The Manuscript Tradition of the Dit des Roys

The Dit des roys is a text that has been little studied to date, mainly because of its nature, halfway between a chronicle and a simple list of French kings, and because it provides no new information about events, not to mention its numerous factual errors. This article shows that such a text, far from being useless, is a gateway to a better understanding of the relationship fifteenth-century readers had with history. Through an analysis of the writing material, associated works, layout choices, and reading marks, this article highlights a bourgeois (in the medieval sense of the word) regime of historicity, which is constructed around lists and numbers. The study of the manuscripts also allows us to highlight the didactic use of the work and its probable oral dissemination in a private or even public setting. This article thus adds nuance to a description of the medieval regime of historicity that is too often limited to its religious and moral dimensions.