Les traductions d’Ovide entre Moyen Âge et Renaissance: l’Ovide moralisé en prose (ms. BnF fr.137).Edition partielle avec études linguistique et littéraire.

Composed between 1315 and 1327, the Ovide moralisé was the first integral translation of Ovid’s Metamorphosis and it remained the only one until the half of the 16th century. In 72000 verses, the Franciscan monk who probably was its author, translated the Ovidus maior very attentively, but not always with fidelity. But he didn’t just translate: every myth was followed by a long sermon that interpreted it by the four allegorical meanings. In the 15th century, the Ovide moralisé was rewritten in two different prose versions. The first one, committed by René d’Anjou and composed by a Norman cleric between 1467 and 1468, is transmitted by just a manuscript. The second one, committed by Louis de Bruges, had a very large success. It substitutes the verse edition and becomes the French translation of Ovid’s Metamorphosis. Unlike the verse’s model, the Ovid’s myths were interpreted just by euhemerism and sometimes by morality. Just three manuscripts of this work survived, but in 1484 Colard Mansion printed the editio princeps of a book that recopied the Bruges prose, but he reintegrates the allegorical glosses using the Pierre Bersuire’s Ovidius moralizatus. The Ovid’s Metamorphosis was the last book published by Colard Mansion. He went bankrupt and disappeared just after publishing it. Antoine Vérard republished the Mansion’s edition with the title of Bible des poëtes for the first time in 1493 and twice more. In 1532 Romain Morin published in Lyon a new version of this book: the Grant Olympe des histoires poëtiques... The Metamorphosis translation was always our Ovide moralisé en prose, but he eliminated every kind of glosses, including the euhemeristic ones. This new edition was republished many times, until the beginning of 17th century. This thesis provides the edition of 6 books of the Ovide moralisé en prose (I, II, III, VI, VII, XV), until today inedited. Language study relieves the phonetic and morphological issues typical of Piccard area, where the prose was composed. The lexis study is conducted with the collaboration of the equip of DMF - Dictionnaire du Moyen Français of the Atilf-Cnrs (Nancy – France). The experimental use of an informatics instrument by Gilles Souvay links every word-form of the text with corresponding lemma in the DMF. The manuscript Bnf fr. 137 contains a rich iconographical program. Their miniatures were executed by the Marguerite of York master. An iconographical study analyzes some miniatures to emphasize how verbal and iconological languages have a significant connection and contribute to create the meaning of this magnificent illustrated book.