Roman de la Rose (Romance of the Rose)

ca. 1430-1470

Guillaume de Loris (ca. 1237) and Jean de Meung (ca. 1275)

The Roman de la Rose (“Romance of the Rose”), a work of 22,000 verses written around 1230 by Guillaume de Lorris and then completed around 1280 by Jean de Meung, is the most remarkable example of the courtly literature that appeared in princely courts from the beginning of the 12th century. The manuscript relates the allegorical dream of the relationship between a young man, the Lover, and a young woman, the Rose. It is one of the 300 copies that have survived to the present day. This highly codified literature draws upon sources from Antiquity, Celtic legends and Occitan lyricism. Its popularity was such that the Roman de la Rose became the work most read in France for nearly three centuries and no self-respecting bibliophile or scholar could fail to have read it or at least to have a copy in his library.