Recovering the Medieval in the French Renaissance - Claude Fauchet's Veilles ou Observations

Focusing on a little studied miscellany by Claude Fauchet (1530-1602), this book reveals the role of the medieval in crafting an image of French modernity during the Renaissance. Designed to confront the Pléiade with the rich legacy of medieval French, the Veilles argued that an illustrious vernacular had to be rooted in native traditions, richer by far than generally credited. From meter in the twelfth-century Roman d’Alexandre to the emendation of Philippe de Commynes’s Mémoires, and from dueling etiquette to the tomb of Jean de Meun, Fauchet’s observations even reach into his present moment, with essays on Lemaire de Belges, Marot, and Ronsard. Here is an echo of a very different French Renaissance, in which the Burghers of Calais are more important than Francion, and a knowledge of Old French more desirable than classical erudition. Furthermore, as a response to rupture and loss, the Veilles are perhaps the earliest snapshot of a primary stage in the reception of medieval French literature.