Stamp - 700 years of poetry - Jeux Floraux de Toulouse - Green Letter

Description

The names of prestigious Masters of the Games and prizewinners are shown in the contours of the leaf. The various categories of this poetry competition are also listed: Violet, Marigold, Narcissus, Carnation, Lily, Primrose, Daisy, Orchid and Pastel. On November 2, 1323, in Toulouse, seven notables gathered in a garden to launch a call for poetic jousts to be held six months later, over three days. For these lovers of fine verse, it was a question of reviving the spirit of the troubadours so present at the court of the Counts of Toulouse and, at a time when the King of France was extending his control over the region, of affirming their attachment to the langue d'oc. In early May 1324, poets from the south of France and beyond flocked to Toulouse to compete. To celebrate the event, a piece of silverware, a Violette d'or, was presented to the winner by the seven notables and, from 1325, by the city's administrators: the Jeux Floraux were born. As the years went by, they were perpetuated, under the watchful eye of the maintainers who succeeded the founders and, from the 16th century onwards, under the patronage of Dame Clémence, a tutelary figure, perhaps imaginary, whose bequest would have made it possible to finance the flowers. The festival also acquired its own rituals. The trophies - the Violet, but also the Marigold and the Eglantine - are blessed and carried in procession, and a generous banquet brings the festivities to a close. Subsequently, the Jeux were toned down: the ode à la belle dame was replaced by a hymn to the Virgin, and expenditure on food and drink, deemed excessive, was scaled back. Nevertheless, they continued and, in 1694, Louis XIV enhanced their prestige by creating the Académie des Jeux floraux, before Louis XV increased the number of maintainers from 36 to 40. During the French Revolution, the Académie disappeared, despite being imbued with the spirit of the Enlightenment (Voltaire was a major figure). However, it was re-established by Napoleon in 1806. From then on, its competitions (exclusively in French since the 17th century, then in French and langue d'oc from 1895) never ceased to reveal or consecrate the greatest poets of their time, such as Victor Hugo, Chateaubriand, Frédéric Mistral, Marie Noël and Léopold Sédar Senghor.

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Timbre (héliogravure) : création Juliette Charlot et calligraphie Amélie Barnathan, mise en page studio Pekelo. Bord de feuille : création Amélie Barnathan, mise en page studio Pekelo d'après © archives photographiques de l’Académie des Jeux floraux.