La formulation tripartite du monde dans les encyclopédies et textes littéraires du Moyen Âge

Abstract

The present article focuses on the formulaic tripartite description of the world present in many medieval geographical and historiographical texts. In medieval sources, the three parts of the world are often introduced in the order Asia, Europe and Africa, but this order sometimes varies. The focus of the investigation is the order of the components in this tripartite division. Two distinct traditions, both based on the medieval conceptual framework provided by the translatio studii et imperii are presented as possible sources for the twovariants of the formula. The first, Asia-Europe-Africa, appears to be dominant among encyclopaedic texts, in particular those reliant on Isidore’s Etymologiae. The second, Asia-Africa-Europe, appears to be more present in texts with a historic focus, such as chronicles, and is here argued to be a product of the popularity of the Trojan origin legends in medieval Europe, but its origins appear to be traceable to Orosius. It is also argued that the reversal of this order, where the formula commences with Europe, first becomes dominant only after the end of the Middle Ages, and coincides with progressive Eurocentrism of historiographical, political, and geographical discourse in that period.