1. Jeay, “Les éléments,” p. 90.
2. As Dubuis concedes (Saintré, trans. Dubuis, pp. 13–14), many modern readers may be tempted only by the love story.
3. Medieval readers seem to have enjoyed lists and enumerations; see Jeay, Commerce des mots.
4. Kristeva, pp. 22–23.
5. This manuscript may be viewed online at Gallica, http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b6001339w.r=antoine+de+la+sale.langEN (acc. November 2013).
6. For a detailed description of this manuscript that emphasizes its composite quality, see Jeay, “Une théorie du roman.”
7. The most complete account of La Sale’s life story, culled in large part from autobiographical fragments within his works, remains Desonay, Antoine de La Sale.
8. The first two trips are told in Le Paradis de la Reine Sibylle; for the story of the selfless woman who tends to her leper husband in Pozzuoli, see La Sale, pp. 134–36. On the way that La Sale inserts travel narrative by an “unreliable narrator” into his pedagogic tomes, see Léglu.
9. See La Sale, Le Réconfort (ll. 904–1206).
10. The trajectory of La Sale’s life and travels is provided by Lefèvre, pp. 295–98. We have adopted Lefèvre’s dating for La Sale’s biography.
11. See Szkilnik, “Jean de Saintré ou le rêve.”
12. Parts of La Salade and fully three-fourths of La Sale are close copies of Simon de Hesdin’s translation of Valerius Maximus’s Book of Memorable Deeds and Sayings; see Lecourt.
13. La Salade, pp. 208–23. See the remarks of Lefèvre on this section, p. 137.
14. La Salade, p. 32; for the list in Simon de Hesdin, see Lecourt, pp. 43–44; for Saintré, see pp. 75–76.
15. The stories of the Sibyl’s grotto and of the voyage to the Lipari Islands have been translated into modern French: see Le Paradis, trans. Mora-Lebrun. An edition of Le Paradis de la Reine Sibylle, from the Chantilly manuscript dedicated to Agnès de Bourbon, is provided in Mora, Voyages en Sibyllie, along with a detailed study of La Sale’s complex narrative and its many sources and analogues.
16. For two perspectives on La Sale’s blend of fact and fantasy in his travels to these islands, see Léglu, and Mora-Lebrun, pp. 218–41.
17. See Lecourt.
18. Such is the opinion of the work’s editor, Desonay, La Sale, p. viii.
19. Lecourt, p. 211.
20. La Sale, Prologue.
21. On the way that La Sale “signs” or marks his works with particular devices or signatures, see Lefèvre, pp. 69–82. His authorial consciousness develops throughout the course of his literary career.
22. Lecourt, pp. 200–203.
23. La Sale, p. 1.
24. La Sale, pp. xxxi–xxxiii.
25. On La Sale’s likely sources, see the Otaka edition (1967) and Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré, pp. 19–41. On sources and analogues for particular passages, see the Otaka edition and our references to Otaka in the notes to our translation.
26. See Glixelli.
27. See Krueger, “Introduction,” in Johnston, ed., Medieval Conduct Literature, pp. ix–xxxiii.
28. See Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré, pp. 19–41.
29. For the Prose Lancelot as a possible source for Saintré, see Taylor, “Pattern.”
30. Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré, pp. 139–55.
31. See Lalande, “Le couple.”
32. On Saintré as chivalric biography, see Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré.
33. On the life of Lalaing as a source for La Sale, see Poirion, p. 112; on Saintré as a source for Lalaing’s biography, Le Livre des faits, see Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré, pp. 15–16, 22–25.
34. On the nouvelle, see Dubuis, Les Cent Nouvelles nouvelles.
35. Saintré, p. 206.
36. Who was brother to Louis of Luxemburg, in whose household Antoine was employed.
37. This sort of predetermined plot and complex mise en scène are typical of the tournaments of the fifteenth century: see Huizinga, Waning; Planche; Barber and Barker; Jourdan. René d’Anjou, La Sale’s long-term employer, was an enthusiast: his tournaments included the Pas d’armes of the Dragon’s Mouth (1446), and the Pas d’armes of the Shepherdess (1449); see de Mérindol.
