''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval

poem Poetry (from the Greek language, Greek word ''poiesis'', "making") is a form of literature, literary art that uses aesthetics, aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language to evoke meaning (linguistics), meanings in addition to, or in ...

written in

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th allegorical dream vision">allegory">allegorical

courtly literature, purporting to provide a "mirror of love" in which the whole art of Romance (love)">romantic love Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a Interpersonal attraction, strong attraction towards another person, and the Courtship, courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant ...

is disclosed. Its two authors conceived it as a psychological allegory; throughout the Lover's quest, the word ''Rose'' is used both as the name of the titular lady and as an abstract symbol of female sexuality. The names of the other characters function both as personal names and as metonyms illustrating the different factors that lead to and constitute a affair">love affair. Its long-lasting influence is evident in the number of surviving manuscripts of the work, in the many translations and imitations it inspired, and in the praise and controversy it inspired.

Authorship

''The Romance of the Rose'' was written in two stages by two authors. In the first stage of composition, circa 1230, Guillaume de Lorris wrote 4,058 verses describing a courtier's attempts at wooing his beloved woman. The first part of the poem's story is set in a Hortus conclusus, walled garden, an example of a ''locus amoenus'', a traditional literary topos in

epic poetry In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard t ...

and

chivalric romance As a literary genre, the chivalric romance is a type of prose and verse narrative that was popular in the noble courts of high medieval and early modern Europe. They were fantastic stories about marvel-filled adventures, often of a chivalri ...

. Forty-five years later, circa 1275, in the second stage of composition, Jean de Meun or Jehan Clopinel wrote 17,724 additional lines, in which he expanded the roles of his predecessor's allegorical personages, such as Reason and Friend, and added new ones, such as Nature and Genius. They, in encyclopedic breadth, discuss the philosophy of love.

Reception

Early

''The Romance of the Rose'' was both popular and controversial. One of the most widely read works in France through the Renaissance, it was possibly the most read book in Europe in the 14th and 15th centuries. Its emphasis on sensual language and imagery, along with its supposed promulgation of misogyny, provoked attacks by Jean Gerson, Christine de Pizan, Pierre d'Ailly, and many other writers and moralists of the 14th and 15th centuries. The historian Johan Huizinga has written: "It is astonishing that the Church, which so rigorously repressed the slightest deviations from dogma of a speculative character, suffered the teaching of this

breviary A breviary () is a liturgical book used in Christianity for praying the canonical hours, usually recited at seven fixed prayer times. Historically, different breviaries were used in the various parts of Christendom, such as Aberdeen Breviar ...

of the aristocracy (for the ''Roman de la Rose'' was nothing else) to be disseminated with impunity."

Modern

Later reactions suggested that it had a somewhat encyclopedic quality. The nineteenth-century scholar and writer

Gaston Paris Bruno Paulin Gaston Paris (; 9 August 1839 – 5 March 1903) was a French literary historian, philologist, and scholar specialized in Romance studies and medieval French literature. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901, ...

wrote that it was "an encyclopedia in disorder", the British author

C. S. Lewis Clive Staples Lewis (29 November 1898 – 22 November 1963) was a British writer, literary scholar and Anglican lay theologian. He held academic positions in English literature at both Magdalen College, Oxford (1925–1954), and Magdalen ...

described it as having an "encyclopedic character", and the Russian literary critic

Mikhail Bakhtin Mikhail Mikhailovich Bakhtin (; rus, Михаи́л Миха́йлович Бахти́н, , mʲɪxɐˈil mʲɪˈxajləvʲɪdʑ bɐxˈtʲin; – 7 March 1975) was a Russian people, Russian philosopher and literary critic who worked on the phi ...

wrote that the work was "encyclopedic (and synthetic) in its content". One historian wrote that while the ''Roman de la Rose'' is obviously not an encyclopedia, "it evokes one, represents one, dreams one, perhaps, with all its aspirations and limitations".

