Huon d’Auvergne

Huon d’Auvergne

Italy Earliest known manuscript dated 1341 Huon d’Auvergne Huon d’Auvergne is one of the few dated epics in chanson de geste format (rhymed laisses, fixed-length lines with varying strophe lengths) and one of the few Franco-Italian epics with multiple versions....
Boccaccio, The Theseid

Boccaccio, The Theseid

Italy ca. 1340     Giovanni Boccaccio, Teseida (The Theseid)     The Teseida—or Teseida: Delle nozze d’Emilia (The Theseid: Of the nuptials of Emilia), the full title we derive at the closure of the text—is an epic poem written by Giovanni Boccaccio in the...
Legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table

Legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table

England primarily 12th through 15th centuries Legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table The legends of King Arthur and the knights of the Round Table have been the favorites of poets, painters, and politicians for centuries. Perhaps this is because...
Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato

Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato

Italy Published: 1483 CE; 1495 CE Matteo Maria Boiardo, Orlando Innamorato Written for a fifteenth-century Italian court society hooked on Arthurian romance but also attuned to current world events, Boiardo’s Orlando Innamorato (Orlando in Love) charts a complex...
Martorell, Tirant lo Blanch

Martorell, Tirant lo Blanch

Spain First edition, 1490     Joanot Martorell Tirant lo Blanch​     A Valencian knight named Joanot Martorell replaced his sword with a pen on January 2, 1460, in order to narrate the adventures of a fictional knight. This undertaking resulted in...