Lo chansonnier du roi. Luoghi e autori della lirica e della musica europee del Duecento

The Chansonnier du Roi (Paris, BNF f. fr. 844) is one of the most important sources for trouvère and troubadour lyrics, but also for early motets. Compiled around 1250 in Artois, the manuscript was later enriched with a unique collection of Occitan, French and Latin monophonic songs and instrumental dances in mensural notation. In the last decades, this chansonnier has been studied both from musicologists (Peraino and Haines) and romance philologists (Battelli and Asperti). Insights from these two fields, however, have never been brought together. This is my aim in this paper, focusing in particular on the later additions to the manuscript, about which I will also present new palaeographical evidence. My central hypothesis is that fr. 844 was brought to the Angevin court of Naples, probably around 1282, by Robert II of Artois. Here poets and artists from Northern France, Occitania and Aragon contributed to a multicultural milieu, where the chansonnier could have been exposed to new styles. Moreover, in comparison with similar sources, the compilers’ predilection for literary genres specifically connected to dance and music, as well as the use of mensural notation but also metrical irregularities and mise en texte strategies, show a unique interest in sound and performance. Ultimately, I expand the geography of thirteenth-century music, claiming Naples as major cultural centers of vernacular monophony.