Page, Christopher. The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France 1100–1300.
London: Dent, 1989.
Wright, Craig. Music and Ceremony at Notre Dame of Paris 500–1550. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1989.
NOVAS
. Occitan term (meaning “novel, story, argument”) that described a range of works,
including a late 12th- or early 13th-century discussion of amorous casuistry by Raimon
Vidal, the Judici d’amor (1,698 octosyllabic lines), the 13th-century courtly romance
Flamenca (more appropriately called the Novas de Guillem de Nivers), Arnaut de
Carcassès’s courtly tale Novas del papagai (309 octosyllabic lines), and a 14th-century
piece of Catholic propaganda, Novas de l’heretje by Izarn (approximately 800 Alexan-
drine lines).
Wendy E.Pfeffer
[See also: FLAMENCA; TROUBADOUR POETRY]
Cornicelius, Max, ed. So fo el temps c’om era iays: Novelle von Raimon Vidal nach vier bisher
gefundenen Handschriften zum ersten Mal herausgegeben. Berlin: Feicht, 1888.
Huchet, Jean-Charles, ed. and trans. Nouvelles occitanes du moyen âge. Paris: GF-Flammarion,
1992.
Meyer, Paul. “Le débat d’Izarn et de Sicart de Figueiras.” Annuaire-Bulletin de la Société de
l’Histoire de France 16 (1879):2 33–84.
NOYON
. Located due west of Laon, Noyon (Oise) lies just outside the 12th-century boundaries of
the royal domain and just over sixty miles north of Paris. Here, Charlemagne was
crowned king of the Franks and Hugh Capet was elected the first Capetian monarch in
987. Noyon, centered in the Oise River basin, is surrounded by rich agricultural land.
Traffic into the Seine via the Oise and on the two major routes north and south from Paris
to Flanders, and east and west from the channel ports to the fairs of Champagne, made
the location of Noyon of paramount importance. Taxes imposed on goods entering and
leaving Noyon augmented the treasury of the chapter and the all-important bishop-counts.
The kings of France usually backed the bishop-counts of Noyon. Louis VII made five
visits to Noyon, and Philip II Augustus confirmed the city charter in 1181. The chapter,
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