Andrew Lang / Gilbert James (ill) - Aucassin and Nicolette - 1905

"Aucassin and Nicolette" translated by Andrew Lang and with 12 photogravures after drawings by Gilbert James - George Routledge, London - 1905 first thus illustrated UK edition - 18cmx15cm - condition: very good, in original publisher's boards, minor rubbing, all photogravures present, some foxing.

Aucassin et Nicolette (12th or 13th century) is an anonymous medieval French fictional story. It is the unique example of a chantefable, literally, a "sung story", a combination of prose and verse (similar to a prosimetrum).

The work probably dates from the late 12th or early 13th century, and is known from only one surviving manuscript, discovered in 1752 by medievalist Jean-Baptiste de La Curne de Sainte-Palaye (BnF, Fonds Français 2168).[1]

Stylistically, the chantefable combines elements of many Old French genres, such as the chanson de geste (e.g., The Song of Roland), lyric poems, and courtly novels—literary forms already well-established by the 12th century.[1] Aucassin et Nicolette is the only known chantefable, the term itself having been derived from the story's concluding lines: "No cantefable prent fin" ("Our chantefable is drawing to a close").[1]