Vivien definitions

-The history of maps is dealt with ably in Vivien de Saint Martin's Histoire de la geographie (Paris, 1875), and in Peschel's Geschichte der Erdkunde (2nd ed.

The central fact of the geste of Guillaume is the battle of the Archamp or Aliscans, in which perished Guillaume's heroic nephew, Vezian or Vivien, a second Roland.

Guillaume arrived too late to help Vivien, was himself defeated, and returned alone to his wife Guibourc, leaving his knights all dead or prisoners.

This event is related in a Norman-French transcript of an old French chanson de geste, the Chancun de Willame - which only was brought to light in 1901 at the sale of the books of Sir Henry Hope Edwardes - in the Covenant Vivien, a recension of an older French chanson and in Aliscans.

It seems probable that the Archant was situated in Spain near Vivien's headquarters at Tortosa, and that Guillaume started from Barcelona, not from Orange, to his nephew's help. The account of the disaster was modified by successive trouveres, and the uncertainty of their methods may be judged by the fact that in the ChanQun de Willame two consecutive accounts (I I.