38. Turnierbuch, st. 27; see Bianciotto.
39. Ed. Lefèvre, pp. 283–341; it survives in just two MSS.
40. For illustrations, see http://mandragore.bnf.fr/html/accueil.html. René’s text is available with English translation at http://www.princeton.edu/~ezb/rene/renehome.html (acc. December 2013).
41. On tournaments see Heers; Vale, War and Chivalry; Contamine, “Les tournois”; Stanesco; Barber and Barker. Until the thirteenth century, such events were less closely prescribed (see Barker, Tournament, pp. 142–44).
42. Geoffroi de Charny, p. 86.
43. See Kaeuper, Chivalry and Violence pp. 161–88, and Vale, “Violence and the Tournament,” in Kaeuper, ed., Violence, pp. 143–58.
44. Commonly regarded by authorities as the superior form of chivalric encounter: see Keen, Chivalry, 99–101.
45. See Vale, Princely Court, pp. 167–69.
46. “Drama,” or “ceremony,” but a mistere is also a “mystery play”: see Planche; Jourdan. For discussion of other pas d’armes, see Stanesco, pp. 123–35, 198–206.
47. See Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré, pp. 114–20, and cf. Livre des faits de Jacques de Lalaing.
48. See Anglo.
49. Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré, pp. 71–94.
50. The “achievement” shows all the divisions which signify ancestry (see for instance, p. 76), along with supporters, crests, sometimes mottos; the “device,” or badge, is a personal emblem.
51. See Vale, Princely Court, pp. 165–200.
52. Lefèvre, Antoine de La Sale, p. 299 (how tournaments are fashioned in terms of arms and helmet crests).
53. See Bianciotto; Heers; Turnierbuch.
54. On La Sale’s own arms, see, exhaustively, Lefèvre, Antoine de La Sale, pp. 21–67.
55. See Lefèvre, Antoine de La Sale, pp. 264–74. Note that La Sale’s blazoning can be faulty—but by this late date, heralds themselves are frequently rather approximate.
56. Or an “armorial,” a manuscript recording, and illustrating, the arms of participants in a tournament, or from a particular court or region: see Pastoureau, and for examples Rolls of Arms: Edward I (1272–1307), ed. Gerald J. Brault (London: Boydell, 1997). La Sale seems, for instance, for his part, to have copied the names and arms of some of those taking part in Saintré’s pas d’armes and crusade from those in the so-called Armorial d’Urfé, for a partial edition of which see http://www.armorial.dk/english/Urfeen.pdf (we are grateful to Professor D’Arcy Boulton for this suggestion; cf. also Vaivre).
57. Geoffroi de Charny, p. 88.
58. Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré, pp. 95–112; Taylor, “La fonction.“
59. Riley-Smith, pp. 251–54.
60. Riley-Smith, pp. 271 ff., and Christiansen; on La Sale’s “crusade,” see Knudson. The term “Saracens” is used throughout the Middle Ages to mean “non-Christian”; what is remarkable is the constitution of the “Saracen” army as imagined by La Sale.
61. Keen, Nobles, Knights, pp. 121–34.
62. See R. Cazelle, Jean l’Aveugle, comte de Luxembourg, roi de Bohême (Bourges: A. Tardy, 1947).
63. Almost certainly, again, transcribed from a roll of arms now lost; for a list of surviving examples, see http://www.armorial.dk (acc. July 2012).
64. Riley-Smith, pp. 276–81.
65. See Strubel.
66. Stanesco, p. 99.
67. Keen, “Huizinga, Kilgour.”
68. See Taylor, “Image as Reception,” and for the Brussels MS., see Johan.
69. For an overview of the history of Tressan’s Saintré, see Speer, pp. 398–406.
70. For a complete account of these editions, see entry on La Sale in the Archives de Littérature du Moyen Age (ARLIMA): http://www.arlima.net/ad/antoine_de_la_sale.html (acc. December 2013).
71. Trans. Vance (1862) and Gray (1931).
72. Heraldry deserves a special note. The language of heraldry is precise, and very particular: it derives in part from Anglo-Norman, and many English terms therefore resemble La Sale’s original French. We have translated, consistently, according to correct heraldic practice—with the invaluable help of Professor Jonathan D’Arcy Boulton, of the University of Notre Dame. Heraldic terms cannot be “translated” into modern English—nor can they easily be defined; in fact, they are best illustrated. As we say at the beginning of our Glossary, those who are interested should consult either the standard Boutell’s Heraldry or Friar’s New Dictionary of Heraldry; even more usefully, they could refer to a website which illustrates almost all the terms used here: http://www.heraldsnet.org/saitou/parker/Jpframe.html (acc. October 2013).
