A publication of the Robbins Library.
"Siege of Tyre," from John Williams, The Life of Alexander the Great (New York: Perkins, 1902), p. 122.
British Alexander French Alexander Alexander in Literature & Art
British Criticism/Secondary Sources
Gerrit H. V. Bunt. Alexander the Great in the Literature of Medieval Britain. Groningen: Egbert Forsten: 1994.
[Comprehensive guide to treatments of Alexander in Middle English and Scots writing in Britain. Sections of the discussion include source material, derivatives of Latin and French material, exempla material, Scottish writing, and Alexander in the writings of Chaucer, Gower, Hoccleve, and Lydgate. I have heavily depended on Bunt's work in compiling this section of the bibliography.]
Kitchel, Luann M. A Critical Study of the Middle English Alexander Romances. Dissertation: Michigan State University, 1973.
[Examines King Alysaunder, The Wars of Alexander, Alexander A, Alexander B, and The Prose Life of Alexander.]
British Primary Sources
I. Old English Letter of Alexander to Aristotle.
[Late 10th century. Old English translation of the Latin Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem. This earliest English Alexander text is included in the same manuscript as Beowulf, Wonders of the East, Judith, and St. Christopher.]
Manuscript:
British Library MS Cotton Vitellius A XV ("Nowell Codex"), fols. 107r-131v.
Editions:
W. M. Baskervill. "The Anglo-Saxon Version of the Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem." Anglia 4 (1881), pp. 139-67.
D. Davidson and A.P. Campbell. "The Letter of Alexander the Great to Aristotle: The Old English version turned into modern English." Humanities Association Bulletin 23 (1972), pp. 3-16 (translation).
Andy Orchard. Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-Manuscript. Rochester: Boydell and Brewer, 1995. Pp. 224-53. [Also contains a translation.]
Stanley Rypins. In Three Old English Prose Texts. EETS o.s. 161. London: H. Milford, Oxford University Press, 1924. Pp. 1-50. (diplomatic edition)
Criticism/Studies:
Beverley Joan Berg. Tales of Alexander and the East: Wonders and Wise Men. Dissertation: Stanford University, 1972.
Cary, pp. 15-16.
Henry Bradley and Kenneth Sisam. "Textual Notes on the Old English Epistola Alexandri." Modern Language Review 14 (1919), pp. 202-05.
A. Braun. Lautlehre der angelsächsischen Version der "Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem." Würzburg dissertation: Borna, 1911.
Margaret Bridges. "Empowering the Hero: Alexander as Author in the Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem and its Medieval English Versions." In The Problematics of Power: Eastern and Western Representations of Alexander the Great. Ed. Margaret Bridges and J. Christoph Bürgel. New York: P. Lang, 1996.
Bunt (1994), pp. 16-18.
Norman Davis. "'Hippopotamus' in Old English." Review of English Studies 4 (1953), pp. 141-42.
A. Holder. "Collationen zu angelsächsischen Werken II. Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem." Anglia I (1878), pp. 507-12.
Hans Holländer. "Alexander: Hybris und Curiositas." In Kontinuität und Tranformation der Antike im Mittelalter. Ed. Willi Erzgräber. Sigmaringen: 1989, pp. 65-79.
Frederick Klaeber. "Notes on Old English Prose Texts." Modern Language Notes 18 (1903), pp. 241-47.
Kemp Malone. "Readings from Folios 94 to 131, Cotton Vitellius A xv." Studies in Medieval Literature in Honor of Professor Albert Croll Baugh. Ed. MacEdward Leach. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1961, pp. 255-71.
Andy Orchard. "The Alexander-Legend in Anglo-Saxon England." Pride and Prodigies: Studies in the Monsters of the Beowulf-manuscript. Rochester: D. S. Brewer, 1995. pp. 116-39
Friedrich Pfister. "Auf den Spuren Alexanders des Grossen in der älteren englischen Literatur." Germanisch-romanische Monatsschrift 16 (1928), pp. 81-86.
John Drayton Pickles. Studies in the Prose Texts of the Beowulf Manuscript. Dissertation: University of Cambridge, 1971.
Stanley I. Rypins. "Notes on Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem." Modern Language Notes 32 (1917), pp. 94-95.
A.E.H. Swaen. "Is seo hiow = 'Fortune' a Ghost-Word?" English Studies 71 (1936), pp. 153-54.
Hildegard L. C. Tristram. "Der insulare Alexander." In Kontinuität und Transformation der Antike im Mittelalter. Ed. Willi Erzgräber. Singmaringen: 1989, pp. 129-55.
II. Old English Orosius.
[An Old English translation of Paulus Orosius's Historia adversum paganos, a well-known classical source notoriously hostile towards Alexander. Formerly thought to be translated by Alfred the Great, though this theory has been demolished by recent critics. The translation, if anything, increases the hostility, depicting Alexander as a murderous tyrant completely overpowered by his own insane pride. The translator has significantly altered much material from the Latin text, providing some explanations where the Latin supplied only allusions, altering and adding geographic information to give the text a more Northern-European bent, and, most significantly, adding the accounts of two seafarers, Ohthere and Wulfstan, to the geographical section in Book I.]
Manuscripts:
British Library MS Additional 47967, fols. 16v-71v.
British Library MS Cotton Tiberius B.i, fols. 3r-111v.
Oxford, Bodleian Library Eng. Hist. e. 49 (30481), fragmentary, two fols from Book III of Orosius.
Vatican City, Reg. Lat. 497. Fragmentary, fol. 71 comes from Book IV, chapter xi. Most of it has been erased, reproduced under ultraviolet light.
Editions:
Janet M. Bately. The Old English Orosius. EETS s.s. 6. New York: Oxford University Press, 1980.
Henry Sweet. King Alfred's Orosius, Part One: Old English Text and Latin Original. EETS o.s. 79. London: N. Trübner & Co., 1883. Rpt. New York: Kraus, 1974.
Criticism:
Janet M. Bately. "King Alfred and the Latin MSS of Orosius' History." Classica et Mediaevalia 22 (1961) 69-105.
----. "King Alfred and the Old English Translation of Orosius." Anglia 88 (1970) 433-60.
----. "Those Books That Are Most Necessary for All Men to Know: The Classics and Late Ninth Century England: a Reappraisal." In The Classics in the Middle Ages. Ed. Aldo Bernardo. Binghamton: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, 1990. Pp. 45-78. [Focusing particularly on the OE Orosius and Alfred's translation of Boethius, Bately explores the classical learnedness of OE translators.]
Bunt (1994), pp. 14-15.
Cary, p. 338.
Sealy Gilles. "Territorial Interpolations in the Old English Orosius." In Text and Territory: Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages. Eds. Sylvia Tomasch and Sealy Gilles. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Pp. 79-96. [Charts the alterations made to the Latin text by the Anglo-Saxon translator in favor of creating a more Anglo-Saxon centered text.]
E. Liggins. "The Authorship of the Old English Orosius." Anglia 88 (1970) 289-322. [Argues against the theory that Alfred the Great translated Orosius's Latin text into Old English.]
III. Kyng Alisaunder.
[Considered widely the best full-length treatment of Alexander's career in Middle English, Kyng Alisaunder is also the earliest of the Middle English texts. All versions of the text are printed in Smithers' edition. The author evidently read his sources critically, as he frequently mentions the differences between the "Freinsshe" (Anglo-Norman Roman de Toute Chevalerie) and the "Latyn" (Historia de Preliis) he is using.]
Manuscripts:
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Laud Misc. 622, fols. 27v-64r. ca. 1400. [Complete text.]
MS Lincoln's Inn 150, fols. 28r-90r. Late 15th cent.
National Library of Scotland, MS Advocates 19.2.1 (The Auchinleck Manuscript), fols. 278r-279r. 1330-40.
Another fragment of this MS was discovered in 1949 as part of the binding of a book at the University of St. Andrews. Now printed as part of the Bagford Ballads.
Editions:
G. V. Smithers. Kyng Alisaunder. EETS o.s. 227, 237. London: Oxford University Press, 1957. Rpt. 1969.
J. W. Ebsworth. Bagford Ballads. Vol. 1, no. 27. Hertford: The Ballads Society, 1878.
H. Weber. Metrical Romances of the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries. Edinburgh, 1810. Volume 1, pp. 1-327.
Criticism:
G. H. V. Bunt. "Alexander's Last Days in the Middle English Kyng Alisaunder." In W.J. Aerts, Jos. M.M. Hermans, E. Visser, Alexander the Great in the Middle Ages: Ten Studies on the Last Days of Alexander in Literary and Historical Writing. Nijmegen: Alfa, 1978, pp. 202-29.
Bunt (1994), pp. 20-26.
Cary, p. 37
T. Hildebrand. Die altfranzösische Alexanderdichtung 'Le Roman de Toute Chevalerie' des Thomas von Kent und die mittelenglische Romanze 'Kyng Alisaunder' in ihrem Verhältnis zu einander." Dissertation. Bonn, 1911.
Dieter Mehl. "Kyng Alisaunder." In The Middle English Romances of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1969. pp. 227-39.
IV. Alexander A (The Romance of Alisaunder, Alexander of Macedon).
[Fragmentary alliterative poem of 1247 lines, treating of the wars of Philip, and of Alexander's birth and early years, derived from Historia de Preliis, J2 version. Although preserved in a school notebook c. 1600, most believe it to be an early text from the alliterative revival, composed sometime in the fourteenth century. First text in the group known as the "alliterative fragments," all derived from the Historia de Preliis. Originally edited along with William of Palerne by Skeat, who believed the two poems to have been composed by the same author. This view now defunct. Magoun printed along with Alexander B (see below) as well as a long introduction describing different versions of the medieval Alexander romance and passages from Historia de Preliis and Orosius.]
Manuscript:
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Greaves 60. fols. 1v-20r. ca.1600.
