To this day the medieval archives continue to surprise us, either by revealing literary documents that had been unknown, or by bringing back to light texts that had been recognized by medieval philologists sometime in the past but have subsequently been ignored (Busch and Reich, ed.). Of course, a vast number of medieval texts (manuscripts), if not the majority, has been lost altogether, and we are actually fortunate to have access to texts from that time period in the first place (Haye). Sometimes, however, literary scholars are facing considerable challenges in assessing the true quality or meaning of a medieval work because it has survived in only one manuscript. In addition, it is possible that some poets formulated ideas, concepts or themes that were incomprehensible to their own…
1788 words
Citation: Classen, Albrecht. "Le Roman de silence". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 April 2022 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=40800, accessed 23 November 2024.]