Le livre du Chevalier errant (Das Buch vom fahrenden Ritter) zählt zu den außergewöhnlichsten Texten des späten Mittelalters. 1396 vom piemontesischen Markgrafen Thomas III. von Saluzzo verfasst, ist dieser enzyklopädische Roman gleichzeitig Lebenssumme und politisches Programm zu Beginn der Herrschaft: ein Text, der in einmaliger Präzision und Fülle den Wissenshorizont, die literarische Kultur und das Selbstbild eines Hochadeligen in Krisenzeiten spiegelt. Nach seiner Studie Die Lanze und die Feder. Untersuchungen zum Livre du Chevalier errant von Thomas III. von Saluzzo (Imagines Medii Aevi 15) legt Robert Fajen nun eine kritische Edition des Romans vor, die erstmals einen verlässlichen Text auf Basis der beiden erhaltenen Handschriften bietet.
From 1394 to 1396 the Piedmontese marquis Thomas III of Saluzzo wrote a long encyclopaedic novel in French in which a knight wanders through the three allegorical worlds of Cupid, Fortuna and Lady Knowledge. Like hardly any other work of the era, Thomas’ text reflects the knowledge, literary taste, and self-image of a late medieval nobleman. This is edition based on the two preserved manuscripts. It makes Le livre du Chevalier errant for the first time accessible in a philologically reliable form and opens it up by a detailed introduction and a comprehensive appendix.
Prof. Dr. Robert Fajen
Born 1969; Romance and German Studies at the universities of Würzburg, Nantes and Constance; 2001: Doctorate with a study about medieval literature: Die Lanze und die Feder. Untersuchungen zum „Livre du Chevalier errant“ von Thomas III., Markgraf von Saluzzo, (Wiesbaden: Reichert, 2003), awarded the Elise Richter Prize by the German Association of Romanists; 2005-2006 scholarship at the German Study Center in Venice; 2009: Habilitation with his second book, Die Verwandlung der Stadt. Venedig und die Literatur im 18. Jahrhundert (Paderborn: W. Fink, 2013), awarded the Hugo Friedrich and Erich Köhler Prize by the University of Freiburg i. Br.
Since 2010 professor of French and Italian Literary Studies at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg.
Main research interests: romance literature of the Middle Ages; literature of the French and Italian 18th century; city and literature; functional history of literary imagination.
This series, which will comprise doctoral and professorial dissertations and other monographs as well as collective volumes, aims at highlighting and promoting interdisciplinarity in Medieval Studies even more than is currently the case. Works from all branches of Medieval Studies will be accepted, provided they emphasise the aspect of interdisciplinarity, i.e. they attempt to transgress the boundaries of any single subject.