6

‪This article examines the sources of the anonymous author who, at the beginning of the fourteenth century, produced the first complete translation in the vernacular language of Ovid’s ‪ ‪Metamorphoses‪‪, before providing a second “translation,” a thematic transposition, that lifted the veil of the fable to reveal its allegorical meaning. For the translation of the fable, the translator, who knew Latin well and could translate it faithfully, sometimes chose the words by using interlinear glosses of the medieval manuscript of the ‪ ‪Metamorphoses‪‪ he had at his disposal. However, he was also able to use other earlier texts for guidance (Ovid’s ‪ ‪Ars amatoria‪‪ for the story of Mars, Venus, and Vulcan) as well as the previous Romanic versions of the fable (in this particular case, the one in the ‪ ‪Roman d’Enéas‪‪). Thanks to these texts, or thanks to the mythographers who preceded him, the translator enhanced the text of the ‪ ‪Metamorphoses‪‪. In this French version of the fable, he displays originality and includes certain details that are not present in any other text. However, it is in the second transposition, that of the interpretation, that he really departs from his sources: both “concrete” interpretations distinguish themselves from the writings of mythographers or from previous romantic narratives in their scale and their tone. But it is the tropological “allegory” in particular that displays an unyielding originality, in particular through the zealous tone that is characteristic of this work, which can certainly be related to the preaching of the translator’s time.‪