Les livres français dans la Norvège médiévale : connexions culturelles, religieuses et sociales

Abstract

This article discusses the ecclesiastical, cultural, and political connections between Norway and France during the High Middle Ages (c. 1150-1320) and the traces left by these connections in surviving manuscript material, most of which is fragmentary. The establishment of Nidaros Archdiocese in 1152/1153 and the subsequent need for educated clerics, the emergence of universities and mendicant orders, and Norway’s integration into European networks of royal and ecclesiastical powers were the main processes facilitating the import and circulation of French-made texts and manuscripts. A selection of case studies, from decorated psalters to law books, illustrates the variety and importance of these Franco- Norwegian relations, as well as their impact on manuscript culture in medieval Norway.