TRANSLATIO, AUTORITÉ ET AFFIRMATION DE SOI CHEZ GAIMAR, WACE ET BENOÎT DE SAINTE-MAURE
In: The Medieval Chronicle VIIISearch for other papers by Cristian Bratu in
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Twelfth-century writers such as Geffrei Gaimar, Wace and Benoît de Sainte-Maure used four main strategies to assert themselves as translators and historians. The first strategy consisted of elaborating the persona of a highly knowledgeable clerk as translator and narrator of the text. Secondly, they quoted (or pretended to quote) from various authors and historical texts to enhance their own authority. Thirdly, they resorted to what we could call the strategy of ambiguity, in the sense that they presented their writings as translations while posing as de facto authors of the text. Finally, they portrayed themselves as the terminus ad quem of a translatio studii from ancient (or simply more prestigious) authors to themselves.
The concept of translatio studii paralleled the idea of a transfer of political power (translatio imperii) from East to West which was described in many other medieval texts. I argue that patterns o translatio studii can be found in the longer epilogue to Gaimar’s Estoire des Engleis, in Wace’s Roman de Brut, as well as in the prologue to Sainte-Maure’s Roman de Troie.