D (Sept Sages de Rome)
From The Seven Sages of Rome
The siglum for the Old French Version D comes from its designation as the Version Dérimée - a prose text that shows evidence of having been redacted from a verse original. It survives in one 15th-century manuscript, but may have originated much earlier. Some of the rhyming passages in the text appear to align with the rhymes employed in Version K (Sept Sages de Rome), the sole surviving complete Old French verse text, but not all of them (Campbell, Foehr-Janssens 1994). Also, the story order in D differs from that found in Version K, suggesting that while the two may have shared a (now lost) verse text source, K is likely not the source for D. D also bears marked similarity to Version C (Sept Sages de Rome), the other surviving verse version of the narrative.
In Version D the emperor is named Marcomeris, son of Priam, and his first wife is the daughter of the duke of Carthage. The story is set primarily in Constantinople. At the end of the narrative, the empress attempts twice to avert her death - once by insisting on a single combat duel between her nephew and the prince, and then by demanding a toise (something which, according to Campbell, may be 'encircled by the arms') to be burned with her. Once granted, she claims the emperor himself as her toise. The prince foils both of these ploys.
Identification & General Information
Title
Tradition & Lineage
Branch of the tradition
Recorded Secondary Versions
Connected Manuscripts
Language & Composition
Language of version
Place of composition
Date of Composition
1275 - 1500
Source for date of composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions
Modern research literature
Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
| Has Short Title | Has Sequence Number | Has Narrator | Has Name Variation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arbor – The Tree | 1 | Empress | |
| Canis – The Faithful Dog | 2 | Bancillas | Bencillas |
| Senescalcus – The Seneschal | 3 | Empress | |
| Medicus – The Doctor | 4 | Anxilles | Ancille |
| Aper – The Boar and the Fruit | 5 | Empress | |
| Puteus – The Well | 6 | Malquidras | Mauquidas |
| Sapientes – The Wise Men | 7 | Empress | |
| Tentamina – The Test | 8 | Lentulus | |
| Roma – Rome Besieged | 9 | Empress | |
| Avis – The Bird | 10 | Cato | Cathon |
| Gaza – The Treasure | 11 | Empress | |
| Vidua – The Widow | 12 | Jesse | |
| Virgilius – Virgil's Marvels | 13 | Empress | |
| Inclusa – The Imprisoned Wife | 14 | Meron | Meros |
Connected Prints
| Has Language | Has Location | Has Sort Date Of Print |
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