Abstract: The romance of Cristal et Clarie presents an original writing method for French medieval literature : instead of borrowing passages from previous texts by rewriting them, the anonymous author goes so far as to literally copy several verses from 12th and 13th-century romances and insert them into his narrative. Although medievalists have, to date, shown little interest in this unique phenomenon, it is in fact highly significant since it demonstrates the author’s satirical intentions as much as it introduces some sort of play with the source text, thus providing insights into the medieval reception of texts. This article studies the borrowings from Partonopeu de Blois, from which the episode of Melior’s rape and Chef d’Oire’s description are reproduced, in order to show the harmonious adaptation of these verses into the narrative thread of Cristal et Clarie and to examine their significance
