become evil and die dishonored. In the sequels, the chief male protagonists are Marques,
son of the sage Cato, and his descendants, who inherit the throne of Constantinople
through their mother. After Marques, overt antifeminism fades from the cycle, but the
themes of wisdom, kingship, lineage, and the role of women remain central.
The “Dolopathos” tradition, which constitutes a second family of medieval Seven
Sages texts, comprises two texts: a Latin prose romance composed in the last quarter of
the 12th century by Johannes, a Cistercian monk at the abbey of Alta Silva, who
dedicated his work to Bertrand, bishop of Metz; and an Old French verse romance of
nearly 13,000 lines in octosyllabic couplets written in the first quarter of the 13th century
by a clerk named Herbert, who freely translated and amplified Johannes’s composition.
Both Johannes and Herbert seem to have known the rhymed version of the Sept Sages;
they include four of its stories and a similar frame narrative. One of the Dolopathos tales
not borrowed from the Sept Sages offers an early version of the Swan Knight legend. In
Dolopathos, the prince accused of rape is the son of Dolopathos, king of Sicily; his tutor
in Rome is Virgil. The tale sequence defending him comprises only eight stories, seven
told by seven nameless sages and a final one told by Virgil. After his youthful
adventures, the prince converts to Christianity and devotes himself to pious works.
In both families, the Seven Sages romances illustrate the power of narrative to instruct,
persuade, and captivate. Like the king who is the pivotal figure in the tale sequences,
medieval audiences evidently enjoyed the intercalated stories as much as they relished the
downfall of the crafty woman who foiled the sages. This fascination with storytelling,
together with the adaptability of the frame and the possibility of substituting new tales for
those that were lost or ceased to entertain, helped ensure an active and varied life for the
French Seven Sages tradition over more than four centuries.
Mary B.Speer
[See also: BARLAAM ET JOSAPHAT]
Alton, Johann, ed. Le roman de Marques de Rome. Tübingen: Laupp, 1889.
Herbert. Li romans de Dolopathos, ed. Charles Brunet and Anatole de Montaiglon. Paris: Jannet,
1856.
Johannes de Alta Silva. Dolopathos or The King and the Seven Wise Men, trans. Brady B.Gilleland.
Binghamton: Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, State University of New York,
1981.
Niedzielski, Henri, ed. Le roman de Helcanus: édition critique d’un texte en prose du XIIIe siècle.
Geneva: Droz, 1966.
Palermo, Joseph, ed. Le roman de Cassidorus. 2 vols. Paris: Picard, 1963–64.
Paris, Gaston, ed. Deux rédactions du Roman des Sept Sages de Rome. Paris: Didot, 1876. [Critical
edition of D (B.N. fr. 5036) and of a Middle French translation of the Latin Historia Septem
Sapientum Romae.]
Runte, Hans R., ed. Li ystoire de la male marastre. Tübingen: Niemeyer, 1974. [Based on
T(Ashburnham 52).]
Speer, Mary B., ed. Le roman des Sept Sages de Rome: A Critical Edition of the Two Verse
Redactions of a Twelfth-Century Romance. Lexington: French Forum, 1989.
Les Sept Sages de Rome: roman en prose du XIIIe siècle, ed. Section de Traitement Automatique
des Textes Littéraires Médiévaux. Nancy: CRAL de l’Université de Nancy II, 1981.
[Transcription of the A redaction from B.N. fr. 2137 in a computer-facilitated format.]
Thorpe, Lewis, ed. Le roman de Laurin, fils de Marques le sénéchal: Text of MS. B.N. f. fr. 22548.
Cambridge: Heffer, 1960.
Runte, Hans R., Keith Wikeley, and Anthony Farrell. The Seven Sages of Rome and the Book of
Sindbād: An Analytical Bibliography. New York: Garland, 1984.
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