1. The bracketed numbers refer to page numbers in the Misrahi and Knudson edition of Saintré.
2. Jean de Calabre (1426–70), son of René d’Anjou and putative heir to the throne of Sicily. La Sale was Jean’s tutor from 1435 to 1455. See Bénet, Jean d’Anjou.
3. A French translation by Rasse de Brunhamel of Nicolas de Clamanges’s Floridan and Elvide and the Chronicles of Flanders are included after Saintré in four manuscripts, three of which also name the fourth “treatise” as Le Roman de Paris et Vienne, which was to have appeared in the second volume. The author’s (or scribe’s) hand in BnF nouv. acq. fr. 10057 has scratched out mention of this work; no extant version of Paris et Vienne appears to have been produced for a companion volume. For editions of these and other works cited in the notes, see the Bibliography.
4. Son of Philip VI of Valois, John II or John the Good ruled from 1350 to 1364. In 1332, he married Bonne of Bohemia, who died in 1349. One of the couple’s ten children was King Charles V (1338–80).
5. The historical Jean de Saintré (1320–68) was seneschal of Anjou and Maine; Froissart recounts his capture by the English at Poitiers; at the time he was held to be “the best and most valiant knight in France”; Froissart, Chronicles, p. 138.
6. Bonne of Bohemia died before John’s coronation and was thus never officially Queen. This is the first of several occasions when La Sale’s historical facts are imprecise. On other historical errors or inconsistencies, see Lalande, “Le couple.”
7. The citations and exempla about Roman widows are found nearly verbatim in La Sale, Book II, chapter XII, pp. 138–42.
8. 1 Timothy 5:3–16.
9. Virgil, Aeneid IV, 29–30.
10. Widely cited in the Middle Ages, St. Jerome’s fourth-century Adversus Joviniam argues against marriage and in favor of virginity, often with an antifeminist bias. See Jerome, “Against Jovinian,” in Jankyn’s Book of Wikked Wives, ed. Hanna and Lawler, p. 172.
11. La Sale concludes his chapter on widows with this comic exemplum in La Sale, p. 140; it is drawn from Simon de Hesdin’s MF [Middle French] translation of Valerius Maximus’s Memorable Doings and Sayings (first century CE), a frequent source for La Salade, La Sale, and Saintré; see Lecourt, pp. 200–201.
12. The hero is often referred to as “le petit Saintré” in the opening scenes; the can be translated either as “young Saintré” or as “little Saintré,” meaning small in stature, for Jean is both. The adjective “petit” disappears as Jean matures; by the end of the story, he has become “le Seigneur de Saintré.”
13. Many of the classical authorities cited in this section are found in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers; the Latin translation of this work was a treasure house of classical exempla and quotations for medieval authors. This particular saying is widespread in medieval florilegia. For further information on sources for La Sale’s didactic citations, see Otaka, “Citations,” in La Sale, Jehan de Saintré, ed. Otaka, pp. 343–48, as well as Dubuis’s translation of Saintré, pp. 287–324.
14. When La Sale speaks simply of “the Philosopher,” with no other identification, he refers to Aristotle, who was considered the preeminent philosopher and whose works were translated into Latin in the late Middle Ages
15. 1 John 3:15.
16. Ephesians 4:26.
17. One of the most widely transmitted medieval collections of wise sayings was attributed to Cato the Elder, a statesman in Rome, 234–149 BCE. The Disticha Catonis, which were actually composed in the fourth century AD and are not by the historical Cato, circulated in hundreds of editions in Latin and all the vernacular languages throughout the Middle Ages. The pithy moralizing couplets and aphorisms in the Distichs could be easily memorized and were standard schoolboy fare. For this citation in its classical context, see Cato, “The Distichs of Cato,” in Minor Latin Poets, p. 604.
18. “Sens” can mean the capacity for understanding as well as moral sense or wisdom.