Editions:
W. W. Skeat. The Romance of Alisaunder. EETS e.s. 1. London: N. Trübner & Co., 1867. Rpt. Millwood: Kraus Reprint, 1975.
Francis Peabody Magoun. The Gests of King Alexander of Macedon. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929.
Criticism:
Bunt (1994), pp. 27-28.
V. Alexander B (Alexander and Dindimus).
[Fragmentary alliterative poem of 1139 lines, formerly thought to be part of a larger alliterative life of Alexander which also included the A-fragment. Included at the end of the gorgeously illustrated version of the French Roman d'Alexandre (which also contains a copy of the travels of Marco Polo), evidently because its English owner found the French version missing the exchange between Alexander and Dindimus, king of the Gymnosophists. For a detailed discussion of how the fragment was included in the French text, see Skeat's introduction. The fragment consists of five letters in correspondence between Alexander and Dindimus, during which both explain some of their native customs and criticize the others' way of life. It has often been seen as a moral tract criticizing Alexander's excessive pride in worldly deeds.]
Manuscript:
Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Bodley 264, fols. 209r-217v.
Editions:
Bunt (1994), pp. 28-29.
Francis Peabody Magoun. The Gests of King Alexander of Macedon. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1929.
W. W. Skeat. Alexander and Dindimus. EETS e.s. 31. London: Oxford University Press, 1878. Rpt. Millwood: Kraus Reprint, 1973.
Facsimile:
M. R. James, ed. The Romance of Alexander: a collotype facsimile of MS Bodley 264. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933.
Criticism:
Göller, K. H. "Alexander und Dindimus: West-östlicher Disput über Mensch und Welt." Erzgräber 1989, 105-119.
VI. Alexander C, the Wars of Alexander.
[The final poem in what is known as the "alliterative fragmentary group" of Alexander texts is 5677 lines long in the Ashmole manuscript, ending with the description of Alexander's throne in Babylon. The rest of the story can be easily picked up from the end of the J3 version of the Historia de Preliis, or from the Prose Life of Alexander (see below). The Wars focuses much on the letters Alexander exchanges with his opponents, and through these the main ethical and philosophical issues of the poem come to light. A close and accurate translation, for the most part, of the J3 version of the Historia, the Wars has as its prime target prideful behavior. While Alexander himself is traditionally the target of most of the commentary in texts like Alexander and Dindimus or the Prose Life, the poem primarily addresses his opponents, Nicolas, the Amazons, the Brahmans, Darius, and particularly Porus, as guilty of excessively prideful behavior.]
Manuscripts:
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS Ashmole 44, fols. 1r-97v.
Dublin, Trinity College MS 213, fols. 1r-41v.
Editions:
W. W. Skeat. The Wars of Alexander. EETS e.s. 47. London: N. Trübner & Co., 1886. Rpt. Millwood: Kraus Reprint, 1973.
Duggan, Hoyt N. and Thorlac Turville-Petre. The Wars of Alexander. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.
Criticism:
H. Aertsen. "The Use of Dialect Words in Middle English Alliterative Poetry." In One Hundred Years of English Studies in Dutch Universities. Ed. E.S. Kooper, J. L. Mackenzie, and D. R. M. Wilkinson. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987. Pp. 17-85.
S. O. Andrew. "Wars of Alexander and Destruction of Troy." Review of English Studies 5 (1929), 267-72.
Bunt (1994), pp. 29-31.
Christine Chism. "Too Close for Comfort: Dis-rienting Chivalry in the Wars of Alexander." In Text and Territory: Geographical Imagination in the European Middle Ages. Eds. Sylvia Tomasch and Sealy Gilles. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998. Pp. 116-39. [Argues that Alexander's appeal to a late-fourteenth century English audience rests in his hybridity of eastern and western cultures.]
----. "Geography and Genealogy in The Wars of Alexander." In Alliterative Revivals. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. [Revised version of her article in Text and Territory.]
Donna Crawford. "Prophecy and Paternity in The Wars of Alexander." English Studies 73:5 (1992) 406-16.
Peter Dronke. "Poetic Originality in the Wars of Alexander." In The Long Fifteenth Century: Essays for Douglas Grey. Eds. Helen Cooper, Sally Mapstone, and Joerg O. Fichte. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1997. Pp. 123-39.
Hoyt N. Duggan. "Strophic Patterns in Middle English Alliterative Poetry." Modern Philology 74 (1977) 223-47.
----. "The Source of the Middle English The Wars of Alexander." Speculum 51 (1976) 624-36.
George Livingstone Hamilton. "A New Redaction (J3a) of the Historia de Preliis and the Date of Redaction (J3)." Speculum 2 (1977), 113-46.
J. B. Henneman. "The Interpretation of Certain Words and Phrases in The Wars of Alexander." Modern Language Notes 5 (1890), 121-23.
R. F. Lawrence. "Formula and Rhythm in The Wars of Alexander." English Studies 51 (1970) 97-112.
David A. Lawton. "The Middle English Alliterative Alexander A and C: Form and Style in Translation from Latin Prose." Studia Neophilologica 53:2 (1981) 259-68.
Gert Ronberg. "The Two Manuscripts of The Wars of Alexander: a Linguistic Comparison." Neophilologus 69 (1985), 604-10.
Thorlac Turville-Petre. "Two Notes on Words in Alliterative Poems." Notes and Queries 25 (1978) 295-96.
----. "Emendation on Grounds of Alliteration in The Wars of Alexander." English Studies 61 (1980) 302-17.
----. "Editing The Wars of Alexander." In Manuscripts and Texts: Editorial Problems in Later Middle English Literature. Ed. Derek Pearsall. Cambridge: Brewer, 1987. pp. 143-60.
M. F. Vaughan. "Consecutive Alliteration, Strophic Patterns, and the Composition of the Alliterative Morte Arthure." Modern Philology 77 (1979), 1-9.
David Williams. "Alexandre le Grand dans la littérature anglaise médiévale." In Alexandre le Grand dans les Littératures Occidentales et Proche-Orientales. Eds. Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 355-65.
John Wilson. "The Wars of Alexander, Line 2434: Ayndam." Notes and Queries 37: 4 (1990) 398.
VII. Prose Life of Alexander.
[Mid-15th century. This prose romance, fifty leaves long, survives in a fragmentary state in the famous Thornton MS, along with such treasures as the Alliterative Morte Arthure. Long considered a simplistic if faithful translation of the Historia de Preliis J3, more recent critics of the Prose Life have pointed out its divergences from its source text and reliance on other versions of the Historia, as well as its straightforward and satisfying narrative style. The first several leaves of the Thornton MS are unfortunately lost, so the text opens in the middle of Alexander's murder of Nectanabus, and his sudden discovery of his scandalous paternity. The next lacuna in the text is between folios 18 and 19, and again between folios 19 and 20. The writer places emphasis, as in the J3 version of the Historia, on the epistolary plots that unfold between Alexander and his various enemies, and upon the numerous portents and prophecies associated with his illustrious career and treasonous end.]
Manuscript:
Lincoln Cathedral MS 91 (The Thornton Manuscript), fols. 1-50.
Editions:
J. S. Westlake. The Prose Life of Alexander. EETS o.s. 143. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, & Co., 1913 (for 1911). Rpt. New York: Kraus Reprint, 1971.
Marjorie Neeson. The Prose Alexander: A Critical Edition. Dissertation: University of California at Los Angeles.
Julie Chappell. The Prose Alexander of Robert Thornton: the Middle English Text with a Modern English Translation. New York: Peter Lang, 1992.
Criticism:
Gerrit H. V. Bunt. "A Wyf There Was for Alexander the Great." In A Wyf Ther Was: Essays in Honour of Paule Mertens-Fonck. Liège, Belgium : L3 -- Liège Language and Literature, Département d'anglais, Université de Liège, 1992. Pp. 41-48.
----. "The Art of a Medieval Translator: The Thornton Prose Life of Alexander." Neophilologus 76 (1992) 147-59.
----. (1994), pp. 31-34.
Julie Chappell. "The Frankentext: Toward a Regeneration of the Dismembered Body." Medieval Perspectives 6 (1991) 37-44.
Hoyt N. Duggan. "The Source of the Middle English The Wars of Alexander." Speculum 51 (1976) 624-36.
George Livingstone Hamilton. "A New Redaction (J3a) of the Historia de Preliis and the Date of Redaction (J3)." Speculum 2 (1927), 113-46.
Phillipa Hardman. "Reading the Spaces: Pictorial Intentions in the Thornton MSS, Lincoln Cathedral MS B 91, and BL MS Add. 31402." Medium Aevum 63 (1994), 250-74.
VIII. The Buik of Alexander.
[Attributed mistakenly by several scholars, including George Cary, as well as the poem's only editor, R.L. Ritchie, to Sir John Barbour, this almost 15,000 line long translation of the French Fuerre de Gadres and Les Voeux du Paon survives in a printed edition by Alexander Arbuthnet of 1580, in which it is given a composition date of 1438. Bunt (1994) lists the lost pieces of text in the surviving copy. Ritchie divides the whole poem into four parts: The Forray of Gadderis, The Avowis of Alexander pt. 1, The Avowis of Alexander pt. 2, and The Great Battell of Effesoun. He prints a parallel text edition of the two French poems alongside the later Scottish translation. Lex Voeux du Paon constitutes the last three sections; Fuerre the first.]
Print:
STC 321.5. Printed in Edinburgh by Alexander Arbuthnet, c. 1580.
Editions:
Albert Herrmann. Untersuchungen über das schottische Alexanderbuch ("The buik of the most noble and vailyeand conquerour Alexander the Great"). Dissertation: Vereinigten Friedrichs-universität Halle-Wittenberg, 1893. [Study of the Buik with attention to its traditions, French source material, authorship, style, grammar, meter, dialect, and orthography. Includes a section on the influence of Barbour on the poem, and an appendix with textual commentary.]
