Le Roman de la Manekine marks the beginning of its author's literary career. Philippe de Remi, on whom much attention has focused in the last two decades, was an unusual figure: a 13th-century land-holder and professional administrator who loved literature and who produced a large and varied corpus of narrative and lyric. Here is presented for the first time since 1884 a scholarly edition of Philippe's first romance, a tale centering on a heroine of great courage and integrity who passes through many trials without losing hope.
The text is accompanied by a line-by-line English version, and by extensive commentary touching on the author, his milieu, and the literary context and major themes of the romance. Studies of the manuscript (Paris BNF fr 1588), its illustrations (all of them reproduced), and its history, have been provided by Alison Stones and Roger Middleton. The volume should be of interest to specialists in medieval French literature, to general readers who find English translations useful, and to scholars in the fields of medieval art and manuscript history.