Medieval Francophone Literary Culture Outside France (AHRC)

King's College, Cambridge, 10-12 April 2014

The Project

1. The first aim of the RIALFrI project (Old Franco-Italian Literature Informational

Catalogue)/ is to create a complete database containing all mediaeval Franco-Italian literary

texts.

2. There is a corpus of texts written in Northern Italy between the 13th and 15th

centuries, in a language deriving from a combination of French and northern Italian dialects.

3. This new database will make these works available on-line, thanks to a site gathering

together not only texts but also a complete bibliography of the field, reproductions of

manuscripts and early books, introductory notes to individual texts, philological apparatuses, and

linguistic analyses.

4. The long-term goal of the RIALFrI project is the creation of a Franco-Italian

Dictionary, DiFrI, modelled on the most important on-line dictionaries: the TLIO (Treasury of

Italian Language Origins http://tlio.ovi.cnr.it/TLIO), and others such as the DMF (Middle

French Dictionary) and DÉAF (DÉAF. Electronic Etymological Dictionary of Old French

(http://www.deaf-page.de).

Working Group and Collaborative Network

5. The project is open to active collaboration on the part of the international scientific

community, and this is why we wanted to come here to meet people interested in working with

us.

Individual contributions are always acknowledged, the names of the authors are visible

and the site has a ISSN code which identify the publication. If you notice something wrong or

needing integration, please wright us, we will be very grateful.

6. The RIALFrI project is in the hands of a group working at the Department of Linguistic

and Literary Studies at the University of Padova. The faculty working group includes many of

my colleagues (Alvaro Barbieri, Giovanni Borriero, Furio Brugnolo, Gianfelice Peron, Lorenzo

Renzi), some students, and myself. We have also been joined by colleagues from Italy, Europe

and the USA, like Leslie Zarker-Morgan and others. With this in mind, we would like to

participate in a call for Horizon 2020 - the deadline is January 2015 - and we are looking for

other European partners. So if anybody here is interested in knowing something more about it,

please contact us.

Digital Library

7. RIALFrI is a dynamic digital library in the domain of philological information

technology: its texts appear as new editions which can be reviewed by editors or collaborators,

thus providing a record showing any modifications made with respect to existing published

editions. Older editions will be subject to revision, to identify and correct errors, update

bibliographies, and indicate alternative analytical solutions (e.g., the Bovo udinese was revised

directly on the manuscript. The edition by Pio Rayna was curated in 1887, when philological

principles were different and scholars corrected the text easily, but the presumed “errors” are

very interesting for us from a linguistic viewpoint, and so it is important to have a new revised

edition).

8. Some texts are in two or more editions, in order to avoid the “internet effect” or the

tendency to cite those texts most easily available on-line, usually offered in a single edition (for

example, we have two editions of the Berta da li pe grandi of the Geste Francor, the Zarker

Morgan and Scattolini versions).

Thus conceived, this dynamic digital library does not replace or run counter to printed editions.

Rather, it establishes a complementary relationship between the two. The database can thus: a)

anticipate publication of printed editions, since it addresses all aspects of publishing, including

legal (e.g., we have the vulgarization of the Consolatio edited by Gianfelice Peron. Peron will

publish it in a book, but we have already the edition, and in this case the text could be questioned

by the search engine but it cannot be read in its complete form, in order to preserve the editor's

copyright); b) having no restrictions on length, the database can hold more information than is

possible in book form; c) for existing, printed editions, it offers editors the possibility of updating

and correcting their own work as necessary, or of responding to questions or objections raised

after publication. For instance, the edition of Aliscans by Gunter Holtus was revised after

reviews. Another example is the Aquilon de Bavière edited by Peter Wunderli: in his recent

review, Luca Morlino found some errors which we were able to correct in our on-line edition.

Philology

9. Many of these works have only been published in old editions which do not meet the

quality standards of modern philology. One of our first research goals is the preparation of new

critical editions, including translations and commentaries, which will make this vast literary

tradition more accessible to readers. Editions of texts which are unfortunately still only

accessible in 19th-century editions will also be promoted, but there are also texts that have never

been published. Among editions in progress or soon to be undertaken, we include the Franco-

Italian version of Anseïs de Carthage, the life of Saint Catherine, Roman d’Alexandre, Roman

d’Hector et Hercule, Roman de Belris, the prose text La Guerre d’Attile, and the poem La

Guerre d’Attile.

