At Roncevaux without Roland: Giovanni Codagnello’s Gesta Carli Francorum regis (1219

At Roncevaux without Roland: Giovanni Codagnello’s Gesta Carli Francorum regis (1219–1222)

Published:2020-11-10 Issue:4 Volume:136 Page:934-951
ISSN:1865-9063
Container-title:Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie
language:en
Short-container-title:

Author:

Galbiati Roberto¹

Affiliation:

1. Freie Universität Berlin , Italienzentrum , Habelschwerdter Allee 45 , Berlin Germany

Abstract

Abstract Giovanni Codagnello, a notary from Piacenza (c.1154–c.1234), wrote in his Liber rerum gestarum (1219–1222) a very personal re-elaboration of the defeat at Roncevaux, which he entitled Gesta Carli Francorum regis. Codagnello’s account is one of the oldest witnesses to the circulation in Italy of the legend of Roncevaux, but it has so far escaped the notice of scholars who have studied the Roland tradition in Italy. This article examines which version of the legend Codagnello knew. According to the author, he was familiar with a rhymed redaction of the Chanson de Roland. If this is the case, then it means that an exemplar of the Roland rimé was already circulating in northern Italy at the beginning of the thirteenth century.

Publisher

Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Subject

Literature and Literary Theory,Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics

Link

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/zrp-2020-0052/pdf

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