Manuscripts and incunabula

About three hundred manuscript copies are extant, one of the highest figures for a secular work. Many of these are illustrated, most with fewer than ten remaining illustrations, but there are a number with twenty or more illustrations, and the exceptional Burgundian

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

Harley MS 4425 has 92 large and high quality miniatures, despite a date around 1500; the text was copied by hand from a printed edition. These are by the artist known as the Master of the Prayer Books of around 1500, commissioned by Count Engelbert II of Nassau. The peak period of production was the 14th century, but manuscript versions continued to be produced until the advent of printing, and indeed afterwards – there are at least seven manuscripts dated after 1500. There are also seven incunabula – printed editions before 1500 – the first from

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

in about 1481, followed by two from the city of

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

s in the 1480s and four from Paris in the 1490s. An edition from Lyons in 1503 is illustrated with 140 woodcuts. Digital images of more than 140 of these manuscripts are available for study in the ''Roman de la Rose'' Digital Library.

Translation and influence

Part of the story was translated from its original

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

into Middle English as ''The Romaunt of the Rose'', which had a great influence on English literature. Geoffrey Chaucer, Chaucer was familiar with the original French text, and a portion of the Middle English translation is thought to be his work. Critics suggest that the character of "La Vieille" acted as source material for Chaucer's Wife of Bath. There were several other early translations into languages including

Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...

(Heinrik van Aken, c. 1280). ''Il Fiore'' is a "reduction" of the poem into 232 Italian

sonnet A sonnet is a fixed poetic form with a structure traditionally consisting of fourteen lines adhering to a set Rhyme scheme, rhyming scheme. The term derives from the Italian word ''sonetto'' (, from the Latin word ''sonus'', ). Originating in ...

s by a "ser Durante", sometimes thought to have been

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

, although this is generally thought unlikely. Dante never mentions the ''Roman'', but is often said to have been highly conscious of it in his own work. In 1900, the pre-Raphaelite F. S. Ellis translated the whole of the poem into English verse, with the exception of a section describing a sexual encounter, which he included in an appendix in Old French with the note that he "believes that those who will read them will allow that he is justified in leaving them in the obscurity of the original".

's 1936 study '' The Allegory of Love'' renewed interest in the poem. In 2023, an opera inspired by the poem was premiered by American composer Kate Soper.

Gallery

File:BodleianDouce195Folio1rGuillaumeDeLorris.jpg, Miniature from a manuscript of the ''Roman de la Rose'' (Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Douce 195), folio 1r, portrait of Guillaume de Lorris. File:Abelard and Heloise.jpeg, Abélard and Héloïse in a 14th-century manuscript of the ''Roman de la Rose'' File:Roman de la Rose (f. 15r.b) The Godess of Love locks the Lover's heart.jpg, The God of Love locks the Lover's heart. f. 15r.b, ''Roman de la Rose'' MS NLW 5016D File:BodleianDouce364Fol8rRomanRoseMirthGladnessLeadDance.jpg, alt=, The characters Mirth and Gladness lead a dance, in a miniature image from a manuscript of ''The Romance of the Rose'' in the Bodleian Library (MS. Douce 364, folio 8r)

Editions

*Langlois, Ernest, ed. ''Le Roman de la Rose par Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meun''. 5 vols. Société des Anciens Textes Français. Paris: Firmin Didot, 1914–24. *Lecoy, Félix, ed. ''Le Roman de la Rose par Guillaume de Lorris et Jean de Meun''. 3 vols. Classiques français du Moyen Âge. Paris: Champion, 1965–70. *Strubel, Armand, ed., trans, and annot. ''Le Roman de la Rose''. Lettres gothiques, 4533. Paris: Librairie Générale Française – Livre de Poche, 1992.

English translations

*Robbins, Harry W., trans. ''The Romance of the Rose''. New York: Dutton, 1962. *Dahlberg, Charles, trans. ''The Romance of the Rose''. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1971. *Horgan, Frances, trans. and annot. ''The Romance of the Rose''. Oxford World's Classics. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1999.

Notes

External links

*Full text from

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Vol. 1Vol. 2''Roman de la Rose'' Digital Library
at Johns Hopkins University
12 Ms on Digital Scriptorium

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* Editions from the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

''Le Rommant de la Rose''
yons, Guillaume Le Roy, ca. 1487
''Cest le Romant de la Rose''
yon, Imprime par G. Balsarin, 1503* {{Authority control 13th-century poems Medieval literature French poems Medieval French literature Visionary poems Allegory Types of illuminated manuscript Courtly love Unfinished literature completed by others Encyclopedic and systems novels