This thesis examines the transmission and reception of images in Le Roman de la rose manuscripts and printed editions of the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. Through in-depth case studies, I analyse how illustrators, editors, and readers used printed imagery in Rose books ca. 1481-1538, during the period of Rose printed edition production, exploring wider cross-disciplinary issues concerning the history of the book, the relationship between word and image, and readership practices following the advent of French printing. I argue that the mobility of printed imagery, which was facilitated in part by the wider dissemination of woodcuts in workshops, influenced the form and function of images in books. In addition, I problematize the 'transition' from manuscript to print in the later Middle Ages, through an investigation of artisans' personal and professional collaborations and evidence of image sharing between hand-illustrated and printed books. Bookmakers and readers used printed imagery in fascinating ways in books, appropriating and modifying woodcuts in order to engage with certain subjects and motifs. Readers' visual responses to books are under-examined, and I assess how readers' drawings add insight into their understanding of printed editions and those editions' visual iconography. French books contain a large body of evidence pertaining to image production and reception, but printed imagery is often overlooked, despite its potential to shed light on the practices of illustrators, editors, and readers. I provide new strategies for examining patterns of printed image production, circulation, and reception in the visual presentations of manuscripts and printed editions of this period. I also deepen understanding of the Rose and its consumption in the later Middle Ages and Renaissance, probing the role of images in books.

The thesis is divided into three sections. The first section discusses the manuscript Marcianus graecus 524, the second looks at the Greek text of the dedicatory epigrams on works of art from the same manuscript, and the third puts these texts in their context. In the first part, the compilation of the manuscript is analysed. I suggest that the manuscript was copied mainly by one individual scribe living in Constantinople at the end of the thirteenth century. He copied the quires individually, but at some point he put all these quires together, added new quires, and compiled an anthology of poetry. The scribe’s connection to the Planudean School and the Petra monastery in Constantinople is discussed. Although their relationship remains inconclusive, the manuscript provides evidence regarding the literary interests of late-thirteenth-century intellectuals. The second part contains thirty-five unpublished dedicatory epigrams on works of art. New readings are offered for the text of previously published epigrams. The third section analyses the dedicatory epigrams on works of art in their context. The first chapter of this section discusses the epigrams as Gebrauchstexte, i.e. texts with a practical use. The difference between epigrams intended to be inscribed and epigrams intended to be performed is highlighted. In the next chapter of this part, La poésie de l’objet, the composition of the dedicatory epigrams is discussed. The conventional character of the epigrams suggests that the poetics express the ritual aspect of the epigram. The last chapter considers the texts from a more pragmatic angle. After a short discussion of the objects on which the epigrams were written, the mechanisms of the twelfth-century art market are presented based on evidence taken mainly from the epigrams. At the end of this part, conclusions are drawn on the understanding of these texts in the twelfth century.

