Un nouveau fragment inédit du Merlin en prose

Abstract

This article is an edition of a 14th-century manuscript fragment that was found in the Thomas Fisher Rare Books Library of the University of Toronto in May 2012 by the librarian Pearce Carefoote. The fragment consists of a parchment double leaf (two leaves of two columns each) from the prose Romance of Merlin. It was used as a paste-down leaf on the inside of the back cover of a 16th-century volume of three commentaries on Pope Boniface VIII's Sextus Liber decretalium. The fragment deals with Uther's wedding with Igerne and the revelation of her pregnancy. It belongs to the manuscript family x3 according to the stemma established by Alexandre Micha and it follows the readings of manuscripts CDG, although with some lacunae. Its language is characterized by some northern French, especially Picard, features.