Between Moral Treatise and Playful Parody: Exploring the Transformative Power of Materiality and Paratext in Robert de Balsac's Le chemin de l'ospital (1486–1635).

This article discusses the different lives of the short moral treatise Le chemin de l'ospital , which was written by the French nobleman and military officer Robert de Balsac in the late fifteenth century. The moral treatise lists various types of people whose bad behavior has earned them a place in the hospital or poorhouse. In the late 1480s, Le chemin de l'ospital was included in the richly illuminated manuscript MS Cambridge, Fitzwilliam Museum, 167. The text was probably printed for the first time in Toulouse between 1494 and 1501. Several other editions were printed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This article examines the relationship between the Le chemin de l'ospital and its various material manifestations over time. It argues that material context and paratext influenced the intended reception of the text and it emphasizes how materiality and paratext could shift the intended reading from purely moral to playful and parodic based. The study thus highlights the transformative power of materiality and paratext the late medieval and early modern period, particularly in relation to parody, and underlines the role of printers in shaping intended reception. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]