
''Entrée d'Espagne''
or ''L'Entrée d'Espagne'' or ''Entrée en Espagne''
(English: "Entry to Spain" or "Entering Spain") is a 14th-century
[ Geneviève Hasenohr and Michel Zink, eds. ''Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age''. Collection: La Pochothèque. Paris: Fayard, 1992. Article: "Entrée d'Espagne", pp. 412-3. ] (c.1320)
[Luigi Pulci: ''Morgante: The Epic Adventures of Orlando and His Giant Friend'' a complete English translation by Joseph Tusiani. Introduction and notes by Edoardo Lèbano. (Indiana University Press, 1998) , notes, pp. 890-1.] Franco-Venetian Franco-Italian, also known as Franco-Venetian or Franco-Lombard, was a literary language used in parts of northern Italy, from the mid-13th century to the end of the 14th century. It was employed by writers including Brunetto Latini and Rustichello ...
''
chanson de geste
The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th ce ...
''. The author is thought to be from Padua.
The work has survived in only one manuscript,
today in the
Biblioteca Marciana
The Marciana Library or Library of Saint Mark ( it, italic=no, Biblioteca Marciana, but in historical documents commonly referred to as ) is a public library in Venice, Italy. It is one of the earliest surviving public libraries and repositorie ...
in Venice.
[Peter Brand and Lino Pertile, eds. ''The Cambridge History of Italian Literature'' Cambridge: 1996; revised edition: 1999, p.168. ] Based on material from the ''
Pseudo-Turpin Chronicle'' (''Historia Caroli Magni'', Book IV of the
Codex Calixtinus
The (also ''Compostellus'') is the main witness for the 12th-century , or the Book of Saint James. It is a pseudepigraph attributed to Pope Callixtus II; its principal author or compilator is referred to as "Pseudo-Callixtus", often identified w ...
, a Latin chronicle concerning the feats of Charlemagne from the middle of the 12th century) and several other sources,
the epic poem (around 16,000 verses extant, out of an original 20,000
) tells of
Charlemagne
Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first Em ...
's battles in Spain and the adventures of the
paladin
The Paladins, also called the Twelve Peers, are twelve legendary knights, the foremost members of Charlemagne's court in the 8th century. They first appear in the medieval (12th century) ''chanson de geste'' cycle of the Matter of France, where ...
Roland
Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
.
The poem is notable for transforming the character of Roland into a
knight errant
A knight-errant (or knight errant) is a figure of medieval chivalric romance literature. The adjective ''errant'' (meaning "wandering, roving") indicates how the knight-errant would wander the land in search of adventures to prove his chivalric v ...
, similar to heroes from the
Arthurian
King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as ...
romances
Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to:
Common meanings
* Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings
* Romance languages, ...
,
and was thus a precursor to the portrayal of
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures r ...
/Roland in the Italian romantic
epic
Epic commonly refers to:
* Epic poetry, a long narrative poem celebrating heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation
* Epic film, a genre of film with heroic elements
Epic or EPIC may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and medi ...
s, such as ''
Morgante
''Morgante'' (sometimes also called , the name given to the complete 28-canto, 30,080-line edition published in 1483See Lèbano's introduction to the Tusiani translation, p. xxii.) is an Italian romantic epic by Luigi Pulci which appeared in its ...
'' (
Luigi Pulci
Luigi Pulci (; 15 August 1432 – 11 November 1484) was an Italian diplomat and poet best known for his '' Morgante'', an epic and parodistic poem about a giant who is converted to Christianity by Orlando and follows the knight in many adventu ...
), ''
Orlando innamorato
''Orlando Innamorato'' (; known in English as "''Orlando in Love''"; in Italian titled "''Orlando innamorato''" as the " I" is never capitalized) is an epic poem written by the Italian Renaissance author Matteo Maria Boiardo. The poem is a ro ...
'' (
Matteo Maria Boiardo
Matteo Maria Boiardo (, ; 144019/20 December 1494) was an Italian Renaissance poet, best known for his epic poem '' Orlando innamorato''.
