Les Cantiques Salemon
The Song of Songs in MS Paris BNF fr. 14966
Edited by Tony Hunt
There are three medieval French adaptations of the Song of Songs, each reflecting a distinct exegetical tradition. The latest of these three, here edited for the first time (from BNF fr. 14966), adopts the tropological interpretation according to which the Song depicts the relationship of the individual soul with God. The mystical, contemplative approach owes much to Bernard of Clairvaux, William of St Thierry, and Thomas the Cistercian, and this Cistercian tradition also has close links with the Beguines, a connection which receives detailed exploration in the editor’s extensive Introduction. Writing in the late-thirteenth century in north-eastern France, the author of the Cantiques is aware of such an association and not only engages in the familiar procedures of allegorization, but, more originally, inserts into his commentary eight lyrics which are modelled on known secular chansons which receive full attention from the editor. Within the text, which covers Song 1. 1 to Song 3. 11 in 2544 octosyllables arranged in eight-line stanzas, speeches are assigned to Sponsus, Sponsa, Magister, and Religio. The Cantiques Salemon is the work of a poet rather than of a theologian, reflecting many elements associated with ‘la courtoisie mystique’, which in turn is characteristic of writing for the Beguines. The editor provides a detailed summary of the text, full glossary and notes as well as an account of the language. To these is added a study of the poet’s principal literary techniques, involving both the varied processes of translation and the elaboration of a network of links between stanzas together with the imprint of a personal, lyric quality on the whole.
- Edited by Tony Hunt
Other Titles in this Series
Three Women of Liege
A Critical Edition of and Commentary on the Middle English Lives of Elizabeth of Spalbeek, Christina Mirabilis, and Marie d'Oignies
Volume 23
Send me God
The Lives of Ida the Compassionate of Nivelles, Nun of La Ramee, Arnulf, Lay Brother of Villers, and Abundus, Monk of Villers
Volume 6
Saints Edith and Aethelthryth: Princesses, Miracle Workers, and their Late Medieval Audience
The Wilton Chronicle and the Wilton Life of St Aethelthryth
Volume 25
The Manere of Good Lyvyng
A Middle English Translation of Pseudo-Bernard's 'Liber de modo bene vivendi ad sororem'
Volume 30
Medieval Women and their Spiritual Texts: Helfta Writings, Margery Kempe, and Beyond
Essays in Honour of Naoë Kukita Yoshikawa
Volume 34
Saints’ Lives for Medieval English Nuns, II
An Edition of the 'Lyves and Dethes' in Cambridge University Library, MS Additional 2604
Volume 32
Sacred Communities, Shared Devotions
Gender, Material Culture, and Monasticism in Late Medieval Germany
Volume 29
Saints’ Lives for Medieval English Nuns, I
A Study of the 'Lyves and Dethes' in Cambridge University Library, MS Additional 2604
Volume 18
Living Saints of the Thirteenth Century
The Lives of Yvette, Anchoress of Huy; Juliana of Cornillon, Author of the Corpus Christi Feast; and Margaret the Lame, Anchoress of Magdeburg
Volume 20
The Sisterbook of Master Geert’s House, Deventer
The Lives and Spirituality of the Sisters, c. 1390-c. 1460
Volume 33
Medieval Women – Texts and Contexts in Late Medieval Britain
Essays in Honour of Felicity Riddy
Volume 3
Mystics, Goddesses, Lovers, and Teachers
Medieval Visions and Their Legacies / Studies in Honour of Barbara Newman
Volume 31
Thomas of Cantimpre
The Collected Saints' Lives: Abbot John of Cantimpre, Christina the Astonishing, Margaret of Ypres, and Lutgard of Aywieres
Volume 19
The Knowing of Woman’s Kind in Childing
A Middle English Version of Material Derived from the Trotula and other Sources
Volume 4
Similar Books
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
Power and Women in Southeast and Central Europe in Late Medieval and Early Modern Period (1300-1600)
Volume 10
Tradition, Interpretation, and Change
Developments in the Liturgy of Medieval and Early Modern Ashkenaz
Women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages
Studies from Western Europe and North Africa
Volume 44
Networking through Biography
Constructing Intellectual Junctions in Antiquity, the Renaissance and the Arabo-Islamic World
Volume 19
Ambiguum 10 of Maximus the Confessor in Modern Study
Papers collected on the Occasion of the Budapest Colloquium on Saint Maximus, 3-4 February 2021
Volume 97
