This thesis looks at the court of Anjou-Provence’s book production, under the guidance of King René d’Anjou, during the decades of the 1440’s and ‘50s. It examines four literary works of which three were authored by the prince, namely, "Le Livre des tournois," "Le Mortifiement de vaine plaisance" and "Le Livre du Cœur d’amour épris," and an anonymous translation into French of Boccaccio’s "Teseida delle Nozze d’Emilia", entitled "Le Livre de Thezeo." In this thesis, I argue that these four works, although they emerge as separate events, connect ideologically and iconographically, highlighting a set of ideas that redefines nobility for the French Early Renaissance. Applying a complex combination of approaches, my theoretical framework combines translation, emotions and worldmaking theories. My model reveals King René’s vision of gendered roles and his refined sense of true nobility that make his court’s cultural identity stand out among that of comparable French courts of the day. It also outlines René’s close working relationship with his illustrator Barthélemy d’Eyck. The structure based on the four case studies outlines aspects of the debates on love and courtly culture that developed at René’s court. Chapter One discusses the distinctiveness of the Angevin-Provençal court’s reception of Italian and antique cultures and its importance as a continuum from the Latin translations in the Parisian humanist circles in the 1400s. Chapter Two examines "La Théséïde," the only fully illustrated manuscript of the translation into French of Boccaccio’s "Teseida delle Nozze d’Emilia," analysing the central focus on Emilia as the “Dame Amaczon.” Pursuing the work’s re-envisioning of gendered roles through emotional communities, Chapter Three explores the transformation of two warriors into “nobles chevaliers” in anticipation of René’s standardisation of noble knightly values in his "Livre des tournois." In view of the prince’s age when he started his literary career, Chapter Four questions the role that religion played in his vision of masculinity and unveils the portrait of the contemplative knight in René’s "Mortifiement de vaine plaisance." The heart-centred narrative connects with the quest of the secular heart in his "Livre du Cœur d’amour épris" in Chapter Five. It reveals the knight Cuer’s re-envisioned quest through imaginary lands and its unexpected conclusion as King René’s notion of true nobility refined by spiritual love, for men and women of the Early Renaissance. In the conclusion, the cross-study of these four books highlights their symbiotic working dynamic, and the talent of Barthélemy d’Eyck, that brought together the impressive Angevin-Provençal cultural production emerging within King René’s close circles, on the eve of the French Renaissance. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/14283 |
| Date | 03 October 2022 |
| Creators | Keating, Françoise |
| Contributors | Harding, Catherine |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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