David Laing. The Buik of the most noble and vailzeand conquerour Alexander the Great. Edinburgh: Reprinted for the Bannatyne Club Press by Ballantyne & Co., 1831. Rpt. Edinburgh: AMS, 1971.[Selected sections of the Buik, and part of the Fuerres de Gadres.]
R. L. Graeme Ritchie. The Buik of Alexander. STS (new series): vols. 12, 17, 21, 25. Edinburgh: William Blackwood and Sons, 1921-29. [Extended introductions in all four volumes, careful cataloguing of all French manuscripts of the Fuerre and Voeux.]
Criticism:
Bitterling, Klaus. "A Note on the Scottish Buik of Alexander." Scottish Literary Journal 23 (1996), pp. 89-90. [Attributes a mention of partridges in the Buik to the poet's misunderstanding of the French text he was translating.]
Bunt (1994), pp. 61-62.
McDiarmid, M.P. "The Metrical Chronicles and Non-alliterative Romances." In The History of Scottish Literature, vol. 1: Origins to 1660. Ed. R.D.S. Jack. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press, 1988. Pp. 27-38. [Brief discussion of the Buik's translator's ability to adapt his text to be uniquely Scottish and of its place among Barbour's work and other romances.]
IX. The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour.
[Most likely composed by Sir Gilbert Hay in 1499 if we are to believe the epilogue. The single longest English account of Alexander at 19,368 lines, the text is acephalous in both manuscripts. Cartwright's edition provides a brief synopsis of the material believed to be lost. See Bunt's extended entry describing the poem (pp. 62-68). He theorizes three texts as the source material for Hay's work: the French Roman d'Alexandre, Historia de Preliis J2, and Secretum Secretorum. The poem includes as well the only English account of Alexander's visit to the Terrestrial Paradise, and towards the end, material from the tradition of Alexander anecdotes, including Alexander and Diogenes, and Alexander and the Pirate.]
Manuscripts:
British Library MS Additional 40732, 282 fols., c. 1530s.
Edinburgh, Scottish Register House MS GD 112/71/9, 229 fols., late 16th century [olim the Taymouth Castle MS].
Editions:
Bawcutt, Priscilla and Felicity Riddy. Longer Scottish Poems: Volume One, 1375-1650. Edinburgh: Scottish Academic Press Limited, 1987. [Includes lines 16101-16310, the account of Alexander's visit to the terrestrial paradise.]
Cartwright, John. Sir Gilbert Hay's Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour: A Critical Edition of Lines 1-4263. Dissertation: University of Toronto, 1977.
----. The Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour. Scottish Text Society, 4th series: vols.16, 18 (3 vols. projected). [The first two volumes of this eventual three-volume project contains the entirety of Hay's poem, textual notes, and a textual introduction detailing the contents, relationship, and history of the manuscripts; Cartwright uses the British Library MS as his base text, with emendations from the Scottish Register House MS. Presumably the third and final volume will contain a more extensive introduction to the poem in general and Alexander's place in the literature of Scotland.]
Herrmann, Albert. The Forraye of Gadderis, The Vowis: extracts from Sir Gilbert Hay's "Buik of King Alexander the Conquerour." In Wissenschaftliche Beilage zum Jahresbericht der II. städtischen Realschule zu Berlin. Berlin: 1900. [Prints about 2500 lines from Hay's poem, as preserved in the Scottish Register House MS, for the purpose of comparing the two Scottish adaptations of the French poems. Follows up on his study of the the MS from two years earlier.]
Innes, Cosmo. The Black Book of Taymouth, with other papers from the Breadalbane charter room. Bannatyne Club, no. 100. Edinburgh: T. Constable, 1855.
Criticism:
Bunt (1994), pp. 62-68.
Cartwright, John. "Sir Gilbert Hay and the Alexander Tradition." In Scottish Language and Literature, Medieval and Renaissance. Eds. D. Strauss and H.W. Drescher. New York: Peter Lang, 1986, pp. 229-38.
----. "Sir Gilbert Hay's Alexander: a study in transformations." Medium Aevum 60 (1991), 61-72.
Lascelles, Mary. "Alexander and the Earthly Paradise in Mediaeval English Writings." Medium Aevum 5 (1936), pp. 31-47; 79-104; 173-88.
McDiarmid, Matthew P. "Concerning Sir Gilbert Hay, the Authorship of Alexander the Conquerour and The Buik of Alexander." Studies in Scottish Literature 28 (1993), 28-54.
van Duin, Deborah E. " 'Na Man Micht Noumber the Riches': The City of Segar in Sir Gilbert Hay's Buik of King Alexander." English Studies 77 (1996) 517-29.
French Criticism/Secondary Sources
W. J. Aerts, Joseph M. M. Hermanns, and Elizabeth Visser, eds. Alexander the Great in the Middle Ages: ten studies on the last days of Alexander in literary and historical writing. Nijmegan, Netherlands: Alfa Nijmegan, 1978.
Laurence Harf-Lancner, Claire Kappler, and Françoise Suard, eds. Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures occidentales et proche-orientales: actes du colloque de Paris, 27-29 novembre 1997.Nanterre: Centre des sciences de la littérature de l'université Paris X, 1999.
Donald Maddox and Sara Sturm-Maddox, eds. The Medieval French Alexander. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2002. [Collection of essays in English addressing various aspects of Alexander in medieval French texts. See below for specific topics.]
Paul Meyer. Alexandre le Grand dans la litterature française du moyen âge 2 vols. Paris: F. Vieweg, 1886. Rpt. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1970.
French Primary Sources
Nota bene: The texts are arranged in chronological order according to that listed in Maddox, pp. 17-19.
I. Albéric de Pisançon (Albéric de Besançon). Alexandre.
[Name commonly given to the earliest extant French Alexander text. Fragmentary, survives in one manuscript. Composed in the early 12th century. It is possible to speculate as to the missing part of the text because a priest by the name Lamprecht translated Albéric's text into German a few years after its composition. Lamprecht also gives the name of the author as "Alberich von Bisinzo," from which the poem's editors have assigned him a location in Pisançon. See Alexanderlied. See also Foulet, vol. III, pp. 2-8, for extended discussion of the relationship between Albéric and Lamprecht.]
Manuscript:
Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Plut. lxiv 35, fols. 115v-116r. [A 9th century manuscript of Curtius; the 105 remaining lines of Albéric's text are written in a 12th century hand.]
Editions/Facsimile:
Carl Appel, ed. Provenzalische Chrestomathie: mit abriss der formenlehre und glossare. Volume 6. Leipzig: O.R. Reisland, 1930. Pp. 13-14.
Karl Bartsch and Les Wiese, eds. Chrestomathie de l'ancien français (VIIIe-XVI siècles) accompagnée d'une grammaire et d'un glossaire. Volume 12. Leipzig: F.C.W. Vogel, 1927. Pp. 12-14.
Wendelin Foerster and Edward Koschwitz, eds. Altfranzösisches Ubungsbuch. Volume 4. Leipzig: O.R. Koschwitz, 1911. Pp. 238-46.
Alfred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume III: Version of Alexandre de Paris: Variants and Notes to Branch I. Elliott Monographs, vol. 38. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1949. Pp. 37-60. [Includes Albéric's text, a translation into modern French, and a translation of the accompanying parts of Lamprecht's Alexanderlied into modern French.]
Ernesto Monaci. Facsimili di antichi manoscritti. Rome: A. Martelli, 1881-92. [See plates 12-13 for a facsimile of the relevant pages in the Florence MS.]
Criticism/Studies:
Cary, p. 27.
V. Crescini. "Alberico de Pisançon." Studi Medievali 2 (1929), 196-97.
H. Flechtner. Die Sprache des Alexander-Fragments des Alberich von Besançon. Breslau: W. Koebner, 1882.
Alfred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume III. Pp. 2-8.
Magoun, p. 26.
Meyer, 2.69-101.
A. Schmidt. Ueber das Alexanderlied des Alberic v. Besançon und sein Verhältnis zur antiken Ueberlieferung. Dissertation: Bonn, 1886.
II. Decasyllabic Alexander.
[785 lines, one of the earliest parts of the later Roman d'Alexandre. Composed around 1160-70, the text draws heavily on Albéric's earlier work in the description of the birth, childhood, and youth of Alexander. Also shows some evidence of borrowing from the Fuerre de Gadres.]
Manuscripts:
Paris, Arsenal, 3472 [Contains the Decasyllabic Alexander instead of Branch I of Alexandre de Paris's Roman.]
Venice, Museo Civico Correr, VI 665 [Contains the Decasyllabic Alexander instead of Branch I of Alexandre de Paris's Roman.]
Editions/Facsimiles:
Alfred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume III. Pp. 61-100.
Meyer, 1.25-59.
Criticism/Studies:
Cary, p. 29.
Alred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume III. Pp. 8-11.
Magoun, p. 27.
Meyer, 2.102-132.
III. Fuerre de Gadres.
[Based on a section in J3 version of Historia de Preliis in which Alexander and his men attempt a raid during the siege of Tyre. Written by a poet known only as "Eustache," the text was originally independent of the larger Roman d'Alexandre before it was incorporated by Alexandre de Paris after 1177 and, later, into Thomas of Kent's Roman de Toute Chevalerie. Translated partially into Latin by Boccaccio. See Magoun, pp. 28-29, for a discussion of the Middle English incorporations of this episode.]
Manuscripts:
Most of the manuscripts which contain the Fuerre are larger compilations of the Roman d'Alexandre (most of these are listed below). For a complete listing, see Ritchie, IV. cclxvii-cclxviii. The two manuscripts which Ritchie cites that do not correlate with the Roman listing are:
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 12567
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Hatton 67
Editions:
Edward C. Armstrong and Alfred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume IV: Le Roman du Fuerre de Gadres d'Eustache. Elliott Monographs, vol. 39. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1942. Pp. 89-103.
