Library of Medieval Literature – serie

First published in 1991. It was the lyric poetry of Petrarch that popularized the sonnet in European literature, that set the standard for love poetry for centuries to follow. Compared to the large volume of prose, poetry and notes in Latin, the corpus of Petrarch’s Italian writings is small: the 366 poems that make up the Canzoniere, the 2000 or so verses of the Trionfi, and an undetermined number of poems, drafts and fragments that comprise what we call the Rime disperse. This collection includes indexes of first lines in both Italian and English.

First published in 1993. Part of a library on Medieval Literature this volume is a translated version of 'The Book of the Treasure' by Brunetto Latini, who was a teacher of Dante and is remembered in Dante's Inferno in Canto 15. The Book of the Treasure is a compendium of primarily classical material, following in a long tradition of such collections, with origins in late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages, a genre which was finally to die in the Renaissance, when especially the scientific knowledge contained in these pale and corrupt reflections of classical wisdom could no longer compete with the superior scientific material from the Muslim world which began to make its way into Christian Europe as early as the 11th century.

This work offers an edition and translation of some 30 poems by the trobairitz, a remarkable group of women poets from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, who composed in the style and language of the troubadours. Introductory essays and notes by specialists in the field place the poems in literary, linguistic, historical, social and cultural contexts. English versions facing Occitan texts elucidate the original language and themes, while supplying poems that can be enjoyed by contemporary readers . The varied corpus includes love songs (cansos), debate poems (tensos), political satires (sirventes) and other lyrical sub-genres (including dawn-song, lament, ballad, chanson de mal mariee). To represent the range of female voices available in the lyric corpus of the troubadours, the editors have selected songs consistently attributed to historically documented women poets, as well as songs whose authorship is open to question. The latter may be presented by the manuscripts with or without a named woman poet, but all offer female speakers personae characteristic of troubadour poets in general.

Variously described as a comedy of manners, a psychological romance, and a type of fabliau, the 13th-century narrative Flamenca is the best medieval romance written in Occitan. Its uniqueness springs from qualities that anticipate the preoccupations of modern-day narrative. Not content with being a love story fraught with risk and intrigue, the poem is layered with responses to the troubadour tradition of love and poetry, as well as the Bible and the classics. Though among the most bookish of romances, its tone is invariably ironic, comic, and satirical. This playfulness may be measured by the variety and vehemence of critical response to the poem. Is it a vindication of the troubadour ideal, a mockery of the Church, a satire on jealous husbands, or an undermining of the ideals that romance is said to inscribe? Or is it all of these elements held in suspense? The introduction confronts these questions. The most recent edition and translation of Flamenca , by Hubert and Porter, is now out of print; their translation was into octosyllabic couplets that match the original. Blodgett's translation is unrhymed and line-for-line, on pages facing the edition; it adhers as closely as possible to the literal meaning of the original. The edition follows the recent text prepared by Gschwind.

"Royal and saintly women are well-represented here, with the welcome addition of women from the Mediterranean arc...Garland has done a solid job of presenting this book." -- Arthuriana"The Anthology gives a fine sense of the great range of women's writing in the Middle Ages." -- Medium Aevum