L’Estoire de Brutus: la plus ancienne traduction en prose française de l’‘Historia regum Britannie’ de Geoffroy de Monmouth ed. by Géraldine Veysseyre (review)

Paris, BnF, MS f. fr. 17177 contains a copy of the chronicle L’Histoire ancienne jusqu’à César (ed. by Marijke de Visser-an Terwisga (Orléans: Paradigme, 1995–99)), into which is interpolated the text edited here, an appendix to the section on Trojan history known as L’Estoire de Brutus. The text, extant in this manuscript alone, represents the earliest known vernacular prose translation of Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia regum Britanniae (ed. by Michael D. Reeve, trans. by Neil Wright (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2007)), as Géraldine Veysseyre dates the composition of the work to the second half of the thirteenth century and implies that it predates the insular translation known as the Anglo-Norman Prose Brut (The Oldest Anglo-Norman Prose Brut Chronicle: An Edition and Translation, ed. by Julia Marvin (Woodbridge: Boydell, 2006); see also The Prose Brut to 1332, ed. by Heather Pagan (Manchester: Anglo-Norman Text Society, 2011)). It is an incomplete translation, omitting as it does the first four chapters of the Historia along with the final twenty chapters of the chronicle. Veysseyre provides a lengthy Introduction to the edition, evaluating the text’s relationship with Wace’s Roman de Brut, as the earliest vernacular translation of the Historia, and examining the role of the text in the context of the Histoire ancienne. Veysseyre concludes that the text is a translation of the a manuscript of the Vulgate version of the Historia and supplements the literary introduction with a close reading of the two chronicles to determine the process of translation, evaluating the vocabulary and the stylistic and syntactical choices made by the translator. This is followed by a complete codicological description of the manuscript. The Introduction concludes (a rarity in modern editions) with an excellent study of the language of the text, including sections on phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexis, highlighting the Picard traits of the work. The edition of the text found on folios 82v–108rb of the manuscript is then presented with ample critical notes providing additional comparison to the Historia. A glossary is provided of all textual forms and meanings unknown in modern French, as defined by the Trésor de la langue française, as well as a list of proper names and a lengthy bibliography. This edition is an excellent complement to current interest in the vernacular reception, translation, and adaptation of the Historia.

doi:10.1093/fs/knw021