Here are Samuel N. Rosenberg’s more recent publications (some with collaborators) in reverse chronological order.
Forthcoming in 2020
Songs and Motets of the Trouvère Robert de Reims: Critical Edition of Music and Texts, with Translations into English and Modern French
Robert de Reims was a remarkably versatile poet-composer from Champagne, in the northeast of France, active sometime between 1190 and 1220. This is the first critical edition of all the songs and motets attributed to Robert de Reims, with translations into both English and Modern French, along with the extant melodies and a substantive introduction. ►
Paul Verlaine:
A Bilingual Selection of His Verse
This bilingual anthology of 192 poems offers the most comprehensive selection of Verlaine’s poetry available in English translation. Insights from Nicolas Valazza’s textual, biographical, and broad historical research will further enrich the reader’s understanding and appreciation of the poetry itself. ►
The Jews of the South of France
This is a translation of Armand Lunel’s history of a Jewish community in France, from their arrival in pre-Christian times to the 1970s. Of particular interest is the centuries-long special protection that Jews found in this Papal enclave. The historical narrative, backed by solid erudition, is also highly personal for Lunel, with frequent reminders of his family relation to what he reports. ►
Robert the Devil:
The First Modern English Translation of Robert le Diable
This is the first Modern English translation of the anonymous 13th-century French story of a knight sired by Satan, driven to brutal behavior, but eventually—through the understanding and devotion of a pious hermit—brought to a life of self-sacrifice and ultimate redemption. ►
Motets from the Chansonnier de Noailles
The 13th-century Noailles manuscript songbook preserved at the Bibliothèque nationale de France contains a great number of motets, along with other vocal pieces. This volume, prepared in collaboration with my fellow-philologist Eglal Doss-Quinby and the musicologist Gaël Saint-Cricq, presents the 91 motets in an all-inclusive critical edition with English translations of the Old French texts. ►
Berlioz on Music:
Selected Criticism 1824-1837
Hector Berlioz, the great French composer of the 19th century, was not only a musician, but the period’s foremost music critic as well. This volume, edited by the late scholar Katherine Kolb, presents a broad selection of his writings in my translation. ►
“Sottes chansons contre Amours”: parodie et burlesque au Moyen Âge
Two 13th-century or very early 14th-century French manuscripts preserve a corpus of 29 song texts that they identify as sottes chansons contre Amours (“silly songs against Love”). Obviously meant for humorous entertainment, these lyrics are misogynistic, bawdy, often absurd, and parodic counterweights to the refinement of trouvères’ songs of courtly love. ►
Maistre Pathelin (recording)
A group of philologists deliver a lively reading—in 15th-century French—of La Farce de maistre Pathelin, a popular comedy featuring a lawyer and his wife, a doctor, a creditor, a judge, and a clever shepherd. ►
Lancelot and the Lord of the Distant Isles or,
The Book of Galehaut Retold
Patricia Terry, the highly admired medievalist, was a remarkable writer and translator. Our first collaboration centered on the tale of Sir Lancelot and Lord Galehaut—that remarkable tale of chivalric love that we drew from 13th-century French sources and recast in our own language. ►
Or dient et content et fabloient: Four Centuries of Old French Verse (recording)
Philologists read—in Old French—selections from ten historical works, ranging from “La Vie de Saint Alexis” and “La Chanson de Roland” (11th century) to two ballades by François Villon (15th century). ►
The Old French Ballette: Oxford Bodleian Library, Douce MS 308
The early 14th-century trouvère chansonnier known by the siglum I forms part of Oxford, Bodleian, MS Douce 308. The manuscript identifies almost 200 texts as ballettes. The present volume, the first complete critical edition, includes translations into English. ►
Les Chansons de Colin Muset: textes et mélodies
This critical edition presents all of the texts and surviving music attributed to Colin Muset, a 13th-century trouvère. ►
Les Chansons de Colin Muset: traduites en français moderne
This volume contains an introduction, bibliography, and index of proper nouns, with a translation (into modern French) of all the poems in Les Chansons de Colin Muset: textes et mélodies. ►
The Lancelot-Grail Reader: Selections from the Medieval French Arthurian Cycle
Drawing on the work of a team of translators,The Lancelot-Grail Reader presents the reader with an overview of the massive 13th-century Old French Arthurian narratives. ►