Benoît de Sainte-Maure (; died 1173) was a 12th-century
French poet
List of poets French poetry, who have written in the French language:
A
Céline Arnauld (1885-1952)
* Louise-Victorine Ackermann (1813–1890)
* Adam de la Halle (v.1250 – v.1285)
* Dominique Aguessy (1937– )
* Pierre Albert-Birot (1876–1 ...
, most probably from
Sainte-Maure-de-Touraine near
Tours
Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
, France. The
Plantagenets' administrative center was located in
Chinon
Chinon () is a Communes of France, commune in the Indre-et-Loire Departments of France, department, Centre-Val de Loire, France.
The traditional province around Chinon, Touraine, became a favorite resort of French kings and their nobles beginn ...
, west of Tours.
''Le Roman de Troie''
His 40,000 line poem ''Le Roman de Troie'' ("The Romance of Troy"), written between 1155 and 1160,
[Roberto Antonelli "The Birth of Criseyde - An Exemplary Triangle: 'Classical' Troilus and the Question of Love at the Anglo-Norman Court" in Boitani, P. (ed) ''The European Tragedy of Troilus'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press) 1989 pp.21-48.] was a medieval retelling on the epic theme of the
Trojan War
The Trojan War was a legendary conflict in Greek mythology that took place around the twelfth or thirteenth century BC. The war was waged by the Achaeans (Homer), Achaeans (Ancient Greece, Greeks) against the city of Troy after Paris (mytho ...
which inspired a body of literature in the genre called the ''roman antique'', loosely assembled by the poet
Jean Bodel as the
Matter of Rome. The Trojan subject itself, for which de Sainte-Maure provided an impetus, is referred to as the Matter of Troy.
''Chronique des ducs de Normandie''
Another major work, by a Benoît, probably Benoît de Sainte-Maure, is a lengthy verse ''Chronique des ducs de Normandie''. Its manuscript at Tours, dating to 1180–1200, is probably the oldest surviving text in
Old French
Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...
transcribed on the Continent. The first published edition was by Francisque Michel, 3 volumes, 1868–1844, based on the British Library manuscript. The standard edition is by Carin Fahlin (Uppsala), 3 volumes, 1951–1967, and is based on the Tours manuscript with variants from the British one.
'Beneeit' is mentioned at the end of
Wace
Wace ( 1110 – after 1174), sometimes referred to as Robert Wace, was a Medieval Norman poet, who was born in Jersey and brought up in mainland Normandy (he tells us in the ''Roman de Rou'' that he was taken as a child to Caen), ending his car ...
's ''
Roman de Rou'', which is also on the subject of the Dukes of Normandy:
[Wace, ''Maistre Wace's Roman de Rou et des ducs de Normandie'', edited by Hugo Andresen, published 1877. Available online via Internet Archive]
page 481
.
Notes
References
* Benoît de Sainte-Maure, ''Le Roman de Troie'', edited by Léopold Constans, 6 vols., Société des Anciens Textes Français, Paris: Firmin Didot, 1904–1912.
*
* Cristian Bratu, « Je, auteur de ce livre »: L’affirmation de soi chez les historiens, de l’Antiquité à la fin du Moyen Âge. Later Medieval Europe Series (vol. 20). Leiden: Brill, 2019 ().
* Cristian Bratu, “Translatio, autorité et affirmation de soi chez Gaimar, Wace et Benoît de Sainte-Maure.” ''The Medieval Chronicle'' 8 (2013): 135–164.
* C. Durand, ''Illustrations médiévales de la légende de Troie. Catalogue commenté des manuscrits fr. illustrés du Roman de Troie et de ses dérivés'', Brepols Publishers, 2010,
External links
* Benoît de Sainte-Maure o
Laurent Brun et al., last updated January 2019.
* ''Chronique des ducs de Normandie'', Francisque Michel (editor), available online via
Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American 501(c)(3) organization, non-profit organization founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle that runs a digital library website, archive.org. It provides free access to collections of digitized media including web ...
tome Itome IItome III
.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benoit De Sainte-Maure
1173 deaths
12th-century French writers
Trojan War literature
Epic poets
Romance (genre)
Year of birth unknown
12th-century French poets
French male poets