1See Francesco Bruni, “Tra Darete-Ditti e Virgilio: ‘fabula’ e ‘storia’, ordo artificialis e ordo naturalis”, Studi medievali, III/37, 1996, p. 753–810, reproduced in Rosa Casapullo et al. (dir.), Tra popolo e patrizi. L’italiano nel presente e nella storia, Firenze, Cesati, 2017, p. 65–113, from which I quote, here at p. 89–100.

2Marc-René Jung, La légende de Troie en France au Moyen Âge. Analyse des versions françaises et bibliographie raisonnée des manuscrits, Basel/Tubingen, Francke, 1996, p. 565.

3See Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit. For the five mises en prose see also Luca Barbieri, “Roman de Troie, Prose 1”, “Prose 2”, “Prose 3”, “Prose 4”, “Prose 5”, in Maria Colombo Timelli et al. (dir.), Nouveau Répertoire de mises en prose (xiv^e-xvi^e siècle), Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2014, p. 773–848.

4Egidio Gorra, Testi inediti di storia trojana preceduti da uno studio sulla leggenda trojana in Italia, Torino, Loescher, 1887, p. 118–119.

5Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Le Roman de Troie, publié d’après tous les manuscrits connus, ed. by Léopold Constans, Paris, Firmin Didot, 1904–1912, vol. VI, p. 264–345.

6Ibid., p. 328–331. It should be noted that, in the absence of an edition, Léopold Constans reads the Historia destructionis Troiae from the incunabulum, Aix-en-Provence, Biblioteca Méjanes, n. 118.

7Ibid., p. 331.

8The nomenclature in use for the five different mises en prose was set by Marc-René Jung, see Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 440–562. Léopold Constans himself had begun to work on an edition of Prose 1, which remained incomplete due to his death in 1916 and was only partly continued by Edmond Faral (Le Roman de Troie en prose, ed. by Léopold Constans, Edmond Faral, Paris, Honoré Champion, 1922).

9Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Le Roman de Troie…, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 331–334.

10Kathleen Chesney, “A neglected prose version of the Roman de Troie”, Medium Aevum, 11, 1942, p. 46–67. A critical text of Prose 2 is missing to date: it is my aim to provide an edition based on the entirety of the recensio (in the context of my doctoral project at Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia and École Pratique des Hautes Études, under the direction of Marco Infurna and Fabio Zinelli).

11Ibid., p. 55–58.

12See for example Le Roman de Troie en prose (Version du Cod. Bodmer 147), ed. by Françoise Vielliard, Cologny/Genève, Fondation Martin Bodmer, 1979, p. 8 (« […] l’Historia Destructionis Trojae de Guido delle Colonne terminée en 1287, vraisemblablement issue elle-même de la version “méridionale” du Roman de Troie en prose »); Louis-Ferdinand Flutre, Francine Mora, « Benoît de Sainte-Maure », in Geneviève Hasenohr, Michel Zink (dir.), Dictionnaire des lettres françaises. Le Moyen Âge, Paris, Fayard, 1992, p. 139–141, p. 140 (« Même l’ouvrage en prose latine de l’Italien Guido delle Colonne, l’Historia destructionis Trojae (1287), qui prétend suivre Darès, démarque en fait le roman de Benoît [et sans doute aussi la version méridionale de sa mise en prose] »).

13Arianna Punzi, “Le metamorfosi di Darete Frigio: la materia troiana in Italia (con un’appendice sul ms. Vat. Barb. Lat. 3953)”, Critica del testo, VII/1, 2004, p. 163–211, p. 184.

14Among these there are first of all structural issues, such as the absence of the description of Hector’s tomb (see infra). Also relevant is the duel between Penthesilea and a Greek prince during the twenty-first battle: in the majority of the witnesses of the Roman de Troie and in Guido it is Menelaus, whilst in Prose 2 and in the codices E and R of the poem it is Ulysses. No less important are at last some onomastic peculiarities found in the French mise en prose – which are precise marks that links the text to specific branches of the poem’s tradition – that are absent in the Historia.

15Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 485: « K. Chesney croyait que Guido avait utilisé Prose 2, ce qui est évidemment une erreur. »

16Prose 5 has likely been composed between the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 14th century: see Barbieri, “Roman de Troie, Prose 5”, art. cited, p. 823. A critical edition of this text has recently been provided by Anne Rochebouet: see Le Roman de Troie en prose. Prose 5, ed. by Anne Rochebouet, Paris, Classiques Garnier, 2021.

