Beyond the Two Doors of Memory: Intertextualities and Intervisualities in Thirteenth-Century Illuminated Manuscripts of the Roman de Troie and the Histoire Ancienne 1

This chapter introduces a very particular sort of historical document from the early Middle Ages the libri memoriales or confraternity books. It was only in the early Middle Ages that libri memoriales were made in a significant number and, as it seems, only in some regions of the Frankish Empire, that is, in the regions around the Alps. On the Continent, six or eight libri memoriales have come down to us from the Carolingian period the books of Brescia in Italy, Pffers and Saint Gall in Switzerland, Reichenau in Germany, Salzburg in Austria and Remiremont in France. The early Christian diptychs may be regarded as one of the main roots of the medieval Libri memoriales. The chapter explains the history of Remiremont can be traced back to the Merovingian period of the Regnum Francorum. The nunnery was founded in the early seventh century by a certain Romarich, an Austrasian magnate.