The Seven Sages as Reading for Edification: Medieval Narratives of the Seven Sages of Rome

The paper deals with the medieval textual variants of the frame story of The Seven Sages of Rome, known and canonised as a masterpiece of Renaissance secular entertaining prose, with special emphasis on the details of textual tradition and the types of the versions. It presents two codices that contain the text: one from Alba Iulia, the other from Budapest. The paper analyses the allegorical interpretations (geistliche Auslegungen) of the work, which are found only in manuscript versions, and which present this secular frame story and the inserted stories in a spiritual and devotional dimension, due to which these were used as exempla in sermons during the Middle Ages.

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