Linguistics

10. The language used in these texts has always been elusive for scholars. It ranges from

works written in very correct French, in which the influence of the substrate Italian dialect

(mainly from the Veneto) can still be detected, to texts written in a truly mixed language, in

which French and an Italian dialect co-exist in dynamic equilibrium. Study of the interference

between different linguistic systems within individual texts is very important for us, and the

occurrence of hybrid forms is particularly interesting, since they are not found in either Old

French dialects or Northern Italian dialects. This aspect certainly constitutes a second level of

research, with great potential for innovative results.

History

11. The assimilation of French literary models in Northern Italy marks the divergence

between material inherited from the tradition beyond the Alps and the Franco-Italian texts. The

imprint of a new socio-cultural context, no longer that of a feudal monarchy, is characterized

through the rise of the bourgeois communes and emerges in various details. For example, the

figures of kings (Pepin the Short, Charlemagne), appear reportrayed in heroic stature and are

often an object of parody. Other elements refer to a particularly mercantile socio-economic

reality and redefine its values in an economic and monetary sense which, in the French tradition,

was linked to noble bloodlines. Thus, the historical dimension of these texts will be an

interesting field of research.

A literary form of import such as the chanson de geste, once adopted by North Italian authors,

was adapted and completely transformed into a new socio-cultural context. The changing

political climate thus furnished the moment for a “bourgeois” re-interpretation of situations,

characters, and related ideological values in the French epic, which could no longer be feudal or

monarchical, for the new audience had different expectations and horizons of understanding.

Many of the Franco-Italian literary texts have never been studied from this viewpoint, and the

RIALFrI project will also provide a comprehensive overview of the varied context of reception.

Art

12. Study of miniatures may help to identify more precisely the dating, location,

readership, destination and use of manuscripts, and the spirit in which chivalric victories came to

be interpreted by various artists at different times and in different places.

Franco-Italian Corpus

13. Defining the corpus of Franco-Italian texts is very complex. One of the most original

outcomes of this database after a few years of work will probably be the definition of a new

corpus.

Until now, there has been no shared inventory on which to rely. To overcome this initial

stalemate, we started from the catalogue of sixty-five texts established in 1979 by Günter Holtus

for the Lexikalische Untersuchungen zur Interferenz: die franko-italienische “Entrée

d’Espagne”. However, although this catalogue was only a study of the Entrée d'Espagne

vocabulary, it later assumed the role of a real corpus of Franco-Italian texts [1998, Lexikon der

romanistischen Linguistik (LRL)] and thus also demonstrated its limitations.

Exclusions

14. From Holtus's proposed group, we have removed some works included

inappropriately, because they are dialect texts or French texts (the song En rima greuf a far dir e

stravolger by Auliver from Treviso; the poem Eu ò la plu fina druderia; the Ambrosian fragment

of Garin le Loherain, which does not show Italian interference; the French-Venetian glossary

attached to a copy of the Régime du corps by Aldobrandino da Siena, transmitted in ms. 2511 of

the Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal in Paris; Rainaldo e Lesengrino in an Oxford manuscript (Paduan

version) and an Udine manuscript (version from Treviso), which belong to Italian literature; the

Subalpine Sermons and the Life of St. Mary the Egyptian, which is a version of a French text in

northern Italian vernacular.

At the same time, we were able to add new texts.

New titles

15. On one hand, the new texts include the corpus which Günter Holtus and Peter

Wunderli drafted for Franco-Italian epic poetry in 2005 for the Grundriss des romanischen

Literaturen des Mittelalters (Roman d’Alexandre and Histoire d’Atile en Ytaire, Roman de

Landomata, Roman de Troie).

16. On the other hand, there are the results of more recent studies. We have recovered the

Amaestramens of Aristotle to Alexander, the vernacular version of the Consolatio philosophiae

by Bonaventura da Demena, the vernacular version of the Disticha Catonis by Macé de Troyes,

and the Dits des sages. The manuscript of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France français 821

contains all of these texts, as well as the above-mentioned Roman de Landomata.

