Vernacular Contrafacta in the Leuven Chansonnier? Caron’s ‘Helas’ and the Anonymous ‘Aime qui vouldra’

Chanson scholarship often distrusts fifteenth-century Italian or Central European sources that transmit contrafacta, whereas manuscripts from France or the Low Countries enjoy higher status because their texts are presumed authentic. I counter this imbalance by applying the critical scrutiny usually reserved for peripheral sources to a central source, the Leuven Chansonnier. Despite all its chanson texts initially appearing to be authentic, I argue that two are probably contrafacta: Firminus Caron’s Helas que pourra devenir and the anonymous Aime qui vouldra.