Rachel Gibson took a moment to write us from Montpellier where she is spending the year. French bureaucracy and the travails of teaching the Monroe Doctrine to first-year students at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 almost got the best of her, but she's got back to her research. She writes:
I have found some time to do research on a fourteenth-century manuscript at the Faculté de Médecine, Gui de Nanteuil, with an eye to comparing it to the other existing full manuscript of this work in Venice, written in Franco-Italian. Specifically, I seek to determine the significance of the Venetian additions to the Old French texts - from the inclusion of new verses and physical emphasis on certain lines, to words or passages with embellished or highlighted lettering, as well as the placement and inclusion of colored miniatures, dedications, marginalia, and other material features. This will be a part of a critical literary analysis of Gui alongside other re-authored epics and romances that will provide a holistic approach to understanding the value and integration of French chivalric culture in the Venetian mercantile community.I have also had the opportunity to frequent a course on Old Occitan, and to attend conferences on medieval southern French urban identity, as well as the Société Internationale Renardienne’s bi-annual conference in Aix-en-Provence. I’ve also traveled some in beautiful Languedoc-Roussillon, making short day trips to the picturesque towns of Nîmes and Sète, with plans to visit Carcassone, Narbonne and Perpignan in the near future.Traveling aside, sometimes it’s enough to just to play the flaneuse in my own town, letting the pretty narrow streets named after Rabelais and Voltaire lead me where they may, (though preferably to a happy hour with some friends). The experience on a whole has been educational, and a tremendous help to my fluency, and in the coming months I look forward to making the most of my remaining time in France.
Thanks Rachel! Best of luck for the rest of your stay in Montpellier!
