A set of web links to information on medieval Paris by Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon.
NOTE: See also the files: Paris-msg, France-msg, Normans-msg, cities-msg, buildings-msg, commerce-msg.
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Mark S. Harris AKA: THLord Stefan li Rous
Stefan at florilegium.org
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From: Lis <liontamr at ptd.net>
Date: Tue Sep 23, 2003 8:20:25 AM US/Central
To: Stefan li Rous <StefanliRous at austin.rr.com>
Subject: Medieval Paris
Greetings everyone.
This week in honor of Aethelmearc's newest beloved Monarch, His Majesty Sir
Henri d'Artois, we visit that Mecca of medieval knowledge, Paris. Most
learned and moneyed men (and quite a few learned and moneyed women) went
there at least once during their Medieval lifetimes, so we shall visit and
see what it was they found so fascinating. They came to learn, to play, or
to attack. They passed through on a tour or a pilgrimage. They left behind a
little of themselves, and took a great deal away with them. Let's see what
it was they found so fascianting on our own tour of sites dedicated to
Medieval Paris. We'll look at Prisian Food, Parisian Universities, Famous
Citizens of Paris, French music likely to have been heard in Paris, French
Coins, Artifacts in Museums dedicated to Medieval Paris and France, look at
Le Cathedral de Notre Dame de Paris, go on a Parisian Pilgrimage, and check
out maps, abbeys and architecture.
This list is designed to be forwarded by the readers to people and lists who
will find it interesting. Please forward it on to those who will appreciate
it.
Au Revoir,
Aoife
Dame Aoife Finn of Ynos Mon
Aethelmearc
Paris at the time of Philippe August
http://philippe-auguste.com/uk/
(Site Excerpt) That they bought most was bread as for a long time a basic
element of food.
It seems that the corn which fed initially Paris is the corn of Beauce,
because the oldest market, in the Ile de la Citˇ , was called "Beauce
market". The corn arrived by the river Seine and was discharged at the
"Greve" market (currently "Town Hall" square). The mills of the "Grand Pont"
changed it in flour. During the reign of Philippe-Auguste, this market
became too small and at this point in time the king had the "Halles" market
open. The ordinance of March 12, 1322 specified the opening hours of the
three markets:
the "Greve", mentioned above: 6 a.m. then the "Juiverie", then the last one,
the "Halles" at 9 a.m.
Medieval Sourcebook:
Jacques de Vitry: Life of the Students at Paris
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/vitry1.html
(Site Excerpt) They affirmed that the English were drunkards and had tails;
the sons of France proud, effeminate and carefully adorned like women. They
said that the Germans were furious and obscene at their feasts; the Normans,
vain and boastful; the Poitevins, traitors and always adventurers. The
Burgundians they considered vulgar and stupid. The Bretons were reputed to
be fickle and changeable, and were often reproached for the death of Arthur.
The Lombards were called avaricious, vicious and cowardly; the Romans,
seditious, turbulent and slanderous; the Sicilians, tyrannical and cruel;
the inhabitants of Brabant, men of blood, incendiaries, brigands and
ravishers; the Flemish, fickle, prodigal, gluttonous, yielding as butter,
and slothful. After such insults from words they often came to blows.
CHRISTINE DE PISAN
http://www.byu.edu/ipt/projects/middleages/People/DePisan.html
(Site Excerpt) Many of de Pisan's works urged that women be allowed to
participate more fully in society. She also denounced the way women were
portrayed in Medieval literature. In her long poem, Letter to the God of
Love, she complained that women were often described as dishonest and
unreliable.
"Between Mother Nature and myself
As long as the world lasts, we won't let
Them be so uncherished and unloved,"
she vows. She reminds her readers about the single-minded loyalty of
classical heroines like Penelope and of the Virgin Mary. Some modem scholars
consider de Pisan to be history's first feminist.
Life of Saint Denis
http://employees.oneonta.edu/farberas/arth/arth214_folder/life_st_denis.html
(Site Excerpt) In 1317, King Philip V of France (The Tall) received from his
chaplain Gilles, the abbot of Saint Denis, a luxury copy of a text entitled
The Life of Saint Denis. The manuscript was begun during the reign of Philip
IV (The Fair) at the command of Jean de Pontoise, Abbot of Saint Denis. The
manuscript now preserved in the Biblioth¸que nationale in Paris (French 2090
-2092) contains seventy-seven miniatures illustrating the life and martyrdom
of Saint Denis, the first Bishop of Paris and the patron saint of France.
