OUTREMEUSE, JEAN D’
(1338–1400). Notary and master historian of Liège, Jean has left its story in three distinct
versions: a relatively short and sober Chronique en bref, which may constitute his notes
for the more extensive works; a highly romanticized, unfinished poetic text, the Geste de
Liège, in the form of a chanson de geste (some 53,000 Alexandrine lines extant!); and the
three-volume Myreur des histors in prose. The latter may originally have been projected
for four volumes. His remaniement of the chanson de geste Ogier le Danois in four books
has been lost. Also in four books, his immense lapidary, the Trésorier de philosophie
naturelle des pierres précieuses, contains practical information on cutting and polishing
gems, as well as descriptions in alphabetical order of 256 stones. The French version of
Jean de Mandeville’s Voyages has been incorrectly attributed to Jean d’Outremeuse.
William W.Kibler
[See also: CHEVALERIE OGIER; LAPIDARY; MANDEVILLE, JEAN DE]
Outremeuse, Jean d’. Ly myreur des histors, chronique de Jean des Preis dit d’Outremeuse, ed.
Adolphe Borgnet and S. Bormans. 7 vols. Brussels: Hayez, 1864–87.
Goosse, A. “Ogier le Danois, chanson de geste attribuée a Jean d’Outremeuse.” Romania 86
(1965):145–98.
——. “La chronique abrégée de Jean d’Outremeuse.” Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 32
(1954):5–50.
Lejeune, Jean. “Une source méconnue: la ‘chronique en bref’ de Jean d’Outremeuse.” Revue belge
de philologie et d’histoire 34 (1956):985–1020.
OVID, INFLUENCE OF
. When the name of the sophisticated Roman poet of the Augustan age is mentioned in
conjunction with medieval France, most scholars think of the Ovide moralisé, a text from
the first half of the 14th century. In fact, Ovid’s works—from the mainly mythological
miracles narrated in the Metamorphoses to the early erotic elegiacs—were copied,
imitated, glossed, and interpreted throughout the Middle Ages. While the 12th century is
often referred to as an Ovidian era (aetas Ovidiana) the majority of the principal
surviving Ovid manuscripts were copied from the 9th to the 11th century. Dozens of
Metamorphoses manuscripts with commentaries, however, survive from the 12th and
13th centuries.
The prodigious influence of Ovid as a model in 12th-century imaginative literature is
obvious in troubadour, Goliardic, and Latin school verse; in the early Romances of
Antiquity; and in the works of Chrétien de Troyes (who himself claims to have translated
the Ars amatoria) and other French romances; and it can be perceived in minor works
like the Latin Love-Council of Remiremont (Veris in temporibus sub Aprilis idibus), a
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