Critical Edition of Couldrette’s MÉlusine or Le Roman De Parthenay

The legend of Mélusine is one of the most captivating tales in French cultural history. Its myriad ramifications have not only affected the political history of Western Europe and the Near East of the Middle Ages, but have also provided a window of understanding for human events and motivations harking back as far as pre-Roman times. Couldrette created the medieval poetic version of Mélusine based on Jean d’Arras’s prose version, which was written at the behest of Jean De Berry. This critical edition includes a summary of the story and its creation, its historical background and sources, and textual history.