurs écrivains des XVe et XVIe siècles que les copistes, les compilateurs et les éditeurs scientifiques ont confondus. Cette thèse vise alors à retrouver, parmi les versions manuscrites et leur paratexte, le récit historique médiéval corse, plus précisément son discours politique qui s’est égaré entre la France, l’Italie et l’Espagne au cours des guerres des XVe et XVIe siècles. / In the middle of the Fifteenth century, a Corsican notary named Giovanni della Grossa wrote the earliest historical account of the island of Corsica, in the particular geopolitical context of the struggles between the feudal partisans of Aragonese Corsica and of the Commune of Genoa. At the same time witness and actor of the events that divide Corsica during the Quattrocento, Giovanni della Grossa participates in the Geno-Aragonese War and delivers his account of the conflict, describing a chaotic Corsica. Through his History, he intends to ideologically “reorder” the island’s political parties, distinguishing the communal party on one hand, and the seigneurial one on the other. In order to do this, he invents the political origins of Corsica and turns his invention into a model. This model consists in a monarchical county, under the rule of a count of Corsica chosen within the ranks of the Cinarchesi, enemies of the Commune of Genoa. This political legend, which is not founded on any historical basis, generates several rewritings of the work of the notary during the Cinquecento. Two versions survived: the “short version”, published in 1594 under the title of Historia di Corsica, and the “long version”, published for the first time in 1910. The Histories of Corsica thus designates this complex historiographical corpus, which includes two historical compilations of several writers of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries that copyists, compilers and scientific publishers have often mixed up. This thesis aims to find, among the manuscript versions and their paratext, the medieval Corsican historical narrative, and thus tries to precisely seize a political discourse that was lost between France, Italy and Spain during the wars of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth centuries.

À la fin du Moyen Âge, la noblesse est en pleine restructuration en Castille. La chevalerie, qui lui était jusqu’alors intimement liée, commence à s’ouvrir à de nouveaux venus dans le cadre des guerres de reconquête tandis que les rois Trastamare s’entourent d’une nouvelle catégorie sociale, les letrados, qu’ils ennoblissent fréquemment afin d’asseoir durablement leur pouvoir. La vieille noblesse de lignage se retrouve alors dépossédée de ses prérogatives auprès de la couronne.Dans ce contexte régi par les lois alphonsines des Partidas et par les théories du droit du juriste italien Bartole, le XVe siècle castillan est le théâtre de nombreuses guerres civiles, qui voient s’affronter les partisans des souverains et de leurs favoris de noblesse récente, et les défenseurs de la vieille noblesse. Le conflit entre la noblesse « qui se mérite » et la noblesse « qui s’hérite » n’a pas lieu que sur les champs de bataille. À chaque recrudescence du conflit, de nombreux nobles prennent la plume afin de défendre leur position en proposant un discours théorique sur la noblesse. Le camp des partisans de la noblesse de mérite défend ainsi une représentation de la noblesse fondée sur le mérite propre et les services rendus au roi. De leur côté, les défenseurs de la noblesse de lignage proposent une vision de plus en plus exclusive de la noblesse au cours du siècle. Leur dernier représentant, Ferrán Mexía, met ainsi en place dans son Nobiliario Vero publié en 1492, une nouvelle théorie basée non plus sur le lignage mais sur le sang, à l’origine du verrouillage de la noblesse au XVIe siècle. / At the end of the fifteenth century, the Castilian nobility is getting reorganised. Until then, nobility was profoundly linked to chivalry, but at that time, chivalry is opening to newcomers with the Reconquista war. Furthermore, a new social category is surrounding the Trastamare kings: the letrados, who are frequently ennobled by the kings, willing to strengthen their power. The old nobility, coming from lineage, finds itself deprived from its prerogatives regarding the exertion of power.In this context, ruled by the Alphonsine laws of the Partidas and by the legal theories developed by the Italian jurist Bartolus de Saxoferrato, the Castilian fifteenth century is the theatre of numerous civil wars, in which the supporters of the sovereigns and of their favourites recently ennobled fight against the upholders of the old nobility.The conflict between a nobility of merit and an inherited nobility is not only military but also literary. Every time the conflict gets more intense, numerous noblemen get to write to defend their position, proposing a theoretical discourse on nobility. The side of the supporters of the nobility of merit defend a representation of nobility based on personal virtues and the service rendered to their king. On the other side, the defenders of the inherited nobility propose a vision increasingly exclusive of nobility as the century goes by. Their last representative, Ferrán Mexía, establishes in his Nobiliario Vero, published in 1492, a new theory of nobility not based on lineage anymore but on blood. This theory is behind the locking of the Spanish nobility in the sixteenth century.

