John Gower's Iberian Footprint: The Manuscripts.
- Author/Editor
- Yeager, R. F.
- Title
- John Gower's Iberian Footprint: The Manuscripts.
- Published
- SELIM: Journal of the Spanish Society for Medieval English Language and Literature 16 (2009): 91-101.
- Review
- This essay explores the two fifteenth-century Iberian manuscripts of Gower's "Confessio Amantis," first detailing the twentieth-century discovery of the two manuscripts, and second, based upon peculiar physical elements and content of the manuscripts, proposing the possible identities and motivations of the Castilian and Portuguese patrons of the translations. Yeager begins by narrating the twentieth-century discovery of Escorial MS g.II.19 and Madrid MS Real Biblioteca II-3088. Gower links the impetus of the translations to John of Gaunt's invasion of Spain in 1386, the marriage of his elder daughter Philippa to king João I of Portugal in 1387, and the marriage of his daughter Katherine (Catalina) to prince Henry (Enrique) III, the son and heir of Juan I of Castile, in 1388. Yeager argues the Portuguese translation was most likely made for João I, given his (and his wife Philippa's) love of literature. The purpose of the Castilian translation, however, is not as clear. Yeager suggests these manuscript versions in particular would not have been meant for a royal personage, at least based upon the physical aspects of the manuscripts, given their plain and modest format and layout. Both of these manuscripts, Yeager suggests, represent "workaday versions" of the poem, which may be of particular scholarly interest since they "provide tangible evidence that the 'Confessio Amantis' was known, was read, and was in demand outside of the royal families, beyond Castile and Lisbon even to Africa, by lower-ranking Iberian readers in some numbers" (97). The essay concludes with a discussion of further avenues of research awaiting the study of these manuscripts, including the relationship between the CA and late medieval and early modern Iberian literary production, Philippa of Lancaster's possible connection to the Portuguese translation, and possible parallels between Gower's popularity in Iberia and that of Christine de Pizan, whose "Le Livre de trois virtues" was also translated into Portuguese. [BWG. Copyright, The John Gower Society. eJGN 40.2.]
- Date
- 2009
- Gower Subjects
- Manuscripts and Textual Studies
Facsimiles, Editions, and Translations
Confessio Amantis