Guillaume d'Orange is the most extensive epic cycle of the Middle Ages. Set in the ninth century, the poems on the life of William of Orange grew out of several centuries of oral composition and were written down for the first time in the twelfth century. Changing and growing through the years, the poems reflect historical events from the ninth to the twelfth century.

Joan M. Ferrante writes in the Introduction, "History tells us little of the medieval William of Orange, but legend tells us a great deal. From the legends grew the most extensive epic cycle of the Middle Ages."

Joan Ferrante analyzes the Divine Comedy in terms of public issues, which continued foremost in Dante's thinking after his exile from Florence. Professor Ferrante examines the political concepts of the poem in historical context and in light of the political theory and controversies of the period. Originally published in 1984. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Joan Ferrante analyzes the Divine Comedy in terms of public issues, which continued foremost in Dante's thinking after his exile from Florence. Professor Ferrante examines the political concepts of the poem in historical context and in light of the political theory and controversies of the period.

Originally published in 1984.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

To the Glory of Her Sex presents an account of medieval women's activities as correspondents, readers, writers, and literary patrons from antiquity through the fourteenth century. The writings explored here represent a cross-section of virtually every field in historical and literary studies, including Latin literature, romance literature in French, political and religious correspondence, theological and moral treatises written for women, and histories and biographies commissioned by or addressed to women. Reading in the public and private correspondence of medieval women, for example, Ferrante discovered to what degree their involvement in affairs of the world and their role in the work of prominent men have been underestimated. Among the major figures in this panorama are Elisabeth Schonau, Hildegard of Bingen, Hrotsvit, Marie de France, and Christine de Pizan.

Guillaume d'Orange is the most extensive epic cycle of the Middle Ages. Set in the ninth century, the poems on the life of William of Orange grew out of several centuries of oral composition and were written down for the first time in the twelfth century. Changing and growing through the years, the poems reflect historical events from the ninth to the twelfth century.

Joan M. Ferrante writes in the Introduction, "History tells us little of the medieval William of Orange, but legend tells us a great deal. From the legends grew the most extensive epic cycle of the Middle Ages."

The romans d'antiquite, medieval re-makings in French of the stories of Troy, Thebes, Greece, and Rome, first appeared in the reign of Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in the twelfth century and continued to be read in England throughout the Middle Ages. Among them, the Romance of Thebes medievalizes the stories of Oedipus and Jocasta; Polynices and Etiocles; Antigone, Creon, and Theseus; and the Siege of Thebes. The medieval French re-working also complicates Trojan-based accounts of European identity by adding African and Muslim allies for Thebes to the narrative's classical source in Statius' Thebaid, thus suggesting that Europe is not forged simply in opposition to Islam. This new translation and introduction by two distinguished scholars of comparative literature is the first in English for thirty years. It is based on the late fourteenth-century manuscript text owned by 'battling' Bishop Henry Despenser, notorious for his harsh suppression of the 1381 rebels in Norwich and for his failed continental crusade. The translation can be read both for itself and to facilitate study of the original poem by scholars and students of the literary culture of England and North West Europe. Volume 11 in The French of England Translation Series (FRETS)