Synthema – serie

The 27 reprinted essays and one so far unpublished lecture assembled in this collection deal with works by Chaucer, Langland, Dante, Petrarch, Middle-English lyrics and drama, and several broader topics, such as the Three Enemies of Man, the pilgrimage of life, and the figure of the wise fool. In them Siegfried Wenzel applies his long-standing interest and study of contemporary works of religious instruction, especially medieval sermons and penitential literature to elucidate different aspects of major works of vernacular medieval poetry as well as of smaller details that have caused critical concern. Most of the essays contain hitherto unpublished medieval Latin texts. With a foreword by Nigel Palmer.

Medieval writers frequently refer to the composition of their own verse and prose works. These authorial interventions are often cryptic and partial, bringing them together, like pieces in a puzzle, reveals a coherent picture of their art of poetry and prose. However, beyond the interest of this knowledge in its own right, it is also necessary to find out how it can be used to interpret, evaluate, and appreciate the works that exemplify it. As the French art of invention emerged from the medieval Latin tradition in rhetoric and poetics, vernacular authors, from Chrétien de Troyes to Christine de Pizan, adapted it to the composition of their own narratives, lyric poems, and treatises. This book brings together a number of essays that show how medieval writers in the translatio studii invented, with subtlety and imagination, diverse, original, and even compelling works that conform to their literary art. Focusing on both well known and less well known authors and works, the essays are grouped under the following topics: the art of invention, the Roman de Troie, Arthurian verse romances and the matière de Bretagne, prose romance on the knights of the Round Table and on the Seven Sages of Rome, Occitan and Old French lyric, and late medieval allegory and the Dit.

«Patrons, Authors and Workshops» invokes a cross-disciplinary approach to the study of late medieval books and book production in Paris, from the troubled years of the early fifteenth century onwards. It shows the extent to which such activity was able to flourish even against the backdrop of the endemic struggle between Burgundians and Armagnacs, or the subsequent English invasion which led to Agincourt and the regency of Bedford.Extensive coverage is given to the key role played by the libraire, to the author as scribe or copyist (Christine de Pisan, Jean Lebègue), and also to the development of commercial production under figures such as Jean Trepperel. A section on bibliophiles and their various commissions leads into a group of essays that focus on particular texts and authors, whilst a further section concentrates on what we can discover about the role of the scribe. The volume concludes with four essays offering insights into the work of particular artists and illuminators.The authors include scholars from the UK, France, Greece, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and the USA.Godfried Croenen is Lecturer in French at the University of Liverpool.Peter Ainsworth is Professor of French at the University of Sheffield.