Oh, ahem, thank you very much, @BartholomewB ! I’m not a specialist at all, I’m just luckily not too bad at French
It is old (Norman ?) French indeed, and is a paraphrase (rather than the text) of John 21.
The text is not the Gospel text, it functions as a caption for the pictures.
The first one reads in somewhat modernized French (to the best of what I can decipher) :
“Comment les apôtres de Jésus Christ, Pierre, Jean, André, Jacques, Jude, Philippe, allèrent en un batel pêcher en la mer et pêchèrent tout un jour et toute une nuit et ne purent rien prendre. Et il vint et était sur la rive et les regardait rejetant ; ils étaient trop (?). Et disait à saint Pierre : ose mettre rets à dextre, tu en prendras. Et il faisait qu’il put aller.”
“How the apostles of Jesus Christ, Peter, John, Andrew, James, Jude, Philip, went in a boat to fish in the sea and fished a whole day and a whole night and could not catch a thing. And he came and stood on the shore and looked on at them throwing [nets]; they were too (
? I can’t make out that word). And said to saint Peter : dare throw the nets to the right, and you will catch. And he made that he could do so
(I think; I’m not too sure about that part either)”.
Second caption : “Comment saint Pierre faisait apporter le poisson qu’il avait pêché en la mer à la terre ; et Jésus Christ attendait. Et saint Pierre faisait mettre un gril sur le feu. Et voulut (?) du poisson, et Jésus mangea entre eux”.
“How saint Peter had the fish he had fished in the sea brought to the shore; and Jesus Christ was waiting. And saint Peter had a grill put over the fire. And wanted
(?) fish, and Jesus ate with them.”
It’s interesting that Peter is presented as the one preparing the meal, while Jesus does it in the Gospel narrative.
