Gautier de Coinci: Miracles, Music, and Manuscripts

Gautier de Coinci (c. 1177-1236) was a Benedictine prior, a poet and composer, and the author of several very popular religious works, including a large collection of Miracles of the Virgin in French, which enjoyed a wide circulation during the Middle Ages. Gautier drew on multiple Latin sources for his work, embellishing and personalizing them as he adapted them to his poetic design. Conceiving of his collection of miracles as a complete work, Gautier carefully organized the tales into two books, framing each with authorial exordia and lyrics praising the Virgin. In addition to its obvious literary interest, the subsequent manuscript tradition offers a remarkable panorama of medieval manuscript production, in particular due to the fascinating combination of text, music and illustration. Bringing together a select group of scholars from multiple disciplines (including art history, musicology, and literary studies), this collection of essays explores complementary aspects of Gautier, his works, and his manuscripts. The volume offers both breadth and depth in its examination of Gautier de Coinci and his Miracles de Nostre Dame It promises to redefine Gautier studies through its interdisciplinary consideration of the varied facets of his work as it makes available to scholars and students the first interdisciplinary examination of this key figure in medieval vernacular religious culture.