International Medieval Society, Paris • Société Internationale des Médiévistes, Paris

Symposium 2010 - Traditio
Abstract

Symposium Programme

Julius Caesar in Paris:  Didactic Displacement in Li Fet des Romains

Jeanette Beer, Oxford University

Li Fet des Romains, a translation of all the classical texts concerning Julius Caesar that were known to the Middle Ages, is the first known work of ancient historiography and the first biography to be compiled in French. Despite the paucity of antecedents, the compiler-translator’s handling of the classical materials exudes authority, a function no doubt of the magisterial status he is thought to have had in the University of Paris around the first decade of the thirteenth century. Although he does not disclose his identity, he is given to personal comments. These individual interpolations help us to reconstruct the political climate of his day and (even more relevant to our present purpose) they highlight the intellectual presuppositions of his decade as he anticipates difficulties that his audience may encounter in the Roman material. The geographical displacement of the Caesarean locus, for example (Gallia is no longer TRANSalpina but CISalpina) had for them profound implications. The shift from Rome’s res publica to Philip Augustus’s monarchy, and from Rome’s political/religious beliefs to the enlightenment of a Christian dispensation were similarly challenging. Furthermore, the way in which the translator reworks his material, adding or subtracting according to the anticipated needs of his public, reveals much about his attitudes to the auctores. While introducing Caesar imperator into France, he initiated an influential model for those who would subsequently attempt similar translative projects.