On three memorable occasions Reineke and his associates seized the opportunity to march resoundingly with all their pomp and circumstance into the world of Latin literature. The Ysengrimus of 1148/49 with all its original witticism, particularly in its brilliant animal dialogues, represents the powerful ouverture of the genre. The Reynardus Vulpes, written in the eighth decade of the thirteenth century, may be seen as part of intensive literary efforts to adapt the epic to the changing demands and tastes in late medieval Flanders. The third of these Latin beast epics, Hartmann ‘Schopper’s Latin version of Reynke de Vos, completed in 1567,° appears to be one of the last representatives of the medieval Flemish tradition of the genre, conservative in spirit and yet at the dawn of a new epoch which was to bring about substantial changes to its form and literary structure as well as to its contents and intentions. - [Author]

Language: English

DOI: 10.1075/rein.7.12sch