Édition critique d’une traduction française anonyme en prose du XIIIe siècle de l’Epitoma rei militaris de Végèce

We present the critical edition of the anonymous 13th-century French translation in medieval prose of the Epitoma rei militaris by Vegetius (VegLev) based on two manuscripts conserved in the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg, Fr. F. v. IX, 1, and the Herzog August Library in Wolfenbüttel, Blankenburg 111. The codicological analysis, which is part of the edition, has dated the manuscripts and their miniatures to the 13th century Levant. Determining its Latin source made it easier to prepare the edition and also revealed the procedures of medieval translation because it could be compared with the Anglo-Norman translation by Master Richard. This Anglo-Norman translation of the Epitoma rei militaris, regarded as the oldest in existence, has been preserved in a codex unicus and there is also a Latin copy, which names the city of Acre. Likewise, the analysis of the language and the scripta reveals some structures, forms and words that have been associated with the Levant by other studies and lexicographical tools, and the use of loan words from the southern Gallo-Roman empire and Italy. The analysis of the translator’s interventions has effectively framed this translation within the warfaring society of the 13th-century Levant. The interventions affect the structure of the work and inform us about the readers, such social customs of the time as the age and origin of the combatants, warfaring habits, etc. This translation faithfully follows the Latin phrasing and is often difficult to follow. However, the aim of the translation was to make one of the most famous military texts available to a warring caste unable to understand Latin and, perhaps, to be the basis on which subsequent translations of the Epitoma rei militaris could be made. The translator, an enthusiastic user of maxims, moves away from the Latin text when he devotes himself to devising numerous aphorisms por enseignements et en remembrance of the art of chivalry.