The Alexandreis: A Twelfth-Century Epic

By Walter Chatillon and Walter of Châtillon

Book Overview

Walter of Ch'tillon's Latin epic on the life of Alexander the Great was a twelfth- and thirteenth-century "best-seller:" scribes produced over two hundred manuscripts. The poem follows Alexander from his first successes in Asia Minor, through his conquest of Persia and India, to his progressive moral degeneration and his poisoning by a disaffected lieutenant. The Alexandreisexemplifies twelfth-century discourses of world domination and the exoticism of the East. But at the same time it calls such dreams of mastery into question, repeatedly undercutting as it does Alexander's claims to heroism and virtue and by extension, similar claims by the great men of Walter's own generation. This extraordinarily layered and subtle poem stands as a high-water mark of the medieval tradition of Latin narrative literature. Along with David Townsend's revised translation, this edition provides a rich selection of historical documents, including other writings by Walter of Ch'tillon, excerpts from other medieval Latin epics, and contemporary accounts of the foreign and "exotic."

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1551116766
• ISBN13: 9781551116761
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Broadview Press Inc
• Length: 284 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.4"