Un fragment d'un poème français sur Guillaume d'Orange, datant du XIIe siècle retrouvé à la Bodleian Library d'Oxford (Slate.fr / the guardian)

Signalé par Slate.fr et The Guardian

Un fragment d'un poème français sur Guillaume d'Orange, datant du XII^esiècle, a été retrouvé par inadvertance. Une universitaire de l'université Queen Mary à Londres, Tamara Atkin, feuilletait un ouvrage publié en 1528 à la Bodleian Library d'Oxford quand elle est tombée sur ce bout de parchemin coincé dans la reliure.

Pendant de nombreuses années, les érudits ont pensé que cet extrait, qui provient du cycle de chansons de geste médiéval, existait, mais ils n'en avaient jamais eu de preuve matérielle. Ce fragment de quarante-sept vers n'est en revanche pas l'extrait original. Il s'agit d'une copie réalisée à la fin du XIII^e siècle.

En savoir plus…

---------
Fragment of lost 12th-century epic poem found in another book’s binding

Scholars knew the work about Guillaume d’Orange and the bloody siege of his city existed, but until now believed it had been lost completely
A fragment from a 12th-century French poem previously believed to have been lost forever has been found by an academic in Oxford’s Bodleian Library.

Dr Tamara Atkin from Queen Mary University of London was researching the reuse of books during the 16th century when she came across the fragment from the hitherto lost Siège d’Orange in the binding of a book published in 1528. Parchment and paper were expensive at the time, and unwanted manuscripts and books were frequently recycled.

Scholars had believed the poem, which comes from a cycle of chansons de geste – epic narrative poems – about Guillaume d’Orange, existed, but there had previously been no physical evidence that this was true. The fragment only runs to 47 lines, but it proves the existence of a poem thought to have been completely lost. ... Lire la suite