Solomon and Marcolf

by Ziolkowski, Jan M.

• ISBN13: 9780674028425
• ISBN10: 0674028422
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-11-30
• Publisher: Dept of the Classics

Summary

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.

Author Biography

Jan M. Ziolkowski is Director of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington and Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Illustrations	p. xiii
Abbreviations	p. xv
Introduction	p. 1
Latin Text and English Translation	p. 51
Commentary	p. 103
Textual Notes	p. 247
Appendices
Alternative Beginning and Ending	p. 285
Sources, Analogues, and Testimonia	p. 305
A Welsh Solomon and Marcolf, translated by Diana Luft	p. 361
Sequence of Questions and Answers	p. 384
Bibliography of Works Cited
Primary Sources	p. 391
Secondary Sources	p. 400
Indices
Index of Latin Words and Phrases	p. 421
Index of Scriptural References	p. 427
Index of Tale Types, Motifs, and Proverbs	p. 433
Index of Subjects	p. 439
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