The ''Manuscrit du Roi'' or ''Chansonnier du Roi'' ("King's Manuscript" or "King's Songbook" in English) is a prominent

songbook A song book is a book containing lyrics for songs. Song books may be simple composition books or spiral-bound notebooks. Music publishers also produced printed editions for group singing. Such volumes were used in the United States by piano man ...

compiled towards the middle of the thirteenth century, probably between 1255 and 1260 and a major testimony of European

medieval music Medieval music encompasses the sacred music, sacred and secular music of Western Europe during the Middle Ages, from approximately the 6th to 15th centuries. It is the Dates of classical music eras, first and longest major era of Western class ...

. It is currently French manuscript no.844 of the

Bibliothèque nationale de France The (; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites, ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository of all that is published in France. Some of its extensive collections, including bo ...

. It is known by various sigla, depending on which of its contents are the focus of study: it is

troubadour A troubadour (, ; ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female equivalent is usually called a ''trobairitz''. The tr ...

manuscript ''W'',

trouvère ''Trouvère'' (, ), sometimes spelled ''trouveur'' (, ), is the Northern French ('' langue d'oïl'') form of the '' langue d'oc'' (Occitan) word ''trobador'', the precursor of the modern French word '' troubadour''. ''Trouvère'' refers to po ...

manuscript ''M'', and

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

manuscript ''R''. It was first published by French musicologist Pierre Aubry in 1907 (''Estampies et danses royales: Les plus anciens textes de musique instrumentale au Moyen Âge''). __NOTOC__

Background

The manuscript contains more than 600 songs composed for the most part between the late twelfth and early thirteenth century. Some were written by famous trouvères, such as

Theobald I of Navarre Theobald I (, ; 30 May 1201 – 8 July 1253), also called the Troubadour and the Posthumous, was Count of Champagne (as Theobald IV) from birth and King of Navarre from 1234. He initiated the Barons' Crusade, was famous as a trouvère, and was the ...

, Gace Brulé, Guiot de Dijon or Richard de Fournival, but others are anonymous. It contains as an addendum a booklet of songs by King

, sometimes known as manuscript ''Mt''. Around 85% of its material is French, while only 61 songs are by troubadours, in a Frenchified form of Occitan. Of these, 51 have music. The songbook has close associations with the Principality of the

Morea Morea ( or ) was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used by the Principality of Achaea, the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the O ...

and was most likely created as a gift for William of Villehardouin,

Prince of Achaea The Prince of Achaea was the ruler of the Principality of Achaea, one of the crusader states Frankokratia, founded in Greece in the aftermath of the Fourth Crusade (1202–1204). The principality witnessed various overlords during its more than tw ...

Charles of Anjou Charles I (early 1226/12277 January 1285), commonly called Charles of Anjou or Charles d'Anjou, was King of Sicily from 1266 to 1285. He was a member of the royal Capetian dynasty and the founder of the House of Anjou-Sicily. Between 1246 a ...

, the King of Naples and William's father-in-law. By around 1270, it was in Charles' possession. Today, the state of conservation of the collection is bad. Eighteen pages are missing and several decorative initials have been cut out, but it remains a major testimony of

Recordings

* The ''Manuscrit du Roi'' was recorded in 1992 by the Ensemble Perceval, and was published in 1993 by Arion. * ''Estampies & Danses Royales'' by Hespèrion XXI and

Jordi Savall Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish Conducting, conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol ...

(2008) * Various songs and instrumental pieces from the ''Manuscrit du Roi'' feature on the CD ''Music for a Medieval Prince'' (2012) recorded by Trouvere Medieval Minstrels.

References

Sources

* * Originally in Stanley Sadie, ed., ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' (London 1980), vol. 23, p. 853. * * * * *

External links

Manuscript 844
on the Gallica project of the Bibliothèque nationale de France. {{Medieval music manuscript sources 1250s books 13th-century manuscripts Music of France Bibliothèque nationale de France collections Medieval music manuscript sources