H (Historia Septem Sapientum)
From The Seven Sages of Rome
The Historia Septem Sapientum (or, the History of the Seven Wise Masters) is usually referred to by its Latin title because of the early and broad proliferation of Latin textual transmission of this version. The Latin Historia was translated into many languages, including Armenian, Danish, Dutch, English, French, Hungarian, Icelandic, Polish, Russian, Swedish, and Czech, and with particular popularity into German, and Latin texts continued to circulate well into the late Middle Ages.
The Historia, also known as Version H, likely developed out of the narrative tradition of the Version A redaction of the Seven Sages, and shares most of its stories with the Version A texts. However, the Historia introduces a new story, Amatores, and often links two otherwise separate
Identification & General Information
Tradition & Lineage
Recorded Secondary Versions
- H (Historia Septem Sapientum)
- Armenian Version H
- Czech Version H: Kronika sedmi mudrců
- Danish Version H
- Dutch Version H
- English Version H
- French Version H
- German Version H
- Hungarian Version H: Pontianus tsaszar historiaia
- Icelandic Version H
- Latin Version H
- Lithuanian Version H
- Polish Version H
- Russian Version H
- Scots Version H: Rolland, Seuin Seages
- Spanish Version H: Los Siete Sabios de Roma
- Swedish Version H: Sju vise mästare
- Yiddish Version H
Connected Manuscripts
Language & Composition
Modern Scholarship & Editions
Modern research literature
Notes & Commentary
Note
Many versions of the Historia (in particular, the prose German versions of the text that Gerdes terms Prosafassung/Redaction B) are included within the text of the Gesta Romanorum. Gaston Paris suggested that this might account for the emperor's name in Version H: the emperor is called 'Poncianus' rather than 'Diocletianus', perhaps because the Gesta Romanorum already includes the story of an emperor Diocletian.
Pattern of Embedded Stories in This Version
Connected Prints