WAVRIN, JEAN DE
(1395–1475). Natural son of a Burgundian nobleman, officially legitimatized in 1437,
Wavrin eventually became an official at the Burgundian court. A veteran of the Battle of
Agincourt (1415), he nevertheless remained pro-English in his political orientation,
writing the Chroniques et anciennes istoires de la Grande Bretaigne, a présent nommé
Engleterre about events in France, Normandy, and Burgundy up to 1469. A notable
bibliophile, he sponsored a workshop in Lille where manuscript copies were illustrated
by a highly original artist known as the Wavrin Master.
Charity Cannon Willard
Wavrin, Jean de. Recueil des croniques et anciennes istoires de la Grande Bretaigne, a présent
nommé Engleterre, ed. William Hardy. 5 vols. London: Rolls Series, 1864–91.
Crone, H.-R. “Neue Studien zum Maître de Wavrin.” Scriptorium 23(1969):320–32.
Nabur, Antoinette. “Les goûts littéraires d’un bibliophile de la cour de Bourgogne.” In Courtly
Literature: Culture and Context, ed. Keith Busby and Erik Kooper. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp.
459–68.
WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
. Medieval France had a multitude of weights and measures typical of premetric Europe.
This condition was due primarily to the fierce provincialism of duchies, counties, royal
and aristocratic estates, cities, and manors. By the 16th century, France had more than
1,000 units of measurement accepted as standards in Paris and the provincial capitals,
with approximately 250,000 local variations. Unit names were often superfluous and
confusing, and physical standards bore little relationship to one another. Hundreds of
ambiguous and misleading decrees and laws had been issued, beginning with the modest
reforms of Charlemagne in the late 8th century. Control over weights and measures
belonged to feudal lords, churchmen, guildsmen, judges, city officials, and others as part
of their administrative rights, and, since taxes were based on units of measure, it was to
their best interests to establish their own systems and standards.
Medieval French weights and measures varied depending on whether they were used
in retail or wholesale trade. There were special units employed at warehouses, harbors,
ports, foundries, mines, and workshops. They differed on the highways, the seas and
waterways, inside and outside town walls, and in the forests. Product variations abounded
especially for grains, liquors, and textiles. Units based upon a complex array of numbers,
multiples, submultiples, accounts, coinages, wages, prices, land functions, time
allotments, production spans, and labor needs were commonplace. Many other types
flourished, but certain weights and measures could be considered national standards by
the later Middle Ages.
The Encyclopedia 1841