Ami and Amile: A Medieval Tale of Friendship

  • Reprinted with a new Afterword (1996)
  • Translated from the Old French by Samuel N. Rosenberg and Samuel Danon
  • With a new Afterword by David Konstan
  • (Series: Stylus: Studies in Medieval Culture)
  • Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996
  • ix + 158 pages
  • Hardcover: ISBN 0-472-09647-8
  • Paperback: ISBN 0-472-06647-1
  • Prior publication (1981)
  • Ami and Amile
  • Translated from the Old French by Samuel Danon and Samuel N. Rosenberg
  • York, SC: French Literature Publications [now Birmingham, AL: Summa], 1981
  • v + 142 pages
  • Hardcover: ISBN 0-917786-20-3
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  • Image: Cover of the Michigan edition (1996)

The story of Ami and Amile—two friends as identical as any twins—was rendered in many versions and in many languages in the Middle Ages. This Old French masterwork (from about the year 1200) tells of their knightly adventures and the trials, horrors, and miracles that come to pass.


“[This] version is eminently, impeccably accurate. Avoiding incongruous colloquialisms and equally incongruous archaisms, they arrive at a style that conveys a measure of the loftiness and dignity of the original. . . . The introduction and Konstan’s afterword are serious, insightful, solidly documented articles, which make an important critical and scholarly contribution to Ami and Amile studies.”

William Calin (University of Florida), Speculum 73.3 (July 1998), 890

See the 13th-century Old French manuscript

Bibliothèque nationale de France, manuscript, Fonds français 860. See a black-and-white electronic copy at https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b90591084 .

In the electronic file, Ami and Amile begins on page 96/280 (folio 93 recto) and concludes with the left column on page 114/280 (folio 111 recto).

Explore other treasures of the Bibliothèque nationale de France at http://gallica.fr .

Related publication

Samuel N. Rosenberg, “Lire Ami et Amile: le regard sur les personnages féminins.” In “Ami et Amile”: une chanson de geste de l’amitié, ed. Jean Dufournet (Paris: Champion, 1987), 67-78.