Matthieu Boyd

K. Sarah-Jane Murray

First English translation of one of the most influential French poems of the Middle Ages. The anonymous Ovide moralisé (Moralized Ovid), composed in France in the fourteenth century, retells and explicates Ovid's Metamorphoses, with generous helpings of related texts, for a Christian audience. Working from the premise that everything in the universe, including the pagan authors of Graeco-Roman Antiquity, is part of God's plan and expresses God's truth even without knowing it, the Ovide moralisé is a massive and influential work of synthesis and creativity, a remarkable window into a certain kind of medieval thinking. It is of major importance across time and across many disciplines, including literature, philosophy, theology, and art history. This volume offers an English translation of this hugely significant text - the first into any modern language. Based on the only complete edition to date, that by Cornelis de Boer and others completed in 1938, it also reflects more recent editions and numerous manuscripts. The translation is accompanied by a substantial introduction, situating the Ovide moralisé in terms of the reception of Ovid, the mythographical tradition, and its medieval French religious and intellectual milieu. Notes discuss textual problems and sources, and relate the text to key issues in the thought of theologians such as Bonaventure and Aquinas.

An English Translation [3 Volume Set]

The Medieval French Ovide Moralisé

Considered the most important figure in medieval French literature, Chrétien de Troyes is credited with inventing the modern novel. The roots of his influential Arthurian romance narratives remain the subject of investigation and great debate among medieval scholars. In From Plato to Lancelot, K. Sara-Jane Murray makes a highly original and profoundly significant contribution to the current scholarship by locating Chrétien’s work at the intersection of two important traditions: one derived from Greco-Roman antiquity, the other from the Celtic world of the Atlantic seaboard. Drawing on a broad range of sources, from Plato’s Timaeus and Ovid’s Metamorphoses to the anonymous Lais translated in the twelfth century by Marie de France, Murray demonstrates that Chrétien and his contemporaries learned the importance of translation from the Mediterranean-centered classical tradition. She then turns to the Celtic world, examining how Irish monastic scholarship, as demonstrated by the Voyage of St. Brendan and Celtic saints’ lives, profoundly influenced the cultural identity of medieval Europe and paved the way for an interest in Celtic stories and legends. With breathtaking insight and lucid prose, Murray illustrates that Chrétien’s singular genius lay in his ability to look to the future and to lay the foundations for a thoroughly new, and French, tradition of vernacular storytelling.

K. Sarah-Jane Murray

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