Guillaume de Machaut, Le Livre dou Voir Dit (The Book of the True Poem)

This is a complete translation of this poem from the late Middle Ages, telling 'the true story' of the aged poet's romance with a young admirer. Introductory essays survey Machaut's biography, re-evaluate the autobiographical content of the poem, explore the literary context and discuss the miniatures, which are reproduced within the text. The volume includes a full listing of variant readings, a commentary on references to contemporary events and the writing of the poem, an outline chronology, indices of lyrics, and a table to convert line numbers between this edition and the incomplete 1875 edition of P. Paris.