Les variations lexicales dans la tradition manuscrite et imprimée de La Belle Hélène de Constantinople (XVe-XVIe siècles)

The anonymous mise en prose of La Belle Hélène de Constantinople is transmitted by three manuscripts from the second half of the 15th century and by a dozen editions spread throughout the 16th century. The study of lexical variants in the manuscripts and in the first printed editions allows us to reflect on the work of updating the vocabulary implemented from one edition to the next at a pivotal time in the evolution of the French language (around 1470-1530). The results of the collation show that most of the changes were already present in the manuscript transmission, although all the witnesses were probably copied in the last thirty years of the 15th century. On the contrary, for La Belle Hélène the transition from manuscript to print does not involve a significant rejuvenation of the text.