1 Introduction
§1 For some, the year 2020 rivalled the entire fourteenth century in terms of calamity. The COVID-19 pandemic brought tragedy to countless families and fundamentally changed the way we lived and worked. In academia, many institutions of research and study closed, restricting physical access to most historically significant materials. Nevertheless, these challenges provided unique opportunities to capitalize on existing digital structures and build new communities of collaboration. Decades of work on the digitization of manuscripts, alongside other technological developments, were vindicated as we turned to the Internet to continue our research and teaching about the Middle Ages. The technological changes wrought by the pandemic also triggered a wider digital emancipation for many, precipitating greater collaboration and sharing of resources in some areas. While participating in an international academic community meant that many of us were already familiar with remote meeting applications such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams, these platforms became staples of our everyday interactions at every level. In darker moments, this digital distance produced fatigue, but it also sparked moments of inspiration and communal activity that have exceeded anything we have experienced before. The project we describe here is one such example.
§2 Eschewing both the twenty-first and fourteenth centuries for the fifteenth, our extraordinary international team of scholars came together over just three consecutive days to do something that had never before been attempted in quite this way: a full transcription, edition, and discussion of an entire text, “Le Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience” (as well as three previously uncatalogued texts appended to it), witnessed in UPenn Ms Codex 660, ff. 86r–95v. This endeavour, which represents both an experiment and a method, is based upon three previous online transcription challenges, which had taken place between May and October 2020: La Sfera Challenges 1 and 2 (Morreale, Keane, and Albritton 2020) and Image du Monde 1 (the second part of which took place in January 2021; Morreale, Keane, and Albritton 2021). The difference with the “Damoiselle Sapience” challenge was the time frame: organized to coincide with the 13th Annual (Virtual) Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, this event spurred participants to work in a new way. On day one (18th November 2020) a team of transcribers took a folio each and worked to have a completed text by midnight (EST); they also contributed to a transcription statement that logged their communal choices on matters such as expansion of abbreviations. For day two, the work passed on to Team Revision, who reviewed every folio, checking them against the transcription statement and resolving any inconsistencies. This team also produced a finalized version of the crowdsourced transcription statement. On day three, Team Submission ran a final check of the transcription and the statement before collating all of the information into one document and preparing this narrative for submission to the journal. The activities of the three teams were logged in a Google spreadsheet.
§3 In her 2015 reflection on crowdsourcing on the Estoria de Espanna project, Polly Duxfield remarked that crowdsourcing requires that “anyone can sign up, regardless of prior qualifications or experience” (Duxfield 2015, 138). Crowdsourcing transcribers is not a new methodological approach to constructing editions of medieval and early modern texts. However, the types of text, and their material and paleographical conditions, impact the efficacy and efficiency of crowdsourcing. Projects like the Estoria de Espanna and Transcribe Bentham (University College London 2021), employ crowdsourcing to various degrees. Like Transcribe Bentham, our team was only required to familiarize themselves with one scribe’s hand, which in many ways allowed for a broader range of paleographic experience in our volunteers. One consideration for the project was the time constraint of transcribing, proofing, and contextualizing an edition for publication in three days. Volunteers were required to complete the assigned duties within the allotted time (twenty-four hours per team). Dividing our participants into three teams—transcribe, review, and submit—with each team consisting of international members, alleviated the burden of being present for the 72-hour period. Criticisms of some crowdsourcing projects have focused on the potential exploitation of participants’ time for no reward. Our project, however, avoided this problem by providing participants with a publication for their CVs as an outcome.
§4 Laura Morreale, the event coordinator, saw the challenges posed by the pandemic as an opportunity to see the world in a new way and explore the way we use digital technologies. In her paper “Distant Gatherings,” presented to the 13th Schoenberg Symposium, she explained that we need to reconfigure how we work and capitalize on the characteristics of the digital medium (Morreale 2020a). The “Damoiselle Sapience” event was a “test case for a digital strategy” that would challenge the boundaries of the accepted scholarly experience, drawing together over thirty scholars to produce communally in three days what might take a lone scholar or a small team months to achieve (Morreale 2020b). The effort made use of multiple digital tools and platforms: Zoom for meetings, FromThePage as the transcription platform, Wordpress to advertise the event and outline the rules (Morreale 2020b), Twitter to share our endeavours with the world in real time, email for general communication, Google Forms to make group decisions, and Microsoft Word and Google Docs to write the submission. However, the main channel for communication and decisions was Slack. Slack offers a number of Internet Relay Chat (IRC) features including channels (which operate like chat rooms for different subjects) and direct messaging. It provided us with a forum in which we could discuss issues and assign tasks quickly, as well as build a sense of community and camaraderie.
§5 Each team operated under its own Slack channel: #Team-Transcription, #Team-Revision, and #Team-Submission. Though this system helped keep our tasks separate and streamlined, the collaborative nature of Slack meant that we all had access to each other’s team discussions. For the transcription team, that facilitated in-the-moment confirmations of minim counts, tricky letterforms, and variant spellings. Revision editors could then double-check the chat logs of #Team-Transcription when they had a question, and members of the Submission Team could refer back to both when compiling the final document. As one team member put it, working together on Slack in this way was akin to living out a time-lapse photo. By collaborating simultaneously across time-zones and continents, we could see not only the “bones” of the edition and the invisible labour that it entails, but also imagine the final, completed product as a group. What started out as a perfunctory digital tool for teamwork instead enabled a meta-reflection on the editing process itself.
§6 The benefits of this challenge have been far greater than first imagined. Sharing a previously untranscribed text with the world greatly enhances extant scholarship, because this text adds not only to the quantity of Middle French texts available, but also to the diversity of medieval voices that we can research and share with our students. There was also an intense joy found in engaging with a text so deeply alongside so many other scholars, especially amidst a global and isolating pandemic. This collaborative edition represents a new way to think about the textual editing process, given that traditional models prioritize the lone scholar or a small group of scholars working asynchronously, and rarely stipulate that the work should be done over the course of only three days. One drawback of the time-crunch was that some elements of this edition are not as thorough as we would like in a traditionally edited text (for instance, we have barely scratched the surface regarding in-text theological references)—after all, we endeavoured to produce a rigorously prepared edition for publication in just seventy-two hours. This new style of work was not only productive but intellectually rejuvenating, and its success is thanks to the energetic collaboration of all involved. The online format of the challenge created a greater sense of community than many academic conferences (which are financially and logistically prohibitive for many scholars), while the communal atmosphere facilitated by Slack and email levelled the playing field between enthusiastic novices and seasoned researchers. Finally, this challenge provided a successful model for future editorial teams to use and adapt to their own needs.
