Saturday, November 2, 2019

Translation of the Alexander Romance

The French Alexander Romance in Prose is a 10th-century translation by Leo the Arch-Priest into Latin of a 2nd century Greek text. A German edition for that translation is available from the Internet archive, edited by Alfons Hilka.

There has been much discussion how much the Alexander knowledge of Albrecht Altdorfer was influenced by the Romance and its descendents. After all, the inversion of the order of Alexandria | Darius in the Nuremberg Chronicle may be due to the Prose Alexander Romance, which has the same order and also assigns Olympias (who falls sick and exchanges letters with Alexander) a role that carries through the whole narrative.

If this is so, then this would most likely be in the recension by Johann Hartlieb, der Alexander-Roman von 1454 (Ernst Wilhelm Bredt, Albrecht Altdorfer, 1919), one of the "most-read books of early Modernity", in the words of Andersen Vinilandicus (Peter Lang, 2013). The work survives in a staggering 22 manuscripts and 18 (eighteen) print editions! At the same time, it is said that Aventin, who collaborated with Altdorfer on the painting for Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria, hated the book (Hirsch, Das Alexanderbuch Johann Hartliebs, Berlin 1908). That would make it less likely that Altdorfer would have used it, perhaps.

1 comment:

  1. The disparaging comments of Aventinus about Hartlieb are found in his Bavarian Chronicle, Book I, chapter 153 (https://daten.digitale-sammlungen.de/0001/bsb00016721/images/index.html?id=00016721&groesser=&fip=193.174.98.30&no=&seite=343). The problem was that the work had been patronized by Duke Albrecht and his wife Anna of Braunschweig, the ancestors of Wilhelm IV. Aventinus clearly states that he prefers Quintius Rufus (whom he cites explicitly in the description of Arbela, Chp 159), whose work had just been published by Erasmus of Rotterdam and dedicated to Duke Ernst.

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