Paul Meyer. Étude sur les manuscrits du Roman d'Alexandre." Romania 11 (1882), 325-32. [Edition of Boccaccio's partial Latin translation of Fuerre.]
R. L. Graeme Ritchie. The Buik of Alexander. Scottish Text Society, New Series, volume 17. Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1925. [Pp. 1-105 reproduces the text parallel to the first section of the Buik.]
Criticism/Studies:
Dario Carraroli. La Leggenda di Alessandro Magno. Mondovi: Tipografia G. Issoglio, 1892. Rpt. Sala Bolognese: A. Forni, 1979. [See p. 278.]
Cary, pp. 30-31.
Emmanuèle Baumgartner. "The Raid on Gaza in Alexandre de Paris's Romance." In Maddox, pp. 29-38.
Alfred Foulet. "Balaam, Dux Tyri." Modern Language Notes 48 (1933) 330-35.
F. Pfister. "Zur Entstehung und Geschichte des Fuerre de Gadres." Zeitschrift für Französische Sprache und Literatur 41 (1913) 102-08. [Source study of the Fuerre's origins in Eastern saga literature.]
Magoun, pp. 28-29.
David J. A. Ross. "A New Manuscript of the Latin Fuerre de Gadres and the Text of Roman d'Alexandre, Branch II." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 22 (1959), 211-53.
----. "The I3 Historia de Preliis and the Fuerre de Gadres." Classica et Mediaevalia 22 (1961), 205-21.
Heinrich Schneegans. "Über die Interpolation des Fuerre de Gadres im Altfranzösische Roman des Eustache von Kent." Die Neueren Sprachen (Supplement Volume: Festschrift Wilhelm Viëtor), 1910. Pp. 27-61.
R. Wolff. Der Interpolierte Fuerre de Gadres im Alexanderroman des Thomas von Kent. Dissertation: Bonn, 1914.
IV. Lambert le Tort. Alixandre en Orient.
[This poem was drastically re-written for use in the later Roman d'Alexandre (and included in its adapted form as Branch III of the Roman) and the material included is some of the most popular – Alexander's defeat of Darius, his travels into India, his aerial flight in the griffin-powered cage, submarine adventure, combat with Porus, dealings with the Amazons, and his initial decision to return to Babylon. Lambert's text does not survive in its original form. See Foulet, vol. 6, pp. 3-17 for a comprehensive description of the contents and authorship of each stanza in Branch III. The supposed source text for Lambert's poem is the Latin Epistola Alexandri ad Aristotelem.
Manuscripts:
Paris, Arsenal, 3472
Venice, Museo Civico Correr, VI 665
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, 789
Edition:
Alfred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume VI: Version of Alexandre de Paris, Introduction and Notes to Branch III. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976. Pp. 88-93. [Selections of three stanzas compared facing-page with the Alexandre de Paris version.]
Criticism/Studies:
Alfred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume VI. Pp. 1-20.
Meyer, 2.17-175; 2.237-96.
[A fragmentary text, of which only eight stanzas have survived in the Paris Arsenal manuscript. For a full description of the text and its relation to the later romances, see Edwards and Foulet, vol. VII, pp. 1-4. Edwards and Foulet titled the poem as Mort Alixandre since the remaining 159 lines are a detailed account of Alexander's worth as a chivalric example to other rulers, and an explication of the monstrous child born shortly before his death, and read by his soothsayers as a portent warning of his impending demise. The fragment's only editors assert that the Mort is older than Alexandre de Paris' poem, and that the remainder of the Mort as well as the lost section serve as a source for the longer romance.]
Manuscript:
Paris, Arsenal 3472.
Edition:
Bateman Edwards and Alfred Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Vol. VII. Version of Alexander de Paris, variants and notes to Branch IV. Elliott Monographs, 41. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1955. Pp. 27-35.
Criticism:
Edwards and Foulet. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Vol. VII. Pp. 1-4.
VI. Thomas of Kent. Le Roman de toute Chevalerie.
[Anglo-Norman romance composed, most likely, in England, with interpolations in all of its manuscript sources from the Roman d'Alexandre. Depends largely upon the Zacher Epitome of Julius Valerius' Res Gestae Alexandri as its source. Generally considered to be independent from continental Alexander material. Source for the Middle English Kyng Alisaunder. Over 12,000 lines, of which some 4,000, according to Foster, are taken from the Roman d'Alexandre. The poem's three editors have taken various stances on whether removing this interpolated material achieves a more "authenticated" version of what Thomas of Kent actually would have written. Foster and Schneegans argue for excising; Meyer does not.]
Manuscripts:
Durham Cathedral Library C.IV.27V, fols. 1-201.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, f.fr. 24364, fols. 1-87.
Cambridge, Trinity College, O.9.34, fols. 1-44.
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Lat. misc.b.17 (fragmentary, fol. 140 only)
London, British Museum, Add. 46701 (fragmentary, fols. 8-9 only)
Editions:
Brian Foster, with the assistance of Ian Short. The Anglo-Norman Alexander = le roman de toute chevalerie by Thomas of Kent. 2 vols. London: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 1976-77.
Meyer, 1.177-235. [Extracts, with a list of chapter headings, from the Durham MS.]
Criticism:
Bunt (1994), pp. 19-20.
Cary, pp. 35-36.
Alfred Foulet. "La date du Roman de toute chevalerie." In Mélanges offerts à Rita Lejeune. Gembloux: J. Duculot, 1969. Pp. 1205-10.
Brian Foster. The Anglo-Norman Alexander. 1.1-81.
----. "The Roman de toute chevalerie: its date and author." French Studies 9 (1955), 154-58.
Catherine Gaullier-Bougassa. "Alexandre et Candace dans le Roman d'Alexandre d'Alexandre de Paris et le Roman de Toute Chevalerie de Thomas de Kent." Romania 112 (1991), 18-44.
Martin Gosman. "Le Roman de toute chevalerie et le public visé: la légende au service de la royauté." Neophilologus 72 (1988), 335-43.
Magoun, pp. 33-34.
Meyer, 2.273-99.
David J. A. Ross. "Discussions: Thomas of Kent." French Studies 9 (1955), pp. 348-351.
Heinrich Schneegans. "Die handschriftliche Gestaltung des Alexanderromans von Eustache von Kent." Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 30 (1906), 240-63.
----. "Die Sprache des Alexanderromans von Eustache von Kent." Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 31 (1907), 1-30.
Johanna Weynand. Der Roman de toute Chevalerie in seinem Verhältnis zu seinem Quellen. Bonn: C. Georgi, 1911.
VII. Jean Le Névelon (Jean le Venelais). La Venjance Alixandre.
[A continuation of the Roman d'Alexandre; after Alexander's death, his son Alior, whom he fathered on queen Candace, discovers his patrimony and vows vengeance for Alexander's murder. Together, Alior and Candace destroy the forces of the treacherous Antipater and his son, Florent. Composed in 1180 or 1181, the Venjance enjoyed extraordinary popularity, as attested to by its survival in numerous manuscripts, as well as its adaptation by later authors (see below, Jean Wauquelin) into other texts. Ham (1935), notes the Venjance's inclusion in the Roman de Renart le Contrefait, and in the anonymous Fais et concquestes du noble roy Alexandre.Ham (1931) points out in his introduction the numerous parallels between this text and Gui de Cambrai's Vengement Alixandre.]
Manuscripts:
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24365, fols. 123r-35r.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1590, fols. 85v-95v.
Oxford, Bodleian Library MS 264, fols. 197r-208r.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 790, fol. 179v-91v.
London, British Library Royal MS 19.D.i, fols. 47r-57r.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 791, fols. 107v-118v.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1375, fols. 393v-431r.
Venice, Museo Civico, VI.665, fols. 104r-107r.
Parma, Biblioteca Palatina 1206, fols. 173r-190v (composite text incorporating both La Venjance and Gui de Cambrai's Vengement).
Editions/Facsimiles:
Edward Billings Ham, ed. Jehan le Nevelon: La Venjance Alixandre. Elliott Monographs, 27. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1931.
----. Five Versions of the Venjance Alixandre. Elliott Monographs, 34. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1935. [Contains editions of the brief continuations and adaptations of both Gui de Cambrai and Jean Le Névelon.]
----. "An eighth Venjance Alixandre. Modern Language Notes. 56 (1941), Pp. 409-14.
Oscar Schultz-Gora, ed. Die Vengeance Alexandre von Jean le Nevelon. Berlin: 1902.
Criticism/Studies:
E. C. Armstrong. The Authorship of the Vengement Alixandre and of the Venjance Alixandre. Elliott Monographs, 19. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1926.
Edward Billings Ham. Jehan le Nevelon: La Venjance Alixandre. Introduction, pp. ix-lxvi.
----. Textual Criticism and Jehan le Venelais. Language and Literature, vol. 22. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Publications, 1946.
Magoun, p. 31.
Meyer, 2.261-67.
K. Sachow. Über die Vengeance d'Alixandre von Jean le Venelais. Halle: Dissertation: Halle, 1902.
E. Walberg. "Classification des Manuscrits de la Vengeance d'Alixandre de Jean le Nevelon." Fråån Filologiska Föreningen i Lund, Språkliger Uppsatser 3 (1906), 5-30.
