Anseïs de Carthage is a thirteenth-century chanson de geste. It is preserved in four manuscripts, though some are fragmentary.[1] It is a sequel to the Chanson de Roland, and is set against the background of the Reconquista of Spain.[2] It was written between 1230 and 1250, and consists of about 11000 rhymed decasyllables.[3] A prose version of the tale is preserved in a manuscript of the late fifteenth century, with the title La cronique associée de Charlemaine très loable et Anseis icy coupplée.[3][4]: 324 The first printed edition of the chanson is that of Johann Alton in 1892.[5]
| Anseïs de Carthage | |
|---|---|
 first page of Anseïs de Carthage in manuscript fr. 1598, in the Bibliothèque Nationale de France | |
| Written | 1230–1250 |
| First published in | Germany, 1892 |
| Language | old French |
| Genre(s) | chanson de geste |
| Lines | about 11000 |
| Metre | rhymed decasyllables |
Sources edit
A complete manuscript of the chanson is held by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, under reference fr. 1598;[6] another manuscript, dating from 1280–1300, is held under reference fr. 793.[7][8]
In the twentieth century, two manuscript parchment bifolia of the chanson were found in Italy, where in the early years of the seventeenth century they had been used as bindings for other documents; these, with many other mediaeval manuscripts, are believed to have originated in the libraries of the d'Este family, which shortly before had moved its court from Ferrara to Modena.[9]: 44 One bifolium was discovered by Monica Longobardi in Imola, and is held in the Biblioteca Comunale, the municipal library of that town. The other was included in a group of documents later transferred from the Archivio Notarile di Bologna, a legal archive, to the Archivio di Stato or state archives of Bologna; it was described in 1931 by Vincenzo De Bartholomaeis, who may have removed it from the archives at that time. It is now considered lost.[9]: 43
References edit
- ^ Anseis de Carthage. The French of Italy Project. New York City: Center for Medieval Studies, Fordham University. Accessed November 2019.
- ^ Alison Williams (2004). Review. Reviewed Work: Fantasy, Identity and Misrecognition in Medieval French Narrative by James R. Simpson. The Modern Language Review 99 (2): 485. doi:10.2307/3738785. (subscription required).
- ^ a b Notice de titre textuel: Anseïs de Carthage, forme internationale (in French). Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Accessed November 2019.
- ^ Henry Martin (1885). [https://archive.org/details/cataloguedesmanu03bibl/page/324 Catalogue des manuscrits de la Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal (in French). Paris: E. Plon, Nourrit.
- ^ Johann Alton (1892). Anseïs von Kartago. Bibliothek der litterarishchen Vereins in Stuttgart, CXCIV. Tübingen: H. Laupp.
- ^ Français 1598 (facsimile of the manuscript). Gallica. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Accessed November 2019.
- ^ Français 793 (in French). Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Accessed November 2019.
- ^ Français 793 (facsimile of the manuscript). Gallica. Paris: Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Accessed November 2019.
- ^ a b Armando Antonelli (2012). Frammenti romanzi di provenienza estense (in Italian). Annali Online di Ferrara - Lettere 1: 38–66. Accessed November 2019.
Further reading edit
- Vincenzo De Bartholomaeis (1931). Nuovi frammenti dell' (in Italian). In Atti dell'Accademia degli Arcadi VII–VIII: 85–117.
- Monica Longobardi (1989). Frammenti di codici in antico francese della Biblioteca Comunale di Imola (in Italian). In Miscellanea di studi in onore di Aurelio Roncaglia: a cinquant’anni dalla sua laurea volume II: 727–759. Modena: Mucchi.