Medieval Sourcebook:
The Great Schism: University of Paris and the Schism, 1393
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/grtschism2.html
(Site Excerpt) In 1393 the king of France asked the University of Paris to
devise a way of ending the schism. In response to this request, each member
of the faculty was asked to propose in writing the way which seemed best to
him, and to advance -all the possible arguments in its favor. A commission
of fifty-four professors, masters, and doctors was then appointed to examine
all the proposed ways and means. After mature deliberation this commission
proposed three possible ways of ending the schism and drew them up in
writing and forwarded them to the king. They discussed at some length the
relative advantages and disadvantages of each way. Their letter to the king
is a long one. We give only three brief extracts from it, to show the three
ways which they proposed.
French Medieval Coins
http://members.tripod.com/~Charlemagne64/medieval.html
Branle de Bourgoigne, Belle Qui Tiens Ma Vie, Bransles, Bas Dances, Canarie
in A, etc... Midi Downloads
http://members.fortunecity.com/flatpickin/mididl.html
Site also contains non-French music for midi download, much of it medieval
or renaissance in nature.
Musee National du Moyen Age (The former Musee Cluny)
While the site is entirely in French with no English translation available,
there are some great pieces shown, and it is well worth a look. At the
bottom of the page, there is a link for free electronic postcards ("cart
postal") with medieval themes.
Webmuseum Paris
This webmuseum houses some famous artworks and the Tres Riche Heures du Duc
de Berry. It also hosts a virtual tour of Paris.
Notre Dame de Paris
http://elore.com/Gothic/History/Overview/paris.htm
(Site Excerpt) In thinking of Gothic architecture, our thoughts always
ascend. For that which embodies Gothic style most is lofty; Rose windows of
stained glass, ornately crafted spires, and the guardians of grand
cathedrals, the Gargoyles. Each is distinctly Gothic, and all distinctly
Notre Dame de Paris.
Centre de musique mˇdiˇvale de Paris
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/cmmp/CMMP.html
While this site is also only in French, if you click Choix Discographiques,
you will find another menu which will take you to a bibliography of recorded
medieval music, which IS intelligible to the English reader. Useful for the
music researcher. Also included is a section entitled Quelques instruments
utilisˇs au moyen-‰ge (Various instruments used in the Middle Ages), which
provides illustrations of the instruments being used, and their names in
French.
Map of Medieval Paris
http://www.saradouglass.com/medparis.html
(Site Excerpt) The sixteenth-century Englishman, Fynes Moryson, has provided
us with as good a map of Paris as he has of Rome. Here I have left Moryson's
own description of the monuments below the map. His 'Roman Cathedral' is, of
course, the Notre Dame. Please note, however, that Moryson has put North at
the bottom of the map rather than at the top left as we tend to do now.
The Medieval Paris
http://www.french-at-a-touch.com/French_Regions/Ile-de-France/medieval_paris.htm
(Site Excerpt) By the middle of the 11th century, Paris was administered by
the provost of Paris. During the same century, the first Parisian guilds
were formed. Later, in 1141, the king sold Paris' principal Seine port to
the river-merchants' guild. Their coat of arms subsequently became Paris'
coat of arms. It wasn't until 1171 that Louis VII conferred a charter upon
the river-merchants' guild, confirming its "ancient right" to monopolize the
river trade.
Paris Muse: Make a Pilgrimage to Medieval Paris
http://www.parismuse.com/about/news/pilgrimage.shtml
(Site Excerpt) "See those greenish sculpted figures there, climbing up the
spire?" Kristen asked visitors on a recent tour. "One of them is holding up
his hand, and turning his head away from the the sun. That is a portrait of
the 19th-century restorer Viollet le Duc, shown as if he were blinded by the
beauty of his own creation."
Viollet le Duc's now controversial 19th-century restorations (of which he
must have been quite proud!) comprise just one of the many episodes of a
complex history that began in 1163, when the first stone was laid. In the
centuries that followed, generations of craftsmen and builders all left
their mark.
Sainte-Genevi¸ve abbey
http://historic-cities.huji.ac.il/france/paris/stroll/st_genevieve/st_genevieve.html
(A collection of Paris Maps with descriptions and juicy tid-bits. Site
Excerpt) Sainte-Genevi¸ve abbey, at a top of a hill, was one of the oldest
churches of Paris. Here had been buried the saint patroness of the city, and
Clovis, first Frankish merovingian king. Nearby is the actual Pantheon. All
over the hill settled colleges, schools, and the University, called the
Sorbonne. Part of Braun and Hogenberg map of Paris from Civitates Orbis
Terrarum I -7 published in 1572.
