Seminar in Medieval Studies: “Marginal Writings: Musical Memories at the Margins of a Thirteenth-century Chansonnier” – Alexandros Hatzikiriakos (University of Harvard)

This session was postponed due to the impossibility of the lecturer for health reasons.

The chansonnier Paris, BnF, f. fr. 844 (generally known as Chansonnier du Roi) is one of the earliest and most important witnesses for late medieval vernacular song in French and Occitan but also for early motets in modal notation. Compiled in Northern France (possibly Artois) around 1250-60, the manuscript was later brought to Naples and there enriched, by many different hands, with more than forty additional pieces, copied in the margins and empty spaces. The additions partially differ from the main corpus of the chansonnier, as they include compositions belonging to genres scarcely represented in the old corpus, such as lais, virelais, rondeaux, descortz, dansas and not least instrumental music, such as estampies and ductia. Furthermore, the additions are also cases of extemporary transcriptions, often made by non-professional scribes – elements that clashe with the general high quality of the chansonnier. I claim that the reason for the marginal status of the additions can be traced in the late history of this chansonnier. 

My hypothesis is that the Chansonnier du Roi was brought to the Angevin court of Naples, probably around 1282, by Robert II of Artois. Intellectuals, poets and artist from both Northern and Southern France contributed to the particularly multicultural milieu of this court until the death of Charles I in 1285. This milieu, as important as it was ephemeral, represents the most plausible site where the chansonnier could have been exposed to new musical and poetic styles. Thus, the additions of the Chansonnier du Roi represent the few, if not the only, memories of the musical and poetic life of the Angevin presence in Naples 

About the speaker:
Alexandros Maria Hatzikiriakos his Francesco de Dombrowski Fellow at I Tatti – The Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. He holds a PhD in Musicology from the University of Rome, La Sapienza. He has been Research Fellow at the University of Verona and Visiting Researcher at the King’s College London. His research focuses on the relationship between music and literature, and the materiality of music from the medieval to the early modern period. His publications include essays on the material aspects of medieval vernacular song and the monograph Musiche da una corte effimera, lo Chansonnier du Roi (Paris, BnF, fr. 844) e la Napoli dei primi angioini.