Historia Caroli Magni
The Historia Caroli Magni or Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi ( History of Charlemagne and Roland ), also known as Pseudo-Turpin , is a forgery written in the 12th century consisting of legends about the Spanish campaign of Charlemagne. It is also referred to as Book IV of the Codex Calixtinus because it contains the oldest manuscript in the Historia. The falsification is that the authorship of Karl's contemporaries Turpin, Bishop of Reims , is asserted, and the work thus claims authenticity as a chronicle. The deception was exposed in the Renaissance . The work was extremely popular and served as the main source on Charlemagne in chronicles, literature and iconography throughout Europe. The motif of the blooming lance and the death of Ferracutus even found their way into the stained glass windows of Chartres Cathedral .
origin
The Historia Caroli Magni was declared authentic by referring to Pope Calixt II , who had already died in 1124, before the pseudo-Turpin wrote his "Historia" sometime after 1130. It is not based on historical sources, but on the tradition of the Old French epic (the Chanson de geste ), especially the Roland song . Its popularity seems to date back to the second half of the 12th century, when the first versions of the song were written. Gaston Paris , who examined the Historia , assumes that the first five chapters were written in the 11th century by a monk from Santiago de Compostela , while the rest were written between 1109 and 1119 and by a monk from Vienne, yes this view is controversial. There is no proof of the origin of the work.
There are 159 Latin and 50 vernacular manuscripts of the Historia Caroli Magni .
content
At the request of James the Elder , who appears to him in a dream, Charlemagne undertakes four campaigns to drive the Saracens out of Spain. In the first war he leads his army to Santiago de Compostela and conquers the entire peninsula. The second war becomes necessary after the African king Agolant has recaptured the country. Several miracles took place during this war, such as that of the flowers sprouting from the knights' lances. In the third war, Agolant invaded southwest France and besieged Agen , but was forced to retreat to Pamplona . During the fourth war, Charlemagne besieged Pamplona. After Agolant's death, the Frankish troops pursued the Saracens across the Iberian Peninsula.
In a story within the Chronicle that recreates the battle of David and Goliath , Roland fights against the Saracen giant Ferracutus (Ferraú) who occupies the city of Nájera . They fight for two days and agree to a ceasefire for the night. On the second night, Roland learns that the giant only has one vulnerable point, his belly button. In the subsequent argument, Roland Ferracutus can kill with this knowledge.
After the last Saracen military leader has been defeated, Charlemagne occupies Santiago with considerable soldiers and sets off back to France. The chronicle now tells the Roland song with the battle of Roncesvalles , in which Charles's rearguard with Roland is ambushed by the brothers Marsile and Baligant , kings of Saragossa , after they have betrayed Ganelon . Roland kills Marsile, but is mortally wounded himself, but still manages to summon Charlemagne's army with his horn. After Karl overpowers the Saracens, Ganelon is tried and executed. The body of the dead Roland is returned to France. There, Charlemagne endowed the Saint-Denis abbey with special privileges before he died himself.
The chronicle ends with several appendices, including the alleged discovery of Turpin's grave by Pope Calixt II and his call to the crusade .
Interpretations
The text is seen as an attempt to promote the Reconquista and pilgrimages on the Camino de Santiago to Santiago de Compostela - many of the places mentioned in the text are on the route.
Influences
The Historia Caroli Magni was a great success across Europe. The popularity of the work is shown, among other things, in the fact that there are at least nine translations into French, all of which were made around the same time in northern France in the 13th century. Medieval chroniclers also used the material as a reason for the Reconquista; it was also used to compile the Grandes Chroniques de France (13th – 15th centuries). A Welsh adaptation is in the Red Book of Hergest . The fight between Roland (Orlando) and Ferracutus can also be found in the anonymous Franco-Venetian epic L'Entrée d'Espagne (around 1320, the author could be from Padua ) and in the Italian epic La Spagna (14th century), that of the Florentine Sostegno di Zanobi is attributed and was probably written between 1350 and 1360.
Translations and adaptations in the island area
In addition to Latin copies of the "Historia Caroli Magni", there are translations or adaptations into the respective vernacular languages of Middle English , Welsh (Middle Cymrian), Irish (Early New Irish) and Icelandic (Old Icelandic) in the insular area, i.e. Britain, Ireland and Iceland . The following table gives an overview of the previously known copies and fragments of these texts as well as previous editions.
| region | Transcribed copies | Editions and translations |
|---|---|---|
| England | "The Burghley Polychronion": San Marino, Henry E. Huntington Library , MS HM 28,561 | Stephen Shepherd: Turpines Story , Oxford and New York 2004. |
| Wales |
Aberystwyth, National Library of Wales : Peniarth 8a, saec. xiii / xiv |
Thomas Powell: Ystorya de Carolo Magno: From the Red Book of Hergest , London 1883. |
| Ireland |
London, British Library, Egerton 1781 |
Douglas Hyde: Gabhaltais Shearluis Mhóir: The Conquests of Charlemagne , Dublin 1917. |
| Iceland |
Copenhagen, Arna Magnaean Collection |
Carl Richard Unger: Karlamagnus saga ok kappa hans: Fortaellinger om Keizer Karl Magnus og hans Jaevninger , Christiana: 1860. Bjarni Vilhjálmsson: Karlamagnús saga og kappa hans , Reykjavík 1961. |
In Irish and Icelandic, a distinction must be made between two different reviews, which in Welsh has not yet been adequately investigated. The earliest insular translation is Old Icelandic from the beginning of the 13th century, followed by Welsh from the middle of the 13th century, the Irish translation was done almost 150 years later around 1400, and the Middle English in the middle of the 15th century.
Modern editions
The Historia was first printed in Frankfurt in 1566 . Perhaps the best edition is that by Ferdinand Castets under the title Turpini historia Karoli magni et Rotholandi (Paris, 1880). It has been translated into French several times, but also into German, English and Danish, most recently:
- Hans-Wilhelm Klein (Ed.): The chronicle of Charlemagne and Roland. The Latin pseudo-Turpin in the manuscripts from Aachen and Andernach , Munich 1986
literature
- Jesse Crosland: The Old French Epic (New York 1951)
- Geneviève Hasenohr, Michel Zink (ed.): Dictionnaire des lettres françaises: Le Moyen Age (Paris 1992), pp. 292-295. ISBN 2-253-05662-6
- Gaston Paris: De pseudo-Turpino (Paris 1865),
- Gaston Paris: Histoire poetique de Charlemagne (new edition 1905)
- Victor Henry Friedel , Études compostellanes in Otia Merceiana (Liverpool 1899).
- Luigi Pulci: Morgante: The Epic Adventures of Orlando and His Giant Friend (Indiana University Press, 1998) ISBN 0-253-21407-6
- Hans-Wilhelm Klein: Karl der Große and Compostela , in: Klaus Herbers (ed.): German pilgrims and their reports (Jakobus Studies 1), Tübingen 1988, pp. 133-148, ISBN 3-8233-4000-X
- Elizabeth AR Brown: Saint-Denis and the Turpin Legend , in: John Williams, Alison Stones (eds.): The Codex Calixtinus and the Shrine of St. James (Jakobus-Studien 3), Tübingen 1992, pp. 51-88, ISBN 3-8233-4004-2
- Klaus Herbers (ed.): James and Charlemagne. From Einhard's Karlsvita zum Pseudo-Turpin (Jakobus-Studien 14), Tübingen 2003, ISBN 3-8233-6018-3