VIII. Alexandre de Paris (Alexandre de Bernai). Roman d'Alexandre.
[A massive composite text, which many scholars consider the most important of the medieval Alexander romances. The so-called "vulgate" version of the Romanwas redacted by Alexandre de Paris sometime after 1177; this text was still one of the later redactions of the poem. Alexandre de Paris recast the immense poem into "alexandrine" lines (define). Since the resultant text influenced so many later compilations of Alexander material, a brief outline of the structure and history behind Alexandre's poem is merited here. Meyer's 1886 discussion of Alexander's role in medieval French literature defined four "branches" of the Roman differentiated by the four main base texts: I: the "enfances" of Alexander (see Decasyllabic Alexander), describing the king's birth, childhood accomplishments, and campaigns leading up to the siege of Tyre; II: the Fuerre de Gadres, in which he conquers Tyre, enters Jerusalem, and defeats Darius; III: the sequence of Indian adventures, including the death of Darius, Alexander's battles against Porus, his submarine adventure, his invention of the flying machine; this is no doubt some of the oldest material in the poem (see Alixandre en Orient); IV: the death and burial of Alexander (see Mort Alixandre). Many of the manuscripts of the Roman are illustrated; by far the most famous and elaborate of these productions is Bodley 264. The main edition of the poem remains the multi-volume project overseen by Edward C. Armstrong. The references to the four branches refer specifically to Alexander de Paris's poem, not the text it is based on.
Manuscripts
[The following manuscripts contain the Roman d'Alexandre in part or whole. Those MSS which do not contain at least part of all four branches have been marked with an asterisk; for details concerning the specific contents of the manuscripts, how they are related to each other, and what sections of the Roman are missing, consult Foulet, vols.1-4]
Oxford, Bodleian Library 264
*Paris, Arsenal 3472
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale 368
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 375
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale 786
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 787
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 789
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 790
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 791
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 792
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1375
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1590
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1635
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 15094
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 15095
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24365
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale 24366
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 25517
Parma, Biblioteca Palatina 1206
*Princeton University Library MS 3217.117.1300q
Vatican City, Reg. 1364
Venice, Museo Civico Correr, VI 665
Facsimiles:
Roberto Benedetti, ed. and Emmanuèle Baumgartner, introduction. Le Roman d'Alexandre: Riproduzione del ms. Venezia Biblioteca Museo Correr 1493. Udine: Roberto Vattori, 1998.
M. R. James. The Romance of Alexander: a collotype facsimile of MS Bodley 264. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933. [Facsimile of the first 207 fols. of one of the most lavishly decorated manuscripts surviving from the late Middle Ages; the introduction describes the contents of each of the illustrations in full. Two color plates.]
Editions:
E. C. Armstrong, D.L. Buffum, Bateman Edwards, L.F.H. Lowe, et al. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume II: Version of Alexandre de Paris Text. Elliott Monographs, vol. 37. Princeton: Princeton University Press and Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France, 1937. Rpt. New York: Kraus Reprints, 1965.
Milan S. La Du. The Medieval French Roman d'Alexandre. Volume I: Text of the Arsenal and Venice Versions. Elliott Monographs, vol. 36. Princeton: Princeton University Press and Paris: Les Presses Universitaires de France, 1937. Rpt. New York: Kraus Reprints, 1965.
Laurence Harf-Lancner. Le Roman d'Alexandre. Paris: Livre de Poche, 1976.
Heinrich Michelant. Li Romans d'Alixandre par Lambert li Tors et Alexandre de Bernay. Stuttgart: Gedruckt auf Kosten des Literarischen Vereins, 1846.
Criticism:
Christine Abril. "Les Enfances d'Alexandre: Essai de comparaison entre le Roman d'Alexandre et le Libro de Alexandre." PRIS-MA 13 (1997), 1-12.
Emmanuèle Baumgartner. "L'Orient d'Alexandre." Bien dire et bien aprandre 6 (1988), pp. 7-15.
----. "The Raid on Gaza in Alexandre de Paris's Romance." In Maddox, pp. 29-38.
Bénédicte Milland-Bove. "La manche et le cheval comme présents amoureux dans le Roman d'Alexandre d'Alexandre de Paris." Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales (XIIIe-Xve siècles) 4 (1997), 151-61.
Pierre Briant. "Alexandre à Babylone: images grecques, images babyloniennes." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 23-32.
Catherine Croizy-Naquet. "Darius ou l'image du potentat perse dans Le Roman d'Alexandre d'Alexandre de Paris." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 161-72.
Catherine Gaullier-Bougassa. "Alexander and Aristotle in the French Alexander Romances." In Maddox, pp. 57-74.
----. "Alexandre et les Brahmanes dans les Romans d'Alexandre français, du XIIe au XVe siècle." Le Moyen Age: Revue d'histoire et de philologie 106 (2000), 467-93. [Looks at depiction of India and representation of "noble savages."]
----. "Nectanabus et la singularité d'Alexandre dans les Romans d'Alexandre français." In Harc-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 303-19.
----. "Alexandre et Candace dans le Roman d'Alexandre d'Alexandre de Paris et le Roman de Toute Chevalerie de Thomas de Kent." Romania 112 (1991), 18-44.
Martin Gosman. "Les derniers jours d'Alexandre dans le Roman d'Alexandre: fin d'une vie 'exemplaire'." In Aerts, Hermans, and Visser. Pp. 170-201.
----. "L'Elément féminin dans le Roman d'Alexandre: Olympias et Candace." In Court and Poet: Selected Proceedings of the Third Congress of the International Courtly Literature Society, Liverpool, 1980. Cairns: Liverpool, 1980. Pp. 167-76.
----. "Le Roman d'Alexandre et les 'Juvenes': une Approche Socio-Historique." Neophilologus 66 (1982), 328-39.
----. "La genèse du Roman d'Alexandre: quelques aspects." Bien dire et bien aprandre 6 (1988), 25-44.
----. "Alexandre le Grand: les avatars d'un héros français." In Polyphonia Byzantina: Studies in Honour of Willem J. Aerts. Ed. Hero Hokwerda, Edmé R. Smits, and Marinus M. Woesthuis. Mediaevalia Groningana 13. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 1993. Pp. 179-88.
----. "Touzjor vesquirent d'armes, itel fu lor labor: l'aventure épique dans le Roman d'Alexandre." In De l'aventure épique à l'aventure romanesque: mélanges offerts à André de Mandach. Ed. Jacques Chocheyras. Bern: Peter Lang, 1997. Pp. 85-98.
Laurence Harf-Lancner. "La quête de l'immortalité: les fontaines merveilleuses du Roman d'Alexandre d'Alexandre de Paris." In Sources et fontaines du Moyen Age à l'Age baroque. Paris: Champion, 1998. Pp. 31-45.
Douglas Kelly. "Alexander's Clergie" In Maddox, Pp. 39-56.
William W. Kibler. "'A paine a on bon arbre de malvaise raïs': Counsel for Kings in the Roman d'Alexandre" In Maddox, Pp. 111-25.
Philippe Ménard. "Femmes séduisantes et femmes malfaisantes: les filles-fleurs de la forêt et les créatures des eaux dans le Roman d'Alexandre" Bien dire et bien aprandre 7 (1989), 5-17.
Paul Meyer. "Etude sur les manuscrits du Roman d'Alexandre." Romania 11 (1882) 213-332. [Identifies the 4 branches of the Roman.]
Bénédicte Milland-Bove. "La manche et le cheval comme présents amoureux dans le Roman d'Alexandre d'Alexandre de Paris." Cahiers de Recherches Médiévales (XIIIe-Xve siècles) 4 (1997), 151-61.
Aimé Petit. "Le pavillon d'Alexandre dans le Roman d'Alexandre (ms. B. Venise, Museo Civico VI, 665)." Bien dire et bien aprandre 6 (1988), 77-96.
----. "Les romans antiques et Alexandre." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 289-302. [Explores connections between the Roman d'Alexandre, Roman d'Enéas, Roman de Thèbes, and the Roman de Troie.]
Rupert T. Pickens. "'Mout est proz e vassaus' / 'Mout es corteis': Vasselage and Courtesy in the Roman d'Alexandre." In Maddox, pp. 89-109.
David J. A. Ross. "A New Manuscript of the Latin Fuerre de Gadres and the Text of Roman d'Alexandre, Branch II." Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 22 (1959), 211-53.
Penny Simon. "Theme and Variations: The Education of the Hero in the Roman d'Alexandre." Neophilologus 78 (1994), 195-208.
Michelle Szkilnik. "Courtoisie et violence: Alexandre dans le Cycle du paon." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 321-39.
François Suard. "Alexandre est-il un personnage de roman?" Bien dire et bien aprandre 7 (1989), 77-87.
----. "Alexander's Gabs." In Maddox, pp. 75-87.
Stephen D. White. "Giving Fiefs and Honor: Largesse, Avarice, and the Problem of 'Feudalism' in Alexander's Testament." In Maddox, Pp. 127-41.
IX. Gui de Cambrai. Le Vengement Alixandre.
[Gui de Cambrai, the same author as that of the Middle French Barlaam et Josaphat, wrote the second of the continuations of the Roman d'Alexandre sometime before 1191. The poem is 1806 lines long and details, like the Venjance Alixandre, the vengeance taken by Alior against Antipater for Alexander's murder. All manuscripts include the Vengement appended to the end of Alexandre de Paris' Roman. The Parma manuscript represents an amalgamation of Gui de Cambrai's text with Jean le Névelon's. See Edwards (1926), pp. 6-9, for an analysis of the Parma text, with attention paid to the redactor's use of these two sources.]
Manuscripts:
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 15904, fols. 272r-299r.
Parma, Biblioteca Palatina 1206, fols. 173r-190v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 25517, fols. 284r-313r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 786, fols. 84v-91v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 375, fols. 211r-216r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24366, pp. 221-242
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 792, fols. 144r-151r.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 789, fols. 95v-103r.
Editions:
Bateman Edwards, ed. Gui de Cambrai: le Vengement Alixandre. Elliott Monographs, 23. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1928.
Criticism/Studies:
E. C. Armstrong. The Authorship of the Vengement Alixandre and of the Venjance Alixandre. Elliott Monographs, 19. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1926.
