The Alexandreis.; (Mediaeval Sources in Translation)

Walter of Chatillon

ISBN 10: 0888442785 / ISBN 13: 9780888442789

Published by Pontifical Inst Of Medieval, 1987

About this Item

255pp. Near new condition, covers bright, text clean and binding tight.

Seller Inventory # 216874

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Alexandreis.; (Mediaeval Sources in Translation)
• Publisher: Pontifical Inst Of Medieval
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0888442785
• ISBN 13: 9780888442789
• Binding: Paperback
• Seller catalogs:
  • Literature
  • Literature - Medieval

About this title

Synopsis

The Alexandreis (Mediaeval Sources in Translation) [paperback] Walter of Chatillon [Jan 01, 1987]

From the Back Cover

Walter of Châtillon’s Latin epic on the life of Alexander the Great was a twelfth- and thirteenth-century “best-seller:” scribes produced over two hundred manuscripts. The poem follows Alexander from his first successes in Asia Minor, through his conquest of Persia and India, to his progressive moral degeneration and his poisoning by a disaffected lieutenant. The Alexandreis exemplifies twelfth-century discourses of world domination and the exoticism of the East. But at the same time it calls such dreams of mastery into question, repeatedly undercutting as it does Alexander’s claims to heroism and virtue and by extension, similar claims by the great men of Walter’s own generation. This extraordinarily layered and subtle poem stands as a high-water mark of the medieval tradition of Latin narrative literature.

Along with David Townsend’s revised translation, this edition provides a rich selection of historical documents, including other writings by Walter of Châtillon, excerpts from other medieval Latin epics, and contemporary accounts of the foreign and “exotic.”