Wace's Roman de Brut

Douglass Hamilton

   London, British Library, Egerton MS 3028, f. 001r

 
​Manuscripts:
Durham, Cathedral Library, C. IV. 27, f. 1r-94r (D) 
London, British Library, Additional, 45103, f. 13r-85v et 98r-166r (P), c. 1275
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, français, 1450, f. 112vb-139vc et 225ra-238ra (H), c. 1225-1250
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, français, 794, f. 286rb-342rb (K), c. 1200-1233
Lincoln, Cathedral Library, 104 (A. 4. 12), f. 1r-108r (L) 
London, British Library, Egerton MS 3028, c. 1325-1350

Editions:
Le roman de Brut par Wace, poète du XIIe siècle, publié pour la première fois d'après les manuscrits des bibliothèques de Paris avec un commentaire et des notes par Le Roux de Lincy, Rouen, Frère, 1836-1838, 2 t., [iv] + xvii + 399, [iv] + 368 + 17.

Le roman de Brut de Wace, éd. Ivor Arnold, Paris, Société des anciens textes français, 1938-1940, 2 vol.
De Wace à Lawamon, éd. et trad. Marie-Françoise Alamichel, Paris, Association des médiévistes anglicistes de l'enseignement supérieur (Publications de l'Association des médiévistes anglicistes de l'enseignement supérieur, 20), 1995, 2 t., xi + 616 p.

Esty, Najaria Hurst, Wace's "Roman de Brut" and the Fifteenth Century "Prose Brute Chronicle": A Comparative Study, Ph. D. dissertation, Ohio State University, Columbus, 1978, iv + 572 p. (p. 272-572).

Translations:
Weiss, Judith, Wace's Roman de Brut. A History of the British. Text and Translation, Exeter, 2006.

La geste du roi Arthur selon le "Roman de Brut" de Wace et l'"Historia regum Britanniae" de Geoffroy de Monmouth. Présentation, édition et traductions par Emmanuèle Baumgartner et Ian Short, Paris, Union générale d'éditions (10/18, 2346), 1993, 347 p.

Description:
Le Roman de Brut, finished around 1155, is considered to be the first vernacular “history” of Britain.  Writing in Norman French, Wace considered his work to be more of a “translation” than an original chronicle, having used Geoffrey of Monmouth’s Historia Regnum Britanniae as a model/base.  In turn, Wace’s Brut served as a model for several poets and writers of history.  Starting from the mythic foundations of Britain under Brutus, the Brut follows the subsequent development of Britain drawing from a multitude of sources.  The Brut is also well-known for its contributions to the burgeoning Arthurian mythos, containing both the first mention of the Round Table and the name Excalibur as Arthur’s sword.  Much of the secondary literature about the Brut is concerned with this legendary perspective.

Importance for the study of Angevin history:
The political climate in which Wace wrote almost certainly informed his writing of the Brut. Wace is believed to have written the Brut from around 1150 to 1155, during the tumultuous accession of Henry II.  Important Angevin figures such as Henry (who commissioned another work from Wace, le Roman de Rou) and his wife, Eleanor of Aquitaine, for whom Wace wrote his Brut, were patrons of Wace.  The text itself offers a glimpse into the political history surrounding some of Henry’s predecessors and highlights the crucial political elements of mid-twelfth century England.

Bibliography:
Arnold, Ivor, “Wace et l'Historia regum Britanniae de Geoffroi de Monmouth,” Romania, 57, 1931, p. 1-12.

Buttrey, Dolores, “Authority refracted: personal principle and translation in Wace's Roman de Brut,” The Politics of Translation in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, éd. Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski, Luise von Flotow et Daniel Russell, Ottawa, University of Ottawa Press, 2001, p. 85-106.

Hanning, Robert, “The social significance of twelfth-century chivalric romance,” Medievalia et Humanistica, n. s., 3, 1972, p. 3-29.

Mathey-Maille, Laurence, “Traduction et création: de l'Historia regum Britanniae de Geoffroy de Monmouth au Roman de Brut de Wace,” Écriture et modes de pensée au Moyen Âge, VIIIe–XVesiècles), éd. Dominique Boutet et Laurence Harf-Lancner, Paris, Presses de l'école normale supérieure, 1993, p. 187-193.

Meneghetti, Maria Luisa, “Ideologia cavalleresca e politica culturale nel Roman de Brut,” Studi di letteratura francese, 3, 1974, p. 26-48.

Vine Durling, Nancy, “Translation and innovation in the Roman de Brut,” Medieval Translators and Their Craft, éd. Jeanette Beer, Kalamazoo, Medieval Institute Publications (Studies in Medieval Culture, 25), 1989, p. 9-39.

Weiss, Judith, Wace's Roman de Brut. A History of the British. Text and Translation, Exeter, 2006.