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

  1. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 3, in black ink, in a later hand: three parallel lines, same size “///” [^] [^]
  2. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 4, in black ink, in a later hand: “Geb” [^]
  3. Marginalia, in left margin: at lines 5–6, in black ink, in a later hand: “Cl” [^]
  4. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 8, in black ink, in a later hand: two parallel lines, same size “//” [^]
  5. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 13, in black ink, in a later hand, “s” shape [^]
  6. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 17, in black ink, in a later hand: “s” shape [^]
  7. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 19, in black ink, in a later hand: “s” shape [^]
  8. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 15, in black ink, in a later hand, “Nota” [^]
  9. Marginalia, bas de page, at left edge of text, in an early hand, in grey ink: “quel pa[in]” [^]
  10. Marginalia, in left margin: at line 1, in light brownish-grey ink, in an early hand: “amon bon amy” [^]
  11. 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]” [^]
  12. Marginalia, in left margin: at lines 21–22, in light brownish-grey ink, in an early hand: “ [sonss] ” [^]
  13. 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

“Ange.” 2022. Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500). ATILF – CNRS and Université de Lorraine. Accessed February 1. http://zeus.atilf.fr/dmf.

Brisson, Sr. Marie. 1966. “Frère Robert, Chartreux du XIVe siècle.” Romania 348: 543–50. DOI:  http://doi.org/10.3406/roma.1966.2588

Driscoll, M. J. 2010. “The Words on the Page: Thoughts on Philology, Old and New.” In Creating the Medieval Saga: Versions, Variability, and Editorial Interpretations of Old Norse Saga Literature, edited by Judy Quinn and Emily Lethbridge, 85–102. Viking Collection 18. Odense: University Press of Southern Denmark.

Duxfield, Polly. 2015. “Transcribing the ‘Estoria de Espanna’ Using Crowdsourcing: Strategies and Aspirations.” Magnificat Cultura i Literatura Medievals 2: 129–148. DOI:  http://doi.org/10.7203/MCLM.2.4977

Ferrières, Henri de. 1932. Les livres du Roy et de la royne Ratio. Edited by Gunnar Tilander. 2 vols. Paris: Société des anciens textes français.

Fostano, Katherina, and Laura Morreale. 2019. The Digital Documentation Process. Accessed September 5, 2021. https://digitalhumanitiesddp.com/.

IRHT (Institut de Recherche et d’Histoire des Textes). 2022. Jonas: Répertoire des textes et des manuscrits médiévaux d’oc et d’oïl. Accessed April 1. https://jonas.irht.cnrs.fr/.

“Jeune.” 2022. Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500). ATILF – CNRS and Université de Lorraine. Accessed February 3. http://atilf.fr/dmf/.

Kaplan, S. C. 2016. “Transmission of Knowledge to and between Women in 15th-Century France: Agnès de Bourgogne’s Education and Library.” PhD diss., University of California. Accessed September 6, 2021. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5j08708h.

Kaplan, S. C. 2019. “Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 140: Agnes of Burgundy’s Religious Compendium?” Journal of the Early Book Society 22: 1–42.

Le Petit, Jean. 1895. Le Livre du champ d’or et autres poèmes inédits. Edited by P. Le Verdier. Rouen: Cagniard.

Morreale, Laura. 2020a. “Distant Gatherings: A Text-Case for Digital Manuscript Collaborations.” Paper presented at the 13th Annual (Virtual) Schoenberg Symposium on Manuscript Studies in the Digital Age, November 19. Accessed September, 5, 2021. https://youtu.be/L9lJf_yMZmQ.

Morreale, Laura. 2020b. Transcribing “Le Pèlerinage de Damoiselle Sapience”: Scholarly Editing Covid-19 Style. Accessed November 20. https://damoisellesapience.wordpress.com/.

Morreale, Laura, Monica Keane, and Benjamin L. Albritton. 2020. “La Sfera Challenge Project 1st Edition (September 2020) Archiving Dossier Narrative.” BodoArXiv. DOI:  http://doi.org/10.34055/osf.io/4ghzu

Morreale, Laura, Monica Keane, and Benjamin L. Albritton. 2021. “Image du Monde Transcription Challenge Archiving Dossier Narrative.” BodoArXiv. DOI:  http://doi.org/10.34055/osf.io/ep3b6

Morreale, Laura, Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel, S. C. Kaplan, and Kersti Francis. 2021. “Archiving Dossier Narrative: Transcribing ‘Le Pelerinage de Damoiselle Sapience.’” BodoArXiv. DOI:  http://doi.org/10.34055/osf.io/m6x2w

Penn Libraries. 2021. “Ms. Codex 660 – Robert de Saint-Martin, frère, d. 1388 – Le Château périlleux.” Penn in Hand: Selected Manuscripts. University of Pennsylvania Libraries. Accessed September 6, 2021. https://dla.library.upenn.edu/dla/medren/record.html?id=MEDREN_9924874463503681.

Sandqvist, Sven, ed. 1992. La vie de saint Évroul. Poème normand du XIVe siècle, publié avec introduction, notes et glossaire. Études romanes de Lund 48. Lund: Lund University Press.

Sperling, Jutta. 2018. “Squeezing, Squirting, Spilling Milk: The Lactation of Saint Bernard and the Flemish Madonna lactans (ca. 1430–1530).” Renaissance Quarterly 71(3): 868–918. DOI:  http://doi.org/10.1086/699605

Spiegel, G. M. 1990. “History, Historicism, and the Social Logic of the Text in the Middle Ages.” Speculum 65(1): 59–86. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2864472. DOI:  http://doi.org/10.2307/2864472

University College London. 2021. Transcribe Bentham. Accessed September 5. https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/transcribe-bentham/.