Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Hendrik van der Werf. The Chansons of the Troubadours and Trouvères: A Study of the Melodies and their Relation to the Poems. Utrecht: A. Oosthoek's Uitgeversmaatschappij.

In the section "Written and Oral Traditions" (pp. 26-34), he argues on the basis of manuscript evidence for a composite oral-written transmission, that "initially most or all chansons were transmitted in an exclusively oral tradition and that from about the middle of the 13th century on there was dissemination in writing parallel to the continuing oral tradition" (p. 28).
Area: OF, MU