17A critical edition of the entirety of Prose 3 is still missing. Regarding Prose 4 see Le Roman de Troie en prose (Version du Cod. Bodmer 147), op. cit.

18Alice Ducati, La prosa latino-francese di argomento troiano del codice Barb. Lat. 3953 e la fortuna medievale della materia troiana in Italia, doctoral dissertation, dir. by Luca Crescenzi, Università degli Studi di Trento, 2018, p. 255.

19In any case, this opinion appears to be prevalent among the scholars who raise the question of Guido’s source in these terms; see, for example, Arianna Punzi: “Guido si serve largamente di Benoît de Sainte-Maure, o, ma sembra ipotesi meno probabile, di una sua prosificazione, come ha sostenuto K. Chesney” (“Omero Sire?”, in Franco Montanari, Stefano Pittaluga (dir.), Posthomerica I. Tradizioni omeriche dall’Antichità al Rinascimento, Genova, Dipartimento di archeologia, filologia classica e loro tradizioni, 1997, p. 85–98, p. 97); see also Stefania Cerrito, who assumes that Guido used a manuscript of the Roman de Troie (“Dialogando intorno alla leggenda troiana: dal Roman de Troie alle Historiae destructionis Troiae”, in Giovanni Borriero et al. (dir.), Amb. Dialoghi e scritti per Anna Maria Babbi, Verona, Fiorini, 2016, p. 185–196, p. 192).

20Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, ed. by Nathaniel Edward Griffin, Cambridge (Mass.), Mediaeval Academy of America, 1936.

21Ezio Franceschini, review of “Guido de Columnis, Historia destructionis Troiae, ed. by Nathaniel Edward Griffin”, Bollettino di Filologia Classica, 11–12, 1937, p. 288–296.

22Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit., p. xi. It should be noted that at present there is still no complete list of all the witnesses of the Historia: Marc-René Jung states that he knows some 240 manuscripts but does not provide any further detail (Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 565). A list of 56 shelf-marks is given by Nicola De Blasi in his edition of the Neapolitan vernacular version (Libro de la destructione de Troya. Volgarizzamento napoletano trecentesco da Guido delle Colonne, ed. by Nicola De Blasi, Roma, Bonacci, 1986, p. 34). A decisive step forward was recently made in Alice Ducati’s doctoral dissertation, which includes in the appendix a long list of just under 300 manuscripts of the Historia (Ducati, La prosa latino-francese…, op. cit., p. 337–355). This summary is highly useful, but it is nevertheless to be regarded as a « mere working tool » (ibid. p. 337–338), and does not entirely satisfy the need for a complete and detailed recensio.

23Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit., p. xi. This approach has been effectively criticized by Ezio Franceschini, who in his review points out that just from the varia lectio of the incipit (“Licet/Etsi/Si et”) it is possible to set up some form of preliminary organization of the vast set of witnesses. Further conjunctive loci are reported in Libro de la destructione de Troya…, op. cit. and id., “Il rifacimento napoletano quattrocentesco della Historia destructionis Troiae. I. Rapporti con la tradizione latina e con i volgarizzamenti conosciuti”, Medioevo romanzo, VI, 1979, p. 93–134, here p. 110–113 and in Ducati, La prosa latino-francese…, op. cit., p. 256–258.

24The manuscripts in question, which are dated between 1334 and the middle of the 14th century, are the only ones for which a precise reference is provided by Griffin: London, British Library, Add. 36671 (= A), Cambridge, Houghton Library, lat. 35 (= C), London, British Library, Harley 4123 (= H), Paris, BnF, lat. 5694 (= P¹), Paris, BnF, lat. 5695 (= P²), London, British Library, Add. 15477 (= A1), London, British Library, Add. 22155 (= A²) and London, British Library, Royal 15.C.XVI (= R); I have updated the shelf-mark where needed.

25Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Le Roman de Troie…, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 67–105, stemma on p. 105. The partitioning of the witness in two families, later taken up and developed by Léopold Constans, was previously proposed by Paul Meyer (“Fragments du Roman de Troie”, Romania, 18, 1889, p. 70–106, here p. 99).

