Collation model for Valenciennes, Bibliothèque Municipale, Ms 150

The manuscript containing the Cantilène de Sainte Eulalie (BM Valenciennes, ms 150) takes the form of a small codex (237 × 150 mm), protected by a limp leather cover with evident remains of hair: it is a ‘hairy’ book, ‘liber pilosus’ (fig. 1). The volume is dated to the 9th century and is attributed to a Lotharingian scriptorium. The volume would be part of a campaign to reconstruct the library of the Abbey of Saint-Amand following the Norman invasions that ravaged it in 881 and 883.

The main part of the manuscript contains eight books of sermons by Gregory of Nazianzus, translated from Greek into Latin by Rufinus of Aquileia. The last leaves of the manuscript, which had been ruled but remained blank, were used afterwards, at the end of the 9th century, for the copy of five songs: three Latin liturgical chants (Dominus cæli rex, 140v-141r; Cantica virginis Eulaliæ, 141r; Vis fidei tanta est, 143r-143v), the Cantilène in French (141 verso), and the Ludwigslied or Rithmus teutonicus (141v-143r), in Germanic language, transcribed by the same hand^[i]. The Cantilène de Sainte Eulalie is an Old French poem considered one of the earliest known pieces of French literature, and it is not known in any other copy. It recounts the story of Saint Eulalia of Barcelona, a young Christian girl who faced persecution and martyrdom during the Roman era.