SOCIÉTÉ INTERNATIONALE RENCESVALS
The Société Internationale Rencesvals, founded in 1956, brings together scholars from all over the world in the study of the epic poetry of mediæval Europe. The Society's interests centre on epics written in the Romance languages, but with increasing attention being paid to adaptations and reflections, particularly of originally French material, in Dutch, German and the Scandinavian languages, and to later elaborations in Italy, Spain and the New World. While traditional philological approaches have not been abandoned, there is a growing tendency to apply contemporary techniques of analysis to the epic, and to expand into comparative and interdisciplinary studies. The Society is thus the focus of a very wide range of scholarly activity.
The British Branch is an integral part of the Société Internationale Rencesvals which holds a major congress every three years. The 17th international congress will take place at the University of Connecticut, Storrs, from 24th to 29th July 2006; the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Society will be celebrated at a special colloquium at the University of Liège on the 19th and 20th August 2005. The British Branch, one of the founder branches of the Society, holds its own regular colloquia, and hosted the fifth and the twelfth international congresses (1970 and 1991). The International Society publishes an annual Bibliographical Bulletin containing a critical bibliography of pertinent scholarship, a list of members and other items of interest to scholars working on the epic. This bulletin is available only through the Society. The various branches of the Society also act as a channel of distribution for Olifant, a periodical devoted to epic studies published by the American-Canadian Branch. The British Branch publishes its own annual newsletter, and has published the proceedings of the international congresses it hosted, together with the collaborative volume Guillaume d'Orange and the Chanson de geste. Recently it has launched a series of editions of epic or epic-related texts in any of the languages studied by the Society, designed for student use and including a translation into English. The series is entitled British Rencesvals Publications. The first volume is Le Jeu d'Adam, edited by Wolfgang van Emden (1996, 2nd edition 1999), the second, Le Pèlerinage de Charlemagne, edited by Glyn S. Burgess (1998). Proposals for the publications series are welcomed.
Membership of the Branch is currently £8 per year, which gives full rights in the International Society, entitles the member to attend meetings and to receive a personal copy of the Bulletin Bibliographique de la Société Rencesvals. The Branch supports postgraduate students and others not yet in post by offering them financial assistance with the cost of attending Branch conferences and/or international congresses.
The next colloquium of the British Branch takes place in Cambridge on 27th and 28th March 2004. To mark the completion of the edition of The Old French Crusade Cycle and the 800th anniversary of the Fourth Crusade the theme of the colloquium will be "Epic and Crusade". For further information and to register for the colloquium please contact the Secretary Treasurer, Dr Anne Cobby aec25@cam.ac.uk.
Papers from the Granada Congress can be read in a pre-publication form on the web site of the Dutch Branch of the Society at http://www.bookmark.demon.nl/rencesvals
Dr Jane Everson (President - Royal Holloway, London)
Dr Anne Cobby (Secretary-Treasurer - University of Cambridge)
Dr Marianne Ailes (Bibliographical Secretary - University of Oxford)
Mr Philip Bennett (ex officio: past President - University of Edinburgh)
Dr Elizabeth Drayson (University of Cambridge)
Professor Peter Noble (University of Reading)
Dr Finn Sinclair (University of Glasgow)
Residents of Commonwealth countries which do not have their own branch of the Société Internationale Rencesvals are invited to apply for membership through the British Branch.
Dr Anne Cobby,See also : Société Rencesvals American-Canadian Branch
Secretary-Treasurer, Société Rencesvals British Branch,
Modern and Medieval Languages Library,
University of Cambridge,
Sidgwick Avenue,
Cambridge CB3 9DA,
UK.telephone: 01223 335047
email: aec25@cam.ac.uk
Also available from the Branch:
This new edition, with a facing-page translation into English, an introduction and notes, makes accessible to a wider audience a poem which one critic has described as 'a distinctive and charming jewel'.
Designed for undergraduate and taught postgraduate students
following courses on medieval literature in French or Comparative Literature
programmes, it contains an introduction, the text and translation into
modern English, and explanatory notes.
Payment from outside the UK must be made by sterling cheque or sterling bank draft, drawn on a bank in the UK, or by Eurocheque; in all other cases the equivalent of £15.00 per order must be added to cover bank charges.
Distributed by the Société Rencesvals British Branch (Modern & Medieval Languages Library, University of Cambridge, Sidgwick Avenue, CAMBRIDGE CB3 9DA)
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Comments or queries concerning the Société Rencesvals British Branch web page should be directed to Philip.Bennett@ed.ac.uk.