Book Description
The ‘mise en page’, comprising woodcuts, the Latin original, the French verse translation and a French prose commentary is also significant and instructive for the study of pedagogic method. In particular, the provision of a prose commentary yields further insight into medieval ‘explication de texte’ and moral exegesis. In addition the work offers a valuable illustration of the phenomenon of translation in the Middle Ages, shedding light on techniques of translation together with a variety of associated problems of adaptation and their solutions.
Furthermore, it earns a notable place in the history of French versification as a result of the author’s dazzling virtuosity which intermingles no fewer than 32 rhyme schemes. Last, not least in utility, it furnishes an ambitious addition to the stock of medieval paroemiologcal and sententious literature. Its value - cultural, technical, and lexical – is beyond doubt.
