Kristin Caulfield

Writing is Not an Act of Love, Love is an Act of Writing:
Guillaume de Machaut's Le Livre du Voir-Dit

in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, Fonds Français 1584,
Les Oeuvres Complètes de Guillaume de Machaut

Abstract

Few would argue that Guillaume de Machaut was not a key figure in the changing definition of "professional author" during the late 14th century world of French literature. However, a subject that few scholars have researched is how Machaut's self-image as an author and composer is reflected, not just in his text alone, but in his works as a whole; where text and image function together in conveying his loyalty to the art of the written word. Scholars have extensively researched how important the compilation of his works into a unified body was a main concern in his later years. They have also analyzed the importance of his status as an author, and the importance he places on the act of writing as it is revealed in his texts. But what most scholars have not researched is a relationship between text and image in individual works that may reveal to the reader an emphasis on writing and authorship over surface narrative.

This study will focus on Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, fonds français 1584 (It has been given the sigla A in its surrounding research). It is of particular importance to this study because it was most likely produced and illuminated in Reims under Machaut's supervision. In the ensuing study I want to produce re-readings of Machaut's emphasis on writing. By closely examining Le Livre du Voir-Dit (1363–65) as it appears in Ms. A, analyzing its text, and examining how the images interact with that text, I want to show how the illuminations do not simply reiterate a surface narrative, but also how they can play games with narrative structures and reflect an auxiliary motive of the author. This analysis shows that in a text/image relationship, one is not necessarily subordinate to the other. Images do not simply clarify words, nor do they only provide an iconographical meaning separate from the text. They work together. And while the images might function as such, they can also operate in unity to reflect an underlying narrative element that is separate from the surface narrative.

Ma dame le savra de vrai,
Qu'autre dame jamais n'avrai,
Ains serai sien jusqu'a la fin;
Et, aprés ma mort, de cuer fin
La servira mes esperis.
Or doint Dieus qu'il ne soit peris
Pour li tant prier qu'il appelle
Son ame en gloire Toute-belle.
Amen. (LVD, 371–372)

This is the abstract of my master's thesis, completed in 1996 from the University of South Florida.