Literature in Frankish Greece 297
further argument for Peloponnesian origins perhaps lies in the unfortunate
history of the Chansonnier—unfinished and mutilated at an early stage. It can
only be speculation, but perhaps this happened in the wake of war and disor-
der from the 1260s. It is generally accepted that by or on William’s death in 1278
the Chansonnier had passed into the ownership of Charles of Anjou, King of
Naples.26 It was soon after this that the first of the many additions were made,
indicating an abandonment of the original plans for the work. These additions
include, notably, the last song in the collection, the lai “Ki de bons est”, which is
musically ambitious and makes reference to King Charles himself.27
The Chansonnier is thus an unfinished work, a work in progress, both in
the sense that the songbook as originally conceived seems never to have been
achieved, and also in that additional material was added over a lengthy period
to form the book as we now have it. In summary, the Chansonnier grew to its
present form as follows.28
- The initial selection of material is made and the process begins to find
exemplars. - An index is created detailing the works to be included.
- The copying of text from the gathered exemplars is begun and staves are
drawn up for music to be added later. - It is decided to add a new selection of 60 works by the trouvère Thibaut
of Navarre, and the whole collection is reordered as a result. - The text is copied from exemplars (although in many cases blank spaces
are left for verses to be added later). - Music from exemplars is added into most but not all of the vacant staves.
This process must date from after 1253, as one of the songs of Count Thibault
of Bar—one of the core aristocratic trouvères featured alongside the prince in
the first gathering—refers to the count’s captivity in that year after the Battle
of Walcheren. There is no such neat terminus ante quem, but the relationship
with the trouvère ms. T can again help. Compiled a couple of decades later, it
26 Haines, “Songbook,” pp. 102–05.
27 Holger Petersen Dyggve, “Personnages historiques figurant dans la poésie française des
xiie et xiiie siècles: xxv: Charles, Comte d’Anjou,” Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 50
(1949), 166–67; Haines, “Transformations,” p. 11 and “Songbook,” pp. 47–48; Peraino, Giving
Voice, pp. 162–63; Theodore Karp, “Three Trouvère Chansons in Mensural Notation,” in
Gordon Athol Anderson (1921–1981), In Memoriam, 2 vols. (Henryville, 1984), 2:476–94;
more generally Jean Maillard, Roi-trouvère du xiiie siècle. Charles d’Anjou, Musicological
Studies and Documents 18 (Dallas, 1967).
28 Haines, “Transformations,” pp. 5–43; also Stanley Boorman in Grove “Sources,” pp. 795–97.