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

poem Poetry (derived from the Greek '' poiesis'', "making"), also called verse, is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and often rhythmic qualities of language − such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre − to evoke meaning ...

written in

Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...

and presented as an

allegorical As a literary device or artistic form, an allegory is a narrative or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a hidden meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory t ...

dream vision. As poetry, ''The Romance of the Rose'' is a notable instance of courtly literature, purporting to provide a "mirror of love" in which the whole art of

romantic love Romance or romantic love is a feeling of love for, or a strong attraction towards another person, and the courtship behaviors undertaken by an individual to express those overall feelings and resultant emotions. The ''Wiley Blackwell Encyc ...

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 Human female sexuality encompasses a broad range of behaviors and processes, including female sexual identity and Human sexual activity, sexual behavior, the physiological, psychological, social, cultural, political, and spiritual or religious ...

. The names of the other characters function both as personal names and as metonyms illustrating the different factors that lead to and constitute a 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 Guillaume de Lorris (c. 1200c. 1240) was a French scholar and poet from Lorris. He was the author of the first section of the ''Roman de la Rose''. Little is known about him, other than that he wrote the earlier section of the poem around 1230 ...

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

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate ...

, an example of a '' locus amoenus'', a traditional

literary topos In classical Greek rhetoric, topos, ''pl.'' topoi, (from grc, τόπος "place", elliptical for grc, τόπος κοινός ''tópos koinós'', 'common place'), in Latin ''locus'' (from ''locus communis''), refers to a method for developing a ...

epic poetry An epic poem, or simply 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. ...

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 chivalric ...

. Forty-five years later, circa 1275, in the second stage of composition,

Jean de Meun Jean de Meun (or de Meung, ) () was a French author best known for his continuation of the '' Roman de la Rose''. Life He was born Jean Clopinel or Jean Chopinel at Meung-sur-Loire. Tradition asserts that he studied at the University of Paris. He ...

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 Christine de Pizan or Pisan (), born Cristina da Pizzano (September 1364 – c. 1430), was an Italian poet and court writer for King Charles VI of France and several French dukes. Christine de Pizan served as a court writer in medieval France ...

, 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 (Latin: ''breviarium'') 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 ...

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, 19 ...

wrote that it was "an encyclopedia in disorder" and British author

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

described it as having an "encyclopedic character". 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 and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the Briti ...

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 In the history of printing, an incunable or incunabulum (plural incunables or incunabula, respectively), is a book, pamphlet, or broadside that was printed in the earliest stages of printing in Europe, up to the year 1500. Incunabula were pro ...

– printed editions before 1500 – the first from

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland. Situa ...

in about 1481, followed by two from the city of

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...

s in the 1480s and four from Paris in the 1490s. An edition from Lyons in 1503 is illustrated with 140

woodcut Woodcut is a relief printing technique in printmaking. An artist carves an image into the surface of a block of wood—typically with gouges—leaving the printing parts level with the surface while removing the non-printing parts. Areas tha ...

s. 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

into

Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old Englis ...

as ''

The Romaunt of the Rose ''The Romaunt of the Rose'' (''The Romaunt'') is a partial translation into Middle English of the French allegorical poem, ''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''Le Roman''). Originally believed to be the work of Chaucer, ''the Romaunt'' inspired controver ...

'', which had a great influence on English literature.

Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

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 c. 1550, there was no overarc ...

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

sonnet A sonnet is a poetic form that originated in the poetry composed at the Court of the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II in the Sicilian city of Palermo. The 13th-century poet and notary Giacomo da Lentini is credited with the sonnet's inventio ...

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

Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...

, 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.

Gallery

File:BodleianDouce195Folio1rGuillaumeDeLorris.jpg, Miniature from a manuscript of the ''Roman de la Rose'' (Oxford, Bodleian Library, Douce 195), folio 1r, portrait of

. File:Abelard and Heloise.jpeg,

Abélard Peter Abelard (; french: link=no, Pierre Abélard; la, Petrus Abaelardus or ''Abailardus''; 21 April 1142) was a medieval French scholastic philosopher, leading logician, theologian, poet, composer and musician. This source has a detailed desc ...

and

Héloïse Héloïse (; c. 1100–01? – 16 May 1163–64?), variously Héloïse d'ArgenteuilCharrier, Charlotte. Heloise Dans L'histoire Et Dans la Legende. Librairie Ancienne Honore Champion Quai Malaquais, VI, Paris, 1933 or Héloïse du Paraclet, wa ...

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 The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. It derives its name from its founder, Sir Thomas Bodley. With over 13 million printed items, it is the sec ...

(MS Douce 364, folio 8r)

Editions

Guillaume - Roman de la rose, 1914 - 4062453 F

*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

Project Gutenberg Project Gutenberg (PG) is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks." It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the oldest digital libr ...

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

''Roman de la rose''
a
Somni
* Editions from the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The libra ...

''Le Rommant de la Rose''
yons, Guillaume Le Roy, ca. 1487
''Cest le Romant de la Rose''
yon, Imprime par G. Balsarin, 1503*{{Cite EB1911, wstitle=Roman de la Rose, short=x 13th-century poems Medieval literature French poems Medieval French literature Visionary poems Allegory Types of illuminated manuscript Courtly love Unfinished literature completed by others