Gesta Romanorum (Latin Edition)

A complete Latin edition of one of the most influential story collections of the Middle Ages.

The Gesta Romanorum is an anonymous medieval collection of moralized tales filled with emperors, knights, judges, merchants, saints, sinners, marvels, betrayals, punishments, and acts of mercy. For centuries, its stories circulated across monasteries, schools, courts, and pulpits, becoming an important part of the literary and religious culture of medieval Europe.

This Nicholean Press edition presents the complete 283-tale Latin corpus established by Hermann Oesterley, including the Vulgate collection, the Fabulae Germanicae, and the Fabulae Extravagantes. The Latin has been carefully collated against Oesterley’s 1872 edition, with the distinctive medieval orthography preserved while punctuation, capitalization, and paragraphing are presented in a clean modern format.

Most tales are followed by a Moralisatio, in which the narrative is interpreted allegorically as a lesson concerning virtue, temptation, sin, judgment, repentance, and salvation.

This volume also includes:

• All 283 numbered Latin tales
• The complete Appendix I and Appendix II
• A curated medieval Latin glossary
• Index Nominum
• Index Locorum

Ideal for readers of medieval Latin, medieval literature, Church history, folklore, exempla, and Christian moral literature, this edition offers a remarkable window into the stories that entertained and instructed generations of medieval Europeans.

Latin text only; no English translation.