§7 And certainly, it was not only the conditions brought about by the pandemic that inspired the desire to gather around one particular source and to work collaboratively on it, since similar methodologies and the tools to carry them out have existed for some time. However, the specific occasion that brought these scholars together—that is, a conference focused on manuscript studies that was unexpectedly moved online due to the pandemic—inspired a manuscript-based event using the digital forum that aimed to stand in for or even replicate some of the interaction that often takes place at a scholarly event like a conference. What we produced over the course of seventy-two hours is a testament to the aggregation of smaller bits of communication—to the Slack messages, external emails, zoom calls, Google Doc comments—making up the event. And just as in-person conferences usually have a theme around which many conversations and ideas turn, and which often give way to new research and ways of thinking, so too did the digital event have a planned and executed theme. The UPenn MS Codex 660 was the theme, and the edition below is the outcome of all the conversations we had and thought-work the scholarly-themed meeting inspired. Keeping in mind, however, the ephemeral nature of most computer-based scholarship, participants have also taken the step of archiving all the digital objects and data created for the event in the Medieval Studies online repository BodoArXiv (Morreale et al. 2021). As with past transcription challenges, archiving followed the project cataloguing norms put forth in the Digital Documentation Process (Fostano and Morreale 2019).
§8 Despite the event’s positive results, certain modifications might be adopted by future collaborative projects that look to the “Damoiselle Sapience” event as a prototype. Although the project’s website brought together all the digital tools used in the effort, participation assumed a comfort with many platforms that some team members might not have possessed. A short training session or introduction to the tools might have increased participant ease and added a pedagogical component to the event. Furthermore, the event’s experimental nature was predicated upon a certain skills-threshold among all participants and required a high level of vigilance from the event coordinator to provide encouragement or to problem-shoot. Particularly when choosing an appropriate text for collaborative transcription, organizers should be aware of the skills needed, and the event coordinator prepared to facilitate and support team members when necessary. Finally, the short time frame required several contributors to fulfill more than one kind of labour to produce our submission, which in turn complicated how credit was assigned. More so than other co-authored or team projects, all participants were instrumental in creating the final submission, if only through the enthusiasm and public-facing attention they brought to the event. Assigning credit for each person’s labour was therefore one of the most challenging aspects of the event’s positive outcomes, and we are therefore thankful to the editors of this journal, the Digital Medievalist, for allowing us to name all participants as co-authors, though with their principal tasks listed above. One final take-away from this experiment is the realization that the digital medium can create collaborative spaces that may, in turn, require a shift in how we engage, respond to, and credit humanities researchers, thereby opening the door to a more diverse group of participants and learners.
2 The edition
2.1 Description of the codex
§9 The edition is based on the texts on ff. 86r–95v of UPenn Ms. Codex 660 (French 010) (Penn Libraries 2021), which is part of the Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts collection, stored at the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA. The codex consists of 101 paper folios, with dimensions of 202 × 141 (134 × 88) mm, and a binding with dimensions of 208 × 145 mm. According to information provided by the University of Pennsylvania Libraries, it comes from northern France; the time of creation is estimated at 1450–1460.
§10 The codex contains multiple pieces in Middle French written by a single hand. On ff. 1r–85v, there is “A copy of Frère Robert’s Château périlleux” (in which, on ff. 51r–63v, there is “An Account of the Passion of Jesus Christ”). The Chasteau perilleux dates to the second half of the fourteenth century; Jonas-IRHT offers a date of composition of 1368 (IRHT 2022), although Sr. Marie Brisson has identified the author as one Robert de Saint-Martin who died in 1388, providing an ante-quem (Brisson 1966). Folios 86r–95v have until now been believed to contain a single second work, the anonymous “Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience.” However, in the course of our transcription, it became clear that they contain three to four distinct shorter works—The “Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience” (ff. 86r–89r); “De l’ardent amour” (f. 89r–v); paraphrases of writings by the Church Fathers (ff. 89v–90v); and a collection of didactic aphorisms (ff. 90v–95v)—which might or might not be separate from the paraphrased writings that precede them. None of the latter three texts seem to have been identified as of yet per consultation of the Jonas-IRHT database.
2.1.1 Language
§11 The linguistic characteristics of the text confirm its mid-fifteenth century provenance with little regional lexical or linguistic idiosyncrasies to pinpoint an exact geographical location for the scribe or the text itself. At a period of linguistic transition for the French language, it is not surprising to find inconsistencies in spelling and grammar, as was the case for many other manuscript exemplars of the time.
§12 A few isolated cases support though do not convincingly prove the previously mentioned vague French northern location. For instance, the substitution of the French ‘oi’ for an ‘e’ in words of Latin origin where this diphthong replaced the Latin ‘i’ as in ‘veez’ (f. 86r) for ‘voyez’ (from the Latin videre) could be indicative of Normandy. The use of the spelling ‘angre’ for the more typical ‘ange’ also points to this region (‘Ange’ 2022). The only example of this spelling in the Dictionnaire du Moyen Français comes from Le Livre du champ d’or, whose provenance has been identified as Normandy by the 19th-century editor of this work (Le Petit 1895). The spelling of the word ‘jeune’ as ‘je[n]ne’ on ff. 90r and 90v confirms these findings, as two separate works using the same spelling have positively been identified as Norman: Modus et Ratio, Le Songe de Pestilence by Henri de Ferrières and La Vie de saint Evroul. Poème normand du XIVe siècle (‘Jeune’ 2022, citing Ferrières 1932; Sandqvist 1992). However, a more thorough examination of the manuscript traditions and comparison of the scripta of each of the works mentioned would need to be undertaken to make a final determination. This exercise remains beyond the scope of the first publication of this text.
§13 The inclusion of Latin citations in the “Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience” that are visually distinguished from the surrounding Middle French but not translated word-for-word indicate a fair grasp of Latin, though the text as a whole is clearly aimed at a lay audience. It is possible that these Latin citations were intended as a prompt for further extemporaneous moralizing or exegesis. The Latin on f. 94v, contrarily, is literally translated and then expanded upon. This latter phenomenon has been connected to a specifically female lay readership in scholarship on another manuscript from the third quarter of the fifteenth century, Chantilly MS 140 (Kaplan 2019).
2.1.2 About the text(s)
§14 The “Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience” is a very short prose text of 3.5 folios. It opens on the conceit laid out in the title, of the allegorical figure of Wisdom on pilgrimage to Bethlehem and the stable where Mary gave birth. There, she meets Truth, who explains the miracle of Christ’s lineage and the forthcoming miracles related to each part of the infant body of Christ. Indeed, the text is much more about the infant Christ, proper Catholic beliefs, and elements of the Passion than it is about Damoiselle Sapience’s pilgrimage, which receives only the briefest of mentions. Such explorations of the body are not new (think, for instance, of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream statue, so frequently referenced in medieval French literature); however, the text diverges from other such lists in that it begins at the feet and then the hands, rather than the head. The reference to the breast and breastfeeding (f. 88r) implies that this text’s author was conversant with the devotion to breastmilk, perhaps in the form of the Madonna Lactans and the Virgin’s breastmilk that St. Bernard received in a vision (Sperling 2018), that became popular starting in the mid-fifteenth century. The physical elements evoked—the description of the infant body, the declaration of “how happy is the mother who breastfeeds this mouth, who often smells the divine odor of such a beautiful child, and who kisses the sweet little savory mouth whenever she wants”—are also a call to affective piety, similar to what we see in other contemporaneous Middle French texts (Kaplan 2016, 229), implying that the composition of the “Pèlerinage” may well coincide with the confection of the manuscript in which this lone copy is found.