This thesis will posit that a query of the medieval trope, Fortune, can be read as a query into femininity. Fortune is depicted with many quintessentially medieval feminine traits, and women in texts that discuss Fortune often have Fortune's traits. While texts that link Fortune and femininity usually do so to censure women, some writers turned the trope to their advantage for just the opposite purpose. Both Chaucer in the "Monk's Tale" and Christine de Pizan personify Fortune to subtly point out the flaws in antifeminist medieval view of women. This thesis explores the ways in which these writers cleverly took advantage of genre and characterization to use Fortune to defend women and womanhood.

Humanism and ritual combined to establish a new foundation for the Florentine Republic in the fifteenth century. Leonardo Bruni’s History of the Florentine People was at the center of this new foundation. In 1428 and again in 1439, Bruni formally presented portions of his History to the Florentine government in the midst of crucial events in Florentine foreign affairs. For example, Bruni’s book presentation in 1428 occurred in the midst of rituals celebrating peace between Florence and Milan. During the celebration, a procession behind the sacred icon of Our Lady of Santa Maria Impruneta paused at the government palace. At that moment, Leonardo Bruni formally announced the peace, gave an oration, and presented a volume of his History to the Florentine governors. Following the presentation, trumpets sounded and the procession began anew. In this ritual, Bruni’s History became a key ritual object. On the most basic level, Bruni’s book served as a tangible, physical reminder of the peace for future rulers of the Florentine Republic. Yet, Bruni’s History provided much more than a material memento of a monumental moment. The content of the work created a Florence that was founded free and, after several battles against tyrannical oppressors, had once again become free. By creating a new foundation and history of Florence, the Florentines could add new authority and legitimacy to its dealings with the world outside its walls. This article will examine the rituals surrounding the presentation of Bruni’s work combined with a close literary analysis of the History itself. Through this investigation, the article will examine how and why the Florentines sought to refound their city in an official Latin history by establishing its independence from outside powers, particularly the Roman and Holy Roman Emperors.

Educational provision in Scotland was revolutionised in the fifteenth century through the foundation of three universities, or studia generale, at St Andrews, Glasgow and Aberdeen. These institutions can be viewed as part of the general expansion in higher education across Europe from the late-fourteenth century, which saw the establishment of many new centres of learning, often intended to serve local needs. Their impact on Scotland ought to have been profound; in theory, they removed the need for its scholars to continue to seek higher education at the universities of England or the continent. Scotland’s fifteenth-century universities were essentially episcopal foundations, formally instituted by bishops within the cathedral cities of their dioceses, designed to meet the educational needs and career aspirations of the clergy. They are not entirely neglected subjects; the previous generation of university historians – including A. Dunlop, J. Durkan and L. J. Macfarlane – did much to recover the institutional, organisational and curricular developments that shaped their character. Less well explored, are the over-arching political themes that influenced the evolution of university provision in fifteenth-century Scotland as a whole. Similarly under-researched, is the impact of these foundations on the scholarly community, and society more generally. This thesis explores these comparatively neglected themes in two parts. Part I presents a short narrative, offering a more politically sensitive interpretation of the introduction and expansion of higher educational provision in Scotland. Part II explores the impact of these foundations on Scottish scholars. The nature of extant sources inhibits reconstruction of the full extent of their influence on student numbers and patterns of university attendance. Instead, Part II presents a thorough quantitative and qualitative prosopographical study of the Scottish episcopate within the context of this embryonic era of university provision in Scotland. In so doing, this thesis offers new insights into a neglected aspect of contemporary clerical culture as well as the politics of fifteenth-century academic learning.

