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Udine, Italia
This article is devoted to the Trésor des simples, a treatise written around the middle of the fifteenth century by the Burgundian bishop Jean Germain and dedicated to his patron Philip the Good. Halfway between anti-Islamic polemic and crusading propaganda, the Trésor des simples offers a refutation of the Qur’ān that is, on the one hand, a reworking of the classic topics of medieval anti-Islamic polemic, and on the other, a refunctionalisation of these topics in a new context, with the production of original remarks. Among these, there is the issue of the “poetic nature” of the Qur’ān, where poetic stands for the presence of a musical/rhythmic component, associated with a fictional content. Far from representing a mere element of aesthetic inadequacy, the alleged “poetic nature” of the Qur’ān is exploited by Germain as a proof to refute the theological validity of Islam’s holy book. This article aims to trace the different paths that this issue follows in the Trésor des simples, attempting to justify them in the light of medieval anti-islamic polemical literature and, above all, of its historical, cultural and literary context.
