16/12/22, 00:18 Gesta Romanorum - Wikipedia

Gesta Romanorum
Gesta Romanorum, meaning Deeds of the Romans (a very misleading title), is a Latin collection of anecdotes and tales that was probably
compiled about the end of the 13th century or the beginning of the 14th. It still possesses a two-fold literary interest, first as one of the most
popular books of the time, and secondly as the source, directly or indirectly, of later literature, in Geoffrey Chaucer, John Gower, Giovanni
Boccaccio, Thomas Hoccleve, William Shakespeare, and others.

Of its authorship nothing certain is known. It is conjecture to associate it either with the name of Helinandus or with that of Petrus Berchorius
(Pierre Bercheure). It is debated whether it originated in England, Germany or France.

Contents
Content
Manuscripts
Early printed editions and translations
Critical Latin editions
Modern translations
See also
References
Further reading
External links

Content
The work was evidently intended as a manual for preachers, and was probably written by one of the clerical profession. The name, Deeds of the
Romans, is only partially appropriate to the collection in its present form, since, besides the titles from Greek and Latin history and legend, it
comprises fragments of different origins, Asian and European. The unifying element of the book is its moral purpose, but the work contains a
variety of material. It includes, for example:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesta_Romanorum 1/5
16/12/22, 00:18 Gesta Romanorum - Wikipedia

the germ of the romance of Guy of Warwick;

the story of the three caskets, as in The Merchant of Venice;
the story of Darius and his Three Sons, versified by Thomas Occleve;
part of Geoffrey Chaucer's Man of Lawes Tale;
a version of the Crescentia cycle, similar to (though more piously phrased than) Le Bone Florence of Rome;[1]
a tale of the emperor Theodosius, the same in its main features as that of Shakespeare's King Lear;
the first known medieval appearance of the story of The Dead King and his Three Sons
the story of the Three Black Crows[2]
the Hermit and the Angel, later known from Thomas Parnell's version;
a story identical with the Fridolin of Schiller;
the story of Jonathan and the three jewels (a predecessor to Fortunatus);[3] and
a retelling of the Man Tried by Fate, a story also known in the legends of Saint Eustace and chivalric romances such as Sir Isumbras.[4]
a version of Apollonius of Tyre.

Manuscripts
Owing to the loose structure of the book, it was easy for a transcriber to insert any additional story into his own copy, and consequently the
manuscripts of the Gesta Romanorum exhibit considerable variety. Hermann Oesterley recognizes an English group of manuscripts (written
always in Latin), a German group (sometimes in Latin and sometimes in German), and a group which is represented by the vulgate or common
printed text.

Early printed editions and translations

The earliest printed editions are those of Nicolaus Ketelaer and Gerardus de Leempt at Utrecht, of Arnold Hoenen at Cologne, and of Ulrich Zell
at Cologne; but the exact date is in all three cases uncertain.[5]

An English translation, probably based directly on the manuscript Harl. 5369, was published by Wynkyn de Worde about 1510–15, the only copy
of which now known to exist is preserved in the library of St John's College, Cambridge. In 1577 the London printer Richard Robinson published a
revised edition of Wynkyn de Worde, as Certain Selected Histories for Christian Recreations, and the book proved highly popular.

Between 1648 and 1703 at least eight impressions were issued. In 1703 appeared the first vol. of a translation by BP, probably Bartholomew Pratt,
from the Latin edition of 1514. A translation by the Rev. Charles Swan, first published in 2 vols in 1824, forms part of Bohn's Antiquarian Library,
and was re-edited by Wynnard Hooper in 1877 (see also the latter's edition in 1894).[6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesta_Romanorum 2/5
16/12/22, 00:18 Gesta Romanorum - Wikipedia

A Welsh translation was completed by Llywelyn Sion in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century.[7]

The German translation was first printed at Augsburg, 1489. A French version, under the title of Le Violier des histoires romaines moralisez,
appeared in the early part of the 16th century, and went through a number of editions; it has been reprinted by Pierre-Gustave Brunet (Paris,
1858).