La ville de Liège, à la fin du Moyen Âge, fut le théâtre de l’affirmation de ses bourgeois par l’entremise des corporations de métier et des institutions communales. Le XIVe siècle fut en effet marqué par des gains communaux importants au détriment, d’une part, du patriciat urbain, d’autre part, du prince-évêque de Liège. À partir de 1384, le Conseil liégeois, entièrement entre les mains des artisans, possédait des prérogatives étendues dans l’administration et la gestion de la ville. Toutefois, la progression du pouvoir bourgeois se trouva brusquement stoppée, pour une dizaine d’années, lors de la défaite liégeoise d’Othée, en 1408. Ce mémoire porte sur l’évolution du pouvoir communal liégeois dans la première moitié du XVe siècle, moins bien connue des historiens. L’étude de la chronique de Jean de Stavelot permet de mettre en lumière cette période trouble. La défaite d’Othée de même que les réformes imposées par les princes-évêques causèrent notamment de grands bouleversements. Des partis politiques entrèrent aussi en scène et la présence voisine du puissant duc de Bourgogne influença la vie des Liégeois. Ces particularités issues du contexte politique et social sont autant d’éléments qui influèrent sur la volonté d’affirmation des bourgeois et l’exercice du pouvoir communal à Liège. / The city of Liege, in the late Middle Ages, witnessed the assertions of its bourgeois through their guilds and municipal institutions. The fourteenth century was indeed marked by significant gains for the municipal power at the expense of the urban patriciate on one hand and of the prince-bishop of Liege on the other hand. From 1384, the Council of Liege, entirely in the hands of the craftsmen, possessed extensive powers in the administration and management of the city. However, the growth of the power of these bourgeois was suddenly stopped for a decade after their defeat in Othee in 1408. This thesis discusses the evolution of communal power in Liege during the first half of the fifteenth century, less well known by historians. The study of the chronicle of Jean de Stavelot can highlight this troubled period. The defeat of Othee, as well as reforms imposed by prince-bishops, caused notably dramatic changes. Political parties also entered the scene and the neighboring presence of the powerful Duke of Burgundy influenced the lives of the bourgeois of Liege. These features of the political and social context are factors which influenced the willingness of the bourgeois’ assertion and the exercise of communal power in Liege.