Medieval Women Scriptorum: A Parisian Journal
http://mw.mcmaster.ca/scriptorium/paris1.html
(Site Excerpt) As soon as people heard in Paris that the King was in his
enemies' country, they arranged by common consent the most touching
processions that anyone had ever seen in living memory. On Monday, the next
to last day of May in the same year, the people of the Palais in Paris and
the mendicant orders and others all went in procession barefoot, carrying
various most worthy shrines and the Holy True Cross of the Palais; also the
members of the Parlement of every rank, all two by two, with some thirty
thousand people following after, and all of them barefoot. On Tuesday, the
last day of May in the same year, some of the town's parishes made
processions, the parishioners going around their own parishes. All the
priests wore copes or surplices, each carried a candle and relics, all
barefoot; the shrine of St. Blanchard, of St. Magloire, and two hundred or
more little children going in front, all barefoot and each with a candle or
taper in his hand. Everyone who could afford it carried a torch; all were
barefooted, women and men.
Living And Dining In Medieval Paris
The Household of a Fourteenth-Century Knight (Book for Sale)
http://www.uwp.co.uk/book_desc/1647.html
(Site Excerpt) A richly detailed account of the culinary world of
fourteenth-century Paris. At the centre of this account lies the Mˇnagier de
Paris, a medieval manuscript covering all aspects of food preparation and
household skills, written by a well-to-do knight for his fifteen-year-old
wife. Through her meticulous study of the manuscript, Nicole
Crossley-Holland paints a vivid picture of life in the knight's household:
his city residence with its walled vegetable and herb garden; his home farm
which provided meat and dairy produce; the country estate where he trained
sparrowhawks and hunted wild boar.
MODERN TALE OF A MEDIEVAL PARIS DUNGEON by THL Isabelle de Foix
http://scholar76.tripod.com/dungeon2.htm
(Site Excerpt) The Latin Quarter is so called because it was the place where
the students at the University of Paris (now the Sorbonne) lived and
studied, and they were required to speak Latin with each other even when
they weren't in class. Most of the Sorbonne is now nondescript office and
classroom buildings. Their monotony is only broken by a simple plaque on one
of them reading "La Sorbonne". The plaque spellbound me; it reminded me that
I was walking in the footsteps of scholars like Peter Abelard, St. Thomas
Aquinas and Erasmus of Rotterdam. But there is a picturesque district right
next to these dull buildings. It is closed to traffic for obvious reasons.
The streets retain their medieval narrowness, and only accommodate
pedestrian two-way traffic. The buildings have a romantic, quaint look to
them. They now mostly house either restaurants or cabarets, with the strange
exception of an old church. One of my travel vouchers was admission to one o
f these cabarets. This included a free crawl through a tunnel into "an
authentic dungeon" supposedly dating from the fourteenth century. It was
only a block away from the oldest street in Paris, also dating from the
fourteenth century. I knew I had to check this out.
Medieval Paris Comes to Huntington Beach
Revival of An Ancient Devotion
By Charles A. Coulombe
http://www.losangelesmission.com/ed/articles/2001/0601cc.htm
(Site Excerpt) "As you are approaching l'Ile de la Cite," continued Turpin,
"where lies one of the jewels of all the European Cathedrals, Notre Dame de
Paris, you hear Gregorian chant. You turn around the corner and see a
beautiful procession. Clad in a golden cope, a priest bears the Blessed
Sacrament in a monstrance, while four laymen hold a canopy over him. Before
them a thurifer swings his censer, and other acolytes scatter flowers. The
choir precedes this group, singing the Pange Lingua Gloriosi; and still
further forward, all the parish is solemnly walking.
The International Medieval Society, Paris
http://www.columbia.edu/~mmc66/
(Site Excerpt) Each year, a great number of academics come to Paris to
conduct research in a field of medieval studies. Because most operate
independently, precious time is wasted in simple orientation to the
different institutions and in gaining access to specialized research
locations. Numerous opportunities are missed..The International Medieval
Society aims to resolve this by creating a center for international
researchers in Paris.
