Is a Middle Ages without names? Authorship status and anonymity in the vernacular texts of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries

In what came to us from our more ancient literature, the proportion of texts of which the author remains unknown is such that it sets this situation as an actual norm. Yet, it is proper to question the relevance of the notion of anonymity for this period of our cultural history. This article proposes to examine the question from all sides by means of a variety of examples, with a special attention to the translation of pious works. For that purpose, it will take into account the diversity of situations, statuses and postures that these variants reveal in front of the authors and other contributors on the literary scene.