Fortune's demesne: the interrelation of text and music in Machaut's Il mest avis (B22), De fortune (B23) and two related anonymous balades*
Machaut's balades Il mest avis (hereafter B22) and De fortune (hereafter B23), adjacent in the music section of the Machaut manuscripts, form a diptych on the theme of Fortune. In relation to each other, their poetic texts offer complementary perspectives on the power of Fortune: B22 is static, detached in tone, a clerk commentating in a public sententious statement upon the political manifestations of Fortune; conversely, B23 is personal and dynamic, a spurned lady's personal testimony to the power of Fortune to change happiness into sorrow. Despite these contrasts, the two poems share a diction markedly different from that of the twenty-one balades that precede them in the music section.
Another Mirror of Lovers? - Order, structure and allusion in Machaut's motets
Machaut's first twenty motets appear, identically ordered, in a group of manuscripts copied under the composer's supervision. This order highlights connections between individual motets. Proportional relationships between six motets, and an allusion to the mid-point of Le Roman de la rose in the tenth motet, suggest that Machaut intended the motet group to be self-contained and sub-divided into two groups of ten.
The Knights of the Crown: The Monarchical Orders of Knighthood in Later Medieval Europe, 1325-1520
The Fraternal Society of Knighthood of St George - Hungary 1325/6-c1395? the Order of the Band - Castile-Leon 1330-1474? the Society of St George or Order of the Garter - England 1344/9-present the Company of Our Lady of the Noble House commonly called the Company of the Star - France 1344/52-1364/80? the Company of the Holy Spirit of Right Desire commonly called the Company of the Knot - mainland Sicily (Naples) 1352/3--1362? the Order of the Sword - Cyprus 1347/59-1489? the Order of the Collar from 1518 called the Order of the Annunciation of Our Lady - Savoy, 1364?-present French princely orders founded before 1430 the Enterprise of the Knights of St George - Aragon, 1371/9-1410? the Order of the Ship - mainland Sicily (Naples) 1381-1386? monarchical and quasi-monarchical orders founded in Spain and Europe c1380-1433 the Order of the Golden Fleece - Burgundy and the netherlands 1430/1-present the Order of the Ermine - mainland Sicily (Naples) 1465-1494/1501 the Order of St Michael the Archangel - France 1469-1790 epilogue - developments from 1469 to 1525 conclusion - the monarchical orders of knighthood.