Fossey, Jules. Monographie de la cathédrale d’Évreux. Évreux: Imprimerie de l’Eure, 1898.
Solet, François. “La cathédrale d’Évreux: quelques remarques.” Congrès archéologique (Évrecin,
Lieuvin, Pays d’Ouche) 138(1980):300–13.
Taralon, Jean. “La châsse de Saint-Taurin d’Évreux.” Bulletin monumental 140(1982):41–56.
——. “L’ancienne église abbatiale de Saint-Taurin d’Évreux.” Congrès archéologique (Évrecin,
Lieuvin, Pays d’Ouche) 138(1980):266–99.
EXEMPLUM
. Until the 9th century, the exemplum was one of the figurae sententiae of Greco-Roman
and, since Tertullian, of ecclesiastical rhetoric, a form of simile employed in semantic
amplification to offer proof by demonstrating the common characteristics of two or more
phenomena. By the 12th century, the use of the exemplum had spread beyond the
monastic into the scholastic, urban milieu and into the vernacular; in the 13th and 14th
centuries, exempla became themselves text and tale, literary and cultural artifacts
assembled and preserved in numerous collections, such as Jacques de Vitry’s Sermones
vulgares and Petrus Alfonsus’s Disciplina clericalis.
The medieval exemplum has been defined as “a short narrative said to be true and
meant to be inserted in an oration (usually a sermon) for the purpose of convincing an
audience by means of a salutary lesson” (Bremond, pp. 37–38). It is a didactic, originally
oral tale based on pagan, Judeo-Christian, or medieval written and oral traditions or on a
preacher’s real-life experiences; it often sketches a realistic, sometimes humorous picture
of the medieval world. The exemplum illustrates simple moral principles by simple
narrative means: it is uncomplicated structurally, and logically it relies on analogy and
metonymy. The ease with which it could be used and endlessly repeated precluded, once
the standard corpus of stock exempla was established, the renewal and development of
the genre beyond the 14th century.
Hans R.Runte
[See also: BARLAAM ET JOSAPHAT; JACQUES DE VITRY]
Bremond, Claude, Jacques Le Goff, and Jean-Claude Schmitt. L’exemplum. Turnhout: Brepols,
1982.
Schmitt, Jean-Claude. Prêcher d’exemples: récits de prédicateurs du moyen âge. Paris: Stock,
1985.
Tubach, Frederic C. Index exemplorum: A Handbook of Medieval Religious Tales. Helsinki:
Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia, 1969.
Welter, Jean-Thiebaut. L’exemplum dans la littérature religieuse et didactique du moyen âge.
Paris: Occitania, 1927.
The Encyclopedia 629