Synopses & Reviews
Solomon and Marcolf is known for being both important and mysterious. It pits wise Solomon, famous from the Bible, against a wily peasant named Marcolf. One of its two parts is a dialogue, in which the king and jester, sage and fool, prophet and blasphemer bandy back and forth questions and comments. Whereas Solomon is solemn and pompous, Marcolf resorts to low language and earthy topics. The other part comprises twenty short chapters in which Marcolf tricks Solomon time and again. These episodes are as impudent and scatological as is the dialogue. Together, the two parts constitute a rudimental prose novel or "rogue biography."
Cited by Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World, Solomon and Marcolf is widely known by name. But until now it has not been translated into any modern language. The present volume offers an introduction, followed by the Latin and English, detailed commentary, and reproductions of woodcut illustrations from the 1514 edition. Appendixes help readers understand the origins and influence of a work that was composed around 1200, that attained its greatest popularity in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and that has the potential still today to delight and instruct.
Synopsis
Solomon and Marcolf pits wise Solomon, famous from the Bible, against a wily peasant named Marcolf. Cited by Bakhtin in Rabelais and His World, Solomon and Marcolf is widely known by name. But until now it has not been translated into any modern language. The present volume offers an introduction, followed by the Latin and English, detailed commentary, and reproductions of woodcut illustrations from the 1514 edition.
About the Author
Jan Ziolkowski is Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin, Harvard University, and the Director of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.
Harvard University
Table of Contents
AcknowledgmentsIllustrationsAbbreviationsIntroductionLatin Text and English TranslationCommentaryTextual NotesAppendices:One: Alternative Beginning and EndingTwo: Sources, Analogues, and TestimoniaThree: A Welsh
Solomon and MarcolfFour: A Sequence of Questions and AnswersBibliography of Works Cited:Primary SourceSecondary SourcesIndices:Index of Latin Words and PhrasesIndex of Scriptural ReferencesIndex of Tale Types, Motifs, and ProverbsIndex of Subjects