La Lettre sauve: l'ABC et la louange mariale

Do the ABC poems in French form a genre? This article aims to answer this question by examining the thematic and formal similarities between the texts of our corpus. The main hypothesis is that our understanding of these texts depends on their being read together. The article consists of three parts: the first, focused on the study of the sources, shows that the dispositio and completeness of the ABC provide a dynamic and ornamental frame for prayer. The ABC becomes a path, both narrative and moral, that the reader can follow to reach the divinity. The second part analyses the French poems, all dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and highlights the formulas and features they have in common. In the third part, the influence of the ABC poems on French medieval literature is examined through the fragmentation and dissemination of their stylistic features and symbolic meanings in other texts and genres. The article concludes that the ABC poems of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries form a homogeneous corpus that was to prove influential on French literary production.