Aliscans is a chanson de geste of the late twelfth century. It recounts the story of the fictional battle of Aliscans (Alescans), a disastrous defeat of a Christian by a pagan army. The name 'Aliscans' presumably refers to the Alyscamps in Arles. It belongs to the Guillaume d'Orange cycle, and in the action Guillaume's nephew Vivien is killed.
The chanson de geste is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late eleventh and early twelfth centuries, before the emergence of the lyric poetry of the trouvères (troubadours) and the earliest verse romances. They reached their apogee in the period 1150–1250.
The Alyscamps is a large Roman necropolis, which is a short distance outside the walls of the old town of Arles, France. It was one of the most famous necropolises of the ancient world. The name comes from the Provençal Occitan word Aliscamps, which comes from the Latin Elisii Campi. They were famous in the Middle Ages and are referred to by Ariosto in Orlando Furioso and by Dante in the Inferno.
Arles is a city and commune in the south of France, in the Bouches-du-Rhône department, of which it is a subprefecture, in the former province of Provence.
It is written in the old Picard language, and has around 8000 lines. It is dated, probably, as composed 1180-1190, and survives in 13 manuscripts.
Picard is a langues d'oïl dialect of the Indo-European language family spoken in the northernmost part of France and southern Belgium. Administratively, this area is divided between the French Hauts-de-France region and the Belgian Wallonia along the border between both countries due to its traditional core being the districts of Tournai and Mons.
It is generally thought to be a source for the Willehalm of Wolfram von Eschenbach, and the two works cover the same events. [1] The chanson is likely based on the Chançun de Willame , a version of the cycle from the beginning of the century.
Willehalm is an unfinished Middle High German poem from the early 13th century, written by the poet Wolfram von Eschenbach. The poem's subject matter is in both the chivalric romance genre and the chanson de geste genre.
Wolfram von Eschenbach was a German knight and poet, regarded as one of the greatest epic poets of medieval German literature. As a Minnesinger, he also wrote lyric poetry.
Garin de Monglane, or Montglane, is a fictional character created by Conrad von Stöffler in 1280. The character gives his name to the second cycle of Old French chansons de geste, La Geste de Garin de Monglane. His cycle tells stories of fiefless lads of noble birth who went off seeking land and adventure fighting the Saracens.
The Matter of France, also known as the Carolingian cycle, is a body of literature and legendary material associated with the history of France, in particular involving Charlemagne and his associates. The cycle springs from the Old French chansons de geste, and was later adapted into a variety of art forms, including Renaissance epics and operas. Together with the Matter of Britain, which concerned King Arthur, and the Matter of Rome, comprising material derived from and inspired by classical mythology, it was one of the great literary cycles that figured repeatedly in medieval literature.
The Burgundian School was a group of composers active in the 15th century in what is now northern and eastern France, Belgium, and the Netherlands, centered on the court of the Dukes of Burgundy.
William of Gellone, the medieval William of Orange, was the second Duke of Toulouse from 790 until 811. In 804, he founded the abbey of Gellone. He was canonized a saint in 1066 by Pope Alexander II.
Medieval French literature is, for the purpose of this article, literature written in Oïl languages during the period from the eleventh century to the end of the fifteenth century.
Guillaume Costeley [pronounced Cotelay](1530, possibly 1531 – 28 January 1606) was a French composer of the Renaissance. He was the court organist to Charles IX of France and famous for his numerous chansons, which were representative of the late development of the form; his work in this regard was part of the early development of the style known as musique mesurée. He was also one of very few 16th century French composers of music for keyboard. In addition, he was a founding member of the Académie de Poésie et de Musique along with poet Jean-Antoine de Baïf, and he was one of the earliest composers to experiment with microtonal composition.
La Geste de Garin de Monglane is the second cycle of the three great cycles of chansons de geste created in the early days of the genre. It centres on Garin de Monglane.
Jean Renart, also known as Jean Renaut, was a Norman trouvère from the end of the 12th century and the first half of the 13th to whom three works are firmly ascribed: two metrical chivalric romances, L'Escoufle and Guillaume de Dole, and a lai, Lai de l’Ombre. Nothing else is known of him or his life. He is praised for his realism and his psychological insight.
