Eroticism and comique in the shadow of cathedrals: the Italian translation of medieval fabliaux

Abstract

–It is well-known that the religious and cultural horizon of the man of the Middle Ages considered the body as the seat of sin and evil. It is also well-known that, with the development of cities and mercantile civilisation, a process of revaluation of sexuality took place, to which new meanings and values ​​were conferred. In this context of the twelfth century, of which recent studies have revealed its dynamicity and variety, the new literary genre of fabliaux emerged, first circulating in France and then throughout Europe: anecdotes and verse stories primarily intended to make people laugh, through the satirical and grotesque representation of the entire medieval society. The fabliaux narrate, with allusive and bold verses, but always in a humorous and satirical manner, the vices and sins committed mostly by priests and monks who become the protagonists of a conspicuous production of anecdotes and folk tales, together with ladies who are anything but chaste and unsuspecting and inexperienced husbands. The work will thus analyse the Italian translations by two scholars of the Middle Ages, Rosanna Brusegan and Alessandro Barbero, with a focus on the explicit rendering of the terms and to the Italian translation of obscene language.