Le Roman de la Rose Manuscript

The thirteenth-century French poem "Le Roman de la Rose" includes retelling of the Pygmalion myth. An embellishment of the story is that the sculptor attempts to animate the statue, with which he has fallen in love, by playing various musical instruments. In illustrated manuscripts of the poem, Pygmalion is generally shown as a woodcarver, a trade which also included musical instrument making. Especially since Pygmalion may be regarded as having made the instruments that he plays, the Roman's version of the story is enriched by the traditional conceit (often cast as a riddle) that dead wood comes to life when made into a musical instrument.

It is the work of two authors. Begun by Guillaume de Lorris around 1230 and continued by Jean de Meun approximately forty years later, the Rose is probably the most influential work written in the Old French vernacular. In the centuries following its composition, major poets like Guillaume de Machaut, Jean Froissart, Eustache Deschamps, and François Villon continued to write in a tradition dominated by the work which, in some manuscripts, extends to 21,750 lines. In the early 15th century, the Rose was still capable of sparking heated literary debate in France. Other national literatures felt the effect of the Rose as well. The English poets Jean Gower and Geoffrey Chaucer and the Italian poets Dante and Petrarch were astute readers of the work.