19. In MF, “maniere.” Here as elsewhere “maniere” seems to refer to good conduct, more significant than polite “manners.”
20. Cf. “Malo mori quam foedari” (“Death rather than dishonor”), the Latin proverb popular on coats of arms. The play on “fames” [hunger] and “fama” [reputation] is lost in translation.
21. Matthew 5:7.
22. Ecclesiasticus 14:9.
23. The Hours are prayers to be read or recited during the different canonical hours of the day (Matins, Lauds, Terce, Sext, None, Vespers, Compline); for each day, the prayers reflect the holy events of the Christian calendar. Many noble men and women owned Books of Hours, which were sometimes beautifully illuminated.
24. “Pechié de gueule,” literally the sin of the gullet.
25. Philippians 3:19.
26. 1 Peter 2:11.
27. Otaka compares Proverbs 6:16, “There are six things that Yahweh hates . . .”
28. Psalm 30:7 in the Latin Vulgate. Corresponds to Psalm 31:6 in the New Jerusalem Bible
29. The Decretals refer to collections of pontifical letters involving papal rulings and decisions as well as other canon law. References for the legal statutes in this section, from the Corpus iuris canonici and the Corpus iuris civilis, are provided by Otaka, Jehan de Saintré, pp. 344–45.
30. Cf. Deuteronomy 6:16. “Do not put Yahweh your God to the test . . .”
31. This same incident is mentioned by Christine de Pizan, Book of Deeds of Arms and Chivalry, pp. 197–98.
32. Eusebi says that these citations are from Lombard law, the legal codes of the Lombard kings who ruled Italy in the early Middle Ages, as conserved in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Legum, volume IV; Eusebi, p. 60, note 162. Otaka says the references are too imprecise to allow for exact identification, “Citations,” p. 345. The Lombard laws have been translated by Drew, The Lombard Laws.
33. This section is taken from the Ordonnance sur les gages de bataille of Philip the Fair, which is included in its entirety in La Salade, pp. 208-23. The Ordonnance is from 1306; see Lefèvre, p. 137. For an edition of the complete Gages de bataille with facsimile prints of the eleven illustrations, see Cérémonies. King Philip IV outlawed private warfare, duels, and tournaments during the war in Gascony in 1296; later, he imposed restrictions on private warfare at any time; see Kaeuper, War, Justice, pp. 235–47, and Jager, The Last Duel, pp. 82–83. The 1306 decree permits duels in certain instances: (1) following evident capital crimes: murder, treason, rape; (2) in cases where the death penalty would be invoked, theft excluded; (3) where no other legal remedies are possible; and (4) incontrovertible evidence.
34. MF “espee de giet,” a sword that uses only the point, like a rapier (although technically the term “rapier” does not appear until the sixteenth century).
35. Vegetius’s fifth-century De Re Militari (On Military Matters) remained a popular military guide throughout the Middle Ages; it was translated and adapted into MF by Christine de Pizan in her Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry.
36. Cited earlier, Saintré, p. 16, attributed to the Philosopher (Aristotle).
37. In this context, “enemies” (MF nos ennemis) may refer to devils, enemies of the Lord.
38. The precepts known as the Ten Commandments appear, in versions somewhat different from those given here, in Exodus 20:1–17 and Deuteronomy 5:6–21.
39. The twelve articles of faith are contained in the Apostle’s Creed, a statement of Catholic belief that dates to late antiquity; its tenets remain part of Catholic doctrine today and are used in some Protestant congregations.
40. Hebrews 11:6.
41. The Seven Gifts originate in Isaiah 11:2–3.
42. The Beatitudes originate in Matthew 5:1–12, from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, where they are different in order and substance.
43. The Divine and Moral Virtues are often referred to as the theological and cardinal virtues; the cardinal virtues originate in classical ethics of ancient Greek philosophy; the theological virtues are Christian additions, following St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 13:13, where “Faith,” “Hope,” and “Love” (or “Charity”) are key. For a history of the incorporation of classical virtues into Christian thought, see Bejczy.
44. In Thomas Aquinas, Summa theologiae, 3a, 45, 1, the qualities of the glorified body are “impassibilitas, agilitas, subtilitas, and claritas,” translated by Parson and Pinheiro as “impassibility, agility, subtlety, and splendor,” see Aquinas, Summa theologiae, vol. 53, pp. 148–49.
