Real versus Fictional in Jean de Nostredame’s Biographies of the Troubadours (1575)

• In Event: Studies in Digital and Analog Prosopography: Reconnecting Cultural Networks of the Early Modern Era

Abstract

This paper examines the Vies des plus célèbres et anciens poètes provensaux (1575) by Jean de Nostredame. Aimed at dignifying the history of Provence, the book reshapes the vidas from the ancient chansonniers by modeling them on Giorgio Vasari’s Vite, thus adjusting them to the Renaissance fashion for the biographies of artists-heroes. While often dispraised by scholars, the Vies did contribute to the establishment of the literary primacy of the troubadours and the idea of the composer-author. Here I argue that what is rejected by modern readers of the Vies – that is their unreliability as biographical accounts – should instead be understood as a meta-literary strategy: in fact, they were based on likewise unreliable vidas, considered today a literary genre per se. The paper will explore the case of Richard the Lionheart: reinventing history, the biographer presented him as a troubadour, creating a myth that survives today.

Author

• Davide Daolmi, Università degli Studi di Milano