Catalan Version L
The metrical Catalan text Libre (or Llibre) dels Set Savi de Roma is an adaptation of the Version L narrative. The poem - consisting of some 3244 octosyllabic rhyming lines - survives in two manuscripts, one fragmentary and one complete, dating from the late 13th/early fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries respectively (Giannetti 1996).
Though the Version L narrative pattern emerges originally in French, scholarship suggests that the language of the Catalan text betrays evidence of a more immediate Provençal/Occitan source (Janer 1907, xx-xxiii, Giannetti 1996), suggesting a possible close relationship between this text and the fragmentary Occitan Version L.
The tendency of the Catalan poet-redactor was primarily to abbreviate the narratives as presented in other Sept Sages texts, with a few notable exceptions. According to Janer, the story Filia is slightly expanded to flesh out the details; however, the story Medicus is given a more dramatic change. In the Catalan iteration of the narrative, the great doctor Hippocrates does not merely fall ill (prompting his remorse for murdering his talented nephew who could have saved him) as he does in other versions. Instead, the redactor took the opportunity to add an example of women's wickedness into the text: Hippocrates is poisoned when the woman he loves gives him meat from a sow to eat (something he foretold would bring about death), and throws away the broth which might have cured him. Hippocrates therefore ensures the woman dies as well. (As with other Version L texts, the Libre dels Set Savis concludes without a final story from the prince, and instead includes the motif of the judicial battle between the prince's and empress' champions.)
Note: one article on the subject, by Llucía Martín Pascual (2005), suggests that a third manuscript containing the text may also survive. However, the manuscript identified by Martín Pascual, BNF Esp. 46, does not appear to contain the poem at first glance; confirmation of this is required.
General Information
Language & Composition
Literature & Editions
Recorded Branch of This Secondary Version
Adaptations
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 | Bencills |
| Aper – The Boar and the Fruit | 3 | Empress | |
| Medicus – The Doctor | 4 | Anxilles | Encilles |
| Gaza – The Treasure | 5 | Empress | |
| Puteus – The Well | 6 | Lentulus | Lentules |
| Senescalcus – The Seneschal | 7 | Empress | |
| Tentamina – The Test | 8 | Malquidras | Melquider |
| Virgilius – Virgil's Marvels | 9 | Empress | |
| Avis – The Bird | 10 | Cato | |
| Sapientes – The Wise Men | 11 | Empress | |
| Noverca | 12 | Josephas | Josep |
Connected Manuscripts
| Has Language | Has Location | Has Date Range Of Production | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona Biblioteca de Catalunya Ms. 109 | Catalan | Barcelona, Biblioteca de Catalunya | 1275 - 1325 |