Preface

Summary

Of all chivalric heroes, Tristan in particular captured the imagination of medieval Italians. The Tristano Corsiniano is a later fourteenth-century redaction of the French prose Roman de Tristan. The unique manuscript, MS 55.K.5, is preserved in the Biblioteca Corsiniana, at the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei, Rome.

The rapid text hand and quickly produced illuminations that fill the manuscript's pages typify economical production methods. Such a book would have been suitable for the growing class of ‘New Men’ who, although not members of the old aristocracy, were equally drawn to the adventures of King Arthur and his knights.

The narrative style, too, is economical. The outline of a magnificent three-day tournament remains, but the rhetorical niceties of the French original have long since been stripped away in favor of a new emphasis on feats of arms.

The Tristano Corsiniano furnishes valuable evidence for the transmission of the Matter of Britain into northeastern Italy. Its language – a fascinating mixture of dialectal traits – has been the object of recent studies. The present volume comprises the first English translation of the text, the Italian original (given on facing pages), an introduction, iconographical appendix, and index.