Early life
Boiardo was born in 1440, ) and ''
Orlando furioso
''Orlando furioso'' (; ''The Frenzy of Orlando'', more loosely ''Raging Roland'') is an Italian epic poem by Ludovico Ariosto which has exerted a wide influence on later culture. The earliest version appeared in 1516, although the poem was ...
'' (
Ludovico Ariosto
Ludovico Ariosto (; 8 September 1474 – 6 July 1533) was an Italian poet. He is best known as the author of the romance epic ''Orlando Furioso'' (1516). The poem, a continuation of Matteo Maria Boiardo's '' Orlando Innamorato'', describes th ...
).
Plot
Following a misunderstanding with the emperor Charlemagne, Roland decides to leave the imperial army and travels to the
Holy Land
The Holy Land; Arabic: or is an area roughly located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Eastern Bank of the Jordan River, traditionally synonymous both with the biblical Land of Israel and with the region of Palestine. The term "Ho ...
where he has a series of adventures. On his return to Spain, he meets a
hermit
A hermit, also known as an eremite ( adjectival form: hermitic or eremitic) or solitary, is a person who lives in seclusion. Eremitism plays a role in a variety of religions.
Description
In Christianity, the term was originally applied to a C ...
who forewarns Roland that he will be killed seven years after the French successfully conquer the city of
Pamplona
Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region.
Lying at near above ...
. When he returns to the French camp, the emperor offers Roland the crown of Spain, but Roland refuses it, saying he wishes to spend the remaining years of his life conquering lands for his emperor.
Among Roland's various adventures, the poem also relates Roland's three-day-long duel with
Feragu, a Saracen giant (son of Falseron), responsible for the defense of the city of Nàjera (verses 1630 to 4213, roughly).
[ ''L'Entrée d'Espagne, chanson de geste franco-italienne'', tome II, publiée d'après le manuscrit unique de Venise par Antoine Thomas, Société des Anciens Textes Français, 1913, p. 324 (index of proper names]
/ref>
See also
*''La Spagna
LA most frequently refers to Los Angeles, the second largest city in the United States.
La, LA, or L.A. may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* La (musical note), or A, the sixth note
* "L.A.", a song by Elliott Smith on ''Figure ...
'': a 14th-century Italian epic that is also an adaptation of the story of Charlemagne's battles in Spain and the adventures of Orlando (Roland).
References
Bibliography
*L’Entrée d’Espagne. Chanson de geste franco-italienne publiée d’après le manuscrit unique de Venise par Antoine Thomas, Paris, Firmin-Didot («Société des anciens textes français»), 1913, 2 vols.
*Aebischer, Paul, Ce qui reste d’un manuscrit perdu de l’«Entrée d’Espagne», «Archivum Romanicum», 12 (1928), 233-264.
*Constans, Léopold, L’Entrée d’Espagne et les légendes troyennes, «Romania», 43, 1914, 430-432.
*Monteverdi, Angelo, Un fragment manuscrit de l’Entrée d’Espagne, Actes du premier Congrès international de la Société Rencesvals (Poitiers, juillet 1959), «Cahiers de civilisation médiévale» 3, 1960, 75.
*Specht, René, Cavalleria francese alla corte di Persia: l’episodio dell’«Entrée d’Espagne» ritrovato nel frammento reggiano, «Atti dell’Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti», 135 (1976–77), 489-506.
*Specht, René, Il frammento reggiano dell’«Entrée d’Espagne»: raffronto filologico col codice marciano francese XXI (= 257), «Atti dell’Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti», 136 (1977–78), pp. 407–24.
*Modena, Serena, Entrée d’Espagne http://www.rialfri.eu/rialfriWP/opere/entree-despagne; RIALFrI (Repertorio Informatizzato dell'Antica Letteratura Franco-Italiana) http://www.rialfri.eu/rialfriWP/
External links
Lemmatized text
RIALFRI U. of Padua
Full text - tome 1
on www.archive.org
Full text - tome 2
on www.archive.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Entree d'Espagne
Matter of France
Chansons de geste
Epic poems in Italian
Italian poems
Works based on The Song of Roland
Cultural depictions of Charlemagne