The Seven Sages of Rome . Edited from Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.1.17

Contemporary Review, Summer, 2006

The Seven Sages of Rome (Midland Version). Edited from Cambridge, University Library, MS Dd.1.17. Jill Whitelock, editor. Oxford University Press. [pounds sterling]45.00. lxxx 183 Pages. ISBN 0-19-722327-3. The Seven Sages of Rome was 'one of the most popular works of medieval literature, with versions in nearly every European language.' The first surviving version of these stories may be dated to the 1150s in France but their origin lies in The Book of Sindbad composed perhaps in the fifth century BC in Persia, the Holy Land or India.

Whilst not widely known today, the stories influenced Chaucer and Gower. Various versions have survived and the version translated here is the least well known: hitherto the only edition was that prepared by Thomas Wright in 1845. This edition, a development of the editor's Cambridge doctoral thesis, is not only a corrected text (based on the MS in Cambridge) but is offered with full critical apparatus and a comparison of this Midland version to other Middle English versions. It is this placing of the text in relation to other mediaeval texts, combined with the extensive notes, that makes this such an excellent edition. (A.C.)