French Literature and the Counts of Saint-Pol ca. 1178-1377

Abstract

The rapid growth of lay literacy and lay patronage of French vernacular literature, especially among noble women, is documented here through the family of the counts and countesses of Saint-Pol over a period of two centuries (1178–1377). Generations of Saint-Pols had texts dedicated to them, ordered the composition or translation of texts themselves, and commissioned the production and illumination of manuscripts. Their interests ranged from crusading literature and chansons de geste through romances to collections of devotional literature and moral instruction. As these warriors from Picardy shifted their focus to become influential members of the circle of royal advisors in the Capetian court, their interest in texts and their source for manuscripts shifted correspondingly, from the northern borderland to Paris.