§15 The second text, “De l’ardent amour” [“On Fervent Love”], follows as a logical transition from Damoiselle Sapience’s declaration that “marvelous love enters into my heart and remains there forever” (f. 89r), which closes out the first text. Not even a full folio long, the text explains the concept of love as the rejection of worldly pleasures and the doing of good deeds, which love brings the soul up to the companionship of angels, martyrs, and virgins.
§16 This is followed on f. 89v by “Auctorités de pluseurs docteurs” [“Writings of Several Doctors”], which contains paraphrases from the works of notable theologians and other patristic figures, including Saints Augustine, Ambrose, Jerome, Nicasius, Gregory, and Bernard. While the text is generally aimed at promoting virtuous behaviour and thought, it does seem to be a bit of a hodge-podge, combining metaphor with specific examples of bad behaviours to avoid (and types of people to avoid becoming) and devoting uneven attention to its various sources as it moves between them. It does not seem to be aimed specifically at a male versus female audience, though the emphasis on worldly concerns (like paying a person when they have earned their “loyer” [“financial compensation”] [f. 90r]) does imply a secular audience.
§17 The final text, which spans ff. 90v–95v, is entitled “Pluseurs auctorités” [“Many Writings”] (making it unclear whether it is truly a separate text from the preceding “Auctorités de pluseurs docteurs”) and comprised of didactic aphorisms, including a version of the classic “spare the rod and spoil the child.” Touching on subjects such as charitable giving, passing judgment, pride, envy, and other sins of the flesh, as might be expected, it also warns against excessive asceticism born of pride, and deliberate ignorance. Given the abrupt shift on f. 94v to a Latin citation, its literal translation, and an explanation of it, followed shortly by a paraphrase of Pseudo-Seneca and other paraphrases akin to those found in the “Auctorités de pluseurs docteurs,” it seems unlikely that this text was originally composed all at once. That is, it appears to be a re-writing of the author’s collection of inspirational sayings taken at various points from a variety of texts. While this would seem to point to a male author (more likely to be delivering sermons inspired by such proverbs), it is worth pointing out the use of the female form ‘cellez’ [“those women”] at two points, which implies the inclusion of women among the listeners of the work or any oral version of it.
3 Transcription rules and methodology
§18 Taking into account that, in the case of our manuscript, we are dealing with a single text (or, as we discovered, texts), we decided to adopt a perspective appropriate for the new philology (Spiegel 1990; Driscoll 2010). In line with this framework, we are not imposing a set of transcription norms upon this text but rather responding to those put forth by the scribe. These norms and working methods take on a new significance in the digital age, where recourse to images of the manuscript can be both immediate and uninterrupted. The model for this kind of textual edition is developing but takes its cues from previous collaborative transcription challenges including the La Sfera and Image du Monde events (Morreale, Keane, and Albritton 2020; Morreale, Keane, and Albritton 2021). Therefore, our edition does not aim to provide a definitive answer to what appears on the page, but rather an interpretation that also recognizes the reader’s role in receiving the text by modernizing certain elements, as below, for ease of reading.
NB: Throughout, locations are given as folio.line; thus, 86r.03 denotes folio 86r, line 3.
3.1 Paleography and orthography1
3.1.1 Abbreviations
§19 Expanded abbreviations are indicated with italics. These include, but are not limited to:
macrons or suspension marks over vowels to indicate elided /m/ or /n/ (e.g., 95v.05, word 8: mo<i>n</i>de);
superscript /9/ to indicate /-us/ (e.g., 86r.20, word 4: vo<i>us</i>);
/p/ with a stroke through the descender (/p/) to indicate /per/ (e.g., 86v.03, word 6: p<i>er</i>e) or /par/ (e.g., 86r.07, word 5: p<i>ar</i>tie);
/p/ with a suspension mark above to indicate /pri-/ (e.g., 91r.02, word 8: p<i>ri</i>e);
Tironian et (/7/) to indicate /et/ (e.g., 88r.28, word 8: <i>et</i>);
low punctus with superscript /r/ to indicate /-ur/ (e.g., 95r.22, word 4: po<i>ur</i>);
/s/ with an oblique stroke to indicate /ser/ (e.g., 90r.16, word 3: s<i>er</i>viteur).
3.1.2 Capitalization and diacritics
§20 We preserved original capitalizations throughout (also see “Letter forms,” infra). We declined to add modern accent marks.
3.1.3 Letter forms
§21 Throughout, we preserved /y/ wherever it occurs, regardless of modern French orthographic convention, preserving, for example, ‘luy’ (86r.19, word 4) and ‘ny’ (86r.21, word 4). We normalized all instances of long /ſ/ to short /s/, transcribing, for instance, ‘ſans’ as ‘sans’ (86r.10, word 2).
§22 In the cases of /u/ versus /v/ and /i/ versus /j/, we adopted modern letter forms where warranted by context. That is, where the target letter denoted a consonant, we recorded it as a consonant; for instance, we transcribed
‘merueilles’ as ‘merveilles’ (86r.21, word 6);
‘Iuda’ as ‘juda’ (86r.03, word 8).
Similarly, where the target letter denoted a vowel, we recorded it as a vowel; for instance, we transcribed
‘vne’ as ‘une’ (86r.02, word 8).
For roman numerals, we regularized the final i-longa as /i/
‘xxiiij’ as ‘‘xxiiii’ (97v.11, word 5).
Our scribe occasionally used inconsistent variants of /s/, /d/, /r/, and /j/ mid-sentence (e.g., 95r.11, word 8; 95r.11, word 9). Since they did not adhere to how majuscules were used elsewhere in the text, we transcribed them as lower-case forms.
3.1.4 Punctuation
§23 Throughout, we preserved the original punctuation, rendering the punctus as /·/, and transcribing paraphs with a pilcrow (i.e. ¶). Where warranted, we indicated colour via markup; for example <span style=”color:blue;”>¶</span> (89r.08).
3.1.5 Scribal emendations
§24 Where scribal corrections or insertions were made via superscription, we tagged the additions accordingly, for example,
la grace <sup>de dieu</sup> ce que (90v.21);
et les <sup>biens</sup> temporelz (93r.04).
We transcribed marginal additions at their designated places in-line with insertion tags and underscored them, for example,
mye <ins>digne</ins> de eulx (90r.07).
We rendered scribal deletions—whether via strikethrough or erasure—with strikethrough; for example,
merveille (86v.11);
[de dieu] (92v.17).
We transcribed interlinear additions where they appear, using superscript tags, for example,
<sup>en ce monde je craindera en lautre</sup> (93v, between 18 and 19).
3.1.6 Spacing and word segmentation
§25 Rather than consistently adding or eliminating spaces between words to more closely correspond with modern orthography, we left word segmentation to the discretion of individual transcribers. Where letters were elided between words, we declined to add apostrophes.
If a word spanned a line break, and this rupture was marked by the scribe, the division was indicated by a hyphen /-/, for example, at 89r, ‘de-mourez’ (spanning lines 10–11).
