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A short introduction to the O manuscript of the Roman de Renart. What lies beneath the text The O manuscript brings together the oldest and most widespread stories of the Roman de Renart. It is a mixed text, borrowing its lessons in turn from other manuscripts of the Reynard tradition, which leads to the opinion that the scribe had many other collections. But it is also an original piece, enriched by lessons unknown elsewhere: the O manuscript presents quite a number of interpolations that the critics judged severely. Recollections of older tales, parodies of epic or courtly topoï (commonplaces), these inserted verses are nevertheless an example in the text of the poetic activity of the copyists, of the constant development of appropriation, rewriting and creation