Italian Literature IV

<b>A critical edition with facing-page English translation of the fourteenth-century <i>Il Tristano Riccardiano</i></b><b> MS 1729.</b><br><br><br>The French prose <i>Roman de Tristan </i>circulated widely in medieval Italy as attested by numerous translations and adaptations in different dialects. Two of these preserved in Florence's Biblioteca Riccardiana reveal important links amongst the extant Italian <i>Tristans</i>. The longer version <i>Tristano Riccardiano</i> MS 2543 has been edited re-edited and translated into English. However its shorter sister found in the fourteenth-century MS Ricc. 1729 has suffered almost complete critical neglect perhaps due to its amateur production traits complex amalgam of regional dialects and idiosyncratic script. <br><br><br>While its contents (Tristan's birth early adventures love affair with Yseut) largely correspond to MS 2543 there are noteworthy variants. For example the famous three-day tournament conserved in the <i>Tristano Panciatichiano </i>and constituting the bulk of the<i> Tristano Corsiniano</i> does not appear. MS 1729 also preserves the final episodes (Tristan's fatal wounding the lovers' deaths lamentation at Camelot) which are not found in MS 2543.<br><br>This volume offers the first critical edition of this Italian exemplar permitting further linguistic analysis; it is accompanied by a facing-page English translation which will open the text to a wider audience. The full introduction considers the manuscript itself looking at such matters as its dating illustrations watermarks and contents and comparing it with other redactions whilst notes a bibliography and index of proper names complete the apparatus.