ROMAINE · Ovid as Historian. The reception of classical mythology in medieval France and Spain

Ovid as Historian. The reception of classical mythology in medieval France and Spain

"The project ROMAINE. ""Ovid as Historian. The reception of classical mythology in medieval France and Spain, consists of a comparative study of Ovid’s translations as historian in the 'General estoria' (1270-1284), the 'Ovide moralisé' (ca 1320), and the 'Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César'"" (2nd version, 1338). The project was structured around three main research questions, aimed at specific goals. (1) Ovid as historian in the Middle Ages: Was there a common textual or educational ground on which these French and Castilian authors and translators based their reading of Ovid? Answering this question required identifying and analysing the glosses and the commentaries and tracing their regional impact irrespective of the target language. The results show that the vernacular authors did use a very similar type of manuscript of the 'Metamorphoses' and the 'Heroides'. This fact has consequences for the extensive interpretative gloss included in Romance language—allegoric, euhemeristic, natural—as well as on the mythographic additions taken from other, non-Ovidian sources. The contents are added at the same places, in relation with the same excerpts of the 'Metamorphoses' and the 'Heroides'. (2) A common ancient history corpus. Is there a consistent web of historiographical / literary ‘background’ texts on which these Ovidian commentaries draw? The study proved that the vernacular authors used a corpus with similar contents, but maybe different texts and authors. A striking example of that is the usage of the Pliny’s 'Historia naturalis' in the 'General estoria' to explain natural features of the metamorphoses. In the 'Ovide moralisé', Pliny’s text is not used directly, but natural explanations of the same kind are compiled. They may be original, or quoted from still unidentified sources. Regarding the 'Heroides', while their translation appears to be autonomous in the 'General estoria' most of the time, or related to the 'Metamorphoses', they are treated differently in the 'Ovide moralisé', where they are more closely related to the 'Ars amatoria'. In this case, the 'Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César' uses a canon of historiographic texts, which is closer to the one of the 'General estoria'. (3) Mythology, history, and the modern concept of medieval literature. Related to this question, I discuss how a medieval mythological and historical reading (as opposed to allegorical and moralising) of the 'Metamorphoses' and the 'Heroides' needs to be emphasized—understudied as it has been, precisely for lack of a general framework that goes beyond national and linguistic frontiers. Indeed, the historical interpretation of Ovid’s mythographic works, which begins in Latin commentaries from Germany and France and is found in the first Romance translations, allows us to reconsider the traditional conception of medieval attitudes towards the pagan past. When Ovid’s texts are translated for historiographical purposes, it is done very literally and very respectfully, which tends to go against the standard modern vision of medieval thought. My study shows that the Ovidian canon, a matter theoretically considered to be literary and incompatible with Christian doctrine, is assimilated by the medieval authors as their own history. "

Текст от CORDIS, на английски · Данни: CORDIS, © Европейски съюз