Bateman Edwards. A Classification of the Manuscripts of Gui de Cambrai's Vengement Alixandre Elliott Monographs, 20. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1926.
----. "An Unpublished Fragment of Gui de Cambrai's Vengement Alixandre." Modern Language Notes 6 (1934), 366-69.
Magoun, p. 31.
Meyer, 2.255-61.
X. Old French Prose Alexandre (Roman d'Alexandre en prose).z
[The most popular account of the Alexander story in vernacular prose, as evidenced by the number of surviving manuscripts and early prints. Ross claims that "the book was read to pieces" ("Printed Editions," p. 54). For a listing of the printed versions, see Ross, "Printed Editions," pp. 54-57. A relatively faithful translation of the J2 redaction of the Historia de Preliis.]
Manuscripts:
Berlin, Royal Library, Hamilton collection
Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale 11040
Chantilly, Museé Condé 651
Le Mans, Bibliothèque de la Ville 103
London, British Library Royal 15.E.VI
London, British Library Royal 19.D.I
London, British Library Royal 20.A.V.
London, British Library Royal 20.B.XX
London, British Library Harley 4979
Oxford, Bodleian Library D.913 (fragmentary)
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 788
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1373
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1385
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1418
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 10468
Stockholm, Royal Library, French MS 51 (Vu.20)
Tours, Bibliothèque de la Ville 984
Edition:
Alfons Hilka. Der altfranzösische Prosa-Alexanderroman. M. Niermeyer: Halle, 1920. Rpt. Geneva: Slatkine Reprints, 1974. [Includes Latin text of Historia de Preliis J2 in columns alongside corresponding text of the French romance.]
Facsimile:
Yorio Otaka, Hideka Fukui, and Christine Ferlampin-Acher. Roman d'Alexandre en Prose [British Library Royal E.VI, fol. 2v-24v]. Osaka, Japan: Centre de la Recherche Interculturelle à l'Université Otemae, 2003.
Criticism/Studies:
F. Arnold. "The Prophecy of Daniel in the Old French Prose Alexander." French Studies 17 (1963), 324-30.
Cary, pp. 46-48.
Martin Gosman. "Le 'Roman d'Alexandre en Prose' un Remaniement Typique." Neophilologus 69 (1985), 332-41.
Alfons Hilka. Der altfranzösische Prosa-Alexanderroman. Introduction, pp. I-L.
Meyer, 2.305-13.
Francis P. Magoun. "The Compilation of St. Albans and the Old-French Prose Alexander Romance." Speculum (1926), 225-32. [Corroborates Hilka's assertion that the prologue and epilogue to the romance are lifted from the Latin Compilation of St. Albans.]
Lyman W. Riley. "The French Prose Alexander Romance." Library 20 (1965), 243-44.
David J. A. Ross. "The Printed Editions of the French Prose Alexander Romance." Library, 5th series 7 (1952), 54-57.
----. "Some notes on the Old French Alexander Romance in prose." French Studies 6 (1952) 136-47. Post-script: 353. [Connects the Epilogue of the prose romance to its source, the Histoire ancienne jusqu'è César, as well as addresses the dating of the romance.]
XI. Prise de Defur.
[Usually interpolated into the larger body of the Roman d'Alexandre (where it appears in Branch III), the poem was composed in Picardy c. 1250, and is 1654 lines long. This anonymous text narrates the capture of the city Defur by Alexander's forces, and is often cited as significant for its incoporation of the "Wonderstone" episode: Alexander comes upon a human eye, which outweighs everything in the world when uncovered, but when covered is lighter than two coins. Aristotle explicates the wondrous eye as a commentary on the dangers of avarice.]
Manuscripts:
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 264, fols. 102r-109v; 182v-185r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 368, fols. 116v-117v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 375, fols. 204r-208v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 786, fols. 71r-77r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 789, fols. 79r-86v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 790, fols. 99r-107v; 163r-165v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 791, fols. 84v-94v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 792, fols. 127r-135v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1375, fols. 314r-351r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 12565, fols. 1r-25v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24365, fols. 97v-107v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24366, fols. 185r-207r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 25517, fols. 230v-256r
Edition:
Lawton P. G. Peckham and Milan S. La Du. La Prise de Defur and Le Voyage d'Alexandre au Paradis Terrestre. Elliott Monographs, 35. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1935. Rpt. New York: Kraus Reprints, 1965.
Criticism/Studies:
Cary, p. 31.
Martin Gosman. "Le Roman d'Alexandre: les interpolations du XIIIe siècle." In Le Roman antique au Moyen Age. Ed. Danielle Buschinger. Göppingen: Kümmerle, 1992. Pp. 61-72.
Meyer, 2.195-202.
Lawton P. G. Peckham and Milan S. La Du. La Prise de Defur and Le Voyage d'Alexandre au Paradis Terrestre. Introduction, pp. xi-xxxii.
XII. Voyage d'Alexandre au Paradis terrestre.
[503 lines. c. 1260. The anonymous Voyage is a translation and adaptation of the Latin Iter ad Paradisum, often incorporated into the Roman d'Alexandre immediately following the Prise de Defur. See Peckham, pp. xxxv-xxxix for the correspondances between the Voyage and its source text. The story encompasses Alexander's turn home to Babylon, his journey to the Earthly Paradise, and the traitorous plot to murder him.]
Manuscripts:
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 264, fols. 185r-188v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 368, fols. 117v-119v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 789, fols. 86v-89r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 790, fols. 165v-68v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 791, fols. 94v-97v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 792, fols. 135v-138v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1375, fols. 351-362
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24365, fols. 107v-111r
Editions:
Paul Meyer. "Etude sur les manuscrits du Roman d'Alexandre" Romania 11 (1882), 213-332. See pp. 228-47 for edition.
Lawton P. G. Peckham and Milan S. La Du. La Prise de Defur and Le Voyage d'Alexandre au Paradis Terrestre. Elliott Monographs, 35. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1935. Rpt. New York: Kraus Reprints, 1965.
Facsimile:
M. R. James. The Romance of Alexander: a collotype facsimile of ms. Bodley 264. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933. [Reproduces fols. 1-208 of Bodley 264, which includes the Voyage]
Criticism/Studies:
John Cartwright. "Sir Gilbert Hay's Alexander: A Study in Transformations." Medium Aevum 60 (1991), 61-72. [Compares the journey to the earthly paradise episode in Hay's text to the French Voyage.]
Cary, pp. 31-32.
Lawton P. G. Peckham and Milan S. La Du. La Prise de Defur and Le Voyage d'Alexandre au Paradis Terrestre. Introduction, pp. xxxiii-lxii.
XIII. Jacques de Longuyon. Voeux du Paon.
[This poem and its two continuations, which make up a part of the "Vow Cycle" of medieval French literature, is an independent work which was sometimes inserted into the Alexander legend. Alexander oversees the end-scene of Voeux by doling out husbands to the noble women who have vowed to obtain them. For a summary of the events in the narrative, see John L. Grigsby, "Vow Cycle," in Medieval France: An Encyclopedia gen. eds. William W. Kibler and Grover A. Zinn (New York: Garland, 1995), pp. 695-66. Voeux is approximately 8500 lines long, composed in Alexandrines around 1310; Restor 2800 lines, composed in Alexandrines before 1338; Parfait, 3921 lines long, was completed around 1340.
Manuscripts:
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24365, fols. 137r-87v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 791, fols. 119r-67r
London, British Library Additional 16888, fols. 1r-141r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1554, fols. 2r-138v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 25522
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 14972, fols. 1r-139v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 25521
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24386
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1375, fols. 432r-537r
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 264, fols. 111r-64v
Oxford, Bodleian Library Douce 308, fols. 1r-85r
Brussels, Royal Belgian Library 11191, fols. 1r-165r
Rome, Vatican Library 3209, fols. 1r-147r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 2166, fols. 1r-32v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 2167, fols. 2r-122v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 20045, 1r-158v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 790, fols. 107v-99v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 2165, fols. 1r-104v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 368, fols. 89r-116r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1590, fols. 96r-145v
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 165, fols. 1r-137v
London, British Library, Harley 3992, fols. 1r-96r
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 2136, fols. 1r-138v
London, Private collection, 1r-50v
Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 2776
Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale Française O8, fols. 1r-130v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 12567, fols. 1r-205v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 12565, fols. 26r-188v
Donaueschingen 168, fols. 25r-133v
Editions:
Camillus Casey, ed. Les "Voeux de Paon" by Jacques de Longuyon: An Edition of the Manuscripts of the P Redaction. Dissertation, Columbia University, 1956.
Robert Alexander Magill. Part I of the Voeux du Paon by Jacques de Longuyon: An Edition of Manuscripts S, S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, and S6. Dissertation: Columbia University, 1964.
R. L. Graeme Ritchie. The Buik of Alexander. Scottish Text Society, New Series, volumes 12, 17, 21, 25. Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1921-29. [Ritchie reproduces the corresponding parts of Voeux alongside the Scottish text.]
Criticism/Studies:
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski. "The Poetics of Continuation in the Old French Paon Cycle." Romance Philology 39 (1986), 437-47
Cary, pp. 32-33.
Glynnis M. Cropp. "Les Vers sur les Neuf Preux." Romania120 (2002), 449-82.
Elizabeth J. Daverman. The Roman van Cassamus and its relationship to the Old French Voeux du Paon. Dissertation: University of Texas at Austin, 1978.
Obed Boyer Ely. Two Medieval French Alexander Poems: a comparison of the Roman d'Alexandre and Voeux du Paon. Masters' Thesis: Columbia University, 1949.
F. T. H. Fletcher. Étude sur la langue des Voeux du Paon, roman en vers du XIVe siècle de Jacques de Longuyon. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1924.
A. Giacchetti. "Le Personnage d'Alexandre dans Les Voeux du Paon." In Mélanges de langue et de littérature du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance offerts à Jean Frappier. Geneva: Droz, 1970. Pp. 351-64.