3.1.7 Spelling
§26 We followed our manuscript’s original spelling, transcribing unusual or atypical spellings without comment; for instance, terminal /z/ on words spelled with a terminal /s/ in modern French were left as-is (e.g., ‘filz’ [89r.25, word 2]). As above, we modernized certain letter forms for ease of reading.
We used square brackets to denote uncertain readings (e.g., [de dieu] [92v.17]).
3.2 Layout and paratext
3.2.1 Catchwords and foliation
§27 Our folios lack catchwords and include but one set of foliation. Rendered in Hindu–Arabic numerals, in black ink, in a modern hand, it appears on each folium at the upper right hand recto. We declined to transcribe this feature.
3.2.2 Marginalia
§28 Due to constraints of the format, marginalia are listed below instead of being incorporated into the edition.
3.2.3 Mise-en-page
§29 Our scribe copied in a single column throughout. We preserved line breaks as they appear in the manuscript, indicating each break with a single return.
3.2.4 Headers
§30 Our scribe centred one header. We followed his lead using mark-up, thus:
<div align=”center”><span style=”color:blue; line-height:15px;”>⁋</span><span style=”text-decoration:underline; text-decoration-color:red;”>Auctorites de pluseurs docteurs</span>·</div> (89v.16).
3.3 Decoration and additions
3.3.1 Additions
§31 We described the sole addition—an institutional stamp centred at bas de page on 95v—at the bottom of the corresponding section of the transcription, with a brief note within square brackets.
3.3.2 Initials
§32 We marked up enlarged decorative initials, indicating their colour and relative size; for instance,
<span style=”float:left; width:0.8em; font-size:250%; line-height:100%; color:blue; font-weight:bold;”>C</span>onfesse (90v.23, word 1).
Similarly, we marked up smaller, in-line coloured initials as follows,
<span style=”color:blue; font-weight:bold;”>H</span>ee (89r.22);
<span style=”color:red; font-weight:bold;”>A</span>mour (89r.12).
3.3.3 Rubrication
§33 Throughout the manuscript, majuscules are heightened by addition of a stroke of ink, now often brown, but likely originally plain yellow, which has oxidized. We transcribed these as bolded majuscules, thus,
<span style=”font-weight:bold;”>D</span>e (89r.05, word 5).
Headings and some passages of text are sublineated in red or blue. We marked up these stretches of text accordingly; for example,
<span style=”text-decoration:underline; text-decoration-color:red;”>majestatis i<i>n</i> excelsis</span> (87r.26).
Two words on 87r are struck through heavily with red. The intention—whether heightening, cancellation, or something else—remaining unclear, struck through as follows,
dei p<i>at</i>ris (87r.26).
4 Text
Le Pelerinage de Damoiselle Sapience
f. 86r
DAmoiselle sapience sen ala oultre mer
en pelerinage par devotion · cy entra en une
cite que on appelle bethleem et rex juda a destre · la
vit une maison ou moult de gens repairoient
parquoy la maison estoit appelle diversoire · do-
maiselle sadressa a celle maison et entra dedens
et vit en une partie ung lieu gaste aussi come une
estable · dedens trouva une cresche et une pucelle
apoyee a celle cresche qui regardoit dedens moult
ententivement sans regarder ailleurs et moult bien
sembloit quelle sesmerveillast de ce quelle veoit · Sapience la salua et
luy demanda quelle chose elle regardoit si entendanment ·
Celle respondit et dist je regarde merveille · Et
celle saprouche pres et vit ung enfant qui gesoit
en la cresche sur ung peu de fain envolope de petiz
drapeletz · Bel estoit lenfant aultres merveilles
ny apparoit · Lors demanda sapience a lautre da-
moiselle come elle avoit en nom · Celle dist je ay
nom verite · Sapience luy demande damoiselle verite
quel merveille veez vous en cest enfant qui gist
cy · Car il ny appert merveilles par dehors non
plus quen ung aultre · Lors respondit verite ·
les merveilles qui sont en lenfant ne seront huy
dites car tant en ya que on le doit appeller les-
merveilleux sicome dit ysaie · Et vocabitur nomen
eius admirabilis · Sapience dist damoiselle verite
aprenes moy pour dieu les merveilles qui sont
en cest enfant petit qui naperent mye · Verite
f. 86v
dist quelle chose voulez ouyr premierement · Sa-
pience dist je desire a savoir de quel lignage
lenfant est et de quel pere et de quelle mere · Lors
jetta verite ung souspir merveilleux et dist ·
O generationem eius quis enarrabit · Et dist
elle qui pourra son lignage et sa generation
raconter · Se nous parlons du lignage de par la
mere il est estrait du plus noble lignage qui
soit en terre du lignage au roy david et salmon
et des patriarches et des prophetes · Lors dist sa-
pience · Or merveille mesmerveille come enfant
de si hault lignage est mis en si bas lieu come
en une estable · Et si affiert une demande · Se
a sa mere qui est de si hault parage il meschei
oncquez par quoy son enfant est si bassement cou-
chies · Lors getta verite ung aultre souspir et
dist · O oncques si biens a pucelle navint · Car
elle le conceupt sans compaignie domme en telle
maniere comme langre luy [?]onsa et la pucelle
par la vertu du saint esperit le conceupt et porta et
vierge lenfanta · Apres quil fut neez les angres
lanoncerent les estoilles le monstrerent et les trois
roys laourerent · Sapience respont dieu quel merveille
quant tel enfant gist en tel lieu · Verite respont
pour ce et pour les aultres choses est il appelles
lesmerveilleux · Sapience dist de la mere maves vous
dit merveilles mais du pere vouldroy je volentiers
oyr car merveille en aves ja touchie · Verite
f. 87r
respont pere na il se dieu non · Car il est filz au
treshault roy sicomme lescripture dit · Et filius
altissimi vocabitur · Sapience dist voulentiers
oysse les conditions quil a de par son pere · Car
celles sont merveilleuses qui sont de par sa mere ·
Verite respond · or entens et asavoir[ez] doncquez
ce que je vous diroy selon ce que la sainte escripture dit
de lenfant · Vous veez bien que cest enfant est envelopez
en petis drapiaux come povres · Non pourtant il est
le plus riche · Car il est hoir de quanques il ya ou
ciel et en terre · Quem constituit heredes univer-
sorum · Apres vous veez que cest enfant semble moult
simple · Non pourtant cest la sapience parquoy le
monde fut fait · Per quem fecit et secula · Apres cest
enfant apert autel come ung aultre et si est la resplen-
deur et la beaute de dieu · Quod sit spendor glorie
et figura substantie eius · Et si veez que il semble fieble come
ung aultre et si est il par dehors · Non pourtant cest
celuy qui porte tout le monde par sa vertu · Portans
omnia verbo virtutis sue · Si veez que il semble estre neez
en pechie come ung aultre · Non pourtant il espurge
et netoye de pechie tous les aultres · Purgationez
