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The Miracles de Nostre Dame (1214–1236) by Gautier de Coinci, a Benedictine monk from Northern France,1 is one of the most celebrated collections of medieval Marian miracle tales in a vernacular language. It is unusual because it contains songs, that is, musical compositions, as well as stories.2 Both a lyric and a narrative poet, Gautier draws upon several rich traditions. The position he stakes out with reference to these traditions determines his authorial stance and the nature of his enterprise. As is well known, Gautier’s attitude toward these traditions is both favorable and critical: he writes with Latin miracle stories, hymns, and chants and against “courtly” narrative and lyric genres, demonstrating extensive knowledge of secular and sacred works and a determined effort to “convert” secular sources to sacred use. I focus here on basic techniques Gautier uses to achieve his goals. Foremost among these are borrowing and citation. Borrowing has often been mentioned with respect to Gautier, frequently with negative undertones, particularly with regard to the music. But Gautier does not merely borrow. He takes material at hand and boldly transforms it into something else: he transfers Latin into the vernacular; he cleverly manipulates the melodic borrowing known as contrafactum; he develops his arguments by citation and allusion. By reevaluating these techniques of transformation, I hope to provide a better understanding not only of how Gautier reaches his goal of “conversion,” but also of how he uses borrowing and citation to define authorship within his text.3 |
