298 Page
shares a huge amount with the Morea Chansonnier but, revealingly, includes
material from Arras dating from the latter half of the 13th century that is absent
in the earlier work.29 The initial stages of the work were thus very probably
undertaken sometime in the later 1250s. Not long after this, the Chansonnier
developed further with the addition of a further 45 pieces, mostly late in the
13th century with others added over the course of the 14th century.
The manuscript came into the French royal library in 1668 from the collec-
tion of Cardinal Mazarin. Where it had been prior to the cardinal’s acquisition
and how it came into his possession are not known, although there is specula-
tion that it may have been acquired for the cardinal in Italy or the Languedoc.
At some point the order of the folios in the manuscript became badly jumbled,
before the manuscript was bound during the early years of the 19th century.
This Chansonnier, then, reflects the tastes of—and is potentially the prod-
uct of—the court of the Villehardouins in the middle years of the 13th cen-
tury. As such, it is further evidence of the wealth, stature and ambition of that
court. William ii was a trouvère in his own right and perhaps also the com-
missioner of the Chansonnier and this work represents another aspect of the
Villehardouins’ desire to emulate and recreate French courtly life in Greece.
As an impressive example of the new fashion in sumptuous songbooks,
the Chansonnier shows the principality to have been at the cutting-edge of
cultural trends.
It is worth emphasising that even if William did not in fact commission the
work—and the evidence is compelling but cannot be conclusive—the exis-
tence of the two songs by “li prince de le mouree” shows that the high-status
genre of monophonic song was known, valued, and practised in the principal-
ity. Enjoyment of French song was an important part of the cultural life of the
knightly class in the Morea—enjoyment of the performance of songs among
and by themselves, or else by professional jongleurs. There was certainly the
money and the ethos to provide the patronage to support professional musi-
cians like the one depicted in Raimon Vidal’s Abrill issia, who travels from castle
to court to make his living.30 Evidence is lacking for the Peloponnese, but there
are two references to paid entertainers in the comparable Duchy of Athens
around the end of the 13th century, and such activity should be expected in the
principality also.31
29 Haines, “Songbook,” pp. 91–95.
30 Christopher Page, The Owl and the Nightingale: Musical Life and Ideas in France 1100–1300
(Berkeley, 1989), pp. 46–53.
31 Elizabeth M. Jeffreys and Michael J. Jeffreys, “The Oral Background of Byzantine Popular
Poetry,” Oral Tradition 1 (1986), 508–09; generally, see Edmond Faral, Les Jongleurs en
France au Moyen Âge (Paris, 1910).