Introduction

The Breviari d'Amor dates from 1288 (and was probably completed around 1292), is about 34,500 lines long and written in octosyllabic rhyming couplets. It exists in twelve full or almost full manuscripts and twelve fragments. It is written in Medieval Occitan and is the product in part of a long theological tradition and in part of the courtly tradition. This is the first edition to be published since the two-volume work of Gabriel Azaïs (1862-1881), which was of great merit for its time, but used only four of the manuscripts. The numbering of the present edition follows that of Azaïs, given the many works which allude to the Breviari.

This didactic text has necessarily been labeled as « encyclopaedic » and this is certainly not a matter of dispute, although, in terms of the subject matter, it is very unusual since the emphasis is not only theological but also courtly. It conforms to the general perspective adopted by summae but the particular integration of the theological aspects with the debate on the nature of fin'amor makes it unique.

The four volumes (volumes II to V) of the complete text have been already published, each with a selective glossary and bibliography. The present, first volume, is the Introduction.

Spécialiste de l'histoire des communautés juives du Languedoc, Cyril Hershon, décédé en décembre 2019, a publié l'oeuvre des troubadours de Béziers et longuement collaboré à divers projets de Peter Ricketts, dont l'édition des tomes III et IV du Breviari, celle de La Vida de Sant Honorat, Le Cartulaire de Saint-Salvadou et de Lunac et divers textes religieux en occitan médiéval. Il a également consacré un article sur La Tradition occitane de l'Evangile de Gamaliel.

Professeur émérite à l'Université Jean-Jaurès de Toulouse, Dominique Billy est spécialiste de métrique romane. Ses travaux portent aussi bien sur la poésie des troubadours et des trouvères que sur la poésie française classique et moderne. Auteur de nombreux articles sur la rime et la théorie des vers césurés, il est notamment l'auteur de Les Formes poétiques selon Baudelaire (2015) et de La Conquête du Parnasse par Tristan Corbière (2023).