17. Among other additions, we note the so-called Six contes, which are the French

version of the Conti di antichi cavalieri (ed. Bertoni 1912); and the Livre de l’eschiele Mahomet

(French version by Bonaventura da Siena of the Arab-Andalusian Kitāb al-Mi’rāģ from a

previously lost Castilian version, the Libro del subimiento).

18. There are also other items, such as the epitaph of Martinello da Rainone in the

Basilica dei Santi Felice e Fortunato in Vicenza, and a short fragment of the Roman de Troie (cfr.

Morlino 2009).

19. There may be many new titles. For instance, we could include the French songs of the

Strozzi-Magliabecchiano VII (1040) manuscript in the National Library of Florence, the

Dialogue du pere et fils in the manuscript Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, français 726,

the copies of Italian origin of the French vernacular translation of De regimine principum by

Giles of Rome, the Franco-Italian version of Barlaam et Josephat preserved in the manuscript

Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, français 187, and other texts reported from various

sources, the importance of which to the corpus will need to be verified case by case.

Other types of mixed French and Italian texts

20. There are also other types of texts (Morlino 2009) which include French inlays in

Latin and Italian texts, and multilingual compositions which also include French: the two French

phrases contained in the Cronica Domini Ecelini de Romano by Gerardo Maurisio, the fragments

in the Cronica by Salimbene de Adam, the French parts of the Dittamondo by Fazio degli Uberti

(the author meets a French man and begins to speak French to him), the verses of the poem in

tercets about Francesco Novello da Carrara and the reconquest of Padova, the discort Aï faux ris

attributed to Dante, the tercets by Matteo Correggiaio, the sonnet Se ’l tuo novo sonetto ben

intendo by Francesco di Vannozzo, the bi- and trilingual exercises contained in the metric

treatises by Antonio da Tempo and Gidino da Sommacampagna, and perhaps the Franco-Latin

pastiche of the Historia troiana transmitted by ms. Vaticano Barberiniano latino 3953, which,

however, may be the product of one or more interpolations.

If scholars wish to focus only on Franco-Italian literature or Franco-Venetian itself, the

technological means will permit them to do so by selecting only those works which are of

immediate interest.

The French of Italy

21. Franco-Italian prospects will be as ample as possible, and in a later research phase we

will take into account all Italian regions affected by the spread of the French, so that it may be

more appropriate to speak of "the French of Italy." From the viewpoint of language and culture,

all French works composed in Italy may in fact serve to enlighten other works. In the future, we

will also examine the Piedmont area along the Po valley, characterized by the prevalence of true

French, an area which provides works such as the Battle of Gamenario and the Chevalier errant

by Tommaso of Saluzzo; the Tuscan-Ligurian area and in particular the area around Pisa, which

was an active center of radiation and reception of French Arthurian fiction; and lastly, the

Neapolitan area, in which French alternated with Latin as the language of the Court of Anjou.

Organization

22. Works by the same authors are considered separately (Moamin and Ghaatrif by

Daniel Deloc), as are different versions of the same work (such as the Chanson de Roland, V4

and V7). Conversely, the Geste Francor was considered as a single work, although for

convenience we preserve its division into parts with the aid of subtitles. An initial division of the

texts according to their form (prose/verse) has been added to the traditional tripartite division of

Antonio Viscardi (copies of French texts performed in Italy, rewritings and alterations by Italian

authors of French works, original works written by Italian authors in French). We are aware that

this organization of subject matter does not always work. In fact, no single system is exempt

from criticism, but most systems may be complementary, exploiting the potential of this

computational technology. One very important criterion, which reflects social and literary

divisions, must of course be the language (works written in French as opposed to French-

Lombard, to return to the dichotomy of Renzi (1976), but this criterion will be operationally

applicable only after in-depth study of all the texts from a linguistic viewpoint).

23. And now, just a few words to add some information about an on-line journal devoted

to Franco-Italian Literature. I have already distributed a handout about it.

If you are interested in publishing in this journal, you are very welcome. Please contact us!