45. The Corporal Works of Mercy have biblical roots in Matthew 25:31–46.
46. Cited earlier, Saintré, p. 17.
47. The Eucharist.
48. MF “la saincte unction,” now Extreme Unction, or “Anointing of the Sick.”
49. Madame has of course already sermonized at length on these [Saintré 17–28].
50. MF “impugnier verité,” contesting the truth.
51. Sometimes called Obstinacy.
52. This is one of the rare instances in which La Sale does not translate the Latin, perhaps because this prayer was well known. “May Yahweh bless you and keep you. May Yahweh let his face shine on you and be gracious to you. May Yahweh uncover his face to you and bring you peace.” This is known as the Aaronic blessing, or priestly blessing, from Numbers 6:24–26.
53. A transposition of the previous prayer into the first person. “May Yahweh bless me and keep me. May Yahweh let his face shine on me and be gracious to me. May Yahweh uncover his face to me and give me peace.”
54. Genesis 9:6. “He who sheds man’s blood, / Shall have his blood shed by man.” La Sale erroneously cites Deuteronomy as his source.
55. Matthew 26:52, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”
56. 1 Chronicles 22:8, “it is not for you to build a house in my name, since you have shed so much blood on earth in my presence.”
57. Psalm 55:23.
58. Psalm 5:6.
59. Psalm 139:19. La Sale appears to have made an error in transcription and translation of the original verse, as Dubuis notes. The biblical verse reads: “God, if only you would kill the wicked! Men of blood, away from me!” La Sale’s transcriptions, and translations, biblical and other, are often faulty, as Dubuis asserts: see for instance below, on p. 54 of our text, his mistreatment of the quotation from Claudian (see Dubuis, p. 295, notes 65, 66).
60. Blanchard and Quereuil observe that La Sale’s translation is incorrect, since “ygnosco” means “to pardon” and not “to be ignorant”; Blanchard, ed. Jehan de Saintré, pp. 100–101. Otaka refers us to Seneca, Moral Essays I, “De Clementia” I, 7, 1, p. 374, for comparison.
61. Matthew 6:33.
62. Cf. Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, II, v–ix (pp. 86–114), as suggested by Otaka, Jehan de Saintré, 347.
63. Cited earlier Saintré [25].
64. 2 Esdras 3 does not appear to contain this rather commonplace saying.
65. Otaka cites for comparison Job 21:26 and Luke 16:23–25.
66. Otaka refers us to Aristotle, Politics, V, ix, 6–7, pp. 462–63.
67. This is the correct form in which, today, to address Queen Elizabeth II.
68. Refers to the eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium.
69. The feast of Toussaint, All Saints’ Day, November 1.
70. The same reading list, drawn from Simon de Hesdin’s translation of Valerius Maximus’s Memorable Doings and Sayings, appears in La Salade, chapter II, p. 22.
71. May 1 (May Day) was the first of the major summer festivals, and therefore a good moment for Saintré to make his mark.
72. The uncles Madame mentions are the sons of King John: Louis, Duke of Anjou (1339–84), Jean, Duke of Berry (1340–1416), and Philippe le Hardi, Duke of Burgundy (1342–1404). Madame seems to be claiming them as uncles, which would make her the daughter of one of their three surviving sisters Jeanne, Marie, or Isabelle. Antoine seems to have the royal family confused: he makes the three dukes the King’s brothers, whereas King John had only one living brother (Louis d’Orléans).
73. This refers to Jacques de Longuyon’s Vows of the Peacock (c. 1312), which tells how Alexander the Great and his courtiers swore courtly oaths, of service to ladies and to chivalry, on a dressed peacock; in 1454, Philip, Duke of Burgundy had given a spectacular banquet known as the Vows of the Pheasant, at which the participants swore oaths vowing to retake Constantinople (captured by the Turks in 1453).
74. Patron saint of travelers.
75. It is worth noting the importance of formalities and ceremony at the French royal court, for royal permission to depart the court, for leave-taking.
76. Madame has already, of course, taught Jean this prayer; see pp. 29–30 above, with translation, notes 52, 53.
77. That is, the shield is quartered—divided into four parts—showing the arms of each of the families from which the holder is (usually paternally) descended.
