Spiritual and Material Boundaries in Old French Verse

By tracing the evolving description of the walls of Earthly Paradises in three Old French poems, this book explores the shifting purposes—sacred and secular—that these walls served during the height of medieval French poetry.

This study proposes a fresh look at the complex roles played by the Earthly Paradise in three medieval French poems: Marie de France’s The Purgatory of St. Patrick, Benedeit’s Voyage of Saint Brendan the Abbot, and Guillaume de Lorris’s The Romance of the Rose. By examining the literary, cultural, and artistic components that informed each poem, this book advances the thesis that the exterior walls of the Earthly Paradise served evolving purposes as contemplative objects that implicitly engaged complex notions of economic solidarity and idealized community.

Acknowledgments
A Note on Sources
Introduction
Chapter 1. Apocalyptic Solidarity and Worthless Gems in Benedeit's Voyage of St. Brendan the Abbot
Chapter 2. Holy and Human Self-Reflexivity in the Espurgatoire Seint Patriz of Marie de France
Chapter 3. The Earthly Paradise That Never Was: Standing before the Walls of a Dream in the Roman de la Rose of Guillaume de Lorris
Conclusion
Works Cited
Index

• By (author) Jacob Abell