Mediaevalia

Volume 25, Issue 2, 2004

An Old French Romance and its Adaptations

Olivier Collet
Pages 93-110

"Armes Et Amour" Ou "Amour Sans Armes?"
Un Aspect Négligé de la Circulation et de la Reception du Roman de Partonopeu de Blois au XIIIème Siècle

This paper analyses the differing receptions of the Old French Partonopeus de Blois in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries by revisiting a little known text, a peculiar prolongation in the form of an Art d'aimer which has been added to a versified French translation of the Disciplina clericalis. This continuation exists in only one manuscript; recent advances in technology and new research have allowed the author to determine that quite large parts of this Art d'aimer have been borrowed from Partonopeus. He analyses these borrowings, reassesses the judgments of his predecessors, and concludes that Partonopeus de Blois might have had a much greater literary impact on the authors of other Old French texts than has previously been thought