JOUFROI DE POITIERS. An anonymous mid-13th-century romance of some 4,600 rhymed octosyllabic couplets,
Joufroi recounts the amorous and knightly exploits of an aristocrat who closely resembles
the great troubadour Guilhem IX of Aquitaine. A long central episode is dependent on
Flamenca, while others follow the hero’s travels across western France and England.
Dubbed knight by the King of England in a manner reminiscent of Chrétien de Troyes’s
Cligés, he returns later to seduce the queen and ends up in a fabliaulike situation, which
typifies the tonguein-cheek humor of the romance. A second particularity is the chatty
narrator, who ostentatiously interrupts the tale to seek comments from the audience and
especially to relate his own unsuccessful experience with love. The text exists in a single
incomplete manuscript (Copenhagen Gl. kgl. Saml. 3555, 82).
John L.Grigsby
[See also: FLAMENCA; GUILHEM IX]
Fay, Percival B., and John L.Grigsby, eds. Joufroi de Poitiers, roman d’aventures du XIIIe siècle.
Geneva: Droz, 1972.
Noel, Roger, trans. Joufroi de Poitiers: traduction critique. New York: Lang, 1987.
Dragonetti, Roger. Le Gai Savoir dans la rhétorique courtoise: Flamenca et Joufroi de Poitiers.
Paris: Seuil, 1982.
JOURNAL D’UN BOURGEOIS DE PARIS
. The Journal d’un bourgeois de Paris provides a highly personal account of Parisian
history from 1405 to 1449. It needs to be read together with other contemporary accounts
of French life, such as those by the Menagier de Paris, Nicolas de Baye, Clément de
Fauquembergue, and Pierre de Fenin. The work presents many puzzling features,
including both its title and author. Modern scholars call it a “journal,” following Denis
Godefroy in 1653. All six surviving manuscripts lack the opening pages of the work, and
in some manuscripts overly critical passages have been scraped away rather than simply
crossed out. Internal evidence suggests that the author had some connection to the
university, but its piecemeal, anecdotal composition and the author’s idiosyncratic use of
Latin phrases reveal that he was little interested in the categories of sacred history and
therefore probably not a professional theologian. His loyalties seem to lie first with the
city of Paris rather than the French nation.
Besides detailed reports on epidemics, the weather, and agricultural products, the
Journal contains a sobering account of Jeanne d’Arc from 1429. She appeared to the
author as one of many religious personalities claiming heavenly inspiration. He was
dismayed that Jeanne did not renounce her mission after the university apprised her of her
theological errors. Though he generally sides with the Burgundians, his description of her
execution is deeply moving, and he tells how the executioner raked back the fire to
expose sa pauvre charogne (“her poor carcass”) to the crowd. The Journal also recounts
the composition of the mural pictures of the danse macabre at the church of the Holy
Innocents, which served as a model for later artistic versions.
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