About

About the project

This database was created as part of the AHRC-DFG UK German collaborative research projects in the humanities: 'The Seven Sages of Rome: Editing and Reappraising a forgotten premodern classic from global and gendered perspectives' (2023-2026), jointly funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft. The database assembles existing research from across the multilingual Seven Sages of Rome and the Book of Sindbad tradition, verified and updated as far as possible.

How to cite:

Bonsall, Jane, Bettina Bildhauer and Maximilian Nöth (eds), The Seven Sages of Rome Database (2024–2026) https://db.seven-sages-of-rome.org/index.php?title=Main_Page&oldid=8394

Team:

The database is largely the work of Jane Bonsall (University of St Andrews, United Kingdom). It was designed by Bonsall, Bettina Bildhauer and Maximilian Nöth at the Zentrum für Digitalität und Philologie at the University of Würzburg (Germany). Nöth and his team set up the user interface and web architecture. Individual entries were authored by Bonsall, Bildhauer, Elisabeth Böttcher (Freie Universität Berlin), Alfie Watkins (Oxford), Marjolijne Janssen (Freie Universität Berlin), Ava Byrne (St Andrews). Additional data was entered by Jack Kornowske, Ana Ross, Annabel Lloyd Wrafter and Sining Yun. Jutta Eming as co-investigator on the AHRC-DFG project and Ida Toth contributed further contacts and information.

Building the Database

Our original project brief was to capture a complete picture of the transmission of the Seven Sages of Rome/Book of Sindbad narrative before 1600. As we progressed, we observed an unbroken pattern of transmission beyond that date, and so while the early textual tradition has remained our priority, we have also entered information on later manuscripts and print editions when readily available.To populate the Seven Sages of Rome Database with this information, we have relied on existing secondary research material. While we have tried to verify information where possible (e.g. using library catalogues, digitisations, and editions), we have not always conducted primary research to confirm this information, but instead have worked to capture the state of the field. To do so, we have relied on Seven Sages/Book of Sindbad scholarship, both focused studies exploring individual languages or traditions, and a few large, multi-lingual overviews of the whole narrative transmission.

Sources:

A few key sources have been especially useful:

Runte, Wikeley and Farrell, Analytical Bibliography (1984) and The Society of the Seven Sages Portal:

The Seven Sages of Rome and the Book of Sindbad: an Analytical Bibliography, edited by Hans Runte, Keith Wikeley, and Anthony J. Farrell (1984), has been an important starting point for understanding the existing scholarship across the tradition. The continuation of the Analytical Bibliography published online as part of The Society of the Seven Sages portal demonstrates the way digital methods might be used to work across this literary tradition, and offers an updated bibliography of scholarship until 2014.

Runte, Wikeley and Farrell divide the tradition into 32 languages, and use language grouping as their primary way of organising the tradition (rather than Versions or narrative patterns). We have usually followed their language divisions and designations (for example, using 'Icelandic' rather than 'Old Norse', etc.), with some exceptions:

• We have designated the Scots tradition (both manuscripts and prints) as distinct from the English transmission
• We have renamed 'Provençal' as 'Occitan'
• We have omitted Norwegian. While Runte et. al. refer to Vogt (1931) who mentions a Norwegian version (p. 145), it is not an adaptation of the complete Seven Sages narrative, but rather a distinct saga that includes motifs found in the Seven Sages tradition (e.g., a delayed execution). It therefore does not meet our minimum requirements for inclusion in the database.

Nishimura (2001):

In Nishimura Masami's translation of Perry (1960), シンドバードの書の起 源 (Shindobādo no sho no kigen, The Origin of the Book of Sindbad), he included broad, comprehensive appendices of information about the Seven Sages/Book of Sindbad transmission and narrative contents, such as comparative stemma and charts of embedded tales. Nishimura's appendices offer by far the most complete, updated, and detailed list of all of the embedded tales from across the tradition (barring the Forty Viziers) in any Seven Sages scholarship. He kindly shared an unpublished English translation of his summaries of those stories, along with his extensive notes on each, with our project, and this material has been invaluable in the population of the inset story pages in this database.

For more of the sources that have shaped our understanding of the tradition, see the Modern Research Literature page.

Conventions:

We have attempted to make the information as user-friendly as possible, while also essentially adhering to the conventions and expectations of existing Seven Sages / Book of Sindbad scholarship. We have also made decisions along the way in an effort to streamline or clarify the material. We have attempted to adhere to following conventions:

• Deciding which texts to include: The Seven Sages / Book of Sindbad tradition is diffuse and sometimes hard to pin down. Many premodern (and modern) texts include parts of the narrative - either individual embedded stories, parts of the frame narrative. To keep things simple, we have therefore only recorded manuscript/print witnesses that include both (part of) the frame narrative, and some of the embedded stories, as seen in e.g. the Excerpts in the Gesta Romanorum. (There are a few exceptions to this rule: see the Icelandic Version H Groups B and D.) The Seven Sages / Book of Sindbad narrative is also found embedded in other, larger story collections. We see this in its presence within the Gesta Romanorum, Johannes Gobi's Scala Coeli, in the Persian Tutinama, and both the1001 and 101 Nights. We have attempted to add all relevant prints and manuscripts for these traditions; however, scholarship does not always detail the full contents of each copy of a story collection. We have therefore omitted any manuscripts or prints that contain the larger story colelction, if we have not also been able to positively confirm (via scholarship at least) that a text contains the Seven Sages / Book of Sindbad narrative itself. Future scholarship into these areas may therefore expand our lists.
• Inset Story Names: We have preserved the Latin names for the inset stories given in scholarship (and will be creating new Latin short titles for some stories that do not yet have those titles, such as those from the Forty Viziers tradition, for consistency across the tradition). We have also added English short titles for all stories as well, for accessibility. These English titles are either direct translations of the Latin, or are made slightly more descriptive if that is necessary either for clarity or to adhere with titles given in some scholarship (e.g. work on the Arabic tradition, which often omits the Latin titles).
• Versions and Sigla: We have largely preserved the narrative groupings, usually determined by the embedded stories and their order as well as key plot points, that most contemporary scholarship refers to as distinct versions of the Book of Sindbad / Seven Sages narrative, though sometimes with qualifications (given on their distinct Version pages). We have also maintained the sigla traditionally given in scholarship to these distinct branches of the tradition, usually letter-names (H, L, M, I, etc.). The version of the narrative usually titled Historia Septem Sapientum takes the siglum H, for example, and the branches of that version are therefore designated as e.g. Czech Version H, Scots Version H, Latin Version H, etc.
• Names of characters: The storytellers are often, but not always, named in the Seven Sages / Book fo Sindbad tradition. We have added the names of the 'sages' when they are given, and have attempted both to offer standardized names (to demonstrate shared inheritances and patterns), and also manuscript- or language-specific variations of those names (e.g. Cato, and Katho, Caton, Chatomas, etc.). The king's consort, the other prolific storyteller, is referred to as the Empress. This reflects her role in the Seven Sages tradition, but not the Book of Sindbad, in which she is not always married to the ruler. Book of Sindbad scholarship sometimes refers to her as the lady, the concubine, or simply the woman; for consistency, we have referred to her as the Empress throughout.
• Language and transcription: One of the striking features of The Seven Sages / Book of Sindbad is its multilinguality. We have attempted to preserve this (while simultaneously defaulting to English for accessibility) by including titles of text and libraries in their original and regional languages, and by offering text titles and incipits in their original scripts.
• Dating:
• Lists of embedded stories: We have attempted to ensure that all versions and secondary versions list the embedded tales, in the order in which they appear, as far as possible. However, we have not systematically added stories to all manuscripts or prints due to time constraints. If no embedded stories are listed on a given manuscript or print page, this does not therefore mean that the text contains no embedded stories, but rather that they have simply not been added. Check the relevant version page for the expected story order for a given text, with the understanding that variations may occur between one text and the next. (When readily available in scholarship, we have sometimes also included story order on individual manucript or print pages, but only infrequently. We have prioritised doing so only when scholarship indicates that the order is anomalous or departs from the pattern in the overall version.

A Living Archive: works in progress

Our work on the database is not yet complete. This is partly because of the ever-evolving scholarship on the tradition, and the modern and contemporary transmission of the narrative, but also simply because we have yet to fully attend to some language areas. The areas that are currently in progress, or still to be added, are:

• The 1001 Nights (manuscripts/prints and version details to be added)
• Romanian Historia (manuscripts/prints and version details to be added)
• Serbian Historia (manuscripts/prints and version details to be added)
• Turkish Kirk vezir prints (Forty Viziers prints to be added to the existing manuscript list)
• Turkish Kirk vezir stories (Forty Viziers embedded stories to be added)
• The Seven Wise Mistresses (early modern English gender-swapped version of the Seven Wise Masters - manuscripts/prints and version details to be added)

Using the database

The information in the database is chiefly organised into a few key sections.

Versions: The versions page offers an overview of the Seven Sages of Rome and Book of Sindbad traditions, broken down into branches or families that are determined by narrative patterns and the order of embedded tales. Further information of each of the version is available by clicking on its title. Click the plus sign to the left of each title to expand and make visible any secondary versions.

Languages: If you are interested in a particular language, navigate to the languages page and select this language. This page then displays all versions, manuscripts and prints in that language.

Manuscripts and Prints: Manuscripts and Prints that contain Seven Sages or Book of Sindbad narratives are collected in two separate lists. Each can be filtered by language, date of production, version, existence of illustration etc. either by using the Filter categories on the left of the page, or, if you click Overview, by using the dropdown options. You can select more than one filter at a time. To sort the overall manuscript or print list by date, language, location etc., click the arrows in the respective column.

Inset stories: The short stories embedded into the Seven Sages / Book of Sindbad frame narrative are listed here, alphabetically by their Latin titles (as given in scholarship), with translated English titles alongside them. The relevant motifs (signalling narrative content, plot elements, or keywords) are tagged on each story page, and listed alongside the story titles in Filter view. Clicking on an individual motif tag will show a list of all stories tagged with that motif.

Location map: All places of production of manuscripts and prints, locations of libraries and modern research literature places of publication are visualised on this page. You can filter to see only locations of manuscript production, early modern printing locations and places of text composition by clicking the respective tab at the top of the map.

Modern Texts: The database contains a bibliography of relevant Seven Sages / Book of Sindbad scholarship, organised under the headings Modern Research Literature and Modern Editions. Click on a citation to be directed to a page with full bibliographic information for the work.

For all of the above: pages in the database often appear as previews and lists, with partial information included in those representations. However, page previews do not contain all information about a text; critically, any uncertainties, key details, omissions, or contradictions in scholarship are given on a page in Notes, and will not appear in the listed preview information. Always consult individual pages for confirmation of full details about manuscripts, prints, or versions.

Contact us

Questions, comments, or feedback about the database?

Email: Bettina Bildhauer or Jane Bonsall