peccatorum faciens · Cy veez que il gist en ceste e[?] esta-
ble moult humblement · Non pourtant il gist ou ciel
a la dextre de dieu le pere treshaultement · Sedet
ad dextram dei patris majestatis in excelsis · Sapience
dist · oncquez mais telles merveilles navinrent ·
Verite respond · pour ce ail a non merveilles · Car
f. 87v
il est tout ensemble si povres et si riches si simple
et si sage · si obscur et si bel · si fiebles et si fort
si petit et si hault · et si grant et si bas · Sapience
dist bien fut nee la mere qui tel enfant porta · Ve-
rite respond plus ya · Car en bien fut nez qui sa
parolle croira et gardera · Sapience demande · de quel
vertu apperra cest enfant quant il venra en aage ·
Verite est en son corps apperra adoncquez · Apres
verra on de quel vertu ses petis pies sont que vous
veez · Car la mer tormentee quant il voudra les
portera a sec · Math · xxiiii · Si apperra aussi de quel
doulceur sont plains · Car par eulx baisier en bone
foy par devotion auront les pecheurs pardon de tous
leur pechies aussi comme ot la magdalaine ·
Luce · vii · Sapience dist voulentiers et desiranment
les doit on embrasser et baisier puis quil sont de
tel dignite et de tel doulceur Mais pour dieu or
parlons dez mains qui sont si fiebles maintenant
comme lez mains dun aultre enfant come sera monstree
leur vertu · Verite respond · Elles sont et seront
de tel vertu et si medicinables car pour atouchier
tant seulement les mors resusciteront · les malades
gariront · si nettes sont et seront que par atouchier sans
plus les mesiaulx netieront · si larges sont et
si plantereuses que par touchier et par baisier les
pains moultepliront · Sapience dist nulz nest di-
gnes de baisier telles mains et telz pies ce mest
advis · Verite dist · aucuns ne les baiseront pas
f. 88r
mais le crucifiront · Sapience dist · cest dure chose
de loir · et du faire · Apres dirons nous de la bouche
savoureuse qui maintenant quiert la mamelle ·
moult voulentiers en oiree la verite · Verite dist · et
je le te diray car il appartient a moy · Ceste bouchete
si est sur toutez aultres et sera gracieuse vertueuse
savoureuse · Si gratieuse que on sesmerveillera des
gracieuses parolles qui ystront de luy car oncquez
nul home ne parla ainsi · Numquam sic homo locutus est et
mirabantur de verbis gratie · Sur toutes autrez est
et sera vertueuse · Car a sa voix toute creature obey-
ra · la tempeste de la mer et les vens cesseront ·
les mors resusciteront · les anemis senfuyront ·
Sapience dist · moult a precieuse bouche · Verite dist ·
Aussi est elle savoureuse sur toutes les aultres
et doulce · Car de sa salive les aveugles renlumine-
ront et les muez la parolle raront · et de loudeur
de sa bouche les apostres le saint esperit en signi-
fiance de feu recepveront · Sapience sescria · O comme est
bien euree la mere qui telle bouche alaite · Et
qui souvent sent loudeur divine de si bel enfant
et qui baisier peult ceste doulce bouchette sa-
voureuse quant elle veult · Verite dist ceste bou-
chette aura fain et soif et si sera abrevee de
trois amers brevages · Sapience dist si est elle
bien digne que on luy porte honneur · Mais pour
dieu dites moy des yeulx joesnes et plaisans
f. 88v
vertu que par leur doulx regard tant seullement con-
vertiront les pecheurs · ¶Exemplum in petro quem
respexit dominus et egressus est foras et flevit amare ·
Et non obstant il pleureront encore en la fin ne
point de confort au monde ne trouveront que tantes
fois les aultres conforteront · Sapience dist cest grant
pitie · mais de la face saroye voulentiers que
ce sera · Verite dist la face de cest enfant sera
plaine de larmes · Et si sera monstree encore en
son vivant aussi come est le solail et aussi belle ·
Les angres de paradis desirent a regarder la face
de cest enfant · In quem angeli prospicere · Et non
pourtant aulcuns ne resongneront pas a ferir ne
a crachier a icelluy visage que les angres ont tant
chier · Sapience dist or voy je bien que cest enfant est
sur tous les aultres merveilleux · Verite respond que
pour ce est il appelles lesmerveilleux · Sapience dist
voulentiers orroye je de vous pour quoy se gentil
enfant et bien eure aura tant a souffrir · Car chacun
le deveroit aourer et servir · Verite dist il fera
offrendre a la justice de dieu de soy mesme pour
recorder ses eslis · La quelle offrande sera si precieuse
devant dieu pour la dignite de sa personne et pour sa
grant charite que dieu ne le pourra ne ne vouldra
refuser · Et loffrande sera faitte au jour que pour
lonneur de dieu et pour le tesmoignage de verite
il souffrera voulentiers la mort que les mauvais
envieux luy dourront qui par envie locciront · Sapience
f. 89r
dist dont sera loffrande pour lamour quil a a dieu
et a ceulx quil a eslis de lumain lignage · Ve-
rite dist par amours souffrera il · Sapience dist je
voy bien que cest enfant fait sur tous les aultrez
a amerveilles a amer · De bon heure fu neez qui
en son ceur le pourroit mettre tout entier · Verite
dist par telles penseez le met on en son ceur et
mennist on espirituellement · ¶Augustinus ·
Crede et manducasti · Sapience dist merveilleux
amoureux entres dedens mon ceur · et sy y de-
mourez tousjours · Amen · ¶De lardant amour
Amour est espice delicieuse · loyen de ceur · embra-
sement de penseez · tenreur daffliction · subtilitez
dentendement · embellissant les meurs · desprisant
le monde · fuians vanitez · souffrans mesaises ·
Aidans ses proismes · mere de vertus · boutilliere de
confort · Dignite de merite · siege et repos de tou-
te la trinite · Lame qui ayme dieu est bien es euree
Car le royaulme de paradis est son heritage ·
Il est amy aux angres · compaignon aux apostres ·
frere aux martyrs · Les confesseurs luy sont soulas ·
et les virges desduis · Hee lasse vrayment est
lame benoiste et bien euree qui a la paix de paradis
de quoy dieu le pere en est temples de seurte ·
Le filz resplendisseur de gloire · le saint esperit
en est amour et lumiere resplendissant · La est joye
avec lumiere · la est oudeur sentie qui ja ne sera
departie car elle durera sans deffaillir · Cest une
f. 89v
manne qui tousjours asavoure et ne peult appe-
tissier la est rassasiee lame de toutes choses
en regardant la majeste divine qui est emplis-
sement de tous desirs · On doit bien estudier par re-
garder celuy qui est le tresbel peu congneu · Le
doulx mal assavoure · le riche mal servi · le sage
mal creu · le trespuissant peu doubtez · le bel peu
honnore · le courtois peu festies · Le sage peu mercies
le tres misericors peu prises · le loyal peu loes ·
le debonnaire peu aidie · le tres amiable peu ames ·
Qui longuement y penseroit · en pensant le desireroit ·
en desirant le sentiroit · en sentant se deliteroit · en
