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.

Secular and sacred Dutch medieval literature was particularly rich and influential. It was not only supported and promoted by many important authors (incl. Hadewijch and Heinrich von Veldeke) but also often provided the bridge for Middle High German literature to Old French literature (epics around Charlemagne). This bibliography is the first to provide a comprehensive documentation of the reception of Middle Dutch works in German literature up to the present day. As a chapter in the history of European cultural relations, it affords a completely new view of the dynamics of the transfer of early Dutch literature into the German language area.