The tragic stories of Lucretia and Verginia, taken from the fourteenth-century French version of Livy's History of Rome, presented with facing page English translation. Livy was famous in the Middle Ages for what Dante called his "unerring" history of Rome. Within that history, two episodes were especially well-known, both promoting female virtue while also suggesting how sexual violence could trigger political change. Lucretia commits suicide after her rape, precipitating the fall of the monarchy. Verginia is murdered by her father, who prefers to see her die than be seized by the corrupt judge Appius; her death then inspires an uprising that overthrows the decemvirs, republican officials who abused the very laws they had codified. While these stories circulated widely in the medieval period, access to the Latin Livy was impeded by a scarcity of manuscripts. There is nonetheless evidence that some poets, notably Chaucer and Gower, knew Livy through the Tite-Live, a French translation by Pierre Bersuire that was completed around 1358, and borrowed from it for their own works. There are many manuscripts of the Tite-Live, though little of it is available to modern readers. This book helps fill that gap by supplying critical editions and English translations of Bersuire's Verginia and Lucretia episodes, along with those in the Roman de la Rose by Jean de Meun, one of the earliest vernacular writers to show interest in Livy. Each text features a substantial critical apparatus, which glosses difficult terms and concepts and elucidates historical events and social contexts, while an introduction provides other contextual information.
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The tragic stories of Lucretia and Verginia, taken from the fourteenth-century French version of Livy's History of Rome, presented with facing page English translation.
Acknowledgments List of Figures Introduction Notes on the Edition Notes on Images 1. The Tale of Verginia from Bersuire's Tite-Live 2. The Tale of Lucretia from Bersuire's Tite-Live 3. The Tale of Verginia from Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose 4. The Tale of Lucretia from Jean de Meun's Roman de la Rose Bibliography Index
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Produktdetaljer

ISBN
9781843847359
Publisert
2025-01-14
Utgiver
Vendor
D.S. Brewer
Vekt
666 gr
Høyde
234 mm
Bredde
156 mm
Aldersnivå
P, 06
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Innbundet
Antall sider
134

Edited and translated by

Biographical note

NOAH D. GUYNN is Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Davis. DAVID F. HULT is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of French at the University of California, Berkeley. ELIZABETH SCALA is Perceval Professor of Medieval Romance, Historiography, and Culture in the Department of English at the University of Texas, Austin.