'De çivaler eo deveni poltron': gender, mobility, and the 'social logic' of the Geste Francor (MS Marc. Fr. Z 13 (=256))

This thesis offers an interdisciplinary analysis of the Franco-Italian MS. Marc. Fr. Z 13 (=256), held in the Marciana library in Venice and likely produced in Padua in the first half of the fourteenth century. This compilation of epic narratives, known as Geste Francor or V13, traces the genealogical line of the Carolingian family, with a unique emphasis on the stories and roles of the female members of the royal lineage. Adopting Gabrielle Spiegel’s theoretical approach, this study aims at exploring the relationship between representation and reception, the ‘social logic’ of the text. In other words, this analysis concentrates on the ways in which the narrative choices of the text localise it and define its relationship with its social context. The research is guided by the following questions: How was the compilation’s representation of gender relationships meant to entertain its audience? What contemporary values and customs are targeted or subverted, in the Geste Francor's treatment of its characters and their movements? The analysis highlights the recurrent theme of female movement, arguing that the narrative repositions women at the centre of genealogical development while marginalising fathers and husbands. It further argues that the text’s humorous tone underscores this gendered distinction, ridiculing contemporary notions of masculinity and chivalric values. The analysis highlights the recurrent theme of female movement, arguing that the narrative repositions women at the centre of genealogical development while marginalising fathers and husbands. It further argues that the text’s humorous tone underscores this gendered distinction, ridiculing contemporary notions of masculinity and chivalric values. The structural scope of such reversal is examined in light of the local historical context of Padua at the turn of the fourteenth century, characterised by, in the first instance, a problematic exclusion of women from the social space of the city, and, on a second level, the social and political prominence of elite factions in the public space of the city. Urban elites in the Marca Trevigiana and Padua actively sought to uphold chivalric ideals through public rituals and performances; at the same time, their factional violence threatened the social and political order of the city. The thesis argues that the Geste Francor’s reconfiguration of the gender structures associated with the system of values and legitimation of the nobility, in particular genealogical descent, articulates a humorous critique of the visible habitus of nobility and of the social groups that had internalised it.