La Suite Vulgate, 'Suite historique' du Merlin? Histoire et roman dans un récit arthurien en prose

La Suite Vulgate, une œuvre d'orientation à la fois romanesque et historique, interroge la pertinence des constructions et catégories génériques dans la littérature médiévale. Afin de mieux cerner le statut de cette œuvre hybride, cet article explore les questions de l'écriture de l'histoire, la terminologie à travers laquelle l'œuvre s'auto-désigne, son rapport à la temporalité, et le mode de représentation de l'histoire que propose le texte.

Entre histoire et fiction: la représentation du règne d'Arthur dans le manuscrit enluminé du Brut en prose, Londres, Lambeth Palace 6 (c. 1480)

The manuscript London, Lambeth Palace 6, contains the Middle English prose Brut, a text which benefited from a great popularity throughout the fifteenth century. It was copied by an English scribe and richly illuminated by the Master of Edward IV and his assistants at Bruges around 1480. This article studies the representation and integration of the reign of Arthur in the historical framework of the Brut or Chronicles of England, including its fictional aspects: Arthur emerges as a historical character but also as a chivalric and mythical figure. The analysis covers the miniatures ranging from the plot leading to the conception of Arthur to the end of his reign (fols. 36-66). The textual and iconographic choices of the prose Bruts are highlighted by comparisons with Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, Wace’s Brut, and later prose rewritings in the Lancelot-Grail romance cycle, especially Merlin and its Vulgate Sequel. They show the continuous interest raised by Arthur in the aristocratic and royal circles of late fifteenth century England and the relationship be¬tween continental and insular historiographical, literary and artistic traditions.