The Vernacular Universe: Gossuin de Metz’s Image du Monde, Translatio Studii, and Vernacular Narrative

Abstract

This article argues that Gossuin de Metz’s Image du monde is indebted to both the Latin encyclopedic tradition and vernacular narrative, particularly the romances of Chrétien de Troyes. As the first vernacular encyclopedia, the Image du monde forges space as a new genre by combining these previous forms through the key notion of translatio studii. Not only is the medieval encyclopedia dependent on the transfer of knowledge from one language and culture to another, but Gossuin’s deployment of the translatio topos throughout his work evokes vernacular narratives. In this way, the Image du monde performs a transmission of learning from Latin to the vernacular as well as a transfer of scientific knowledge from a clerical audience to a broader audience familiar with narrative. The three different redactions of the Image du monde, although not all attributed to Gossuin, relate to Old French narratives particularly through the prosification of romance.