ABSTRACT
For over eight hundred centuries, there has been fervent speculation as to the historical identity of the twelfth-century romance writer Chrétien de Troyes. His sphere of intellectual activity has nearly always been assumed to have been the court of Henry the Liberal and Countess Marie of Champagne. Further, it has often been accepted that Chrétien wrote his first four romances exclusively under the patronage of Marie of Champagne, and moved to Flanders to write his last romance, the Conte du Graal, under the patronage of Phillip of Flanders. Yet recent scholarship has demonstrated that even the three earliest manuscript versions of the Conte du Graal are of Champenois production, and decorated in what Patricia Stirnemann calls the “Manerius style” of manuscript illumination. 1 Nonetheless, the assumption that Chrétien was regularly present at the court of Champagne, and worked under the patronage of Marie of Champagne, has not been borne out by the findings of those having worked closely with the charters and acts produced by the court of Champagne or other archival material from the county and its religious institutions. It is not improbable that proof of Chrétien's identity perished among the archival and artistic treasures illegally destroyed by the goldsmith L.J. Rondot, who was hired by the General Council of the Commune in 1794 to oversee the transfer of Saint-Etienne's collection to the National Convention, 2 or in the fire of 1188 which destroyed much of Troyes. Notwithstanding this lack of historical evidence establishing Chrétien's identity, many medieval scholars appear to have accepted the question of patronage as having been resolved by a single dedication to Countess Marie in the Chevalier de la Charrette. I would contend, however, that the laying aside of such historical considerations, especially that of patronage, has ultimately skewed the manner in which we interpret Chrétien's romances. The uncritical acceptance that he wrote solely for the Countess during the greater part of his career has led some scholars to make assumptions about Marie's influence on the tenor of his works. As I will attempt to demonstrate throughout the book, these assumptions prove to be untenable. In fact, Chrétien demonstrates a surprising degree of artistic autonomy in all of his romances, including those for which he claims to have worked under patronage (i.e., the Chevalier de la Charrette and the Conte du Graal). As will be suggested throughout the book, it is highly probable that the confident, and indeed ironic, stance he adopts with regard to Marie of Champagne and Phillip of Flanders, suggests that only a limited number of patronage-author relationships were possible, while eliminating others. In particular, the chapters devoted to the Chevalier de la Charrette and the Conte du Graal demonstrate the manner in which Chrétien deftly inscribes the limits of his patron's authority within the very texts he claims to be dedicating to them. The Chevalier de la Charrette, in particular, appears to be a subtle tongue-in-cheek parody of Marie's patronage, and Chrétien's ironic attempt to evade her authority. Further, Chapter Three on the Chevalier de la Charrette, traces the way in which Chrétien uses Plantagenet armorial symbolism and rather sardonic allusions to a certain female figure in a way which could very well indicate that Chrétien had some past association with Eleanor of Aquitaine and the House of Anjou. Yet what most strikingly convinces the reader of the need for a re-contextualization of Chrétien's corpus is the progressive emergence, from one romance to the next, of a symbolism which, as I will attempt to demonstrate, has some striking corollaries to the kinds of Arabic-language treatises on exoteric alchemy and cosmology being translated along with other scientific and philosophical treatises, by scholars working in northern Spain, such as Hermann of Carinthia, Robert of Ketton, and Dominicus Gundisalvus. The translations and works of these scholars appear to have been known and used by Thierry the Breton, chancellor of the Cathedral of Chartres in the 1140s. 3 In addition to the alchemical symbolism and motifs found in the works of Chrétien, there are also aspects of his work which can be elucidated in light of the Sufi poetry and philosophy of Andalusi circles; by which I mean, the highly syncretic intellectual milieux of medieval Spain, as shared by Mozarabic and northern Christian clerics—especially those involved in the translation of Arabic-language scientific and philosophical treatises—and the Jewish and Moslem scholars whose continued presence in newly conquered territories assured the transmission and perpetuation of Andalusi culture. 4 The assertion that there are Hispano-Arabic influences in the romances of Chrétien de Troyes may surprise some readers, accustomed to considering his works solely in the context of northern European—and thus Christian—society. However, recent translations of medieval Arabic works which had currency in the years preceding the twelfth century—such as the treatises on mystical alchemy by Jabir Ibn Hayyan, and the Encyclopedia of the Ikhwan al-Safa, or “Brethren of Purety”—which continued throughout the twelfth century to influence the philosophical and scientific treatises, as well as the poetry, of Muslim, Jewish and Mozarabic intellectuals living in Spain, have made it possible to recognize some of the otherwise abstruse symbolism in Chrétien's romances. Chrétien continually alludes to Spain throughout his works, either through toponymy or symbolism. In his final romance, the Conte du Graal, he takes to task the negative image of Muslim Spain created by medieval Christian writers, in such works as the Chanson de Roland, where it is depicted as a kind of sterile ‘valley of shadows.’
