courtliness. The romance transforms the warrior hero of the chanson de geste into a bold
but courtly knight, worthy of inspiring love and ensuring his power over his own world.
Emmanuèle Baumgartner
[See also: ADENET LE ROI; ALEXANDER ROMANCES; ANGLO-NORMAN
LITERATURE; ANTIQUITY, ROMANCES OF; ARTHURIAN VERSE ROMANCE;
BEAUMANOIR, PHILIPPE DE REMI, SIRE DE; CHRÉTIEN DE TROYES;
GAUTIER D’ARRAS; GAWAIN ROMANCES; GRAIL AND GRAIL ROMANCES;
IDYLLIC ROMANCE; MARIE DE FRANCE; OVIDIAN TALES; PERCEVAL
CONTINUATIONS; PROSE ROMANCE (ARTHURIAN); REALISTIC ROMANCES;
ROBERT DE BORON; TOURNAMENT ROMANCES; TRISTAN ROMANCES;
VOW CYCLE; VULGATE CYCLE; WACE]
Bruckner, Matilda Tomaryn. Shaping Romance: Interpretation, Truth, and Closure in Twelfth-
Century French Fictions. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1993.
Chênerie, Marie-Luce. Le chevalier errant dans les romans arthuriens en vers des XIIe et XIIIe
siècles. Geneva: Droz, 1986.
Fourrier, Anthime. Le courant réaliste dans le roman courtois en France au moyen âge. Paris:
Nizet, 1960.
Frappier, Jean, and R.Grimm, eds. Le roman jusqu’à la fin du XIIIe siècle. Part IV of Grundriss der
romanischen Literaturen des Mittelalters. 2 vols. Heidelberg: Winter, 1978, 1984.
Köhler, Erich. L’aventure chevaleresque: ideal et réalité dans le roman courtois. Paris: Gallimard,
1974.
Lacy, Norris J., Douglas Kelly, and Keith Busby, eds. The Legacy of Chrétien de Troyes. 2 vols.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1987–88.
Ménard, Philippe. Le rire et le sourire dans le roman courtois en France au moyen âge. Geneva:
Droz, 1969.
Payen, Jean-Charles. Le motif du repentir dans la littérature française médiévale, des origines a
- Geneva: Droz, 1967.
——, and F.N.M.Diekstra, eds. Le roman. Typologie des sources 12. Turnhout: Brepols, 1975.
Petit, Aimé. Naissances du roman: les techniques littéraires dans les romans antiques du XIIe
siècle. Paris: Champion, 1985.
Zink, Michel. La subjectivité littéraire: autour du siècle de saint Louis. Paris: Presses
Universitaires de France, 1985.
ROMANESQUE ARCHITECTURE
. Romanesque architecture of the 11th and 12th centuries represents a fusion of two
architectural traditions from late antiquity—that of the massively vaulted structure, such
as the basilica of Constantine in Rome, and that of the huge wooden-roofed building,
characterized by vast interior spaces, such as Old St. Peter’s in Rome, now destroyed, and
St. John Lateran. Both traditions survived from late antiquity to the preRomanesque
period. Basilical structures in the larger towns and wealthier abbeys generally followed
the Old St. Peter’s model, although the old Roman tradition of brick-faced concrete was
abandoned. These monuments, found mostly in the river valleys of France, were of
impressive size and constructed of large, carefully dressed stones. The style they reflect
at the beginning of the 11th century has come to be known as the Early Romanesque of
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