delictant sesjoiroit · en esjoissant languiroit · en
langissant navres seroit · navre damours sy se
mourroit · mort adieu · si se reposeroit ·
¶Auctorites de pluseurs docteurs ·
Saint augustin dit que cest vraye penitance
quant ceur domme porte doulcement en pacience
toutes les choses qui luy peust grever · Car
mieulx vault ung ceur doux et debonnaire
que ne fait vestir ne sac ne haire · Nulz ne
puet estre abel se il na cayn a frere · Indigne
est la vertu destre appellee vertu se elle nest enluminee
du contraire · Saint Jehan en lapocalipse dit que
ung net ceur est apparlie a tout souffrir · Saint
ambroise dit que aussi tost come une estincelle seroit
estainte en la mer sont tous les pechies que homme
pecheur pourroit faire pardonnez lors quil est vray
f. 90r
repentant · Saint augustin dit que · iiii · manieres
de gens sont qui moult desplaisent a dieu · le
premier est le vieul luxurieux · Le riche sans
ausmone · Le sage sans bonne vertu · Et le jen-
ne sans obedience · Quatre raisons sont pour
quoy dieu rescoit les siens de ce monde · La premiere
si est pource que le monde nest mye digne de eulx avoir · la
seconde pource que quant ilz sont en bon estat il ne
veult mye quilz se muent ou par adversite ou par prospe-
rite · La tierce est pour acomplir leur desir
Car preudomme ne desire aultre chose fors que
estre avecquez dieu · Comme il appert par saint pol· qui
disoit · Je desire que mon ame soit dessevree de
mon corps · La quarte raison est pour eulx paier
de leur loyer · Car bien est droit et raison que
quant le serviteur a deservi son loyer que on luy paie ·
Et dieu est droiturier qui a chacun paie son loyer
prestement sans delaier · Je mesmerveille fait saint
bernard comment celuy qui a esperance de son salut
se peult enbesongnier fors que de dieu seulement ·
Sire fait saint augustin quant je pense a ce que
vous souffrites pour moy se tous mes cheveulx
estoient surjons et mes yeulx estoient deux
fontaines ne me souffiroit il mye que je peus-
se asses plorer · Saint augustin dit dieu doul-
cement senti et humblement de luy aprent on plus
en taisant et en pensant que on ne fait a en ses
livres lisant · Dure chose est luy obligier par
f. 90v
pechie aux paines denfer · Mais plus dure chose
est courcer la majeste de dieu · Saint jherosme
1dit que tout le temps quon ne pense a dieu on le
2doit tenir pour temps perdu · Et dit il mesmes
que plus suis entre les hommes tant me treuve
3je mains homme · Saint nichaise dit de la cho-
se dont il me souvient le mains cest de ce que on ma
4meffait · Salmon dit que cest gregnieur chose
de vaincre son courage que prendre une forte cite ·
car par pacience est congneue sapience · Saint gre-
goire dit que la raison pour quoy nostre sire consenti
que il fust feru de la lance ou coste se fut pour
5ce que nos prensissons son ceur toutes fois que nous vou-
sissons · Bon ceur doit avoir · vii · conditions
Amer en contrition · pur en affliction · liez en
tribulation · piteux en compassion · Droit en en-
6tention · Fervent en devotion · Esleves en contem-
plation · Saint bernard dit que haulte grace
7nest point acquise se nest par la vertu dumi-
lite · Car ung petit ceur humble comprent de-
dens luy par la grace de dieu ce que ciel et terre ne peult
comprendre · ¶Pluseurs auctorites ·
Confesse toy sain et hetye en ce monde
nulz ne y scet trouver avantage aussitost
muert jenne que vieux · jugement sera fait sans
misericorde a celuy qui nara fait misericorde ·
Ne vieullez mye aultry jugier et vous ne
serez ja jugies · Pardonnez et on vous pardonrra ·
f. 91r
Qui tost donne deux fois donne · Celuy don-
ne tart qui donne a celuy qui prie · Plus eureux
est le donneur · que le prieur · Benoite soit povre-
te se dieu ne leust ainchois soufferte nous ne
la vousissemes souffrir · On doit amer aussi
bien ce que on na mye que ce que on a · Lavaricieux
est a aultry malvais et a luy pervers · Humble
doit estre confession par quoy on amende orgueil-
leuse deffaulte · Justes juge ne puet nul estre
qui a la fois soy mesmes ne se juge · A peu
est lomme mort qui ne doubte point quil morra ·
De tant est le pechie plus tost pardonne quil est fait
a mains de malice · En toutes adventures de
povrete tresgrans grietez est avoir este riches ·
Peu de chose souffit a nature et a avarice rien
ne suffit · Ce qui nous fait tresmauvais cest
que nous ne considerons nostre vie · Rien vouloir scavoir
est negligence · Et nient scavoir est ignorance ·
La ou on ne craint celuy qui reprent vient
le diable legierement et tost chiet on en pechie ·
Oste envie de toy et quanques tu as est tien ·
Orgueil oste dieu de luy · Envie oste son prois-
me · Se ne feust tien et myen tout le monde
feust en pais sans labeur · Com grant bien
est que de charite qui les biens du monde fait
estre miens · Dont ung bon a prouffit et ung
mauvais doumage · Tu ne peulx plus gre-
ver les envieux que vivre liement et faire bien ·
f. 91v
Discordans et mescreans combien que ilz aient
de vertus ne peuent estre espirituelz · Qui ne
satrempe par humaine raison necessite est qui
vive come une beste · Se nest rien de chastete
de char se il nya doulceur et debonnairete ou
ceur · Les yreux nont mye richesses bonnes
mais ilz ont moult damertumes · Ire est porte
de tous pechiez · Dieu nabite point avec Ire ·
mais il est ou est paix · et paix est son testa-
ment · Dieu est amours · dont qui hait aultruy
il na mye dieu · Estriver a son souverain
et a son maistre est peril et dommage · A son sem-
blable mauvaistie · A son subget deshonneur ·
Il nest rien si semblable au deable que tenchiers
8et noeses · Ceulx qui subment discorde estaignent
charite · qui est mere et fleur de tous biens ·
Cest plus grant merite envers dieu de injures
fuir en soy taisant que vaincre en tenchant et
respondant orguilleusement · Comment sescusera
au jugement celuy qui donne a ung chien cen pour
quoy ung povre a grant disete · On doit vian-
des prendre aussi come medicine · Son jeune de
viandes on doit jeuner de pechier et adonc est
la jeune bonne vers dieu · quant on jeune de
pechie · Et est bonne quant ad ce que tu mengeroies
bien tu saules ung povre · Jeune sans cha-
rite est lampe sans clarte · De tant que nous
nous sentons plus agreves de penseez devons nous
f. 92r
plus ardaument entendre a oreson · Tout le
temps que tu ne penses a dieu conte lay pour
perdu ce dit Saint Jherosme · Pense de dieu
le mieulx que tu pourras et de toy le pis que tu
pourras · Le deable vaincu de glotonnie
ne tempte de luxure · Celuy qui maudit
son anemy il maudit sa propre ame · Nulle
chose qui adviengne au juste ne le courcera ·
Nulle chose ne vault tant a refrener la char
que penser quelle elle est quant elle est morte ·
Lamour du monde est contraire a lomme qui