Martin Gosman. "Le Début des Voeux de Paon: L'Organisation d'une entrée en texte." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 85 (1984), 353-66.
----. "Au carrefour des traditions scriptuaires: Les Voeux du Paon et l'apport des écritures épique et romanesque." In Au carrefour des routes d'Europe, Senefiance 20. 2 vols. Aix-en-Provence: CUERMA, 1987. 1.551-65.
----. "L'exploitation de la 'réflexion' dans les Voeux du Paon: une technique expositionnelle." Bien dire et bien aprandre 5 (1987), 73-88.
John L. Grigsby. "Gadamer's hermeneutics and medieval French literature (with an excursus on Les Voeux du Paon)." Oeuvres et critiques 11 (1986), 117-86.
----. "Courtesy in the Voeux de Paon." Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 86 (1985), 566-75.
----. "L'intertextualité interrompue par l'histoire: Le Cas des Voeux du Héron." In Courtly Literature: Culture and Context. Ed. Keith Busby and Erik Kooper. Amsterdam: J. Benjamins, 1990. Pp. 239-49.
François Guichard-Tesson. "Jeux de l'amour et jeux du langage." Moyen Français 38 (1996), 21-44.
Edward Billings Ham. "Three Neglected Manuscripts of the Voeux du Paon." Modern Language Notes 46 (1931), 78-84.
Magoun, pp. 30-31.
Charles Méla and Christe Yves. "Trois acquisitions de la Bibliotheca Bodmeriana." Librarium: Zeitschrift der Schweizerischen Bibliophilen-Gesellschaft 41 (1998), 101-16.
Meyer, 2.267-69.
R. L. Graeme Ritchie. The Buik of Alexander. Scottish Text Society, New Series, vol. 17. Edinburgh, London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1925. Pp. xxxiii-xlvii. Vol. 12 (1921), pp. xix-xlviii.
Michelle Szkilnik. "Courtoisie et violence: Alexandre dans le Cycle du paon." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 321-39.
Thorlac Turville-Petre. "A Lost Alliterative Alexander Romance." Review of English Studies 30 (1979), 306-07.
XIV. Jean le Court. Restor du Paon.
[For description see Voeux du Paon.]
Manuscripts:
Donaueschingen 168, fols. 134r-73v
London, British Library Additional 16888, fols. 142r-61v
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Bodley 264, fols. 165r-82v
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 165, fol. 138r-246v
Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, 2776
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1554, fols. 139v-60v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 12565, fols. 189r-297v
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 24386
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 25521
Rouen, Bibliothèque Municipale Française O8, 131r-48r
Editions:
R. J. Carey. Jean le Court dit Brisebare, "Le Restor du Paon." Geneva: Droz, 1966.
Enid Donkin. Jean Brisebarre: "Li Restor du Paon." London: Modern Humanities Research Association, 1980.
Criticism:
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski. "The Poetics of Continuation in the Old French Paon Cycle." Romance Philology 39 (1986), 437-47.
Enid Donkin. "Le 'Plagiat' de Jean Brisebare." Romania 86 (1965), 395-404.
----. "Tenses in the past narrative in Li Restor du Paon." In Noble, Polak, and Isoz. Pp. 19-27.
Michelle Szkilnik. "Courtoisie et violence: Alexandre dans le Cycle du paon." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 321-39.
XV. Jean de Le Mote. Parfait du paon.
[For description see Voeux du Paon.]
Manuscripts:
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 12565
Oxford, Bodleian Library Douce 165
Edition:
R. J. Carey, ed. Jean de la Mote: Le Parfait du Paon. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1972.
Criticism:
Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski. "The Poetics of Continuation in the Old French Paon Cycle." Romance Philology 39 (1986), 437-47.
----. "Ekphrasis and Memory in the Fourteenth-Century Parfait du Paon." In Maddox, pp. 193-202.
Edmond A. Emplaincourt. "Le Parfait du Paon de Jean de Le Mote et la formation du deuxième cycle de la croisade." Romania 102 (1981), 396-405.
Friedrich Gennrich. "Der Gesangswettstreit im Parfait du Paon." Romanische Forschungen 58-59 (1947), 208-32.
Mary A. Rouse and Richard Rouse. "The Goldsmith and the Peacock: Jean de la Mote in the Household of Simon de Lille, 1340." Viator 28 (1997), 281-303.
Michelle Szkilnik. "Courtoisie et violence: Alexandre dans le Cycle du paon." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 321-39.
XVI. Jean Wauquelin. L'Histoire du Roi Alexandre (Les Faicts et les Conquestes d'Alexandre le Grand).
[Completed by Wauquelin, a notable writer in the court of the Dukes of Burgundy, by 1448. Wauquelin used the verse Roman d'Alexandre as his source. Three of the manuscripts are elaborately decorated. See Hériché's introduction, pp. I-CL for a detailed description of the manuscripts, historical context, and textual tradition of the text.]
Manuscripts:
Paris, Bibliothèque du Petit Palais, Collection Dutuit 456.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 707
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 9342
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française 1419
Gotha, Herzogliche Bibliothek, Membr. I, 117
Editions:
Sandrine Hériché. Les Faicts et les Conquestes d'Alexandre le Grand de Jehan Wauquelin. Geneva: Droz, 2000. [Complete critical edition.]
Edward Billings Ham. Five Versions of the Venjance Alixandre. Elliott Monographs, 34. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1935. [Pp. 47-75 contain a discussion of Jean Wauquelin's adaptation of the vengeance tale, and contain an extracted edition of the end of L'Histoire.]
Translation:
Danielle Régnier-Bohler. Splendeurs de la cour de Bourgogne. Paris: Laffont, 1995. Partial translation into Modern French by O. Collet, pp. 483-564.
Criticism/Studies:
Cary, 33-34.
Paul Durrieu. "L'Histoire du Bon Roi Alexandre." Revue de l'Art Ancien et Moderne 13 (1903), 49-64, 103-21.
Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas. "Alexandre et les Brahmanes dans les Romans d'Alexandre français, du XIIe au XVe siècle." Le Moyen Age: Revue d'histoire et de philologie 106 (2000), 467-93. [Looks at depictions of India and representation of "noble savages."]
----. "Jean Wauquelin et Vasque de Lucène: le 'roman familial' d'Alexandre et l'écriture de l'histoire au XVe siècle." Cahiers de Recherches médiévales (XIIIe-Xve siècle) 5 (1998), 125-38. [Looks at both texts' treatment of Alexander's family background, focusing on their denial of his illegitimate origins.]
Sandrine Hériché. "Immersion et survivance dans Les faicts et les conquestes d'Alexandre le Grand de Jehan Wauquelin (XVe siècle)." In Dans l'eau, sous l'eau: Le monde aquatique au Moyen Age. Eds. Danièle James-Raoul and Claude Thomasset. Cultures et civilisations médiévales, 25. Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2002. Pp. 339-55. [Looks at the Roman d'Alexandre and its prose adaptations as a source for Wauquelin's text.]
----. "Fonctions des montagnes dans les Conquestes et Faictz d'Alexandre le Grand de Jehan Wauquelin." In La Montagne dans le texte médiéval: Entre mythe et realité. Eds. Danièle James-Raoul and Claude Thomasset. Cultures et civilisations médiévales, 19. Paris: Presses de l'Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2000. Pp. 309-24. [Examines double representation of mountains in Wauquelin's text: dangerous and strange places and marvellous places offering a potentially divine revelation.
Magoun 32.
Meyer, 2:313-29.
Christiane Raynaud. "L'imaginaire de la guerre dans l'Histoire du Bon Roi Alexandre (ms. 456 de la collection Dutui)." Bulletin des Sociétés d'histoire et d'archéologie de la Meuse 28-29 (1995), 61-80.
----. "Alexandre dans les bibliothèques bourguignonnes." In Harf-Lancner, Kappler, and Suard. Pp. 187-211. [Looks at manuscript collections and illuminations in the library of the Dukes of Burgundy.]
XVII. Les Fais et Concquestes du Noble Roy Alexandre.
[An anonymous prose adaptation of the Roman d'Alexandre which survives in a single, richly ornamented copy. To my knowledge, the text has not yet been edited. Ham calls this text "servile, diffuse, and tiresome" (p. 80).]
Manuscript:
Bibliothèque Besançon MS 836 (15th century).
Editions/Facsimiles:
None.
Criticism/Studies:
Cary, p. 34.
Martin Gosman. "Les Fais et concquestes du noble roy Alexandre: Dérimage ou remaniement?" In Actes du IVe Colloque international sur le Moyen Français. Ed. Anthonij Dees. Faux Titre, 16. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1985. Pp. 315-36.
Edward Billings Ham. Five Versions of the Venjance Alixandre. Elliott Monographs, 34. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1935. Pp. 79-82.
Magoun, pp. 32-33.
Meyer, 2.328-29.
XVIII. Vasque de Lucène. Les Faits du grand Alexandre.
[Prose translation into French of Quintus Curtius Rufus' Historiae Alexandri Magni. Vasco, a Portuguese writer residing in the court of Isabel of Portugal, mother of Charles the Bold, translated Curtius' text over a period of seven years and presented it to Charles in 1468. To my knowledge, the text has not yet been edited.]
Manuscripts:
Abbeville, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 92
Paris, Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, MS 3687
Bern, Burgerbibliothek, Cod. A. 25
Cologny-Genève, Bibliotheca Bodmeriana, Cod. Bodmer 53
London, British Library, Burney MS 169
Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 756
Oxford, Bodleian Library Douce 318
Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, MS Med. palat. 155
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française MSS fr. 47-49
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MS fr. 257
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MSS fr. 708-11
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MS fr. 6440
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MS fr. 9738
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MS fr. 20311
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française, MS fr. 22547
Geneva, Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire, MS fr. 76
Jena, Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, MS E. fol. 89
Oxford, Bodleian Library, Laud. misc. 751
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS Ludwig XV 8.
