Ovide converti. L’autobiographie exemplaire du ‹De Vetula› dans la traduction de Jean Lefèvre

Abstract

The pseudo-Ovidian ‹De Vetula› enjoyed lasting success throughout the medieval period, as can be seen, in particular, from the influence it exerted on the Ovidian Accessus, for which it provided abundant material for sketching out the biographical section. In the ‹De Vetula›, the narrator gives a long account of his life, which helped to flesh out the allusions contained in the other authentic works: starting with an erotic disappointment, the narrator – the great preceptor amoris – detaches himself over time not only from love, but from all material pleasures and occupations, to turn to philosophy, to turn to God. The character of Ovid here occupies the role of the perfect convert: the unbridled libertine bears witness, in the first person, to his journey towards God. His strange autobiography does not make him a martyr of love, but almost a father of the desert. At the end of the 14th century, Jean Lefèvre translated this clerical farce into French, retaining the plot but introducing an additional level of enunciation, insofar as «I» in now also him. This study compares the autobiographical model of the Latin original with that of the French version, and notes the stability of the original model, which is left virtually unchanged by the translator.