{{italictitle Roman de la poire heart metaphor

''Le roman de la poire'' (''Li romanz de la poire'', "Romance of the Pear") is a

medieval French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligi ...

(13th century)

romance 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, ...

by a certain Thibaut. It is influenced by the ''

Roman de la Rose ''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''The Romance of the Rose'') is a medieval poem written in Old French and presented as an allegorical dream vision. As poetry, ''The Romance of the Rose'' is a notable instance of courtly literature, purporting to prov ...

'' in describing the onset of love in terms of allegory and in its frequent use of the first person. The title is derived from a central scene where the damsel shares a pear which she has peeled with her teeth with the lover. The text is preserved in BnF Ms. fr. 2186, an illuminated manuscript dated to the 1250s. It was illustrated in the workshop of the ''maître de Bari'' (so named after a

gradual The gradual ( la, graduale or ) is a chant or hymn in the Mass, the liturgical celebration of the Eucharist in the Catholic Church, and among some other Christians. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because it was once chanted ...

now at San Nicola,

Bari Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

), which is known to have been active in Paris during the 1250s. The text itself would on internal evidence be dated to between about 1230 and 1285, so that it is rather certain that the manuscript is the one used for the original presentation of the text and that the text's composition dates to the mid 13th century (Tesnière 1987). The manuscript extends to 83 folia, measuring 205 x 135 mm. It includes nine full-page miniatures and 18 historiated initials. The full-page miniatures depict famous lovers from literature, including

Tristan and Isolde Tristan and Iseult, also known as Tristan and Isolde and other names, is a medieval chivalric romance told in numerous variations since the 12th century. Based on a Celtic legend and possibly other sources, the tale is a tragedy about the illic ...

, Cliges and Fenice,

Pyramus and Thisbe Pyramus and Thisbe are a pair of ill-fated lovers whose story forms part of Ovid's ''Metamorphoses''. The story has since been retold by many authors. Pyramus and Thisbe are two lovers in the city of Babylon who occupy connected houses. Their r ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

and

Helen Helen may refer to: People * Helen of Troy, in Greek mythology, the most beautiful woman in the world * Helen (actress) (born 1938), Indian actress * Helen (given name), a given name (including a list of people with the name) Places * Helen, ...

. The work presumably enjoyed limited success, and its reception did not extend beyond the early 14th century. Two copies of the original text survive, dated to the late 13th or early 14th century (Ms. fr. 12786 and Ms. fr. 24431). A fragment of a further copy from about the same time was published in 1982 by Richard O'Gorman.

References

* Christiane Marchello-Nizia (ed.), ''Le roman de la poire par Tibaut'', Publications de la Société des anciens textes français, A. et J. Picard, Paris, 1984.
review
by Tesnière Marie-Hélène, Bibliothèque de l'école des chartes, 1987, Volume 145-2, pp. 451-453.

on ''Archives de littérature du moyen âge''. Laurent Brun, last updated May 16 2017. Includes a list of manuscripts. Medieval_French_romances Courtly love