Oral-Formulaic Theory: Annotated Bibliography

Ramón Menéndez Pidal. "Sobre las variantes del códice rolandiano V4 de Venecia." In Atti del 2deg. Congresso Internazionale della "Societe Rencesvals." Vol. 21 of Cultura Neolatina, pp. 10-19.

During a discussion of editorial difficulties in the Venetian codex of the Roland in which he champions a traditional heritage for medieval French chansons de geste and Spanish cantares de gesta, he observes four classes of variants: (1) whole-verse "variantes de expresión," typical of and essential to oral transmission; (2) modifications resulting from failure or inexactitude of memory; (3) more subtle changes of the "sentido de un verso" by elaboration; and (4) "variantes de refundición," major editorial alterations that affect the overall structure of the poem and produce a new version. Argues for an oral basis with written overlays, and specifically against individualist theory (espec. contra D. McMillan 1961).
Area: OF, HI, CP