Sponsored by the Berkeley Festival and Exhibition: Music and History Admission: $5.On a shelf in Paris's Bibliothèque Nationale sits the illuminated manuscript Le Roman de Fauvel, a lengthy poem with accompanying music from the 14th century. This allegorical satire attacking the excesses of the medieval French court has now been transformed into an electronic book, complete with computer-enhanced miniature paintings, animated text, and a digital soundtrack with performances by The Boston Camerata. The eponymous Fauvel is a red-coated ass who has ingratiated himself with the monarchy and clergy alike. He is the hee-hawing symbol of vice; indeed, his name is an anagram for flattery, avarice, villainy, fickleness, envy, and sloth. Fauvel begins a courtship with Fortune, but his advances are strikingly rejected. As compensation, Fortune gives our accursed ass one of her handmaidens, Vainglory, and the two bear numerous offspring. The musical settings for Le Roman de Fauvel are remarkably diverse in form and style. Included are liturgical plainchant with monophonic hymns and French secular music; and a number of motets, polyphonic pieces of three and four musical voices, attributed to Philippe de Vitry, founder of the Ars Nova movement. The medieval text is finely integrated with its musical complement. Combining an oddly topical 14th-century manuscript and new computer technology, Le Roman de Fauvel offers an exciting, automated book that sings itself. --Steve Seid