Li Proverbes au conte de Bretaigne

This book focuses on didactic literature. First, the scholarship devoted to gnomic material is reviewed. Then relevant features of the scribal and authorial language are examined to find the approximate date of copy and the region of France wherein copyist and poet originated. The text, fifty-four strophes, each consisting of two tercets which introduce a pithy saying, is edited according to textual principles and supplemented by a rendition into modern French and English translations. It is important to make accessible a critical edition of the "Proverbes au conte de Bretaigne" that might be of use to those who wish to investigate the linguistic and literary aspects of Old French proverbs. This volume will stimulate students to broaden their knowledge of European gnomic literature beyond the few works devoted to it in literary histories.