The ‘Roman de la Rose' and Thirteenth-Century Thought

The first truly in-depth, interdisciplinary study of philosophical questions in the seminal medieval literary work, the Roman de la Rose.

Focusing on one of the most influential poems in the European literary tradition, this collection brings together specialised chapters on medieval intellectual history, legal history, psychology, ethics, and logic. Re-evaluates the significance of the Roman de la Rose: indispensable reading for literary specialists and intellectual historians.The thirteenth-century allegorical dream vision, the Roman de la Rose, transformed how medieval literary texts engaged with philosophical ideas. Written in Old French, its influence dominated French, English and Italian literature for the next two centuries, serving in particular as a model for Chaucer and Dante. Jean de Meun's section of this extensive, complex and dazzling work is notable for its sophisticated responses to a whole host of contemporary philosophical debates. This collection brings together literary scholars and historians of philosophy to produce the most thorough, interdisciplinary study to date of how the Rose uses poetry to articulate philosophical problems and positions. This wide-ranging collection demonstrates the importance of the poem for medieval intellectual history and offers new insights into the philosophical potential both of the Rose specifically and of medieval poetry as a whole.