Tiaudelet

The Medieval French text (9400 lines) known as Tiaudelet is here edited for the first time. It is a lively debate poem which translates Theodulus’s Ecloga and adds a lengthy commentary to each stanza. It was last investigated in 1915 when A. Parducci published five modest extracts. It is found in a manuscript which represents a sort of vernacular ‘Liber Catonianus’, offering classical texts which formed the basis of the educational curriculum in the arts in French translation. It debates the value of two traditions: the classical and biblical, with the educational aim of increasing knowledge of classical and Scriptural narratives. As an appendix to the edition is provided the text of the only other French translation of Theodulus, by Jean Le Fèvre, as represented by the unique copy in the National Library of Scotland, of the early print by Jan Brulelou of Bruges.