About the Book
English Text: Peter T. Ricketts, Honorary Professor of French at the University of Birmingham, and Emeritus Professor at Queen Mary and Westfield, University of London, has led a long and distinguished career in the field of Romance Philology, and in Occitan studies in particular. In addition to his leading role in the Association Internationale d'Etudes Occitanes (AIEO), he has devoted many years in the service of Occitan Studies. Peter T. Ricketts is perhaps especially noted for an in-progress edition (with Cyril P. Hershon) of the Breviari d'Amor by Matfre Ermengaud, and for the Concordance of Medieval Occitan (CMO), a vast database the aim of which is to document the entire corpus of medieval Occitan texts and to make them available in electronic format as an active and exhaustive working tool for all scholars in the field. The first tranche of this project, on the poetry of the troubadours (Brepols 2001), has already been received with wide critical acclaim. The present publication includes articles by 63 specialists in fields as wide-ranging as history, literature, linguistics, philology, musicology, metrics and philosophy, addressing sources and topics from a variety of provenances in Old French and Old Occitan, as also in Medieval Latin, Castilian, Catalan, Middle High German, Hispano-Arabic, and Hebrew. It is divided into two major sections. The first is concerned with narrative texts: romance, epic, and religious literature; the second with the poetry of the troubadours: firstly their lyric legacy, its sources and influences, the vidas which accompany their transmission, the troubadours themselves, but also instances of their non-lyric output such as proverbs and ensenhamens. Also among the articles are editions of texts, some hitherto unpublished. Taken together, this collection represents a very broad panorama of current research, and offers a major contribution to the advancement of Medieval Studies. French Text: " Honorary Professor " de Francais a l'Universite de Birmingham, et Professeur Emerite a Queen Mary and Westfield, Universite de Londres, Peter T. Ricketts a mene une carriere longue et remarquable dans le domaine de la Philologie Romane, et dans les etudes occitanes en particulier. Outre son role majeur dans l'animation de l'Association Internationale d'Etudes Occitanes (AIEO), Peter T. Ricketts a consacre de nombreuses annees aux etudes occitanes. Son uvre est plus specialement marquee par l'edition encore inachevee (avec Cyril P. Hershon) du Breviari d'Amor de Matfre Ermengaud, et l'elaboration de la Concordance de l'Occitan Medieval (COM), vaste banque de donnees appelee a terme a couvrir l'ensemble des textes occitans du moyen age et mettant a la disposition des chercheurs un outil de travail exhaustif et performant. La publication de la premiere tranche consacree a la poesie des troubadours (Brepols 2001) a deja recueilli un accueil tres favorable de la critique. Le present recueil de Melanges reunit les travaux de 63 specialistes de la litterature medievale, dans des domaines aussi varies que l'histoire, la litterature, la linguistique, la philologie, la musicologie, la metrique ou la philosophie, explorant des materiaux et des sources de diverses provenances, en ancien francais et en ancien occitan, mais aussi en latin medieval, castillan, catalan, moyen-haut-allemand, hispano-arabe, hebreux. L'ouvrage est divise en deux sections principales, la premiere etant consacree aux textes non lyriques: roman, epopee et litterature religieuse, la seconde a la poesie des troubadours, soit naturellement a leur production lyrique, a ses sources et son influence, aux vidas qui accompagnent leur transmission, aux troubadours eux-memes, mais aussi a leur production non lyrique tels que textes proverbiaux et ensenhamens. Ces Melanges incluent egalement quelques editions de textes, quelquefois inedits. Leur ensemble constitue un panorama tres complet des recherches actuelles, avec des avancees capitale dans le domaine des etudes medievales.
