The Troyes Mémoires: A
Translation of a Script for a Late Medieval Choir Tapestry
Tina Kane
The main subject of this paper is a rare piece of primary material which a book I have written for Notre Dame University Press will make available for the first time in English. It is a forty folio manuscript entitled, Mémoires fournis aux peintres chargés d’exécuter les cartons d’une tapisserie destinée à la Collégiale Saint-Urbain de Troyes représentant les légendes de St. Urbain et de Ste. Cécile. [“Directives for painters commissioned to make the cartoons for a tapestry destined for the Collegial Church of Saint Urban of Troyes representing the legends of St. Urban and St. Cecilia.”] It is handwritten on paper by the Canon of the church of Saint Urban and is considered to be the original document. The manuscript is not dated but is believed to come from the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.
It comprises detailed instructions for an iconographic program depicting the lives of St. Urban and St. Cecilia, in twenty-two scenes, distributed over six tapestry panels to hang in the choir of the church. The author, using authoritative texts such as the Acts of Saint Urban, translates written word into legible dramatic image to be used by cartoon painters, and then, tapestry weavers to create a woven visual narrative. This complete script for a tapestry is of great value specifically to tapestry scholars and more generally to medievalists, narratologists, as well as students of text-image relationships.