La réception de la poésie épique médiolatine, ses heurs et ses malheurs: quelques cas d’espèce

Abstract

Jean-Yves Tilliette: Good and Bad Fortune of Medieval Latin Epic Poetry: some CaseStudies.

Judging from today’s editions, many Medieval Latin poets devoted themselves withzeal to the ‹noble genre› of epic. It is not easy to define the genre precisely. Meter isnot conclusive, since many such epic poems use elegiac couplets or rhythmic verse.The subject matter likewise embraces various themes, sometimes historical, sometimesfantastic, sometimes religious or allegorical.A sample of very different texts here invites an assessment of the success of medievalepics based on the extent of their individual manuscript traditions. A quantitativeapproach shows that most such texts enjoyed only a very narrow dissemination. Itseems that the dignity of a particular subject-matter and/or favourable reception bya lone addressee or sponsor could suffice for ‹renown›.However, some epics enjoyed an especially wide transmission (e. g., Peter Riga’s ‹Aurora›, Walter of Chatillon’s ‹Alexandreis›, Alan of Lille’s ‹Anticlaudianus›), butthat reflects less their inherent poetic qualities than their use as school reading.