Italian Literature I - by Gloria Allaire (Hardcover)

About the Book

The Arthurian Archives series of texts and editions in translation, edited by Norris J. Lacy, makes a start on Italian Arthurian material, with a 14c Tristan text.

Book Synopsis

This exciting new volume presents the first critical edition with English translation of the lengthy prose compilation known as the 'Tristano panciatichiano' which is preserved in a unique manuscript in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence (MS Panc. 33). This is the first time the Italian text has been published in its entirety in any form. Assembled by the mid-fourteenth century, the manuscript is an original compilation in Italian of several discrete narratives (or 'based on several French models'): the 'Queste del San Graal', 'Joseph d'Arimathie', the 'Mort Artu', and notably, the 'Roman de Tristan en prose'. The compilation also includes a brief exchange of love letters for which no source has thus far been identified. While the edition itself will be of great interest to Italianists, the translation into English will facilitate the study of this text by Arthurianists and medievalists of various disciplines. Access to this text will contribute greatly to understanding of manuscript transmission, translation, cyclification, linguistic phenomenon, and cultural exchange in particular. In addition, it will furnish important new evidence for the study of Arthurian material in Italy. Apparatus includes a finding list of Arthurian manuscripts produced, owned or read by Italians, a select bibliography, and an index of proper names found in the narrative.

Review Quotes

Gloria Allaire continues to expand our knowledge of late-medieval Italian literature through her study and translation of vernacular chivalric texts. [...] This is an important resource for students of medieval Italian literature and for other scholars studying the Arthurian tradition.-- "SPECULUM"