Fauvel and Marigny: Which Came First?

AbstractThis chapter expounds the ‘forwards’ fable narrative of the hybrid horse–man Fauvel in the famous interpolated copy of the Roman de Fauvel (BnF fr. 146), and the simultaneous ‘backwards’ historical narrative in the same manuscript of the fall from power of Fauvel’s embodiment in the corrupt counsellor Enguerrand de Marigny. The three Marigny motets (discussed and transcribed in Chapters 4 and 5, which expand on their interrelationships and Ovidian quotations) are carefully crafted to serve these bi-directional narratives around the pivotal figure of Fortuna and her wheels, and by reversals and inversions. They were evidently composed together, after the events to which they refer, thus revising their dating to after 1317, but probably by 1320. Other Fauvel motets with historical reference are also listed.