The subject of this thesis is a critical edition of the Middle French Exposicions et significacions des songes contained in MS Paris, Bib1iotheque Nationa1e, fonds francais, 1317, which is a translation from the Latin of the Greek dream-book commonly known as Achmet. I have established that the Latin model is the late twelfth-century version by the Pisan Leo Tuscus. The French translation is anonYTI10US but it has been suggested that its author was the fourteenth-century Carmelite Jean Golein. Notes are provided to establish the relationship of our text with Tuscus's version, and with the Greek original whenever the latter differs widely from the former. To fill the gaps in the text, I have quoted a different vernacular rendering of Tuscus's Achmet preserved in two fourteenth-century copies, Anglo-Norman and Continental French, contained respectively in MS Berlin, Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Lat. quo 70 and MS Paris, BN, f. fro 24432. These probably derive from a much earlier French archetype, which means that the translator of our basic text was not the first in the field. His translation shows elegance and an interest in the material, but it is not entirely reliable. Errors result mainly from obvious misreadings of the script of the model. The great number of these misreadings and also the ingenuity with which the translator preserves the coherence of his French version reach an idiosyncratic level. His use of language is typical of lIe de France Middle French. I have attempted a brief ordered revision of the critical work hitherto done on the possible sources of the Greek treatise and on conjectures regarding the identity of its author. This is accompanied by a tentative study of the method of interpretation of the dreams and by an examination of the Christian elements in the book.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:569797 |
| Date | January 1992 |
| Creators | Glover, Michelle Georgette |
| Publisher | Birkbeck (University of London) |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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