Poull, Georges. La maison ducale de Bar: les premiers comtes de Bar (1033–1239). Rupt-sur-
Moselle: Poull, 1977.
BARLAAM ET JOSAPHAT
. Name given to three 13th-century poems and three prose tales based on the life of the
Buddha. From elements of the legendary life of the Buddha, an original Barlaam et
Josaphat was composed between the 5th and 7th centuries in Palestine. The work spread
throughout the Christian world through translations in most European languages of the
Latin version (ca. 1050), of which almost a hundred manuscripts survive. In French, there
are three rhymed versions, by a certain Chardri (1,477 octosyllabic couplets in Anglo-
Norman, before 1216), by Gui de Cambrai (6,467 octosyllabic couplets in the Picard
dialect, after 1209), and an anonymous version (first quarter of the 13th c.) of 6,113
octosyllabic couplets without dialectal markings (two manuscripts and two fragments, ed.
Sonet 1949, 1950). There are also three anonymous prose versions, written in the
Champagne dialect between 1199 and 1229 (fourteen manuscripts, ed. Mills), translated
from a Greek fragment (early 13th c.), and derhymed from the anonymous verse text
(three manuscripts, ed. Sonet 1952).
Despite all his efforts, Avennir, king of India, fails in shielding his son Josaphat from
the influence of the Christian religion and from the teachings of the anchorite Barlaam,
who succeeds in converting his pupil. Having received half the kingdom from his father,
Josaphat establishes Christianity in his realm but then spends the rest of his life with
Barlaam in the desert.
A number of tales embedded in this story (e.g., Le lai de l’oiselet, Le dit de l’unicorne)
appear also in most of the common medieval collections of legends, exempla, and
sermons, in Latin and in the vernacular. In France, the story of Josaphat is also told in the
Mystère du roy Advenir by Jean du Prier (ed. Meiller) and in a Miracle de Nostre Dame
par personnages (B.N. fr. 819; 15th c.). The legend is also found in an Occitan version in
prose from the late 13th or early 14th century.
Hans R.Runte
[See also: EXEMPLUM; MIRACLE PLAYS; MYSTERY PLAYS; SEVEN SAGES
OF ROME]
Mills, Leonard R., ed. L’histoire de Barlaam et Josaphat: version champenoise.... Geneva: Droz,
1973. [Based on Apostolicana Vaticana, Reg. lat. 660.]
Sonet, Jean, ed. Le roman de Barlaam et Josaphat. Namur: Bibliothèque de la Faculté de
Philosophie et Lettres, 1949, Vol. 1: Recherches sur la tradition latine et française. [Includes
edition of the fragments of the anonymous rhymed version (Besançon 552 and Cividale del
Friuli B24).]
——, ed. Le roman de Barlaam et Josaphat. Namur: Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et
Lettres, 1950, Vol. 2: La version anonyme française. Part 1: Texte critique. [Based on Tours
949.]
——, ed. Le roman de Barlaam et Josaphat. Namur: Bibliothèque de la Faculté de Philosophie et
Lettres, 1952, Vol. 2: La version anonyme française. Part 2: Études critiques et mise en prose.
[Based on Lyon 867.]
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