The Poem of Baudri for Countess Adèle: A Starting Point for a Reading of Medieval Latin Ekphrasis

Vincent Debiais (1)

1 CESCM [Poitiers] - Centre d'études supérieures de civilisation médiévale [UMR 7302]

The poem of Baudri of Bourgueil for Countess Adèle may correspond to several different literary genres but it is mainly a definition of the link between writing and the creation of the work of art, in so far as the poesis seems to assume a pure genetic function able to handle the mutation of the idea to the ideal. In this poem, a complex interplay occurs between what is seen, what is described and what is created in the development of the poem. Probably more than any of Baudri's other creations, the poem for the Countess Adèle subordinates writing to image to create an imago that blurs the distinctions between written construction and visual construction, in an aesthetic principle of balance and harmony that stands more on the side of musical production than any ordinary historical or encyclopedic reality

Mots clés: Baudri de Bourgueil (1045-1130); poésie; prose latine médiévale; littérature médiévale

Domaines: Histoire; Littératures

Vincent Debiais. The Poem of Baudri for Countess Adèle: A Starting Point for a Reading of Medieval Latin Ekphrasis. Viator, 2013, 44 (1), pp.95-106. ⟨10.1484/J.VIATOR.1.103143⟩. ⟨halshs-00781189⟩