Prosafassung / Prose Version
From The Seven Sages of Rome
The enormously popular prose versions of the Sieben Weise Meister, the German version of the Historia Septem Sapientum, proliferated throughout the fifteenth century. The prose version, or Prosafassung, emerged as translations of multiple different Latin originals, and was embedded within the Gesta Romanorum, though the popularity of the Sieben Weise Meister outlived that of the Gesta (Gerdes 1992).
Udo Gerdes broke down the Prosafassung / Prose Version of the Sieben Weise into seven separate redactions, lettered A-G, each representing distinct textual versions of the narrative (1992). Of these, Redaction G (the 'vulgate') is the most elaborate and detailed, and is also the only redaction to survive into the sixteenth century as a Volksbuch. Redaction B is closely associated with the German Gesta Romanorum, and contains an additional corpus of moralisations in keeping with the Latin Gesta's original form (Gerdes 1992).| General Information | |
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| Language within Version | |
| Narrative / Scholarly Group | |
| Parent Versions | German Version H |
| Child Versions | Redaction A, Redaction B, Redaction C, Redaction D, Redaction E, Redaction F, Redaction G |
| Author | |
| Title | Sieben weise Meister |
| Siglum of the version of the Seven Sages | Prosafassung / Prose Version |
| Version Number | |
| Branch of the tradition | West |
| Language & Composition | |
|---|---|
| Original language of version | German (High and Low German) |
| Translated into (languages) | |
| Place of composition | |
| Date of composition | 1401 - 1425 |
| Source for date of composition | Gerdes (1992) |
| Literature & Editions | |
|---|---|
| Modern research literature | Gerdes (1992), Gerdes (2004), Kunkel (2023), Roth (2008), Roth (2003), Schmitz (1904), Runte, Wikeley, Farrell (1984), Runte, Society of the Seven Sages Portal (2014), Hommers (1968) |
| Modern Editions | |
| Connected prints |
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No connected prints |
| Adaptations | |
|---|---|
| Adapted from (version) | German Version H |
| Adapted into (version) | Redaction A, Redaction B, Redaction C, Redaction E, Redaction D, Redaction F, Redaction G |
| Source for composition and adaptation information | Gerdes (1992) |
| Languages in Use | |
|---|---|
| Language of text | German (High and Low German) |
| Regional or specific language of version | |
| Notes | |
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| Note | |
| Notes on motifs | |
| Notes on the frame | |
| Pattern of embedded stories in this version |
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| Connected manuscripts |
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Prosafassung / Prose Version