Marilynn Desmond
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780199587230
- eISBN:
- 9780191820410
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199587230.003.0013
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Although the Homeric epics were unknown in the medieval Latin West, textual treatments of the matter of Troy nonetheless circulated widely, in Latin as well as vernacular literatures. The narrative ...
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Although the Homeric epics were unknown in the medieval Latin West, textual treatments of the matter of Troy nonetheless circulated widely, in Latin as well as vernacular literatures. The narrative traditions on the Trojan War and its aftermath were transmitted to the Latin West by two Latin prose texts, Dares’ De excidio Troiae historia, and Dictys’ Ephemeris belli Trojani. In the twelfth century, Benoît de Sainte-Maure took both Dares’ and Dictys’ texts as source texts for his Roman de Troie. The Roman de Troie became in turn the source text for late medieval versions of the fall of Troy, in Latin as well as the vernacular. In the textual traditions based on the Roman de Troie, the narrative of Troilus and Criseyde replaces that of Helen and Paris as the iconic love story contextualized by the Trojan War. This tradition produced Boccaccio’s Filostrato, Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, and Lydgate’s Laud Troy Book.Less
Although the Homeric epics were unknown in the medieval Latin West, textual treatments of the matter of Troy nonetheless circulated widely, in Latin as well as vernacular literatures. The narrative traditions on the Trojan War and its aftermath were transmitted to the Latin West by two Latin prose texts, Dares’ De excidio Troiae historia, and Dictys’ Ephemeris belli Trojani. In the twelfth century, Benoît de Sainte-Maure took both Dares’ and Dictys’ texts as source texts for his Roman de Troie. The Roman de Troie became in turn the source text for late medieval versions of the fall of Troy, in Latin as well as the vernacular. In the textual traditions based on the Roman de Troie, the narrative of Troilus and Criseyde replaces that of Helen and Paris as the iconic love story contextualized by the Trojan War. This tradition produced Boccaccio’s Filostrato, Chaucer’s Troilus and Criseyde, and Lydgate’s Laud Troy Book.
Jane Gilbert, Simon Gaunt, and William Burgwinkle
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- May 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780198832454
- eISBN:
- 9780191888823
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198832454.003.0002
- Subject:
- Literature, Early and Medieval Literature
This chapter juxtaposes two case studies of texts in French with an exclusively local dissemination outside France: Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis (c. 1137) and the second mise en prose of the Roman de ...
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This chapter juxtaposes two case studies of texts in French with an exclusively local dissemination outside France: Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis (c. 1137) and the second mise en prose of the Roman de Troie (c. 1270). In these instances, French is used as a cosmopolitan language with a multilingual readership, but the particular form and the aesthetic developed have a local flavour. These texts are not in a two-way dialogue with literary culture in France but show the existence of autonomous Francophone literary cultures in other places. In the case of Gaimar, ‘French literary culture’ had barely emerged in France. In the case of the prose Roman de Troie, the manuscripts are our focus, for the local visual style of the manuscripts is as striking as the text’s formal and linguistic makeover.Less
This chapter juxtaposes two case studies of texts in French with an exclusively local dissemination outside France: Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis (c. 1137) and the second mise en prose of the Roman de Troie (c. 1270). In these instances, French is used as a cosmopolitan language with a multilingual readership, but the particular form and the aesthetic developed have a local flavour. These texts are not in a two-way dialogue with literary culture in France but show the existence of autonomous Francophone literary cultures in other places. In the case of Gaimar, ‘French literary culture’ had barely emerged in France. In the case of the prose Roman de Troie, the manuscripts are our focus, for the local visual style of the manuscripts is as striking as the text’s formal and linguistic makeover.
- Published in print:
- 1986
- Published Online:
- February 2021
- ISBN:
- 9780856682940
- eISBN:
- 9781800342729
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Liverpool University Press
- DOI:
- 10.3828/liverpool/9780856682940.001.0001
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Poetry and Poets: Classical, Early, and Medieval
Joseph wrote his epic around the year 1180, and revised it at the court of Henry II of England where he had obtained some sort of post through the influence of his uncle, Baldwin, Archbishop of ...
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Joseph wrote his epic around the year 1180, and revised it at the court of Henry II of England where he had obtained some sort of post through the influence of his uncle, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury. The work is one of a series of texts in Latin and Anglo-Norman, apparently commissioned by the King, helping to trace back the Plantagenet line to the Trojans. It is a pendant to the Anglo-Norman Roman de Troie written by Benoit de Sainte-More in the 1160s. Joseph rejected the Vergilian 'mendacious poetic' account of the war in favour of the 'historical' narrative of Dares Phrygius, an 'eye-witness' of the events. This version not only coincided with the Plantagenets' preference for historical material but also presented Aeneas, the founder of the Romans, as a traitor. In Henry's struggles with the Pope over the Investiture problem any slur on the origins of the Romans could be useful ammunition. Books I–III cover the first Trojan war when Laomedon was besieged, the Judgement of Paris and the Rape of Helen. In style, Joseph closely resembles Lucan whom he had read “with an eye that allowed little to escape” (Raby), yet his imitation is far from servile. Sedgwick even goes so far as to say that Joseph “surpasses the bold constructions of Silver Latin.” Moreover, Joseph restores to epic the gods that Lucan had banished. The result is an epic that in the 17th century was still considered to have been written in the classical period. Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.Less
Joseph wrote his epic around the year 1180, and revised it at the court of Henry II of England where he had obtained some sort of post through the influence of his uncle, Baldwin, Archbishop of Canterbury. The work is one of a series of texts in Latin and Anglo-Norman, apparently commissioned by the King, helping to trace back the Plantagenet line to the Trojans. It is a pendant to the Anglo-Norman Roman de Troie written by Benoit de Sainte-More in the 1160s. Joseph rejected the Vergilian 'mendacious poetic' account of the war in favour of the 'historical' narrative of Dares Phrygius, an 'eye-witness' of the events. This version not only coincided with the Plantagenets' preference for historical material but also presented Aeneas, the founder of the Romans, as a traitor. In Henry's struggles with the Pope over the Investiture problem any slur on the origins of the Romans could be useful ammunition. Books I–III cover the first Trojan war when Laomedon was besieged, the Judgement of Paris and the Rape of Helen. In style, Joseph closely resembles Lucan whom he had read “with an eye that allowed little to escape” (Raby), yet his imitation is far from servile. Sedgwick even goes so far as to say that Joseph “surpasses the bold constructions of Silver Latin.” Moreover, Joseph restores to epic the gods that Lucan had banished. The result is an epic that in the 17th century was still considered to have been written in the classical period. Latin text with facing-page English translation, introduction and commentary.
