Philippe Ménard, Un manuscrit anglo-normand inconnu à la bibliothèque d'Aberystwyth : La Charte au diable, An unknown Anglo-Norman manuscript in the Aberystwyth Library : The Devil’s Charter, Le Moyen Age, Tome CXV, 2009 : p. 529-555

At the end of a ms. of the Historia regum Britanniae (Brogyntyn I. 7) in the Aberystwyth National Library of Wales a violent attack against the rich, written by a different hand and called La Chartre au diable, or “The Devil’s Charter”, has been discovered. The text of this codex is not mentioned in the catalogue of Anglo-Norman literature. After examining its content, one finds that there are other manuscripts of this text and that it is, in fact, an extract from Pierre de Peckham’s Lumere as Lais, a work completed in Oxford in 1267. The Aberystwyth codex seems to be from the 14th century to judge from its writing and language. P. Ménard’s article provides a version of this strange text, written as if spoken by the Devil, with a translation, a glossary, a linguistic study, notes and a commentary. This document of 208 verses is a forceful expression of the rights of the poor over the property of the rich. The writer does not spare the powerful and speaks acrimoniously of them. It is possible to wonder whether Pierre de Peckham, an ecclesiastic about whom little is known, had not himself been wronged in a matter of church property where he had his prebend.