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Jahanic fragments
verse beg. de nep a amao [...]

  • Middle Breton
  • verse

Two fragments of Breton verse. According to Joseph Loth, who based part of his account on the observations of Prosper Hémon, they were written on a sheet of paper which was found to be attached to the cover of a printed breviary (book of hours) from the first quarter of the 16th century.

Title
Jahanic fragments
There is no established title. One contender is that used by Christian-J. Guyonvarc'h, Les fragments de Bignan, which is based on the mention of this parish in Morbihan by the transactional record that is found on the same sheet of paper. The present title is based on the occurrence of the name Jahanic in both verse fragments.
First words (verse)
  • de nep a amao [...]
Manuscripts

Loth describes a single paper sheet, mutilated, which contained the verse fragments as well as a fragmentary record of transaction between Keremno, lord of Penderf in the parish of Bign[an], and ‘le Labourier’. The record itself is undated but [Dauphin] Tempier, archivist of Cõtes du Nord, is quoted as saying from memory that it dated from 1480. The book in which these fragments were found was a breviary entitled Expositio hymnorum per totum anni cir[culum] and printed in Rouen by Augier and Macé. While the year of its edition was not known to Loth/Hémon, he inferred from these details that it must have been between 1500 and 1524. The location in which the sheet of paper was discovered is described as having been between the vellum book cover and a protective leather sheet. It is not known when it was placed inside. In 1904, Loth announced he would publish a facsimile text in the Annales de Bretagne but such never came to fruition.(1)n. 1 Joseph Loth, ‘Le plus ancien texte suivi en breton de Vannes’, Annales de Bretagne 20 (1904): 341.

The current whereabouts of these materials is unknown.

Language
  • Middle Breton
Date
On circumstantial evidence, the year of the edition of the book and the supposed date of the record, Joseph Loth dated the fragments to the end of the 15th century, or beginning of the 16th. His conclusion was based on the assumption that the fragments could not be later than the book and would have been of roughly the same age as the writing of the record.
Form
verse (primary)

Classification

Sources

Notes

1.
Joseph Loth, ‘Le plus ancien texte suivi en breton de Vannes’, Annales de Bretagne 20 (1904): 341.

Primary sources Text editions and/or modern translations – in whole or in part – along with publications containing additions and corrections, if known. Diplomatic editions, facsimiles and digital image reproductions of the manuscripts are not always listed here but may be found in entries for the relevant manuscripts. For historical purposes, early editions, transcriptions and translations are not excluded, even if their reliability does not meet modern standards.

[ed.] [tr.] Loth, J., “Mélanges: Deux fragments inédits en moyen breton”, Revue Celtique 8 (1887): 161–164.
Internet Archive: <link> Internet Archive: <link>

Secondary sources (select)

Guyonvarc'h, Christian-J., Le Catholicon de Jean Lagadeuc: dictionnaire breton-latin-français du XVe siècle, 2 vols, Rennes: Ogam-Celticum, 1975.
[‘Les fragments de Bignan’]
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
April 2020, last updated: September 2022
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