H (Historia Septem Sapientum)
Empress has a loverEmpress's lover disguised as a womanLover's sex is revealed
The Historia, known in scholarship as Version H, likely emerged from the narrative tradition of the Version A redaction of the Seven Sages, and shares most of its stories with the Version A texts. However, the Historia introduces a new story, Amatores, and often combines two otherwise separate narratives (Senescalcus and Roma) which makes space for the new addition. Another variation is found in the prince's story; after relating the narrative Vaticinium with its focus on interpreting animal speech and prophecy, the prince then segues into a continuation of the story that follows the popular medieval narrative of the faithful friend, often called Amicus and Amelius, Ami et Amile, or Amis and Amiloun in Middle English. The resulting story, Vaticinium and Amici, is a long and wide ranging conclusion to the Historia's embedded narrative tradition.
The Historia tradition is set apart from other Seven Sages narratives by its 'unique fullness of detail' (Campbell 1907), and by the extensive, elaborate moralisations apended to the tales in many Version H texts. These moralisations are, in some versions, developed into religious allegories, referred to as reductiones. These reductiones are found primarily in the versions of the Historia that are included within the frame text of the Gesta Romanorum (notably the Latin and German Version H texts); according to Gerdes, as many as four fifths of all manuscript versions of the Historia narrative may be embedded within the Gesta (Gerdes 1992). Gaston Paris suggests that the inclusion of the Historia within the larger Gesta tale collection might account for the emperor's name in Version H: the emperor is called 'Poncianus' rather than 'Diocletianus', perhaps because the Gesta Romanorum already includes the story of an Emperor Diocletian.
It is also worth noting that unlike many of the Version A texts, the Historia usually concludes with further relevations that are intended to prove the empress's villainy. One of the empress's maidens is called forward by the prince, and publicly stripped, revealing male (not female) genitalia. The outing of the lover-character's biological sex is universally read as proof of the empress's adultery, with the assumption being that this 'maid' is really a man cross-dressing in order to conduct an affair with the empress. The supposed-lover is then executed alongside the empress.
Identification & General Information
Tradition & Lineage
Recorded Secondary Versions
- H (Historia Septem Sapientum)
- Armenian Version H
- Czech Version H: Kronika sedmi mudrců
- Danish Version H
- Dutch Version H
- English Version H
- French Version H
- German Version H
- Hungarian Version H: Pontianus tsaszar historiaia
- Icelandic Version H
- Latin Version H
- Lithuanian Version H
- Polish Version H
- Scots Version H: Rolland, Seuin Seages
- Spanish Version H: Los Siete Sabios de Roma
- Swedish Version H: Sju vise mästare
- Yiddish Version H
Connected Manuscripts
Language & Composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions
Notes & Commentary
Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
Connected Prints