78. MF “seigneurs conseillers”: these are older and more experienced men, of noble birth, who might act as “safe hands,” curb excesses, and act as judges.
79. Note a confusion here: La Sale describes only three destriers, instead of the promised four. None of the manuscripts appears to offer a different reading.
80. What the king of arms is wearing here is an escutcheon that is a badge of office; the blazons in the four quarters are “presumably those of Aragon, insular Sicily, peninsular Sicily (or Naples), and Jerusalem” (our thanks to Jonathan d’Arcy Boulton for this).
81. That is, the front half of the animal, in gold, rising from a fesse in the center of the shield; see the Glossary.
82. In MF, here and below, piece: that is, a solid plate installed to protect the heart and upper chest.
83. Note a discrepancy here: on p. [80], Madame had specified that three lances should be broken; here, victory accrues from five.
84. MF “lance des dames”: final deciding bout after the end of the prescribed combats.
85. Note that even La Sale, here, is conscious—although also admiring—of the complexities of chivalric etiquette.
86. Covered, because hand-produced weapons cannot be guaranteed identical; for fairness, they must be covered, and the knights must choose blind.
87. What La Sale is stressing, here, is that this joust is not a judicial duel—from which the term “appellant” would derive. Saintré is, in MF terms, the entrepreneur, the challenger, in a sporting contest; this contrasts with p. 79 where, on the contrary, La Sale calls the hero the appellant.
88. Suggests—rather intriguingly—that he is warming up.
89. This is MF “aulne”: a variable measure for cloth (c. 1.18 m).
90. Reims cloth had a reputation for fine quality, until the seventeenth century.
91. Perhaps a Murgese breed, taking name from Murge, a village in Apulia: it is all black, much favored as a cavalry horse in the fifteenth century.
92. Sumptuary laws, for instance—laws relating to habits of consumption—seem to say that squires were allowed to wear silver (but not gold); see Frances Baldwin, “Sumptuary Legislation and Personal Regulation” (unpublished dissertation, Johns Hopkins University,1926; online), p. 114.
93. These gifts look disconcertingly like slavery, or at least the sort of indentured servitude under which a craftsman might be contracted to work for a specific period in exchange for subsistence only: see M. Bloch, Slavery and Serfdom in the Middle Ages, trans. William R. Beer (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975).
94. The sentence is ambiguous: it could also read: “I’ll say no more about the questions the Queen and her ladies asked.”
95. This is Jean I le Meingre, known as Boucicaut (c. 1317–68), Marshal of France, whose dates coincide neatly with those of the King of France, John II, who is at the centre of Saintré. La Sale however, perhaps deliberately (see Szkilnik, Jean de Saintré: Une carrière), seems frequently to confuse him with his son, Jean II le Meingre, also known as Boucicaut (c. 1366–1421), who is the subject of an important chivalric biography, Livre des faits, ed. D. Lalande (Geneva, 1985); he too was Marshal of France, participated in the great crusade of Nicopolis in 1396, and died in England as a prisoner after Agincourt; it was he who took part in the single combat with Galeazzo described below pp.121–24, and it is his chivalric career—the pas d’armes, the tournaments – which most resembles Saintré’s and which therefore makes him the more convincing model.
96. The chamberlain holds a trusted position as the King’s confidant, as the officer who controls access to the King: initially designated someone who was in charge of the King’s chamber and his wardrobe, but by now had a more ceremonial function.
97. This tag was quoted by Madame, p. 32, as was the poem that follows; it shows how careful La Sale is to show Saintré remembering her teachings.
98. See above, p. 33.
99. “Jest,” because this is a nickname deriving from an obscure fishing term, suggesting Boucicaut’s ability to “net” fame and fortune (see Lalande, Jean II le Meingre, pp. 5–6).
100. These are lances armed as for war; this combat therefore is more brutal than Saintré’s previous adventures.
101. “Prince,” here, designates the person in charge of the conduct of the tournament—not necessarily, in other words, the King.
102. The need to police these complicated arrangements explains (figs 3 and 4) the close supervision of the judges and supporters.
103. Chief herald and King of Arms of France.
104. Statue said to have been brought back from Egypt during the Crusades; object of particular pilgrimage for Charles VI and Charles VII.
