The Old French Ballette

The major compilation of Old French lyrics included in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Douce 308 (Lorraine, ca. 1310) is the only trouvère chansonnier that groups its songs by genre, to the exclusion of other organizing criteria. Under the rubric "Ci en comancent les balletes," the manuscript presents 188 texts, most with a refrain though none with music, meant to accompany dancing. The ballettes are of the utmost interest for their place within the development of medieval lyric, especially for their relation to the formes fixes of the 14th century. Consisting mainly of unica, the collection represents a lyric tradition fostered in Lorraine, contemporaneous with the courtly compositions of the trouvères, yet unacknowledged by compilers of mainstream songbooks in northern France in the 13th century. Eglal Doss-Quinby, Samuel N. Rosenberg, and Elizabeth Aubrey offer a critical edition of the texts in Douce 308, facing English versions, the music surviving in other sources for 26 of the songs, and an extensive introduction.