The German text titled the Hystorij von Diocleciano survives in only one manuscript, written c. 1470. Like the other anomalous late medieval German version, the Aventewr von Diocleciano, the source for the Hystorij was a text from the (German) Historia tradition, demonstrated by some of the surviving embedded tales (stories 7-14). Specifically, the Hystorij's final stories bear marked resemblance to German prose version H redaction G. (Gerdes 1992). However, the Hystorij also contains five inset tales that are not found anywhere else in the Seven Sages tradition, and one fewer than usual. The new stories told by the sages (Aristoteles, Samson, and Holofernes) draw on classical narratives, and are designed to illustrate the timelessness of women's perfidy. The Empress's new stories (Regina and Vadium) draw on folk- and fairy-tale structures, and are focused on women who are falsely accused of infidelity - though in his introduction to his 1999 edition, Steinmetz notes that they inadvertently relate a (gender-swapped) version of the frame, with an innocent victim - the prince - falsely implicated (Steinmetz 1999).
| Tradition and Lineage
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| Branch of the tradition |
East
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| Adapted from (version) |
H (Historia Septem Sapientum)
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| Adapted into (version) |
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| Source for composition and adaptation information |
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| Recorded secondary versions
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| Notes and Commentary
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| Note |
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| Notes on motifs |
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| Notes on the frame |
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| Pattern of embedded stories in this version
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| Connected prints
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No connected prints
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