This volume examines the ten most popular fictional narratives in early modern Europe between 1470 and 1800. Each of these narratives was marketed in numerous European languages and circulated throughout several centuries. Combining literary studies and book history, this work offers for the first time a transnational perspective on a selected text corpus of this genre. It explores the spatio-temporal transmission of the texts in different languages and the materiality of the editions: the narratives were bought, sold, read, translated and adapted across European borders, from the south of Spain to Iceland and from Great Britain to Poland. Thus, the study analyses the multi-faceted processes of cultural circulation, translation and adaptation of the texts. In their diverse forms of mediality such as romance, drama, ballad and penny prints, they also make a significant contribution to a European identity in the early modern period. The narrative texts examined here include Apollonius, Septem sapientum, Amadis de Gaula, Fortunatus, Pierre de Provence et la belle Maguelonne, Melusine, Griseldis, Aesopus' Life and Fables, Reynaert de vos and Till Ulenspiegel.
Top ten fictional narratives in early modern Europe
Introduction / Rita Schlusemann, Helwi Blom, Anna Katharina Richter, and Krystyna Wierzbicka-Trwoga -- The European diffusion of Aesopus / Julia Boffey -- The wheel of fortune and man's trust in God. On the framing of Apollonius of Tyre in its European transmission / Anna Katharina Richter -- The dissemination and multimodality of Historia septem sapientum Romae / Rita Schlusemann -- Griseldis - a flexible European heroine with a strong character / Rita Schlusemann ; with a contribution on Griseldis in Scandinavia by Anna Katharina Richter -- Transcultural Reynaert. Dissemination and peritextual adaptations between 1479 and 1800 / Rita Schlusemann -- The greatest story ever sold? Marketing Melusine across early modern western, northern, and central Europe / Lydia Zeldenrust -- Legendary love. The wide appeal of Pierre de Provence et la belle Maguelonne in Early Modern Europe / Helwi Blom -- Charting Amadis de Gaule's Commercial Success in early modern Europe / Jordi Sánchez-Martí -- Fortune's calling. Translating and publishing Fortunatus in early modern Europe / Helwi Blom ; with a contribution on the Polish translation of Fortunatus by Krystyna Wierzbicka-Trwoga -- Ulenspiegel's tricky power / Krystyna Wierzbicka-Trwoga ; with a contribution on Ulenspiegel in Scandinavia by Anna Katharina Richter.
European fiction--Translations--History and criticism