Les motifs merveilleux dans les Grandes Chroniques de France de Primat

This article reveals the rupture in historiographic writing which took place at the end of the thirteenth century by showing that the re-evaluation of the supernatural in the Grandes Chroniques de France was accompanied by a change in the posture of the historian. While perpetuating the marvels related in the sources, the historian neutralised their value as a ‘sign’ by presenting them as simple historical incidents. Thus his role consisted less in revealing the meaning of history than in relating a sequence of facts.