Ebook: Italian versions of the Seven Sages of Rome : a guide to editions and secondary literature

This thesis constitutes an attempt to survey the Italian Seven Sages literature, and is a bibliographical guide (1) to editions of Italian redactions of that roman-a-tiroirs which was so popular in medieval (and Renaissance) Europe; in fact, one can say with Rudolf Palgen--"La Legende Virgilienne dans la Divine comedie, " Romania, 73 (1952), 337--that "ce recit-cadre d'origine orientale a ete, apres la Bible, le livre le plus lu du moyen age"; and, (2) to the historical and critical literature bearing particularly on these Italian redactions . The purpose of the Introduction is to show where the Italian redactions stand within the contex of the Seven Sages cycle as a whole, especially with reference to the European, or Western versions. In the Bibliography, editions and secondary literature are listed chronologically according to date of publication. All items are provided with annotations, which take into account the contemporary criticism in book-review and other forms. An Appendix is devoted to sixteenth-century editions of the most successful Italian Seven Sages redaction, the Compassionevoli avvenimenti d'Erasto, whose first edition is said to have been published in Mantua in the year 1542. Since the quantity, complexity, and diversity of relevant data amassed is considerable, a Nominum et rerum clavis complements the work.