Durand of Champagne and the ’Mirror of the Queen’: a Study in Medieval Didactic Literature

235 Pages·1969·10.217 MB·English

by  Catherine Louise Mastny

69-17,607
MASTNY, Catherine Louise, 1939-
DURAND OF CHAMPAGNE AND THE "MIRROR
OF THE QUEEN": A STUDY IN MEDIEVAL
DIDACTIC LITERATURE.
Columbia University, Ph.D., 1969
History, medieval
University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan
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DURAND OF CHAMPAGNE AND THE "MIRROR OF THE QUEEN":
A STUDY IN MEDIEVAL DIDACTIC LITERATURE
by
Catherine Louise Mastny
1969
Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, in the
Faculty of Political Science, Columbia University
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ABSTRACT
DURAND OF CHAMPAGNE AND THE "MIRROR OF THE QUEEN":
A STUDY IN MEDIEVAL DIDACTIC LITERATURE
by
Catherine Louise Mastny
In medieval society, which was based upon the con­
cept of hierarchy, concern about the proper role of each
individual generated an extensive "mirror" literature in­
tended to define his particular duties. ,0ne category of
medieval specula, the "mirror of the queen," has received
surprisingly little attention from modern historians.
Although there was a long tradition of literary
works about queenship from Antiquity through the early and
high Middle Ages, the first important treatise devoted
entirely to this topic was the Speculum dominarum, written
in the early fourteenth century. Its author, Durand of
Champagne, was a Franciscan who held the position of con­
fessor to Jeanne of Navarre, the wife of Philip IV of France.
A close observer of Jeanne's activities, Durand drew the
portrait of his royal sponsor and described the ideal to
which she aspired. He used as his sources the scriptures,
the writings of the Fathers, and two previous specula,
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Bernard of Clairvaux's De consideratlone and William
Peraldus' De eruditione principum.
Approaching the theme of queenship from a philosophi­
cal and theological angle, Durand of Champagne considered
the queen's qualities as a human being and as a princess,
her duties at home, at court, and in the kingdom. He saw
the essence of her function in serving as an example for the
people not only in private life, but also in her relations
with every class of society. Durand of Champagne differed
from all his predecessors by clearly distinguishing the line
between the sphere of the king's and the queen's activities.
Only two of the subsequent fourteenth and fifteenth-century
works about queenship approached the Speculum dominarum in
comprehensiveness: Christine of Pisan's Le livre des trois
vertus and Anne of Beaujeu's Enseignements a sa fille Susanne.
The diffusion of the Speculum dominarum followed a
course typical for many works of the period. In the early
fourteenth century, it was adapted by an unknown Dominican
for the instruction of a prince and entitled Liber de informa-
tione principum. Durand's treatise was translated into the
vernacular as Le miroir des dames for Queen Jeanne of Evreux
between 1324-1328. About 1376, a Carmelite Blasius Andernarius
retranslated the text into Latin and claimed its authorship.
Le miroir des dames was widely disseminated in the royal and
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princely circles of fourteenth and fifteenth-century France,
but its influence did not extend beyond the confines of this
milieu.
In the early sixteenth century, Ysambert of St.-Leger,
a priest from Autun, revised the Speculum dominarum for
Margaret of Navarre. His effort to adapt it to Renaissance
standards was a failure. The decline in the popularity of
the treatise by the sixteenth century indicated a change in
literary taste and the passing of the speculum as a literary
form.
With the advent of the Renaissance, the concept of
queenship as a responsibility to either God or to society
waned. In its place the new doctrine for the lady of the
Renaissance stressed the importance of a humanistic educa­
tion, refinement, and versatility in entertaining court
circles. This type of literature marked the disappearance
of the dividing line between the queen and the lady of the
court, and inevitably caused the eclipse of the "mirror of
the queen" as well. The literary treatment of queenship
since the Renaissance has been undistinguished, indicating
the irrevocable decline of a once-important institution.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
My gratitude is due especially to Professor John H.
Mundy who sponsored my dissertation and shaped it by his
advice and criticism. I am indebted to Professor William
H. Jackson, its second reader, for his comment and kind
assistance. Comment and criticism by R. W. Southern,
Professor of Modern History at Oxford University, during
the academic year 1966-67, has been of great value in
correcting my errors and clarifying my views.
I gratefully acknowledge a grant from the Federal
German Government (DAAD), which enabled me to conduct
research in Germany, France, and Italy during 1965-66.
The librarians and archivists of the following institutions
have given me their unfailing help:
Archives de l'Aube, Troyes
Archives Nationales, Paris
Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich
Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Rome