Cette thèse est consacrée à l'étude des peintures d'un des manuscrits les plus importants de la tradition persane : une copie du Bustân de Sa‘di réalisée à la cour timouride de Herât vers 894 H./1488. Elle démontre que ces peintures incarnent un changement de fonction de la peinture, d'un dispositif de représentation à un objet de performance. Les peintures présentent plusieurs aspects inédits, qui contredisent la fonction illustrative généralement associée à la peinture persane de manuscrit. La surface de la peinture se couvre de formes qui n'ont aucun rapport avec le texte qu'elle est censée illustrer (chapitre I). Le peintre a également inséré des vers poétiques dans les peintures, qui évoquent le spectateur et constituent un panégyrique de l'image (chapitre II). On note aussi une miniaturisation des formes, visible en particulier à travers la prolifération de motifs linéaires infimes. La finesse de la ligne s'accompagne de la présence, dissimulée dans les détails de la composition, de la signature du peintre Behzâd (chapitre III). Ces aspects donnent à la peinture une dimension réflexive, qui détourne le spectateur du contenu de l'œuvre au profit d'un questionnement sur le statut de l'image et le talent du peintre. Ce changement de fonction s'explique par le rôle croissant du majlis, une assemblée où artistes, poètes et patrons se réunissent pour discuter des œuvres. Dans ce contexte qui annonce l'émergence des écrits historiographiques sur l'art, la peinture est conçue comme un objet de performance, où le peintre dissémine des éléments qui indiquent son talent, et que le spectateur peut utiliser en retour pour créer des discours et des fictions sur l'artiste. / This dissertation examines the paintings of one of the most important manuscripts of the Persianate book tradition: a copy of the Bustân of Sa‘di, executed in the Timurid court of Herât, ca. 894 H./1488. It argues that these paintings embody a shift in the understanding of painting from a device of representation to an object of performance. In the three chapters of the dissertation, I analyze several new characteristics that appear in the paintings of the Bustân. First, the painting becomes filled with elements that are not related to the text copied in the book (chapter I). Second, the monuments depicted are inscribed with poetic verses emphasizing the admiration of the viewer towards the paintings (chapter II). Lastly, the visual information becomes extremely miniaturized. The most meticulous details appear to be minute linear motifs. This emphasis on the line accords with the presence of the signature of the painter Behzâd, embedded in each composition (chapter III).All of these elements shift the attention of the viewer from the content represented in the paintings to the artistic process that led to their creation. By contrasting the paintings with the historical scenarios of their reception, this dissertation sheds light on a hitherto unnoticed aspect of late 9th/15th century Persian painting, one which foreshadows the development of art historiographical writings: the paintings signed “Behzâd” are conceived not only as representational devices, but also as objects of performance, that the painter uses to inscribe his gesture, and whose contemplation causes the viewer to elaborate discourses and fictions on the artist.

Cette thèse se propose de dégager les enjeux esthétiques, éthiques et politiques des poésies et pratiques expérimentales de 1960 à 1980, à partir de l’étude des œuvres de J. Blaine, W. S. Burroughs et E. Miccini. Ce travail développe une réflexion sur les expérimentations poétiques qui ont lieu durant une période de fortes mutations sociétales, économiques et médiatiques. Après la mise en place d’une généalogie des pratiques expérimentales que sont le collage et le montage, il s’agit d’inscrire ces poésies expérimentales, généralement occultées des histoires littéraires, dans un modèle néo-avant-gardiste, qui implique une réévaluation de pratiques héritées du début du XXe siècle et un fonctionnement en réseau, faisant dialoguer l’individuel et le collectif. Dès lors, la thèse démontre que le renouvellement du poétique qui s’opère à l’ère d’une société de l’image est tributaire de l’évolution technique : il s’agit de créer avec et contre le livre. Le nouveau rapport entre création poétique et livresque et problématiques de la reproductibilité, favorisée principalement par l’offset, engendre une mise en perspective de l’œuvre avec la notion d’empreinte. L’empreinte constitue ainsi un nouveau paradigme entérinant le statut ontologique instable d’une œuvre qui travaille la matérialité de son support et qui altère une traditionnelle dimension uniquement verbale. La résistance aux formes traditionnelles implique ainsi un engagement, dans la forme et dans le fond : différentes stratégies sont alors développées par les auteurs, permettant d’établir des politiques esthétiques dont l’objectif est de proposer au lecteur/spectateur une expérience esthétique formatrice et éthique. / This thesis aims to identify the aesthetic, ethical and political issues of experimental poetry from 1960 to 1980. It deals with the works of J. Blaine, W. S. Burroughs and E. Miccini. This work offers a reflection upon the poetic experiments taking place during a period of strong societal, economic and media switch. After the establishment of a genealogy of the experimental practices of collage and montage, it is now about placing this experimental poetry in a neo-avant-garde model, which involves a re-evaluation of practices inherited from the beginning of the twentieth century and a functioning in a network, making the individual and the collective dialogue. Henceforth, the thesis shows that the renewal of the poetics that takes place in the era of a society of the image relies on on technical evolution : it is about creating with and against the book. The new relationship between poetic. The new relationship between poetic and book-based creation and issues of reproducibility, mainly by offset, creates a perspective of the work with the notions of imprint and ruin. Thus, the imprint constitutes a new paradigm which endorses the unstable ontological status of a work which works on the materiality of its support and which alters a traditional, only verbal dimension. Resistance to traditional forms implies a commitment, in form and substance : different strategies are then developed by the authors, which allow to establish aesthetic policies of which the aim is to make the reader / spectator access a formative and ethical aesthetic experience.

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