1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910823849503321

Autore

McGrady Deborah L. <1967-, >

Titolo

The Writer's Gift or the Patron's Pleasure? : The Literary Economy in Late Medieval France / / Deborah McGrady

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Toronto : , : University of Toronto Press, , [2019]

©2019

ISBN

1-4875-1845-5

1-4875-1844-7

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (336 pages)

Disciplina

840.9/001

Soggetti

Authors and patrons - France - History - To 1500

Art commissions - France - History - To 1500

History

Criticism, interpretation, etc.

Electronic books.

France

France Intellectual life To 1500

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di contenuto

Cover; Contents; List of Illustrations; Acknowledgments; Abbreviations; Introduction: Rethinking Literary Patronage in a Medieval Context; Chapter One: King Charles V's Sapientia Project: From the Construction of the Louvre Library to the Books He Commissioned; Chapter Two: The Writer's Work: Translating Charles V's Literary Clientelism into Learned Terms; Chapter Three: Guillaume de Machaut's Fictions of Engagement; Chapter Four: Eustache Deschamps on the Duties and Dues of Poetry

Chapter Five: The Pursuit of Patronage: From Christine de Pizan's Troubled Dealings with Louis of Orleans to Marketing NostalgiaChapter Six: The Curse of the Commission: Christine de Pizan on Sacrificing Charles V's Biography; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index

Sommario/riassunto

"The Writer's Gift or the Patron's Pleasure? introduces a new approach to literary patronage through a reassessment of the medieval paragon of literary sponsorship, Charles V of France. Traditionally celebrated for



his book commissions that promoted the vernacular, Charles V also deserves credit for having profoundly altered the literary economy when bypassing the traditional system of acquiring books through gifting to favor the commission. When upturning literary dynamics by soliciting works to satisfy his stated desires, the king triggered a multi-generational literary debate concerned with the effect a work's status as a solicited or unsolicited text had in determining the value and purpose of the literary enterprise. Treating first the king's commissioned writers and then canonical French late medieval authors, Deborah L. McGrady argues that continued discussion of these competing literary economies engendered the concept of the "writer's gift," which vernacular writers used to claim a distinctive role in society based on their triple gift of knowledge, wisdom, and literary talent."--