De l’histoire à la rhétorique Les recueils d’exempla cisterciens du Moyen Âge tardif

This article questions the valorisation of medieval works in their capacity as objects of modern research. The author argues that studying late Cistericen collections, largely neglected by researchers because of their assumed lack of originality and “Cistercien content”, can be fruitful from the historical as well as literary point of view, as long as the evolutionary model of ascension, peak, and decline is rethought and transcended.