Cette thèse est une enquête sur les peintures murales et sur panneaux représentant l’archange Michel en Italie, entre 1200 et 1518. Elle propose une large mise au point historiographique et un panorama du développement du culte et de l’iconographie michaélique des origines à 1200. À travers un corpus de plus de 500 images, les représentations de l’archange sont étudiées dans les moindres détails, et leur évolution générale est située dans un cadre spatio-temporel, propre à en faire ressortir les spécificités. Au niveau formel et iconographique, la figure de Michel est partagée entre évocation de la spiritualité de sa nature et monstration de sa force physique, à forme humaine, alors que son image se simplifie par une cristallisation autour du guerrier dès le milieu du Trecento. Cette étude considère en outre la peinture en tant qu’objet fabriqué, pensé, reçu et utilisé. Les évolutions iconographiques participent à une sanctification de l’archange et sont au cœur d’expériences visuelles mêlant images peintes, représentations et visions miraculeuses de l’archange. Symbole universel du bien contre le mal et de la justice divine, et acteur efficace de l’au-delà intermédiaire, organisé et géré par l’Église, l’iconographie michaélique est un outil de son système pénitentiel. Mais Michel est un être sans apparence réelle et sa représentation est donc un reflet de sa perception par les hommes. Les représentations du plus humain des anges et du plus céleste des saints, sont ainsi un moyen de penser l’homme, dans sa relation avec l’Église, avec Dieu, et surtout dans la perception de l’homme par lui-même, de son rôle et de sa responsabilité au moment même du salut. / This work is an investigation into murals and panel paintings depicting Archangel Michael in Italy, between 1200 and 1518. It presents a broad historiographical update and an overview of the development of the michaelic cult and iconography from its origins to 1200. With a corpus of over 500 paintings, the images of the Archangel are scrutinized in their finest details and their general evolution is put back into a spatiotemporal framework, so as to bring out its specificities. On both formal and iconographical levels, Michael's figure is split between evoking his spiritual nature and showing his physical strength, in human form, and it crystallises around the image of the warrior in the middle of the fourteenth century. This study considers a painting to be a manufactured object, a thought-through object, a received object, an used object. The iconographic developments play a role in the archangel's sanctification and are at the heart of visual experiences using painted images, representations and miraculous visions of the archangel. Universal symbol of the fight of Good against Evil or divine justice, and efficient agent in the intermediate afterlife, organised and managed by the Church, the michaelic iconography is a tool of its penitential system. But Michael has no real figure, therefore his representation is a reflection of how men perceive him. The representations of the most human of angels and the most heavenly of saints, are no less than a way of thinking Man itself, in his relationship with the Church, with God, and especially in the way Man perceives himself, perceives his role and his responsibility when time of salvation arises.

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La ville de Liège, à la fin du Moyen Âge, fut le théâtre de l’affirmation de ses bourgeois par l’entremise des corporations de métier et des institutions communales. Le XIVe siècle fut en effet marqué par des gains communaux importants au détriment, d’une part, du patriciat urbain, d’autre part, du prince-évêque de Liège. À partir de 1384, le Conseil liégeois, entièrement entre les mains des artisans, possédait des prérogatives étendues dans l’administration et la gestion de la ville. Toutefois, la progression du pouvoir bourgeois se trouva brusquement stoppée, pour une dizaine d’années, lors de la défaite liégeoise d’Othée, en 1408. Ce mémoire porte sur l’évolution du pouvoir communal liégeois dans la première moitié du XVe siècle, moins bien connue des historiens. L’étude de la chronique de Jean de Stavelot permet de mettre en lumière cette période trouble. La défaite d’Othée de même que les réformes imposées par les princes-évêques causèrent notamment de grands bouleversements. Des partis politiques entrèrent aussi en scène et la présence voisine du puissant duc de Bourgogne influença la vie des Liégeois. Ces particularités issues du contexte politique et social sont autant d’éléments qui influèrent sur la volonté d’affirmation des bourgeois et l’exercice du pouvoir communal à Liège. / The city of Liege, in the late Middle Ages, witnessed the assertions of its bourgeois through their guilds and municipal institutions. The fourteenth century was indeed marked by significant gains for the municipal power at the expense of the urban patriciate on one hand and of the prince-bishop of Liege on the other hand. From 1384, the Council of Liege, entirely in the hands of the craftsmen, possessed extensive powers in the administration and management of the city. However, the growth of the power of these bourgeois was suddenly stopped for a decade after their defeat in Othee in 1408. This thesis discusses the evolution of communal power in Liege during the first half of the fifteenth century, less well known by historians. The study of the chronicle of Jean de Stavelot can highlight this troubled period. The defeat of Othee, as well as reforms imposed by prince-bishops, caused notably dramatic changes. Political parties also entered the scene and the neighboring presence of the powerful Duke of Burgundy influenced the lives of the bourgeois of Liege. These features of the political and social context are factors which influenced the willingness of the bourgeois’ assertion and the exercise of communal power in Liege.