Johannes de Hauvilla: Architrenius

An edition with translation of a vivacious and influential Latin satirical poem dating from 1184.

Johannes de Hauvilla (Author), Winthrop Wetherbee (Edited by)

9780521405430, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 17 November 1994

312 pages
22.4 x 14.4 x 2.6 cm, 0.56 kg

"This translation performs a useful service. It makes available to the non-Latinist (including the moderately competent Latinist) a poem that enjoyed a surprising popularity. It is not a task that I would have wished to take on myself." Speculum-A Journal of Medieval Studies

The Architrenius is a vivacious and influential Latin satirical poem in nine books dating from 1184. It describes the journey of a young man (the 'Arch-Weeper') on the threshold of maturity, confronting the ills of the church, the court, and the schools of late twelfth-century Europe. Dramatising the human tendency towards vice and the vanity of worldly things, the poem is full of social commentary and flights of brilliant description. There are characteristic scenes in which a desire that combines prurience with frank sexuality is set against a quasi-religious idealism. The directness with which the poem engages social and psychological problems anticipates the work of the great vernacular writers Boccaccio and Chaucer. Winthrop Wetherbee's prose translation is presented alongside the original Latin, and augmented by an introduction and extensive notes.

Acknowledgements
Introduction
Architrenius (Prologue and nine books)
Notes to the text
Selected bibliography
Index of names.

Subject Areas: Poetry by individual poets [DCF]