Bibliotheque Mazarine, Paris
Bibliotheque Municipale, Troyes
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris
ii
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Bibliotheque Royale de Belgique, Brussels
Bibliotheque Sainte-Genevieve, Paris
Bodleian Library, Oxford
British Museum, London
Corpus Christi College Library, Cambridge
Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Wolfenbtlttel (Dr. H. Butzmann)
Historisches Archiv, Cologne (Dr. von den Brincken).
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PREFACE
Whereas didactic literature has been written at all
times, the Middle Ages was the period of its greatest expan­
sion. In a society based on the concept of hierarchy, con­
cern about the proper role of each individual generated an
extensive literature intended to define and explain his
place in society. The authors of various “mirrors" elabor­
ated upon the obligations of the particular components of
society and the limits of their roles. Didactic works were
addressed to specific estates, especially the nobility and
the clergy, to professionals, such as soldiers, lawyers,
teachers--even to “women of ill repute"^— , and to other
categories of persons, including children, virgins, wives,
and widows.
In the mass of medieval specula, outstanding trea­
tises were exceptional rather than typical. The overwhelm­
ing majority of "mirrors" repeated ad nauseam the same
themes, seldom rising above the narrow confines of sterile
moralizing. Undistinguished by literary merit, such works
^A section of Christine of Pisan's Le livre des
trois vertus, entitled "a 1'enseignement des femmes de folle
vie," is addressed specifically to prostitutes.
iv
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have passed into deserved oblivion. Some of the treatises,
however, presented vivid and realistic portraits of the
mores of their time. Their authors criticized the imperfec­
tions of society by revealing the discrepancy between the
ideal behavior and the everyday conduct of persons in
various walks of life.
One category of medieval speculum literature has re­
ceived surprisingly little attention from historians. Almost
nothing is known about the "mirror of the queen" except that
1
the genre existed. Yet its study should contribute substan­
tially to a better understanding of the peculiar position
the queen occupied in medieval society. On the one hand,
she stood along with the male ruler at the very top of the
social pyramid. On the other hand, her inferior status as a
woman set firm limits to her actual influence. The difficul­
ties in explaining the nature of queenship in the literature
of the Middle Ages stem from this ambiguity in her role.
The Latin treatise, Speculum dominarum, which is the
principal subject of this dissertation, has never been
'*'ln her "De la litterature didactique du moyen age
s'adressant specialement aux femmes" (Dissertation, Paris,
1903), Alice Hentsch enumerated 114 works addressed to women
of various classes, including queens. Her study, however,
is purely descriptive without any attempt at interpretation.
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published or even seriously studied. Several modern histor­
ians have dismissed it as just another of the dull moralizing
treatises which contains "practically nothing for the history
of customs and ideas. With some difficulty we have found in
2
it two or three passages worthy of being cited." Despite
its apparent lack of aesthetic distinction, however, the
Speculum dominarum is far from insignificant as a source for
Paulin Paris briefly described one of the French
manuscripts of the Speculum dominarum in his Les manuscrits
francais de la bibliotheque du roi (1842), V, 185, as did
Leopold Delisle in his Melanges de paleographie et de
bibliographie (1880), p. 232. A study by Louis de Backer
concerning the duties of women in the Middle Ages included
an excerpt from the work (Le droit de la femme dans
1'antiquite: son devoir au moyen age, d'apres les manuscrits
de la Bibliotheque Nationale [1880], pp. 103-08). Leopold
Delisle, "Durand de Champagne, franciscain," HL. XXX (1888),
302-25, summarized the contents and included several ex­
cerpts. Twentieth-century authors have derived their in­
formation from Delisle'S resume: Hentsch, op. cit., pp.
99-103? Arthur Piaget (ed.), Le miroir aux dames: poeme
inedlt du xve siecle ("Academie de Neuchatel, Recueil des
travaux," II; [1908]), 6-7; Rudolf Limmer, Bildungszustflnde
und -ideen des 13. Jahrhunderts (1928), pp. 18, 75, 251,
254; L. K. Born, "The Perfect Prince: A Study in Thirteenth
and Fourteenth Century Ideals," Speculum, III (1928), 493-94;
and Wilhelm Berges, Die Fttrstenspiegel des hohen und spaten
Mittelalters ("Schriften des Reichsinstitute fflr aitere
deutsche Geschichtskunde," MGH, II; [1938]), 337.
2
Delisle, "Durand de Champagne," p. 313.
Karl Wenck, Philipp der Schdne von Frankreich:
seine Persflnlichkeit und das Urtell der Zeltgenossen (1905),
p. 19, described it as "boring and richly filled with com­
monplaces," while L. Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la
langue et de la litterature francaise, des origines a
1900, II. Moyen Age, des origines a 1500 (1896-98), p. 187,
dismissed it as having "mediocre interest today."
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