26The data here is taken from Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 24–25; description of the manuscripts p. 16–330. Marc-René Jung amplifies Léopold Constans’ recensio bringing the list to thirty complete manuscripts and twenty-eight fragments, but he does not change the general classification hypothesis. I have added a few fragments to the table, to begin with Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale, II 5606, vol. II, fragment 3 (= B⁵) and New Haven, Yale University Library, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Beinecke MS 1132, olim Torino, Collezione Erminio Morselli (= T). Both were known to Marc-René Jung who, however, omits the first one from his classification, recognizing it in its description as the bearer of a text of the second family (Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit. p. 311), and does not give information on the second, referring to a future edition of Giuliano Gasca Queirazza which never materialized (Ducati, La prosa latino-francese…, op. cit., p. 32–33). Conversely, unknown to Marc-René Jung was Archivio di Stato di Vicenza, Collegio dei Notai, busta 48, c. 22v (= Vi), for which see Lorenzo Tomasin, “Un disperso estratto del Roman de Troie all’Archivio di Stato di Vicenza”, Quaderni Veneti, 6/1, 2017, p. 9–26; for its location in the stemma, see Matteo Cambi, “Prime indagini sulla circolazione veneta del Roman de Troie di Benoît de Sainte-Maure”, Quaderni Veneti, 5/1, 2016, p. 1–22. Lastly, three more fragments that I haven’t been able to properly classify should also be added to the table: Amsterdam, Universiteitsbibliotheek (= A³), S⁴ from the private collection of Martin Schoyen and Tübingen, Wilhelmsstift Bibliothek (= T⁴) reported in Françoise Vielliard, “Marc-René Jung et le Roman de Troie”, Vox Romanica, 75, 2015, p. 241–255, p. 245–246.

27Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Le Roman de Troie…, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 74, 91 and see the stemma p. 105.

28Ibid.

29Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 24–25.

30Ibid., p. 26.

31Ibid., p. 27–37.

32Some of these narrative passages are illustrated in Vielliard, “Marc-René Jung…”, art. cited, p. 249–250.

33Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 30–32.

34The episode can be found in book XIX, p. 161–162 of Griffin’s edition (Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit.). Léopold Constans notes however how the sentence Ex guerra enim amor procedere numquam potest (p. 162), pronounced by Hector in his last reply, seems to follow the line Amor de guerre pas ne vient from the « long version » of the meeting (referring to a bipartite classification of the episode now surpassed by Marc-René Jung’s studies), Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Le Roman de Troie…, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 320.

35Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 32–33 and 35.

36Guido delle Colonne, Historia…, op. cit., book XXI, p. 171: De quibus Dares et earum aspectibus multa descripsit, que magis instar habent inanium sompniorum quam certitudinem ueritatis, licet dictus Dares fuerit professus ea uera fuisse, et ideo de eis obmissum est in hac parte (“Dares fully describes them and their appearance which seem to be empty dreams rather than factual truths, and therefore they are omitted in this place”, translation by Mary Elizabeth Meek; see Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, Bloomington/London, Indiana University Press, 1975, p. 164).

37Ibid., book XXVII, p. 208: Eius autem sepulture preciosam formam et modum describere superfluum uisum est (“It appears superfluous, however, to describe the costly appearance and fashion of the tomb”, transl. Meek, p. 200).

38Chap. IV, see Dares Phrygius, De excidio Troiae Historia, éd by F. Meister, Leipzig, Teubner, 1873, p. 6.

39Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie…, op. cit., v. 2930–2958; see in particular regarding Andromache v. 2949–2950: Des treis filles ot non l’ainz nee / Andromacha: mout fu senee.

40Ibid., VI, p. 32.

41See Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Le Roman de Troie. Extraits du manuscrit Milan, Bibliothèque ambrosienne, D 55, édités, présentés et traduits par Emmanuèle Baumgartner et Françoise Vielliard, Paris, Le livre de poche, 1998, p. 637.

42These are Paris, BnF, fr. 783 (= D), Paris, BnF, fr. 794 (= E), Firenze, Biblioteca Riccardiana, 2433 (= F¹), ’s-Gravenhage, Koninklijke Bibliotheek, 75 G 68 (= G¹), Paris, BnF, fr. 1450 (= H) and Nottingham, Wollaton Library Collection, WLC/LM/6 (= N⁴); M¹ is Montpellier, Bibl. interuniversitaire, sec médecine., H.251 (Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 27).

43Paris, BnF, Arsenal 3340 (= A¹), London, British Library, Add. 30863 (= L²); for descriptions see Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 134–139 and 100–110.

44Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit., book V, p. 45 (« The first of the daughters was named Creusa. She is supposed to have been the wife of Aeneas », transl. Meek, p. 43).

45Jung, La légende de Troie …, op. cit., p. 134.

46Patricia Stirnemann, “Some Champenois Vernacular Manuscripts and the Manerius Style of Illumination”, in Keith Busby et al. (dir.), Les manuscrits de Chrétien de Troyes, Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi, 1993, vol. I, p. 195–226, p. 205 and 209. At least this codex in particular could not have been available to Guido due to its localization and circulation’s peculiarities.

47Quant conquis furent li chastel / Tenedon et Lauriëntel, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie…, op. cit., v. 6065–6066.

48Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 27. Manuscripts: Paris, BnF, fr. 1610 (= J), Paris, BnF, NAF 6774 (= P), Paris, BnF, fr. 2181 (= K).

49Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit., p. 101–102.

50Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie…, op. cit., v. 8337–8342: Patroclus le fiert en l’escu / De tel aïr, de tel vertu / Qu’outre en passe li fers bruniz / E l’enseigne de vert samiz: / Sor le hauberc la lance archeie; / Escliz en volent, si peceie,.

51Benoît de Sainte-More et le Roman de Troie, ou les métamorphoses d’Homère et de l’épopée gréco-latine au moyen-âge, ed. by Aristide Joly, Paris, Franck, 1870–1871, v. 8337–8342: Hector le fiert parmi l’escu / De tel force et de tel vertu / Qu’oltre en passe li fers bruniz / Et l’enseigne de vert samis. / Patroclus sor la sele pleie, / L’arçon detriès brise et peceie. In its edition, prior to Léopold Constans’, Aristide Joly prints the text of K of the second family.

52Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 26.

53Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit., p. 133: Quem ut presentit Patroclus, qui prime aciei Grecorum, ut dictum est, ductor erat, contra Hectorem in equi sui cursu uelociter dyametro recto procedens Hectorem acuta lancea sua petit, et cum ea uiriliter ipsum inpellens scutum quod sibi Hector opposuit uiriliter perforauit […] (“When he perceived this, Patroclus, who, as was said, was the leader of the first battalion of Greeks, advanced swiftly, charging on his horse in a straight line against Hector, and sought him with his sharp spear, and since he hurled it manfully, he pierced the shield which Hector manfully opposed to it […]”, transl. Meek, p. 128).

54Jung, La légende de Troie …, op. cit., p. 26.

55Manuscripts: Paris, BnF, Arsenal 3340 (= A¹), London, British Library, Add. 30863 (= L²), Paris, BnF, fr. 1553 (= I), Sankt Peterburg, Rossijskaja Nacional’naja Biblioteka, fr. F. v. XIV. 6 (= S¹).

56Manuscripts: Città del Vaticano, BAV, Reg. Lat. 1505 (= R), Paris, BnF, Arsenal 3342 (= A²).

57Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie…, op. cit., v. 16649–16719.

58For a general examination of the subject of Hector’s tomb, see still Marc-René Jung, “Hector assis”, in Georges Lüdi, Hans Stricker, Jakob Wüest (dir.), Romania ingeniosa. Mélanges offerts à Gerold Hilty à l’occasion de son 60^e anniversaire, Bern/Frankfurt am Main/New York/Paris, Peter Lang, 1987, p. 153–169; see also id., La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 33–34.

59Enz en la voute de desus / L’ont gentement posé et mis / E dedenz la chaeire asis, Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie, ed. Constans, v. 16766–16768.

60Jung, « Hector assis », art. cited, p. 156. Manuscripts: Paris, BnF, fr. 12600 (= L), London, British Library, Harley 4482 (= L¹), Napoli, Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele III, XIII c. 38 (= N), Paris, BnF, fr. 903 (= G), Paris, BnF, fr. 821 (= F).

61For the descriptions see Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 274–287 and 212–214.

62Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit., p. 178, emphasis added (“Thus, when the design of this tabernacle had been completed, they placed around it an enclosure of ebony wood which could be closed sometimes and opened sometimes, so that the body of Hector, so placed, might be seen more plainly by those wishing to see how it looked”, transl. Meek, p. 171).

63Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie, ed. Constans, op. cit., v. 16786–16793: Quant la chose fu a chief traite, / Si ont une image levee / Qu’a merveille fu esguardee: / De fin or fu resplendissant / E a Hector su resemblant / Que nule chose n’i failleit. / Un brant d’acier tot nu teneit, / Grezeis par signe manaçot.

64Benoît de Sainte-Maure, Roman de Troie, ed. Joly, op. cit., v. 16740–16745: Quant la chose fu a chief trete, / Si ont l’ovre aïtant menée / Que merveilles fu esgardée. / En la chaiere Hector seeit, / Un brant d’acier tot nu teneit / Grezeis par signe manaceit. P³ is Paris, BnF, fr. 1420.

65Quant la chose fu a chief traite, / Si ont l’uevre si haut levee / Qu’a merveille fu esgardee. / La guille fu trop preciouse / Et trop riche et trop mervillouse. / Maint marc de fin argent et d’or / I mist li rois de son tresor. / Sour la guille levee en alt, / Illuec endroit u ele faut, / Ont une ymage tresjetee, / Ki le l’ost pot estre esgardee. / D’or le fisent resplendissant / Et a Hector si resamblant / Que nule chose n’i failloit. / .I. brant d’achier tout nu tenoit, / Grigois par signe manechoit, reading of I, from Jung, « Hector assis », art. cited, p. 158.

66Guido delle Colonne, Historia destructionis Troiae, op. cit., book XXII, p. 177, emphasis added: “On high, above the peak of the canopy of this tabernacle, the aforesaid master craftsmen fixed a certain golden statue, representing a likeness of Hector, with his naked sword in his hand, and his glance and expression were toward that place where the Greek army was staying in its tents, so that he seemed to offer threats to the Greeks with his naked sword”, transl. Meek, p. 170.

67Léopold Constans argues that “Guido se servait d’un ms. de la 2^e famille” (Le Roman de Troie…, op. cit., vol. VI, p. 328), but the few findings he has made seem isolated and not always completely convincing. In “Dialogando…” (art. cited, p. 192), Stefania Cerrito observes that the exchange of names between Andromache and Creusa is a likely proof that “il manoscritto di Guido si collochi in questo ramo testuale [the second family]”.

68Eleven if one considers that is also Italian N, whose origin is disputed. For an updated survey on the Italian witnesses of the Roman de Troie see Ducati, La prosa latino-francese…, op. cit., p. 7–37.

69Manuscripts: Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, D 55 sup. (= M²), the already mentioned F, Paris, BnF, fr. 782 (= C), Wien, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, 2571 (= W), Venezia, Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, fr. XVIII (= V²) and Sankt Peterburg, Rossijskaja Nacional’naja Biblioteka, fr. F. v. XIV. 3 (= S).

70Cambi, “Prime indagini…”, art. cited.

71The already mentioned F¹ is from Florence, while the precise localization of R and P is uncertain.

72Jung, La légende de Troie…, op. cit., p. 287–291.

73Keith Busby, Codex and Context. Reading Old French Verse Narrative in Manuscript, Amsterdam/New York, Rodopi, 2002, p. 607–608; Ilaria Molteni, “Il mito troiano e i signori d’Italia: decorazione e ricezione dei Roman de Troie istoriati trecenteschi”, in Nicolas Bock, Ivan Foletti, Michele Tomasi (dir.), Survivals, Revivals, Rinascenze: Studi in Onore di Serena Romano, Roma, Viella, 2017, p. 365–377, p. 371 ff.

74Günther Holtus, Peter Wunderli, Franco-italien et épopée franco-italienne (GRLMA, vol. 3, t. 1/2, fasc. 10), Heidelberg, Winter, 2005, p. 210; Gabriele Giannini, Produzione e circolazione manoscritte del romanzo francese in versi dei secoli XII e XIII in Italia, doctoral dissertation, La Sapienza Università di Roma, 2003, p. 241–242; Sebastiano Bisson, Il fondo francese della Biblioteca Marciana di Venezia, Roma, Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 2008, p. 81. See also Costanza Cipollaro, “Invenzione e reinvenzione negli esemplari miniati del Roman de Troie tra Francia e Italia”, in Costanza Cipollaro, Michael Viktor Schwarz (dir.), Allen Mären ein Herr/Lord of all Tales, Wien/Köln/Weimar, Böhlau Verlag, 2017, p. 19–56, here p. 46.

75Vielliard, “Marc-René Jung…”, art. cited, p. 248.