The Medieval Merlin Tradition in France and Italy: Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio

226 Pages·2017·1.75 MB·English

by  Laura Chuhan Campbell

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Gallica e
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The medieval figure of Merlin is intriguing, enigmatic, and
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riddled with contradictions. Half human, half devil, he possesses a r
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supernatural knowledge that allows him to prophesy the future. This n

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book examines the reinterpretation of Merlin’s character in French
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and Italian Arthurian literature, in which chivalric romance and d
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political prophecy become increasingly intertwined. As the Merlin t
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story crosses the fluid cultural and linguistic boundaries between n

vernacular dialects on either side of the Alps, the protagonist in

accumulates histories, futures, and discourses from multiple texts F
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within his omniscient knowledge. From his first appearance in a
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Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regum Britanniae, through c
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thirteenth-century French romance, to fifteenth-century Venice, a
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Merlin is the voice of political and spiritual truths that originate d

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beyond the sphere of human comprehension. The study also t
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shows how the conversion of Merlin’s prophetic speech from his ly
omniscient mind into human languages parallels the work of the
medieval translator. At the same time, the transmission of the
Merlin story between vernacular French and Italian dialects L
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presents an alternative model of translation, one that relies not
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on the displacement of previous texts, but instead on the accretion R
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of information from text to text.
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LAURA CHUHAN CAMPBELL is Assistant Professor of
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French at Durham University. H
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Front cover: Merlin and Blaise, L’Estoire de Merlin, Paris, BnF fr. 749, f. 264v.

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COVER DESIGN: SIMON LOXLEY
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L The Medieval Merlin Tradition
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in France and Italy
Prophecy, Paradox, and Translatio
An imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge IP12 3DF (GB) and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620–2731 (US)
LAURA CHUHAN CAMPBELL
Gallica
Volume 42
THE MEDIEVAL MERLIN TRADITION
IN FRANCE AND ITALY
Gallica
ISSN 1749–091X
General Editor: Sarah Kay
Gallica aims to provide a forum for the best current work in medieval and
Renaissance French studies. Literary studies are particularly welcome and
preference is given to works written in English, although publication in French
is not excluded.
Proposals or queries should be sent in the first instance to the editor, or to the
publisher, at the addresses given below; all submissions receive prompt and
informed consideration.
Professor Sarah Kay, Department of French, New York University, 13–19
University Place, 6th floor, New York, NY 10003, USA
The Editorial Director, Gallica, Boydell & Brewer Ltd., PO Box 9, Woodbridge,
Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
Previously published volumes in this series are listed at the end of this volume.
THE MEDIEVAL MERLIN TRADITION
IN FRANCE AND ITALY
PROPHECY, PARADOX, AND TRANSLATIO
LAURA CHUHAN CAMPBELL
D. S. BREWER
© Laura Chuhan Campbell 2017
All Rights Reserved. Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Laura Chuhan Campbell to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
First published 2017
D. S. Brewer, Cambridge
ISBN 978–1–84384–480–8
D. S. Brewer is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mt Hope Avenue, Rochester, NY 14620–2731, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and
does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate
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This publication is printed on acid-free paper
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Contents
Acknowledgements vii
List of Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1 Sympathy for a Devil? Merlin’s Conception according to 27
Robert de Boron and Paulino Pieri
2 Death of the Author: Merlin’s Imprisonment by the Dame du Lac 65
3 Beyond the Limits of Interpretation: Rewriting Prophetic Discourse 101
in the Estoire de Merlin and the Suite du Merlin
4 ‘Ce dit Merlin’: Open and Closed Prophecies in the Italian Merlin 141
Tradition
Conclusion 175
Appendix 1: Chronology of Primary Texts 179
Appendix 2: Summaries of the Principal Texts Discussed 181
Bibliography 191
Index 205
The publishers are grateful to the Vinaver Trust for generously providing a
subvention towards the production costs of this volume.
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those friends and colleagues
who have contributed in various ways to the development of this monograph.
My greatest thanks must go to Jane Taylor, who has supported this project
since its inception with enormous expertise, energy, and generosity. I feel
immensely privileged to have worked with her. I am also thankful to those
colleagues who have very kindly read and offered valuable feedback on rough
drafts of different chapters: Stefano Cracolici, Leah Tether, Luke Sunderland,
and Marc Schachter. Special mention must go to Linda Gowans, whose
readiness to share her vast reserves of knowledge and books has been
enormously appreciated. Other colleagues who have offered advice over the
years are too numerous to mention, but I am grateful especially to colleagues
who have discussed this research with me at forums such as the International
Arthurian Society, the Society for French Studies, and various other conferences
and seminars.
I am thoroughly indebted to the editorial expertise of Caroline Palmer,
whose guidance and patience has been invaluable to the development of this
book. Many thanks also to Francis Eaves for casting a scrupulous eye over
the text at the copy-editing stage. This book has grown in much more interesting
directions than I could have originally anticipated thanks to the excellent
suggestions of the anonymous readers who commented on the script at various
stages; thank you for your recommendations, whoever you are!
This project has been generously financed at various stages by the Durham
University Doctoral Fellowship Scheme, the Entente Cordiale Scholarship
Scheme, the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at Durham University,
and the Vinaver Trust. I would also like to thank the Bibliothèque nationale
de France, the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice, and the Biblioteca
Palatina in Parma for their assistance with archival research and document
reproductions. I am grateful to the editors of Arthuriana for permission to
reproduce material from my article ‘The Devil’s in the Detail: Translating
Merlin’s Father from the Merlin en Prose in Paulino Pieri’s Storia di Merlino’,
Arthuriana, 23 (2013), 35-51.
I would like to conclude by acknowledging the huge amount of support
and encouragement I’ve received from friends and family during the composition
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
of this book, especially my parents and my brother, Anthony. And finally, I
would like to dedicate this book to my husband, Sean, who kept me smiling
even when the work was tough.
Abbreviations
BL British Library
BNF Bibliothèque nationale de France
LLT Library of Latin Texts
PL Patrologia Latina