105. Also “cut-pile velvet” (MF “velours velluté”): a luxury finish for velvet, with a high luster.
106. For an image from a fifteenth-century manuscript, see detail of a miniature of the tournament of Inglevert, southern Netherlands (Bruges), at http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllID=28394.
107. MF toise: nearly two meters.
108. Note that Boucicaut himself (that is, Jean II le Meingre) also organized in 1390 the pas d’armes between Calais and Boulogne, known as the “Joutes de Saint-Inglevert,” in 1390.
109. MF “duc des Normans”: there is no such rank. La Sale must be thinking of Norroy King of Arms, royal herald designate for the north of England.
110. From 1347 (under Edward III of England) to 1558, Calais was in English hands; to declare a truce around Calais would obviate the need for safe-conducts.
111. This would have involved erecting a timber frame faced with more elaborate materials—to be built by the carpenters who constructed the stands and the lists.
112. La Sale lists both escabeaux and escabelles, both meaning stool; “cracket” is an old synonym for “stool.”
113. La Sale calls all the English dignitaries counts, a rank that does not exist in England; we replace with the appropriate title.
114. Senior King of Arms for England, having jurisdiction over the whole body of heralds.
115. La Sale is sometimes shaky as to identities and blazons; we are especially grateful to Jonathan d’Arcy Boulton for his help.
116. His blazon would identify him as Sir Thomas Dagworth.
117. MF “Seigneur de Brues”—but the arms are those of the Burghersh family.
118. Niccoloò and Galeazzo were authentically visitors to the French court, and in consequence conducted jousts in Padua in 1395 with Jean le Meingre II, known as Boucicaut; La Sale is adroitly mixing fact and fiction.
119. The Porte Baudet is now the Porte Saint-Antoine.
120. The House of Malatesta took Ancona in 1348, and held it until 1383.
121. This time again, Jean le Meingre II dit Boucicaut (1366–1421), the son of the Boucicaut who as we saw above (note 95), and who, if the dates are a guide, figures in this romance. Jean II took part in a single combat with Galeazzo shortly before the capture of Padua by the Venetians in 1405.
122. Venice took Padua in 1405 and held it until the fall of the Republic in 1797.
123. No doubt to do with the complex politics of the Italies and their warring city-states in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
124. Unidentifiable, in the absence of any detail or blazon.
125. See the Introduction, pp. xxi–xxii; note that the term voiage is commonly used for a crusade (as in “voiage de Iherusalem”).
126. What is meant, here, is a lance garnie, or fournie—that is, a combat unit consisting of a knight or knights but also of men at arms and archers. Its size varied; see Contamine Guerre, p. 278, and Prestwich, Armies and Warfare.
127. MF “saige,” which is ambiguous: “clever” or “good.”
128. This list of names and blazons is almost certainly transcribed from an existing roll of arms, possibly from one related to the so-called Armorial d’Urfé: see Vaivre. As before, La Sale’s heraldry can be faulty; names have been given modern spelling when possible.
129. The transcription by Misrahi and Knudson is faulty here and we amend accordingly: see Lecoy’s 1969 review.
130. The transcription by Misrahi and Knudson is faulty: see Lecoy’s 1969 review; the MS. reads clefs, not cerfs.
131. France Ancient: azure semé-de-lis Or; France Modern: azure, three fleurs-delis Or.
132. Mentioned by Froissart, who places it in North Africa, and by Chaucer. No one seems able to locate it.
133. Once again, this list must surely have been copied from an existing roll of arms, perhaps one listing participants in the Prussian crusades, like the Bellenville armorial: see Werner Paravicini, Die Preussenreisen des Europäischen Adels, 2 vols. (Sigmaringen, 1989– 94). It seems more likely, however, that La Sale had access to a general armorial (not, that is, one relating to the Prussian crusades). We are grateful to Dr. Godfried Croenen (Liverpool University) for his help here, and for his help in identifying, from the Armorial de Gelre, some of the names, from the Low Countries, listed by La Sale; where possible, the names are modernized. Where no secure identification is possible, we retain La Sale’s orthography, and his (sometimes faulty) titles.