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Française MS n.a.fr. 11675
London, British Library, Royal MS 15.D.iv
London, British Library, Royal MS 17.F.i
Skokloster, MS 131
Copenhagen, Kongelige Bibliotek, Thott MS 540
Rome, Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, MS Reg. lat. 736
Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 2566
Chantilly, Musée Condé, MS 755
Genoa, Biblioteca Universeitaria, MS E. ix. 2
London, British Library, Royal MS 20.C.iii
Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale Franç, MS fr. 258
Reims, Bibliothèque Municipale, MS 1335
St. Petersburg, Russian National Library, MS fr.F.p.IV.45
Private Collection. Phillipps, MS 4409
Editions:
None.
Facsimile:
Scot McKendrick. The History of Alexander the Great: An Illuminated Manuscript of Vasco da Lucena's French Translation of the Ancient Text by Quintus Curtius Rufus. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996. [Facsimile and commentary on illustrations from the Getty manuscript.]
Translation:
Danielle Régnier-Bohler. Splendeurs de la cour de Bourgogne. Paris: Laffont, 1995. Partial translation into Modern French by O. Collet, pp. 565-627.
Criticism:
Chrystèle Blondeau. "Les intentions d'une oeuvre (Faits et gestes d'Alexandre le Grand de Vasque de Lucène) et sa réception par Charles le Téméraire." Revue du Nord – Histoire: Nord de la France, Belgique, Pays-Bas 83 (2001) 731-52.
R. Bossuat. "Vasque de Lucène, traducteur de Quinte-Curce (1468)." Bibliothèque d'Humanisme et Renaissance 8 (1946), 197-245.
Catherine Gaullier-Bougassas. "Jean Wauquelin et Vasque de Lucène: le 'roman familial' d'Alexandre et l'écriture de l'histoire au XVe siècle." Cahiers de Recherches médiévales (XIIIe-XVe siècle). 5 (1998) 125-38. [Looks at both texts' treatment of Alexander's family background, focusing on their denial of his illegitimate origins.]
J. L. Hoppe. "Les fais d'Alexandre le grant: A Fifteenth-Century Manuscript at the J. Paul Getty Museum." Masters' Thesis: University of California, Santa Barbara, 1987.
Scot McKendrick. "The Illustrated Manuscripts of Vasco da Lucena's Translation of Curtius's Historiae Alexandri Magni: Nature Corrupted by Fortune?" In Medieval Manuscripts of the Latin Classics: Production and Use. Eds. C. A. Chavannes-Mazel and M. Smith. Los Altos Hills: Anderson-Lovelace, 1996. Pp. 131-49.
Meyer, 2.378-80.
Alexander in Literature
Alessandro nel Medioevo Occidentale. Eds. Piero Boitani, Corrado Bologna, Adele Cipolla, Mariantonia Liborio. Introduction by Peter Dronke. Rome: Fondazione Lorenzo Valla, 1997.
Boitani, et al., have collected and edited brief passages from various medieval Alexander texts, grouping them in sections detailing the main themes pertaining to the Alexander legend. The prologue treats of Alexander's general status among medieval legends; part one: the signs of his destiny; part two: Alexander and learning; part three: the conquest of the world; part four: Alexander and other worlds; part five: Alexander and the prophecies; part six: the aura and the shadows of Alexander. Each edited text has been translated into modern Italian.
Armand Abel. Le Roman d'Alexandre: légendaire médiéval. Bruxelles: Office de Publicit, 1955.
General introduction to medieval legendary material. Abel traces the history of the tradition beginning with Pseudo-Callisthenes, its adaptations and continuations, the biblical treatment of Alexander, the medieval Latin texts (including Historia de Preliis and Alexandreis), Islamic traditions concerning Alexander, and the French Roman d'Alexandre of Alexander of Paris.
Alexander the Great in the Middle Ages: Ten Studies on the Last Days of Alexander in Literary and Historical Writing. Eds. W.J. Aerts, Jos. M.M. Hermans, and Elizabeth Visser. Mediaevalia Groningana, vol. 1. Nijmegen (Netherlands): Alfa Nijmegen, 1978.
Collection of essays devoted to viewing the death of Alexander from a multi-faceted, multi-disciplinary point of view. Aerts' preface introduces readers to three approaches scholars in the group took to dealing with Alexander material: as he says "genetic," (i.e., the search for the origins of the medieval view of Alexander) "ergocentric," (the study of a text as a whole, considering "historical" and "modernized" elements to be fused) and "historical" (the study of Alexander material as it is brought to bear on particular historical situations).
Andrew Runni Anderson. Alexander's Gate, Gog and Magog, and the Inclosed Nations. Cambridge: Mediaeval Academy of America, 1932.
Discusses the various manifestations of Alexander's enclosing of the nations of Gog and Magog and the construction of "Alexander's Gate," trapping the tribes between two mountains. Stemming from Pseudo-Callisthenes' Greek Alexander romance, the tribes of Gog and Magog are described in Genesis 10:2, Ezekiel 38: 1-3; and Revelation 20: 7-8. Attempts to identify the nations of Gog and Magog as an ethnic group around the Caucasus Mountains at the time of Alexander's movements (either the Celts or the Goths). The only monograph to treat of this phenomenon.
Dario Carraroli. La Leggenda di Alessandro Magno. Mondovi: Tipografia Giovanni Issoglio, 1892.
An overview of Alexander's presence in legendary material across countries. Carraroli begins his book with an introduction to Pseudo-Callisthenes' text, and then discusses its adaptations and redactions. He moves on to provide an overview of how Alexander was perceived in the East (in Hebrew, Arabic, Turkish, Ethiopian, and Coptic texts) and in the West (in French, Spanish, English, and Scandinavian texts). The main section of the book focuses on Alexander's presence in Medieval Italian literature, and he finishes with a brief description of Alexander in medieval art and architecture.
George Cary. The Medieval Alexander. Ed. D.J.A. Ross. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1956, rpt. 1967. Rpt. New York: Garland, 1987 for Ancient Greek Literature.
Cary's monograph, a revised version of his dissertation published after his untimely death in 1953, is still the major foundation point for any study of Alexander in medieval writing. The first half of the book exhaustively catalogues any and all medieval materials that deal with Alexander in a non-anecdotal way (to clarify, Cary does not include in his discussion the tales dealing with Alexander in Gower's Confessio Amantis, nor with the Gesta Romanorum). My bibliography, insofar as it deals with primary sources of the Alexander legend, is unquestionably indebted to this section of his book. The method of his cataloguing traces major patterns of influence between texts; he first describes the various "historical" sources for our knowledge of Alexander's life, as well as the fantastic and strange romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes and its derivatives, the "Indian Tractates." He then lists brief descriptions of each medieval text in terms of what base text it comes from. The second part of Cary's book attempts to answer the question: How was Alexander the Great perceived in the Middle Ages? In looking at this question; Cary painstakingly examines moralistic, theological, anecdotal, and exemplar writings on Alexander.
Laurence Harf-Lancner, Claire Kappler, and François Suard, eds. Alexandre le Grand dans les littératures occidentales et proche-orientales: Actes du Colloque de Paris, 27-29 novembre 1999. Nanterre: Université Paris X-Nanterre, 1999.
This collection of essays in French encompasses a broad spectrum of international literature on Alexander. The essays are grouped into five main topics: Alexander and the ancient sources; Alexander, or the meeting of traditions; a political myth; a spiritual quest; an ambiguous hero. The individual essays are referenced throughout this bibliography.
Alexander in Art
Chiara Settis Frugoni. Historia Alexandri Elevati per Griphos ad aerem. Roma: Instituto storico italiano per il Medio Evo, 1973.
The first monograph-length study on the imagery of Alexander's flight via griffons. Discusses the origins of the legend and the image, particularly in the context of Byzantine and Old Russian artwork, culminating in a survey of the image's prevalence in French and German art.
Ian Michael. Alexander's Flying-Machine: the History of a Legend. Southampton: University of Southampton, 1975.
Scot McKendrick. The History of Alexander the Great: an Illuminated Manuscript of Vasco da Lucena's French translation of the ancient text by Quintus Curtius Rufus. Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1996.
Contains an introduction on Alexander's importance to medieval audiences, a discussion of Curtius's text, and a thorough chapter on the production of Vasco da Lucena's translation of Curtius, its dissemination, and the production and importance of the beautiful Getty manuscript of Les fais d'Alexandre le grant (Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum, MS Ludwig XV 8). The book reproduces in large color plates every illuminated miniature in the manuscript, along with a commentary describing the content of the miniature and the context out of which it comes. Up there with the Bodley 264 facsimile in beauty of reproduction. Also a good introductory chapter on Alexander to anyone who is unfamiliar with the legendary tradition.
D. J. A. Ross. Alexander Historiatus: a Guide to Medieval Illustrated Alexander Literature. London: The Warburg Institute, 1963.
A catalogue of all medieval Alexander texts which include illustrations. Divided into two sections – works that are part of or derived from the romance of Pseudo-Callisthenes, and works that are derived from the historical tradition of Curtius and Plutarch. Ross includes two appendices: the first is a brief discussion of the evolution of the motif of the Nine Worthies in medieval literature, of which Alexander is one, and the second is a catalogue of medieval texts dealing with Alexander's predecessors or other texts that tangentially deal with Alexander.
Victor Michael Schmidt. A Legend and its Image: the Aerial Flight of Alexander the Great in Medieval Art. Groningen: E. Forsten, 1995.
Discusses the history of the iconography of the image of Alexander's flight via griffin-car from the ninth through 16th centuries, when widespread skepticism towards the historicity of the Alexander romances caused the popularity of the image to decrease. Contains 121 black-and-white plates.
