Critical Edition of Couldrette’s MÉlusine or Le Roman De Parthenay

Author: 
Year:
Pages:392
ISBN:0-7734-6721-1
978-0-7734-6721-7
Price:$239.95 + shipping
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Winner of the Adele Mellen Prize for contribution to scholarship
The legend of Mélusine is one of the most captivating tales in French cultural history. Its myriad ramifications have not only affected the political history of Western Europe and the Near East of the Middle Ages, but have also provided a window of understanding for human events and motivations harking back as far as pre-Roman times. Couldrette created the medieval poetic version of Mélusine based on Jean d’Arras’s prose version, which was written at the behest of Jean De Berry. This critical edition includes a summary of the story and its creation, its historical background and sources, and textual history.

Reviews

“…readers should be grateful to Matthew Morris for once again making Couldrette’s work available, and in such a fine edition. He has done his work skillfully, and provided readers with a wealth of useful information and notes. It is fitting that six hundred and two years after Couldrette first ‘published’ his version, we should have the most accessible edition yet produced of this magical work. Mélusine is proof positive that medieval studies are alive and well, with much remaining to discover…and, still more important, to understand.” – Stephen G. Nichols, Johns Hopkins University

Table of Contents

Table of contents:
Preface by Stephen G. Nichols
Introduction
· Summary
· Mélusine: Folklore and Legend
· Patronage for the Two Versions
· Jean d’Arras vs. Couldrette
· Sources
· Historical Background
· Manuscripts
· Versification and Language
· Syntax
Le Roman de Parthenay ou Le Roman de Mélusine
Epilog by Tania Colwell
Bibliography; Index of Names; Glossary

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