Abstract While scholars previously recognized the text on folios 45r–76v of Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Rawlinson B 170 (early fourteenth century) as the Grandes Chroniques de France , the identity of the preceding text remained unknown. This article identifies the text from folios 1r–31r as the Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims and describes the manuscript’s particularities. The article focuses on two aspects of the Oxford version of the Récits : the division of the text into chapters, and the abundant presence of illuminations. The division into chapters complicates the manuscript’s classification according to Natalis de Wailly’s textual families, distinguishing it as a significant witness of the text. The emphatic use of illuminations contrasts with the dearth of images in most contemporary manuscripts of the Récits (as well as of the Grandes Chroniques ) , marking Rawlinson B 170 a special attestation to these texts . This article contributes to scholarship on French-language historiography by identifying a sixteenth witness of the Récits d’un ménestrel de Reims , providing insights into the place of the Récits text in historical knowledge around 1300, and offering valuable clues as to how vernacular historiographies of the thirteenth century were transmitted.
Ruhland et al. (Wed,) studied this question.