Critical Latin editions

Critical editions of the Latin text have been produced by Adelbert von Keller (Stuttgart, 1842)[8] and Hermann Oesterley (Berlin, 1872).[9] See
also:

Warton, "On the Gesta Romanorum", dissertation iii., prefixed to the History of English Poetry
Douce, Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. ii.
Frederic Madden, Introduction to the Roxburghe Club edition of The Old English Versions of the Gesta Romanorum (1838).

Modern translations
English: Gesta Romanorum: A New Translation, trans. Christopher Stace (Manchester, 2016); also, Gesta Romanorum, translated by
Charles Swan, with corrections by Wynnard Hooper (London, 1905).
Portuguese: Gesta Romanorum (Os Feitos dos Romanos) (selection), trans. Scott Ritter Hadley, (n.t.) Revista Literária em Tradução (htt
p://www.notadotradutor.com/edicoes.html), nº 1 (set/2010), Fpolis/Brasil, ISSN 2177-5141
Ukrainian: Dijannia ryms'ki (selection), Rostyslav Paranko (Trans.), Діяння римські. Український переклад збірки Gesta Romanorum (in
Ukrainian) (http://gesta-romanorum-ua.blogspot.com)
Spanish: 'Gesta Romanorum: exempla europeos del siglo XIV (https://books.google.com/books?id=rOSKk8DqZXkC&pg=PA3)', translation
by Ventura de la Torre and Jacinto Lozano Escribano, 2004.

See also
Matter of Rome

References
1. Margaret Schlauch (1969). Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens. New York: Gordian Press. p. 111.
2. D. L. Ashliman, Of Women, Who Not Only Betray Secrets, but Lie Fearfully (https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type1381d.html)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesta_Romanorum 3/5
16/12/22, 00:18 Gesta Romanorum - Wikipedia

3. Blamires, David. "Folktales and Fairytales in the Middle Ages". In: Bulletin of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester 74 (1992):
102-103. [1] (https://www.escholar.manchester.ac.uk/api/datastream?publicationPid=uk-ac-man-scw:1m2286&datastreamId=POST-PEER-
REVIEW-PUBLISHERS-DOCUMENT.PDF)
4. Laura A. Hibbard (1963). Medieval Romance in England. New York: Burt Franklin. p. 3.
5. "Gesta Romanorum" (http://www.bartleby.com/211/1700.html). The Cambridge History of English and American Literature in 18 Volumes.
"Printed first at Utrecht, then at Cologne, c. 1472–5. First English edition printed by Wynkyn de Worde, c. 1510–15. For a full discussion of
the different MSS. used, the sources of the groups, etc., see the indispensable edition of Oesterley, H., Berlin, 1872."
6. Charles Swan (1905). Wynnard Hooper (ed.). Gesta Romanorum (https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Index:Gesta_Romanorum_-_Swan_-_Hoop
er.djvu). London: George Bell & Sons. (at Wikisource)
7. " 'Gesta Romanorum', - National Library of Wales Archives and Manuscripts" (https://archives.library.wales/index.php/gesta-romanorum-2).
archives.library.wales. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
8. Keller, H. Adelbert von (1842). Gesta Romanorum (https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_xcp_HacrNsgC). Harvard University. Stuttgart,
Tübingen, J.G. Cotta.
9. Oesterley, Hermann (1872). Gesta Romanorum; (https://archive.org/details/gestaromanorum00oestuoft). Robarts - University of Toronto.
Berlin, Weidmann.

Further reading
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Gesta Romanorum". Encyclopædia
Britannica. Vol. 11 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 910.

External links
Media related to Gesta Romanorum at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related to Gesta Romanorum at Wikiquote
Works related to Gesta Romanorum at Wikisource
 Latin Wikisource has original text related to this article: Gesta Romanorum
Full text of the Gesta Romanorum in Modern English translation (https://archive.org/stream/gestaromanorum01hoopgoog/gestaromanorum
01hoopgoog_djvu.txt)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Gesta_Romanorum&oldid=1102038558"

This page was last edited on 3 August 2022, at 02:32 (UTC).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesta_Romanorum 4/5
16/12/22, 00:18 Gesta Romanorum - Wikipedia

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and
Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gesta_Romanorum 5/5