L’autel de Lichtervelde et la genèse du manuscrit C de la collection épistolaire d’Étienne d’Orléans, évêque de Tournai (Paris, BnF, lat. 8630A)

A key discovery links the main scribe and compiler of manuscript C (Paris, BnF, lat. 8630A)—a critical medieval collection of Étienne d’Orléans’s letters—to his immediate entourage as bishop of Tournai (1192–1203). The manuscript, compiled in four phases between 1198 and early 1199, includes 302 letters or documents, a third from Étienne’s episcopate, alongside original cathedral archives. Analysis of the scribe’s hand reveals an act from Tournai’s chapter (April 2, 1198) concerning the altar of Lichtervelde, confirming its close association with the bishop. The scribe is likely either Marcel, Étienne’s chaplain and later abbot of Cysoing, or his brother Stephen, a canon of Tournai. This study reconstructs the manuscript’s genesis through paleographic and codicological methods, providing insight into medieval episcopal administration and textual transmission.

Declercq, G. (2022). L’autel de Lichtervelde et la genèse du manuscrit C de la collection épistolaire d’Étienne d’Orléans, évêque de Tournai (Paris, BnF, lat. 8630A). Sacris Erudiri, 61, 375–407. https://doi.org/10.1484/j.se.5.133572