Andrea Mangiabotti, called Andrea da Barberino was an Italian writer and cantastorie ("storyteller") of the Quattrocento Renaissance. He was born in Barberino Val d'Elsa, near Florence and lived in Florence. He is principally known for his prose romance epic Il Guerrin Meschino, his I Reali di Francia, a prose compilation of the Matter of France epic material concerning Charlemagne and Roland (Orlandino) from various legends and chansons de geste, and for his Aspramonte, a reworking of the chanson de geste Aspremont, which also features the hero Ruggiero. Many of his writings probably derive from Franco-Italian works, such as the Geste Francor, that includes versions of the stories of Reali di Francia and dates to the first half of the fourteenth century. His works, which circulated at first in manuscript, were extremely successful and popular, and were a key source of material for later Italian romance writers, such as Luigi Pulci (Morgante), Matteo Maria Boiardo and Ludovico Ariosto.
The Karlamagnús saga, Karlamagnussaga or Karlamagnus-saga was a late-thirteenth-century Norse prose compilation and adaptation, made for Haakon V of Norway, of the Old French chansons de geste of the Matter of France dealing with Charlemagne and his paladins. In some cases, the Karlamagnús saga remains the only source for otherwise-lost Old French epics.
Aymeri de Narbonne is a legendary hero of Old French chansons de geste and the Matter of France. In the legendary material, as elaborated and expanded in various medieval texts, Aymeri is a knight in the time of Charlemagne's wars with the Saracens after the Battle of Roncevaux Pass. He is son of Hernaut and the grandson of Garin de Monglane. He conquers the city of Narbonne, marries a princess named Hermengarde or Hermenjart, and fathers seven sons, the most famous being Guillaume d'Orange, the hero of several popular chansons de geste.
The Chanson de Guillaume or Chançun de Willame is a chanson de geste from the first half of the twelfth-century. The work is generally considered to have two distinct halves: the first tells of Guillaume of Orange, his nephew Vivien and the latter's young brother Gui and their various battles with Saracens at L'Archamp; in the second half of the poem, Guillaume is aided by Rainouard, a giant.
The Charroi de Nîmes, is an Old French chanson de geste from the first half of the twelfth-century, part of the cycle of chansons concerning Guillaume of Orange, generally referred to collectively as the Geste de Guillaume d'Orange.
The Prise d'Orange, is an Old French chanson de geste from the end of the twelfth-century, part of the cycle of chansons concerning Guillaume of Orange, generally referred to collectively as the Geste de Guillaume d'Orange. Its plot concerns William's conquest of the city of Orange from the Saracens and of his marriage to its queen Orable, renamed Guibourc.
Gormond et Isembart is an Old French chanson de geste from the second half of the eleventh or first half of the twelfth century. Along with The Song of Roland and the Chanson de Guillaume, it is one of the three chansons de geste whose composition incontestably dates from before 1150; it may be slightly younger than The Song of Roland and, according to one expert, may date from as early as 1068. The poem tells the story of a rebellious young French lord, Isembart, who allies himself with a Saracen king, Gormond, renounces his Christianity, and battles the French king. The poem is sometimes grouped with the Geste de Doon de Mayence or "rebellious vassal cycle" of chansons de geste.
The Chanson de toile was a genre of narrative Old French lyric poetry devised by the trouvères which flourished in the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Some fifteen of them remain; five were written by Audefroi le Bastart, the others are anonymous. Typically, they are set to music and tell the story of a young, often married woman pining for a lover, with a happy ending. The genre's name derives from toile; that is, they are supposed to have been sung by women who were weaving, and the female main characters also sew as they relate their stories.
Guillaume de Dole is an Old French narrative romance by Jean Renart. Composed in the early 13th century, the poem is 5,656 lines long and is especially notable for the large number of chansons it contains, and for its active female protagonist. The romance incorporates forty-six chansons ; it is the first extant example in French literature of a text that combines narrative and lyric. Its form was quickly imitated, by authors such as Gerbert de Montreuil, and by the end of the 13th century had become canonical.