ABSTRACT
This chapter describes what the concept implies, then reflect on the ways in which a particularly well-known and distinctive poem of the late Middle Ages—Francois Villon's Testament—can be regarded as a countermonument. The concept of the "countermonument," developed in the field of memorial architecture, is a productive one in the context. An initial sketch of the Testament, while inevitably superficial, is an essential prelude to any discussion of the ways in which it problematizes authority and communication. One of the important thematic strands in the Testament is its persistent under-cutting of textual authority, including the reliability of transmission. In contrast with the use or distortion of acrostics, textual variation is not immediately related to the materiality of the page—though the issues it raises are equally relevant to the mutability and reflexivity of the literary countermonument.
