Troianalexandrina

A number of authors in Byzantium remodelled Homeric and non-Homeric material in different manners, not only citing and alluding to the epics but also discussing and remodelling the subject matter. Byzantine Troy matter appears in the chronographical tradition, in a series of commentaries and paraphrases, and in romances and other texts belonging to the “novelistic fringe”. Drawing basically on Homeric and post-Homeric legends, these texts are to different degrees intrinsically interrelated not only to each other, but also to the so-called Komnenian novels and to the Western Troy matter in Benoît de Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie. The present article attempts to briefly outline the complex relations between the texts and to consider the links between ancient and Medieval, Western and Byzantine, epic, history, and novel.

The 8566 manuscript of the Spanish Biblioteca Nacional (olim X-152) contains both a short imago mundi, whose authorship is not clear, and a Latin copy of the Historia destructionis Troiae by Guido delle Colonne. Both texts were copied separatedly and put together afterwards. The version of the Historia destructrionis Troiae presents so many transmission and binding problems that the text becomes completely unreadable.

The iconographical programme in the Otranto Mosaic should be interpreted as a monumental ekphrasis. The 12th and 13th century romans, with the stories of Alexander the Great, offer the basis for an understanding of the complexity of this cycle with the representation of Marvels of the East. The originality of this repertoire of images is related to the particular historical and cultural context in Apulia during the Norman Period. That peculiarity explains the presence of King Arthur in the cycle.

In this article I examine seasonal and landscape descriptions which head episodes (‘lyrics’) in the Libro de Alexandre and Kyng Alisaunder, with reference to their sources: the Alexandreis, the Roman d’Alexandre, and the Roman de toute chevalerie. I argue that some short descriptions present in the sources perform thematic, narrative, and organizational functions. More elaborate lyrics in Kyng Alisaunder and the Libro de Alexandre are found to have a similar range of functions. The practice of using descriptive material with thematic or organizational effect is commented upon by glossators of the Alexandreis, and is a recommended compositional practice. Consequently seasonal lyrics should not be dismissed as simply commonplace but should be recognized as part of the creative process of the poet’s ordinatio et dispositio of his material, and thus be subject to analysis.

In the first half of the thirteenth century the Libro de Alexandre contained the first Spanish narration of the War of Troy, inserted in the main plot as a tale told by Alexander himself to his soldiers. After a brief survey of the medieval tradition of Troy, the present article analyses the Trojan digression of the Alexandre from different points of view. The adaptation of the sources is described and the reasons which could have originated their selection are investigated. An attempt is then made to lighten the stylistic tone of the episode by comparing it with its main source, the Ilias latina, on the one hand, and with its adaptation in Alfonso el Sabio's General Estoria, on the other. Moving to the structural function of the digression within the Spanish poem, it is argued that the estoria troyana is a mise en abyme of the Libro, mirroring both the message and the communicative situation of the whole work. This analysis also allows one to approach some exegetic questions regarding the Spanish poem, such as the personality of the author, the purpose of the work and its mode of reception.

This essay deals with the invocation of the mythical instance Helikon (V. 4960–4905) in the Tristan of Gottfried von Straßburg, in which the poet seems to pray for the appropriate creative inspiration in order to get the right words for narrating the protagonist’s ‘Schwertleite’. The article tries to be another alternative attempt of interpreting this passage showing that through it Gottfried offers, on the one hand, an invocatio which must be understood in an ironical way because the poet is still in possession of the power of creation he has prayed for; nevertheless, on the other hand, his invocatio is also a perfect exposition of his literary position in the historical context of his time. Therefore, it must be perceived as a serious explanation of his own literary conception which is directly connected to the concept of “Tristaneros”.

The article deals with two questions relating to an edition of the Theban section of the General estoria. The first question is concerned with the “original” of the work. The second with the extent to which recourse can be made to the underlying text. Given that the Alfonsine “Estoria de Tebas” is a translation into Spanish of the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, the comparison of the Spanish text with the French source is a valuable instrument for the clarification of interpretative problems in the Spanish text. This employment of the underlying text varies in usefulness depending on two basic factors. Firstly, whether the error was produced during the manuscript transmission of the work, or, secondly, whether the error derives from problems produced in the process of translation. This procedure is principally useful in establishing the text where an error of transmission is concerned, since it allows the editor to evaluate existing variants. The situation is very different if the error derives from the translation itself. The underlying text allows the editor to reconstruct the translated sentence and the process which produced the error. So the procedure allows the editor to identify the problem, clarify its origins and even “virtually restore” the reading to its original form. Nevertheless, the efficiency of the procedure is limited as far as emendation is concerned, since the translated sentence is subject to a process of change, and often of enrichment, which prevent the editor making any intervention which would alter the Alfonsine “original”.

The works of Gomes Eanes de Zurara, headed chronologically by Crónica da Tomada de Ceuta, have often been considered the point of origin of ultramarine historiography in Portugal. The Portuguese expansion overseas began with the conquest of this first Moroccan fortress, resuming, at the same time, the Christian reconquest started by the monarchs of the first dynasty, and which resulted in the territorial extension southwards. The search for written sources is an important characteristic of this historian, but as a matter of fact they were scarce, due to the closeness in time of the chosen subject. Faithful to his classical education, Zurara endorses the educational objectives of History, expressing himself in a style rich in quotations from literary, historical, philosophical, and scientific treatises, not only from Greek and Latin, but also from patristic, Arabic and Hebrew sources. In fact, for any inventory of the sources and documents of fifteenth-century Portuguese culture, one cannot forget the bibliographical references found throughout his works, through which he exercises the concepts of imitatio and auctoritas, in order to convey a certain hierarchy of moral and political values.