ayme le monde il ayme celuy qui le trait ·
Celuy est pervers a qui Dieu ne souffit · Car
qui la riens ne luy fault · Le corps est repeu
de viandez materielles · et lame de bones oeuvrez ·
Chastete sans bonnes oeuvres nest mye grant
chose ne bonnes oeuvres sans chastete · Nostre
char nous trait a pechie · Discipline nous trait
a pardon · Je vous conseille damer vos ennemis pour
sanner voz pechies je ne scay milleur remede ·
Dieu nest ja bien amez sans son proisme · ne son
proisme sans Dieu · Celuy a charite vraye qui
ayme son amy en dieu · et son annemy pour
dieu · Ce qui est hault et noble devant les hom-
mes est abhominable devant dieu · Qui de par-
faite pensee desire dieu sans doubte il a cen quil
ayme · Pluseurs crient hault a dieu prier et
leurs ceurs sont muyaulx · Et aucuns se taisent
f. 92v
et leur penseez crient hault devant dieu · Tu
qui ne doubtes rien sur terre · Craing dieu
toutes choses sont soubz luy · Conscience mal-
vaise mil mal a faire ne redoubte ce dit Saint
gregoire · La plus belle science qui soit est scavoir
bien amer · Celuy est amys qui ayme plus le
prouffit de son amy que sa plaisance · Celuy est
riche ou le saint esperit habite · Oroison oynt dieu
mais la larme le point · O benoite larme du
repentant come tu es puissante envers dieu quant
tu mues ung tel juge en doulx pere · Le ventre
plain de vin et de viande de legier se met a
luxure · Se tu veulx estaindre le feu de luxure
oste les tysons des viandez · Vins et femmes
font les hommes devenir mauvais et luxurieux ·
Oy · voy · et te tais se tu veulx vivre en paix ·
Oncques les mains de dieu ne furent trouvees
sans don · ou le ceur est plain de bonne voulente ·
Legierement chiet en pechie qui plus doubte les
gens que dieu · Donne a dieu selon son don · Il se
donna du tout a toy or te donne du tout a luy ·
On ne doit point doubter du trespas de celuy
qui a bien vescu et garde les commandemens
de dieu et de leglise a son povoir · Pren garde soubvent
ou tu hebergeras la premiere nuyt de ton tres-
pas · Tu dois peu penser a ton soulas · et fort a
ton salut · Se celuy qui ne donne est damne
quel paine aura celuy qui toust par force a9
f. 93r
aultruy · Amour et cremeur bien ordonnee fait
faire tous biens et escheur tous maulx · Pour
voye ton ame dieu pourvoyra ton corps · car
le reaulme du ciel et les biens temporelz sont tous
siens · Apren toy mesmes a congnoistre de
tant congnoistras tu mieulx dieu · Je voudroye
que les envieux eussent leurs yeulx par tout si
seroient tourmentez de toutes les joyes dautry ·
Il nest si juste chose au monde que denvie car
elle pugnist et tourmente son propre seigneur ·
Le deable a peu de force · il ne vaint que ceulx
qui veullent estre vaincus · Dieu est loyal
qui ne laisse nulluy estre tente oultre ce quil
puet souffrir · Benoist est celuy qui seuffre
tentation · car quant il sera esprouve il aura
couronne de gloire · Nous avons bon mestier de
nous bien garder car quanques nous faisons
nous faisons devant celuy qui tout voit · La
ou on ne fait justice habitent voulentiers lar-
rons · tu es roy et bailly de toy mesmes · Toute
beste doubte homme · Mauvaise langue est
plaine de venin mortel et du feu denfer · La
cause et la racine de tous maulx est soy mesme
trop amer · Se tu aymes mauvaisement tu heez
se tu heez adroit tu aimes · Nul homme ne scet
combien il vault · De autelle entente recepvera
dieu ce que tu fais · comme tu le fais · Qui ayme
aucune chose pour son prouffit il lamera tant
f. 93v
quelle luy proufitera · A paines ay je veu continent
que je nay veu abstinent · La fain chace le leu hors
du bos · et sobresce chasse lennemy hors du corps ·
La cause dez plus grans pechiez est avoir large-
ment biens temporeulx · Et oyseusete nuyt a la-
me ou il ya plante de richesses · Je scay quil nest
milleur chose en terre que de vivre liement et de bien
faire · Fay sans arrester ce que tu pues de bien car
tu ne scez come longuement tu le feras et ne destour-
ne nully de bien faire · mais en amonneste chacun a
ton pouvoir · Femme belle qui est sotte est ainsi
come ung anel au musel dune truye · Se une
personne ne vit en guise de pourcel lennemy na
povoir sur luy · Es anciens doit estre sapience ·
et discretion · Apres grans boires et grans mengiers
ensuit aucune fois grant povrete · Celuy ne
ayme mye Dieu qui ne garde ses commandemens
et qui ny met toute son entente et qui ne le
craint et doubte · en ce monde il craindera en lautre Le royaulme de paradis puet
on acquerir mais on ne puet eschever les tribu-
lations de ce monde · De tant que tu es plus grant
soies plus humble et de bonnaire a chacun et en
toutes choses · Se tu veulx acroistre tes vertus ·
muce les · Celluy veult estre desrobes qui porte
son avoir en appert · Foy sans charite est morte ·
ainsi que ung corps sans ame · Propre sotie
est considerer les pechiez daultry · et oublier les
siens · Amour et cremeur desordonnee font folement
f. 94r
jugier · Les justes ne puest de nous jugier fors
ce que nos oeuvres monstrent · Le jugement
nostre seigneur nespargnera nulluy pour prieres de sains
ne de saintes ne pour auoir · Lez povres ne
sont mye a desdaignier come besongneux mais
a honorer comme patron de dieu · Celuy nest mye
povre qui a peu mais qui moult convoitte · Le
ceur dun homme sauleroit ung escouffle et tout
le monde ne le puet saouler · Ceur domme est si
noble et si grant que nulz ne le puet saoller fors
dieu · De tant quil est mains dune chose est elle
plus precieuse · Loing de dieu est le ceur qui
en oroison entent a vanite · Qui ne puet du
tout chastement vivre au mains serve dieu hum-
blement · Mais qui tient boe a une main ne la-
vera ja bien lautre · Qui est misericors· il fait
bien a son ame · Aucuns donnent tousdis et sont
tousjours riches · et aucuns tollent tousdis et tous
dis sont povres · Se ung juste a asouffrir que
aura vng pecheur · Pource que la sentence de
dieu tarde nul de pechie ne se garde · Repren le
sage il te aymera · Repren le fol il te haira · La
bouche qui ment occit lame · Tresgrant vertu
est estre juste en abondance de biens temporelz ·
Mort et vie est es oeuvres de la langue · Le
juste sacusera premierement · Lenfant que on lais-
se faire a sa volente courcera pere et mere · Celuy
preste a usure a dieu qui a pitie du povre · Qui
f. 94v
ayme vin et morsiaulx ne sera ja riches · Mieulx
vault bonne renommee que moult de richesses · Qui
prent don dautruy il est son serf · Ne soustrait
point la verge a lenfant tu osteras son ame
denfer · Tu es coupable du pechie au quel tu
ne contredis au mains de ceur · Peu de chose
est de dire je pechie et sy oeuvre paradis · Comment
montera en paradis homme orgueilleux et presumtueux
quant les angres par leur orgueil en convint
descendre · Se tu veulx tost monter en paradis
