Le Livre de Boece de consolacion. (Textes Littéraires Français, 580) by Glynnis M. Cropp

Abstract

858 Reviews represents a significant contribution not just to the study of Insular Norman French but to French dialectology ingeneral. Aberystwyth University Glanville Price Le Livre de Boece de consolacion. Ed. by Glynnis M. Cropp. (Textes Litteraires Fra^ais, 580) Geneva: Droz. 2006. 480 pp. 54.65. ISBN 978-2-600-01028 3. The centrality of Boethius's Consolatio Philosophiae within latemedieval culture is attested by the fact that itwas translated into French no less than twelve times between 1230 and 1477. Seven of these translations have already been published as critical editions or are at least available for consultation as Ph.D. dissertations. However, the version which was most widely disseminated in theMiddle Ages, themid-fourteenth-century anonymous Livre de Boece de consolacion, which is preserved in no fewer than 65 manuscripts, has only now appeared in an excellent edition byGlynnis M. Cropp. In the introduction Cropp discusses the complex history of this series of transla tions and explains how thisparticular version claimed authority for itselfby itsclose engagement with the pre-existing tradition. For instance, although it borrowed its prologue from Jean de Meun's earlier prose translation, so as to appropriate this author's prestige for itself,along with the kudos of itsdedication to the king, Philippe le Bel, this anonymous version none the less differs from that of Jean de Meun in retaining themixture of verse and prose of the original Latin text.As Cropp shows, the translation itselfunderwent a number of stages of development, appearing first without glosses and thenwith glosses added, this second stage con formingmore closely to the earlier tradition of translations which saw the need for explicative glosses thatofferedhistorical information and emphasized theChristian significance of the text for its medieval readers. Cropp's edition takes as itsbase manuscript a codex which many modern readers would find hard to access, this being Auckland, City Libraries, Med.MS G119, and selects sevenmanuscripts as controls that represent both the glossed and unglossed redactions. This edition captures the complexity of themedieval layout with its interpolated glosses, rendered here in italics so as to highlight their difference from the verse or prose text,which is given in roman type. It is accompanied by notes offering invaluable codicological and philological commentary, an appendix containing the rubrics fromone of the controlmanuscripts, selective listsofvariants and rejected readings, a useful glossary, and an extensive bibliography. This edition will be of immense value to all scholars and students of latemedieval culture inmaking available a work which occupied an important place in the royal and noble libraries of theperiod. Itwill also be of interest to specialists in the study of vernacular translation as evidence of themedieval reception ofworks of classical antiquity. University of Leeds Rosalind Brown-Grant ...