Author Attributions in Medieval Text Collections: An Exploration

Abstract

This article examines the role and function of author attributions in multi-text manuscripts containing Dutch, English, French or German short verse narratives. The findings represent one strand of the investigations undertaken by the cross-European project 'The Dynamics of the Medieval Manuscript', which analysed the dissemination of short verse narratives and the principles of organisation underlying the compilation of text collections. Whilst short verse narratives are more commonly disseminated anonymously, there are manuscripts in which authorship is repeatedly attributed to a text or corpus. Through six case studies, this article explores medieval concepts of authorship and how they relate to constructions of authority, whether regarding an empirical figure or a literary construction. In addition, it looks at how authorship plays a role in manuscript compilation, and at the effects of attributions (by author and/or compiler) on reception. The case studies include manuscripts from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries, produced in a range of social and cultural contexts, and featuring some of the most important European authors of short verse narratives: Rutebeuf, Baudouin de Condé, Der Stricker, Konrad von Würzburg, Willem of Hildegaersberch, and Geoffrey Chaucer. The preliminary findings contribute to our understanding of author attributions in text collections from across northern Europe and point towards future lines of enquiry into the role of authorship in medieval textual dissemination.

Introduction

“…Although there can be astrong correlation between paratexts as developed by scribes /c ompilers and paratexuale lements within the individual texts (such as prologues and epilogues), these types of information do not always confirm each other. For instance,author attributions may vary with regard to the name given in the rubric and that in the text proper (Besamusca et al 2016) and an author may use adifferent generic label for his /her work than that used in ascribal incipit.…”

“…Another possible organising principle underlying multi-text codices or parts thereof is the author (Besamusca et al 2016).I nt he French tradition, ag ood example of an author anthology is the thirteenth-century compilation Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, fonds français 837, which, though it contains works by anumber of named poets, gives prideofplace to Rutebeuf, who is the only author to be introduced in this manuscript with ad edicatedr ubric: 'Ci commenchent li dit rustebeuf ' (fol. 283 vb ).…”