Skip to main content

IMC 2018: Sessions

Session 1120: Remembering Troy in the Middle Ages, II: Socio-Political Considerations

Wednesday 4 July 2018, 11.15-12.45

Organisers:Sabine Heidi Walther, Abteilung für Skandinavische Sprachen und Literaturen, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn
N Yavuz, Den Arnamagnæanske Samling, Københavns Universitet
Moderator/Chair:Mia Münster-Swendsen, Institut for Kommunikation og Humanistisk Videnskab, Roskilde Universitet
Paper 1120-aDares Phrygius in Context: Text, Textual Apparatus, and the Corpus of Associated Works in Manuscripts of the De excidio Troiae historia
(Language: English)
Louis Faivre d'Arcier, Archives Municipales de Lyon
Index terms: Language and Literature - Latin, Learning (The Classical Inheritance)
Paper 1120-bLes traductions de Guido delle Colonne en français, constantes et variantes
(Language: Français)
Catherine Croizy-Naquet, Centre d'Études du Moyen-Age (CEMA), Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris III
Index terms: Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Learning (The Classical Inheritance)
Paper 1120-cDescribing the City of Troy, or How to Shape 'Good Governement'?
(Language: English)
Anne Rochebouet, Institut d’Études Culturelles et Internationales, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines
Index terms: Language and Literature - Middle English, Language and Literature - French or Occitan, Political Thought
Abstract

For three millennia, the fall of Troy has been a popular topic in European culture. Not only did the classical texts that were the product of Greco-Roman culture continue to circulate in the Middle Ages, but also many 'new' works were composed on different aspects of the story of Troy, not only in Latin and Greek but also in vernacular languages. These texts, old and new, shaped the perception of the Trojan War and enabled the further production and transmission of narratives on Trojan characters and scenes throughout the Middle Ages. Trojan topics also remained popular in visual imagery, from early Greek vases and Roman sculptures to medieval illuminations and tapestry. With every work written, drawn, sculpted, carved, or copied, the past was reconstructed and renarrated yet again in a different context emphasising different values. These four sessions explore the reasons behind the fascination with the Trojan narrative and the ways in which the story of Troy was employed in the Middle Ages.

The second session will focus on the different versions and adaptations of the story of Troy and the ways in which these works served contemporary social and political agendas. Louis Faivre d'Arcier will consider the manuscripts of the late antique De excidio Troiae historia attributed to Dares of Phrygia and the different methods and techniques adopted by medieval scribes in order to reconstitute the historical and literary background of the text. Catherine Croizy-Naquet will compare and discuss the French translations of Guido delle Colonne's Historia destructionis Troiae (c. 1287), which, in the first place, is an adaptation of Benoît's Roman de Troie in French verse into Latin prose. Anne Rochebouet will look into the city of Troy as a political model by considering works written or circulating in the 14th and 15th centuries, such as the Histoire ancienne jusqu'à César, Romans de Troie en prose, and the Troy Book by John Lydgate, which is also based on Guido's work.