Le manuscrit composite B.M. Tours, MS 193: un codex révélateur, au XIIe siècle, d’une mémoire culturelle identitaire collective

The scriptorium of Saint-Martin of Tours was a center of artistic production (architecture, sculpture, epigraphy, wall painting, manuscripts), marked by the splendors of Alcuin’s years: the codex B.M. Tours, MS 193 is part of this tradition. A composite manuscript (sacramentary of 1180, antiphonary of the thirteenth century, historical documents of the 13th-14th c.), it is a witness to experimentations in the constitution of missals. Examination of it reveals a Carolingian inheritance, while preserving the characteristics of its time. It gathers a calligraphic, textual, liturgical, and iconographic memory appropriate for this community, and contemporary elements, revealing a collective cultural identity. B.M. Tours, MS 193 embodies Saint-Martin’s Memoria, glorifying its place of origin, its community, and restoring, for the twelfth century, untold post-Alcuin prestige.