134. Both at this date part of the diocese of Liège.
135. Note that in the Middle Ages, Brabant and Holland, Zeeland, Hainault, Liège, Namur, Luxembourg, etc., were all part of the German Empire; it is normal for Brabanters of that date to be called Germans. Again, we are grateful to Dr. Croenen for help with Low Country names.
136. Hoorn in North Holland?
137. A crusading military order, formed at the end of the twelfth century; after the fall of the crusading kingdoms in the Middle East, the Order reestablished itself in Eastern Europe, and launched the Prussian crusades as from 1230.
138. It has proved impossible to locate a source for all this geographical information, some accurate, some fantastical; again, we have modernized where possible.
139. Misrahi and Knudson misread mescreans here as mesureans: see Lecoy’s 1969 review.
140. Saint Catherine is indeed buried in Saint Catherine’s Monastery in Sinai. Her remains were “found” by the monks in c. 800. “Rubo” is mysterious.
141. We are grateful to Professor Matthew Strickland (Glasgow University), who explains in a private letter: “There are two distinct events happening here: 1) the dubbing of young men to knighthood, and 2) the elevation of certain chosen knights to the status of banneret. A banneret was a superior rank, denoting a knight of sufficient wealth and status to retain his own knights, in a troop which was identified by his banner (from ‘ban’,command/ authority). The ceremony for creating a banneret was that the knight presented his pennon, which had two or more V-shaped points, to the lord. The lord elevating the knight would then cut off these points, leaving a distinctive square/rectangular banner.”
142. Is La Sale borrowing his account of the battle from an existing source relating to a crusade? Or combining existing sources? If so, the source(s) are unidentifiable: see Knudson, “Prussian Expedition.”
143. Who was earlier, of course (p. 145), referred to as Abzin.
144. Blanchard and Quereuil, in their edition, read in their MS. marais de Lascan (by the marshes of Lascun)—which actually sounds more plausible: see Lecoy’s 1969 review.
145. Saint Denis, saint and Christian martyr, is of course the patron saint of Paris.
146. One of the three royal residences in Paris (the others were the Palais Royal and the Château de Vincennes).
147. The adjective La Sale uses is “nouvelle,” a word used increasingly in the latter part of the romance.
148. Presumably, these attach the spurs to the feet.
149. Marriage to a cousin would be forbidden by church rules against consanguinity. The King’s analogy underscores the severity of Jean’s transgression in having conceived of an emprise without prior royal sanction.
150. The papal curia.
151. This elaborate Lenten meal resembles those suggested in the cookbook included in the didactic treatise Le Ménagier de Paris. For a translation see Greco and Rose, trans., The Good Wife’s Guide. The dishes are of fish, and thus appropriate for Lent, but the fare is hardly meager.
152. Although we might rather say that the time passed gaily or merrily, the word “joie” in MF has sexual connotations that are probably not lost on La Sale, who uses the adverb “joieusement.”
153. Literally, a justification of authenticity. This is the concluding formula read by the messenger to certify that the letter has indeed been sent by its stated author. Madame is well aware that she has overstayed her leave. Later, after she has written a response, she will listen to the formal letter of credence.
154. The Church of Saint Cosmas and Saint Damian in Luzarches, located about fifteen miles to the north of Saint-Denis, is dedicated to twin brothers Cosmas and Damian, early Christian martyrs and patron saints of physicians.
155. The colorful expression La Sale uses is pissié en son jaque de soye, or “pissed in her silken jacket”; Madame has offended the Queen in a way she will not pardon. The crudeness of language here perhaps anticipates the vulgarity of upcoming events and certainly plays on the tension between courtly and uncourtly behavior in this section of the romance.
156. Speaking in one voice, in unanimous agreement.
157. The Abbot is presumably referring to his monk’s habit.
158. This passage repeats almost verbatim advice about avoiding vengeance and cruelty that Saintré has received previously from Madame (p. 30).
159. The MF here is “faulse langue,” which means literally both “treacherous speech” and “wicked tongue.” The double entendre of “langue” makes clear that Jean sees the ensuing punishment of the pierced tongue as just retribution.
160. “Here lies lord Jean de Saintré, knight, seneschal of Anjou and of Maine, and chamberlain of the Lord Duke of Anjou, who died in the year of Our Lord 1368, the 25th day of October. May his soul rest in peace. Amen.”