Huon d’Auvergne: Edition and Translation of the Fourteenth-Century Chanson de Geste in Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett, Manuscript 78D B, ed. Leslie Zarker Morgan. Trans. by Shira Schwam-Baird. Gallica, 54. Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2025, xiii, 1013 pp., 6 figs., 28 tables, 2 graphs.

The linguistic situation in late medieval northern Italy was rather complex and highly interesting, being determined by a mix of Italian and French. This finds its most vivid expression in the high popularity of the genre of chansons de geste, and Huon d’Auvergne is one of them. An entire team of scholars, under the lead of Leslie Zarker Morgan, has joined forces to create the first full edition along with an English translation by Shira Schwam-Baird. The massive volume now in print represents their collective effort, which deserves our full recognition as a masterpiece of modern scholarship dedicated to late medieval literature, specifically using a macaronic version. Whereas the oldest manuscript from 1341 was almost completely in Old French, the latest one from 1441 was almost completely in Italian (print editions appeared as late as 1506–1507). Huon d’Auvergne was rendered into Italian prose by the Florentine Andrea da Barberino sometime in the fifteenth century, including it into his Narbonesi. Considering the complex if not convoluted content, it is quite understandable why this poem enjoyed so much attention addressing many different interests. Many of the traditional themes contained in other chansons de geste, in travel literature (e.g., touring the Middle East), and in texts dealing with the catabasis to hell, then knightly adventures, major animals as helpers of the protagonist, the topic of marital loyalty, political conflicts pitting the French against the Germans, and others obviously addressed a wide range of interests among the aristocratic audience.