met tout le monde desoubz tes pies · Point
achopper ne puet en terre qui en allant lieve
ses pieds jusquez au ciel · La volente de mal faire
croist quant on ne le deffent · Oste excusance de toy
nul ne peche malgre luy · On ne doit mie
avoir despit des pechies mais pitie · Ce que
on ayme ramentoit on v[o]ulentiers en parolles ·
Jhesucrist est dieu et vray homme · Dont nayme
il mie dieu qui hait homme · Celuy qui nous
a tous fais nous recepvera sans doubte se nous
nous tenons bien aluy fermement ·
Beati qui persecutionem patiuntur propter justiciam et cetera ·
Nostre benoist sauveur dit en levangille ·
Bien eureux sont ceulx qui seuffrent persecution
pour justice · Pourquoy pour ce que on dit que le
regne du ciel est leur sans plus acheter se
ilz seuffrent en pacience · Autel dist il des po-
vres se ilz prennent en pacience leur povrete · Et
f. 95r
en aultre lieu dit il · Quant les gens du monde
fait il vous hairront et reproucheront et dechas-
seront et diront tout le mal de vous quil porront
pour moy · Esjoissiez vous et esleessez car vostre
loyer en est grant ez cieulx · Et senecquez ung
bon clerc dit · Soiez plus lies fait il toutes les
fois que vous desplairoys aux mauvais et les per-
verses estimations quil ont de vous tenes a grant
loenge · Apres dit saint Jehan bouche dor · Ne
cremes mie les mesditz des gens mes les loen-
ges · Et saint ysidore dit les serviteurs de dieu
fuient et eschevent aussy come tempeste les choses
que le monde ayme et sesjoissent plus es adversites
du monde quilz ne se delittent es prosperitez · Aux amis
de dieu toutes les choses de ce monde sont contraires
pour ce que quant il sentent les adversitez quilz soient plus
ardamment esveillies a desirer les choses celestielles ·
Celuy reluyra devant dieu par grant gloire qui se fera
pour luy despiter au monde · Et vrayment il convient
que cil soit amez de dieu qui est hays du monde ·
Car lamour de dieu et lamour du monde
sont contraires· Et pour ce hait le monde et le dea-
ble ceulx et cellez qui dieu ayment et crement ·
Car il naiment ne luy ne ses choses et leur
pourchassent trestout lannuy quil puent · mais
nostre seigneur nous conforte moult bien en levangille la ou
il dit a ses disciples · Ne vous emerveillies mye
se le monde vous hait · Car sachies quil ma
f. 95v
10hay avant que vous · Se vous fuissies du monde le monde
11amast ce que syen fust · Mais pour ce que vous
nestes mye du monde ains vous a esleu du
monde · Pource vous hait le monde mais aies
fiance en moy car jay vaincu le monde · Ne
cremes mye ceulx qui le corps occisent car
ilz ne puent occire lame · Mes cremes celuy qui
a povoir de mettre le corps et lame eu feu
perdurable · Se nous ne devons mie cremir ceulx
qui nous corps veullent et puest occire · Comme
mains devons ore cremir ceulx et cellez qui nous
puest fors menacer ou de nous mesdire · Mes -
mement que nous ayons nostre seigneur jhesucrist par dessus
qui tout voit et tout scet et tout puet qui ne laisse
nully tente oultre ce quil puet souffrir · Hee
beaux doux jhesucrist comme je doubteree peu tot
le monde sil avoit prins guerre a moy et me
vousist faire du pis que il pourroit se je vous
avoye en aide · Certes qui vous a il a tout · Et
qui ne vous a il na rien · Beaulx doulx jhesu -
12crist toles me tout si me donnes vous seul et
il me souffira · [tout si me donnes vous seul et]13
Notes
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 3, in black ink, in a later hand: three parallel lines, same size “///” [^] [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 4, in black ink, in a later hand: “Geb” [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at lines 5–6, in black ink, in a later hand: “Cl” [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 8, in black ink, in a later hand: two parallel lines, same size “//” [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 13, in black ink, in a later hand, “s” shape [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 17, in black ink, in a later hand: “s” shape [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 19, in black ink, in a later hand: “s” shape [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 15, in black ink, in a later hand, “Nota” [^]
- Marginalia, bas de page, at left edge of text, in an early hand, in grey ink: “quel pa[in]” [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at line 1, in light brownish-grey ink, in an early hand: “amon bon amy” [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at lines 2–13, in pale brown ink, in an early hand: “hay avant/Qe vous/souffies/du/monde/le munde/amast ce/que sien/fust/[s?m]” [^]
- Marginalia, in left margin: at lines 21–22, in light brownish-grey ink, in an early hand: “ [sonss] ” [^]
- Addition: Bas de page, centre, institutional stamp in dark blue ink, consisting of an ellipse within a slightly larger ellipse; between the two: (label: VICTOR ADVIELLE · ARRAS·) [^]
Competing interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Contributions
Authorial contributions
Authorship is alphabetical after the drafting author and principal technical lead. Author contributions, described using the CASRAI CredIT typology, are as follows:
The corresponding author is: Laura Morreale (LM2)
List of contributors and roles in alphabetical order
Toby Baldwin: TB
Estelle Champeau: EC
Piergiorgio Consagra: PC
Debora Dameri: DD
Anna de Bakker: AB
Chris Fadel: CF
Kersti Francis: KF
Scott Francis: SF
Charlotte Gauthier: CG
Elizabeth Hebbard: EH
Lisa D. Iacobellis: LI
S.C. Kaplan: SK
Benjamin Kozlowski: BK
Nathalie Lacarrière: NL
Stephanie J. Lahey: SL
Nicolás A. Lázaro: NL
Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel: TM
Jagoda Marszałek: JM
Louis Meiselman: LM
Laura Morreale: LM2
Frederick Pedersen: FP
Lea D. Pokorny: LP
Caitlin Postal: CP
Sara Powell: SP
Gerardo Sánchez Argüelles: GA
Anna Siebach-Larsen: AL
Shannon Strinati: SS
Ebba Strutzenbladh: ES
Tristan B. Taylor: TT
Roles
Conceptualization: LM2
Editing: KF, LI, SK, SL, TM, JM, LM2, TT
Investigation: GA, TB, PG, MC, DD, CF, CG, EH, RJ, BK, NL, CP, JR, SS, ES
Methodology: LM2
Project Administration: KF, CG, SL, TM, LM2
Supervision: LM2
Validation: EC, DD, AB, SF, SL, LM, FP, LP, SP
Writing: CF, KF, LI, SK, NL, SL, TM, JM, LM2, AS, TT
Editorial contributions
Recommending Editor:
Mike Kestemont, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Recommending Referees:
Dirk Schoenaers, Leiden University, Netherlands
Wouter Haverals, University of Antwerp, Belgium
Section Editor:
Shahina Parvin, The Journal Incubator, University of Lethbridge, Canada
Copy and Layout Editor:
Christa Avram, The Journal Incubator, University of Lethbridge, Canada
References
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