Demurger, Alain. Vie et mort de l’ordre du Temple, 1118–1314. Paris: Seuil, 1985.
Forey, Alan J. The Military Orders from the Twelfth to the Early Fourteenth Centuries. Toronto:
University of Toronto Press, 1992.
Lizerand, Georges, ed. and trans. Le dossier de l’affaire des Templiers. 2nd ed. Paris: Les Belles
Lettres, 1964.
Partner, Peter. The Murdered Magicians: The Templars and Their Myth. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 1982.
TENSO/DÉBAT
. Debate poetry in the medieval vernaculars of France begins with the Provençal tenso, a
symmetrical exchange of stanzas between friendly rivals. At best, the tenso resembles a
sirventes in dialogue and at worst an exchange of personal invectives, as its name
(meaning “dispute”) indicates. The earliest example is the tenso between Cercamon and
Guilhalmi, datable to 1137. In the later partimen (or joc partit, Fr. jeu-parti), a
troubadour presents an antithetical topic for debate and allows his interlocutor to choose a
position, leaving the first poet to defend the alternative. Unlike the Latin conflictus and
the French débat, the tenso and joc partit generally put poets, not abstractions, on stage.
These poets may represent differing social groups or political stances, but often their
debates treat issues of crude seduction or more subtle love casuistry. The poet may also
debate with himself in a variation on the mind-body separation, or he may present
anthropomorphized animals as in some débats. The metrical structure and music are
sometimes borrowed from an existing song.
Roy S.Rosenstein
[See also: JEU-PARTI; TROUBADOUR POETRY]
Bonnarel, Bernard, ed. Las 194 cançons dialogadas dels trobadors. Paris: Bonnarel, 1981.
Bossy, Michel-André, ed. and trans. Medieval Debate Poetry: Vernacular Works. New York:
Garland, 1987.
Långfors, Arthur, Alfred Jeanroy, and Louis Brandin, eds. Recueil general des jeux-partis français.
2 vols. Paris: Champion, 1926.
Jones, John David. La tenson provençale. Paris: Droz, 1934.
TEXTILES
. The most important industrial commodities in medieval regional and international trade
were textiles, whose leading producers during most of this era were found in France,
especially the northern provinces. During the high Middle Ages, the majority of French
textiles, manufactured in a wide variety, were cheap to medium-priced: fairly coarse,
generally light worsted, woolens, linens, and mixed fabrics, particularly worsted-woolen
says and linen-cotton or linen-woolen fustians and tiretaines, sold chiefly in
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