Le Menagier de Paris
http://www.daviddfriedman.com/Medieval/Cookbooks/Menagier/Menagier.html
(Site Excerpt) This was translated from the French edition of Jerome Pichon
published in 1846. Footnotes marked JP are by him; those marked JH are by
Janet Hinson, the translator; those marked DDF and EGC are by David Friedman
and Elizabeth Cook, respectively.........(c) Janet Hinson ......After these
matters it is desirable to tell you of various general terms relating to
cookery of any quality, and then you will be shown how to know and choose
the foods with which you will work, as follows :First, when you grind spices
and bread for any sauces or soups, you must grind the spices first and
remove them from the mortar, for as you grind the bread it will gather up
any spices remaining; thus you do not lose any speck which would be lost
otherwise.Item, sauces and thickening agents for soups should never be
strained, whereas for sauces they should be so that the sauces be clearer
and also more pleasing.
Gothic Architecture
http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/gothic_arch.html
A series of thumbnails (which expand to full size) and sites dedicated to
the subject.
Middle Ages Crisis: The Medieval Garden (a news article)
http://www.paris.org/Kiosque/dec00/middleagescrisis.html
(Site Excerpt) The Square de Cluny hid behind billboards detailing the
park's conversion into a garden resembling that of the time when knights
slew dragons and swept damsels in distress off their feet. Those of us who
love Paris like a lady waited impatiently for the day when the gardens would
be unveiled. Well, the idea looked good on parchment. The first section
stands as a monument to the architect's imagination. A small circle bordered
by benches is referred to as a "clearing" and a tatty patch of grass is
named the Forest of the Unicorn. The sign explaining the appellation
describes a mythical place based on the Lady and the Unicorn tapestry series
on display in the neighboring museum, yet the only mystical creatures large
enough for this savage forest are catnaps.
(And for the opposing viewpoint, also see this site: In busy Paris, a quiet
garden of medieval delights
http://search.csmonitor.com/durable/2001/01/02/fp5s1-csm.shtml ).
Beautiful Medieval Riddles Of Paris (An article from the Herald Tribune)
http://www.iht.com/IHT/ART/99/sm092099.html
(Site Excerpt) The house of the abbots of Cluny where the gems are displayed
was built in the early 16th century (and alas, restored around 1900). It
remains charming. History is next door, literally. The Gallo-Roman baths of
Lutetia - as the Romans called the city of the Celtic ''Parisii'' - stand
there in ruins, incorporated with the museum.
The first room is dominated by early 16th-century tapestries from Brussels.
Their ''Millefleur'' (''Thousand Blossoms''), amid which pages and damsels
go about their dallying and other business, have a touch of the enchanted
garden.
Casteland.com'S Medieval Louvre Castle
http://www.casteland.com/puk/castle/idf/paris/louvre/louvre.htm (Site
Excerpt)
The medieval castle at the origin of the current palate was built by king
Philippe-Auguste at the end of XIIe century. Work of restoration of the
Square court and the excavations necessary to the construction of the
pyramid and new spaces of the Carrousel made it possible to carry out
archaeological excavations, to recognize the various phases of the
occupation of the palate and district. The architectural structures of the
basement from now on are included in the circuits of visit. Thus one can
circulate, under the Carrˇe court, in the ditches of the medieval fortress,
circumvent the base of the keep to gain the Saint-Louis room (XIIIe century)
or, with the outlet of the underground car park, to go along the ditches
known as of Charles V..
David Brown Books: List of Books on Medieval Paris
http://www.oxbowbooks.com/browse.cfm?&;CatID=250&Location=DBBC&CFID=1885290&CFTOKEN=26062213
French Medieval Libraries:
A Bibliography (A book for sale)
http://web.simmons.edu/~booton/booksellers.htm
Medieval Universities
http://mars.acnet.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/wc1/lectures/25meduni.html
(Site Excerpt) The University of Paris grew out of the schools originally
situated on the Ile de la Citˇ, around the Cathedral of Notre Dame, but
began to achieve its independence when teachers and students withdrew to the
left bank of the Seine River, to the Street of Straw, in the near vicinity
of the Church of St. Genevieve.
The Central Middle Ages: Reform, Revival, and Expansion
States in the Making: England and France Timeline
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0072346574/student_view0/part2/chapter12/chapter_timeline.html
(Site excerpt) 1189-1199 Richard
Richard I "the Lionheart" was king of England, but spent most of his reign
in defending his
territori
Formatting copyright © Mark S. Harris (THLord Stefan li Rous).
All other copyrights are property of the original article and message authors.
Comments to the Editor: stefan at florilegium.org