Shortly after the death of Mr. Méon, and at the sale of his books, Mr. Prince d'Essling, an enlightened friend of our ancient literature, acquired an unpublished branch of the Roman du Renart, a copy of which had been taken by Mr. Méon himself. We gladly undertook the publication of this branch on the proposal made to us by Mr. Silvestre. The copy bore no indication which could reveal the manuscript from which it was taken ... In any case, we have found not only the manuscript which contains the branch copied by Mr. Méon, but also another branch and several unpublished pieces which are connected to this famous novel. We had initially been content, and for our personal satisfaction, to load our copy of Le Renart with some of the variants which the collation of the manuscripts offered us; but soon the number, the extent and the importance of these variants allowed us to believe that the publication of the most remarkable ones would perhaps not be without interest for science. A careful revision also made us perceive in the printed matter some errors which we believed it necessary to note. The work which we are publishing today is therefore composed of unpublished pieces, variants and corrections; it is finished by a table of the branches, with an indication of the folios where they are found in the different manuscripts, and of the pages of Le Roman du Renart and of this Supplement. ... This is the branch of Mr. Méon; the title that we give it is composed according to the text itself; in the manuscript marked B. L. F. 195 B. [now Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms-3334], from the library of the Arsenal, from which it is taken ... the title of the second branch; is taken, as well as the first, from a manuscript in the library of the Arsenal (B. L. F. 195 C. [now Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Ms-3335]). ... Like almost all the other branches, those that we publish today are anonymous and offer no indication that could make their author known. - [Editor]

Language: French