The thirteenth-century allegorical dream vision, the 'Roman de la Rose', transformed how medieval literary texts engaged with philosophical ideas. Written in Old French, its influence dominated French, English and Italian literature for the next two centuries, serving in particular as a model for Chaucer and Dante. Jean de Meun's section of this extensive, complex and dazzling work is notable for its sophisticated responses to a whole host of contemporary philosophical debates. This collection brings together literary scholars and historians of philosophy to produce the most thorough, interdisciplinary study to date of how the Rose uses poetry to articulate philosophical problems and positions. This wide-ranging collection demonstrates the importance of the poem for medieval intellectual history and offers new insights into the philosophical potential both of the Rose specifically and of medieval poetry as a whole.
Author(s): Jonathan Morton, Marco Nievergelt, John Marenbon
Series: Cambridge Studies in Medieval Literature, 111
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 338
List of Contributors vii
Acknowledgements viii
Note on Primary Texts ix
Introduction / Jonathan Morton and Marco Nievergelt 1
Part I. Epistemology and Language 25
1. Mechanisms of Belief: Jean de Meun’s Implicit Epistemology / Christophe Grellard (translated by Jonathan Morton and Marco Nievergelt) 27
2. Visual Experiences and Allegorical Fiction: The Lexis and Paradigm of 'Fantasie' in Jean de Meun’s 'Rose' / Fabienne Pomel (translated by Jonathan Morton and Marco Nievergelt) 45
3. Imposition, Equivocation, and Intention: Language and Signification in Jean de Meun’s 'Roman de la Rose' and Thirteenth-Century Grammar and Logic / Marco Nievergelt 65
4. Sophisms and Sophistry in the 'Roman de la Rose' / Jonathan Morton 90
Part II. Natural Law, Politics, and Society 109
5. The Personal and the Political: Love and Society in the 'Roman de la Rose' / Juhana Toivanen 111
6. Human Nature and Natural Law in Jean de Meun’s 'Roman de la Rose' / Philip Knox 131
7. A Politico-Communal Reading of the 'Rose': The 'Fiore' Attributed to Dante Alighieri / Antonio Montefusco (translated by Jonathan Morton and Marco Nievergelt) 149
Part III. Unfinished Business: Forms of Writing, Forms of Knowledge 171
8. Jean de Meun, Boethius, and Thirteenth-Century Philosophy / John Marenbon 173
9. The Romance of the Non-Rose: Echoes and Subversions of Negative Theology in Jean de Meun’s 'Roman de la Rose' / Alice Lamy (translated by Jonathan Morton and Marco Nievergelt) 194
10. Metalepsis and Allegory: The Unity of the 'Roman de la Rose' / Luciano Rossi (translated by Jonathan Morton and Marco Nievergelt) 210
Notes 233
Bibliography 282
Index 315
