Ernoul le Vielle de Gastinois

Ernoul le Vielle (also corrected as le Viel and le Vieux) de Gastinois was a trouvère of the late thirteenth century. His name may indicate that he was from the Gâtinais, but vielle could mean either “the old” or “the vielle-player”. Two lais have been attributed to Ernoul. Both are found only in the Noailles Chansonnier (BnF fr.12615). The Lai de notre-dame (incipit: En entente curieuse) is ascribed to him in the manuscript, but the Lai de l’ancien et du nouveau testament (incipit: S’onques hom en lui s’asist) is presented anonymously and was only assigned to Ernoul by Alfred Jeanroy. David Fallows describes his two lais as “among the most unusual in the entire monophonic repertory, astonishingly long with complex repetition schemes and elaborate motivic structure.” Five pastourelles have also been attributed to Ernoul, and all are preserved only in the Chansonnier du Roi (BnF fr.844). The attribution of only one, En avril, au tens novel, is highly disputed. Though anonymous in the manuscript, modern scholars have disagreed whether it belongs to Ernoul’s corpus, with one assigning it instead to Thibaut de Blaison. It has two lines that are identical to two found in Pensis, chief e