Chartres Bibliothèque municipale 620

Manuscript Identification

Reference Number

Fr43

Location

Chartres, Médiathèque L'Apostrophe

Siglum / Shelfmark

620 (formerly 0261)

Page / Folio range

19-44

Textual Content & Tradition

Standardised title of narrative

Sept Sages de Rome

Incipit or textual title

Seigneur, dist il, dites moi auquel de vous je bailleré mon enfant pour apprendre et pour endoctriner? » Li ainn[e]z palla avant

Version (siglum)

C (Sept Sages de Rome)

Language Group within Version

French Version C

Source for textual relationship

Speer & Foehr-Janssens (2017), Speer (1981)

Digitisation & Editions

Digitisation

https://arca.irht.cnrs.fr/ark:/63955/md4302873f0b

Modern Editions

Speer, Le Roman des Sept Sages de Rome (1989), Speer and Foehr-Janssens, Le Roman des Sept Sages de Rome (2017)

Authorship & Production

Date of Production

1275 - 1325

Source of Date of Production

Arlima: https://arlima.net/no/3626

Physical Description

Material

Parchment

Total pages / folios

142

Height

167

Width

120

Illustrations

No

Catalogues & Research Literature

Catalogue

Modern Research Literature

Paris (1876), Misrahi (1933), Speer & Foehr-Janssens (2017), Speer (1981), Speer (1987), Speer (1989), Speer (1994), Foehr-Janssens (1994), Foehr-Janssens (1997), Uhlig and Foehr-Janssens (2014), Smith (1912)

Embedded Stories in This Manuscript

Has Short Title	Has Sequence Number	Has Narrator	Has Name Variation
Tentamina – The Test	8
Roma – Rome Besieged	9	Empress
Avis – The Bird	10	Cato
Sapientes – The Wise Men	11	Empress
Vidua – The Widow	12	Jesse
Virgilius – Virgil's Marvels	13	Empress
Inclusa – The Imprisoned Wife	14	Meron	Merol

Research Material

Has Research Material Title	Has Research Material Link	Has Research Material Description

The Chartres 620 MS was unfortunately lost in WWII. It was partially photographed prior to this distruction, but primarily the second half. This is noteworthy, because the text existed in two parts: folios 19-26 in prose, through to the opening of Tentamina, and then folios 27-44 in rhymed verse. Only one image of the first (prose) half of the text (folio 26) survives.

According to Speer (1981) and Speer and Foehr-Janssens (2017), despite the fact that the two halves of the text are copied in different hands and styles, there is sufficient fluidity between them to consider them an intentional continuation and whole, rather than discrete fragments.