French Arthurian Verse Romance after Chrétien de Troyes

The seventeen French Arthurian romances in octosyllabic rhymed couplets considered in this chapter were written between the end of the twelfth century, or beginning of the thirteenth century, to the end of the fourteenth century, and with few exceptions are limited to north-eastern France, Flanders, and England. This chapter does not propose to study each of the seventeen romances, but offer an overview, with the aim of situating them in a broad literary and cultural landscape. Textual culture will be the main focus, seen as the meeting point between the text (romance) and manuscript, and between text typologies and typologies of text transmission.