SexViolHist Bib: Representations: Literary Texts: Seven Wise Masters

»The Seven Wise Masters (also called the Seven Sages or Seven Wise Men) is a frame narrative with multiple embedded stories, known across Europe, Asia, the Middle East and North Africa from the ninth century onwards. It is one of the most widely transmitted tales of premodernity, translated and adapted into at least 32 languages, with each version considerably different from the others.
A king or emperor sends his son, the young prince, to be educated away from the court by seven wise masters. On his return to court, the prince is bound to a week's silence to avert danger foreseen in his horoscope. His stepmother attempts to seduce him but is rejected. The woman accuses the son of attempted rape and seeks to bring about his death. The seven sages each tell a story in his defence, and in many versions the woman reciprocates with her own stories. Finally the prince's lips are unsealed, the truth exposed, and the wicked woman is either pardoned or executed.« (Extract from: Wikipedia)

G e n e r a l K e y w o r d s

I. Chronological Index: Medieval History: 12^th Century, 13^th Century, 14^th Century, 15^th Century | Modern History: 17^th Century, 18^th Century

II. Geographical Index: Asian History: Arabic History | European History: Dutch History, French History, English History, German History, Scottish History

III. Topical Index: Prosecution: Victim Testimonies: False Accusations | Types: Circumstances: Attempted Rape

General

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Lundt, Bea, et al. »Misogynes Mittelalter? Gewalt und Geschlecht in transkultureller Perspektive. Das Beispiel der Sieben Weisen Meister.« Gewalt, Krieg und Geschlecht im Mittelalter. Edited by Amalie Fößel. Berlin 2020: 495-531.

II. Speaker Index

Dolopathos (12^th Century)

I n f o r m a t i o n

»John of Alta Silva (French: Jean de Haute-Seille, Latin: Iohannes de Alta Silva) was a Cistercian monk who lived at the abbey of Haute-Seille in the late 12th century. He wrote a version of the story of the Seven Wise Masters in Latin prose entitled De rege et septem sapientibus (On the King and the Seven Sages), but better known by the title it was later given, Dolopathos.
John's version, which he calls an opusculum (little work), is quite different from later Western versions of the Seven Masters. In his version, Sicily is ruled by a king named Dolopathos at the time when Augustus was Roman emperor. Dolopathos sends his son, Lucinius, to be educated by Virgil, both poet and sorcerer in this story. When the fourteen-year-old prince is summoned whom following his mother's death, Virgil orders him not to speak a word until they meet again. His stepmother attempts to seduce him and, when he rejects her advances, falsely accuses him of rape, whereupon Dolopathos condemns his son to death. (This episode is similar to the story of Phaedra or Potiphar's wife.) This is all a frame story for the series of seven stories that follow. The king postpones the execution one day for each day that a sage appears to tell a story. Virgil appears last and attacks the queen. Dolopathos then releases his son and executes the queen.« (Extract from: Wikipedia)

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Bildhauer, Bettina. »Silencing a Woman's Accusation of Attempted Rape in Johannes de Alta Silva's Dolopathos.« Nottingham Medieval Studies 64 (2020): 117-136.

[Info] Wilson, Alexander, et al. »‘Sa vesteüre ala saisir, | Par tant la cuide retenir’: Clothing and Coercion in the Bathing Scenes of Medieval Romance.« Reconsidering Consent and Coercion: Power, Vulnerability, and Sexual Violence in Medieval Literature. Edited by Jane Bonsall et al. Turnhout 2025: 201-216.

II. Speaker Index

Dutch Manuscript (13^th Century)

I n f o r m a t i o n

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Schlusemann, Rita. »Dat si over minen soen gheen macht en hebbe: Gattung und multimodale Semiotik der 'Historia septem sapientum Romae' am Beispiel der niederländischen Tradition.« Das Mittelalter 28 (2023): 118-136.

II. Speaker Index

The Seven Sages of Rome (14^th Century)

I n f o r m a t i o n

»Another French version, Roman des sept sages, was based on a different Latin original.
The German, English, French and Spanish chapbooks of the cycle are generally based on a Latin original differing from these. Three metrical romances probably based on the French, and dating from the 14th century, exist in English. The most important of these is The Sevyn Sages by John Rolland of Dalkeith edited for the Bannatyne Club (Edinburgh, 1837).« (Extract from: Wikipedia)

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Bonsall, Jane, et al. »Comparative Approaches to Men’s Experiences of Sexual Coercion: Reading across Multi-Text Manuscripts.« Reconsidering Consent and Coercion: Power, Vulnerability, and Sexual Violence in Medieval Literature. Edited by Jane Bonsall et al. Turnhout 2025: 111-127.

II. Speaker Index

The Seven Sages of Scotland (15^th Century)

I n f o r m a t i o n

»There is one Older Scots manuscript version of the text, found in the Asloan Manuscript in the National Library of Scotland. This text, The Buke of the Sevyne Sagis, is largely similar in structure to the medieval English versions of the narrative; it derives largely from the French prose Version A, but also exhibits influence of Version H, the Latin Historia Septem Sapientum. There were also several early modern prints of the narrative published in Scotland.« (Extract from: Wikipedia)

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Black, Daisy, et al. »‘Jeust twa folk ken’: Adapting and Performing The Seven Sages of Scotland.« Open Library of Humanities Journal 11 (2025): 1-26.

II. Speaker Index

Von den sieben Meistern (Of the Seven Masters) (1400–1450)

I n f o r m a t i o n

»The German adaptions of the Seven Sages tradition can be divided into several verse and prose versions, most of which follow the Latin Historia but sometimes change the order or selection of the embedded tales. The oldest known German version of the Seven Sages, Dyopcletianus Leben by Hans von Bühel, dates back to 1412, whereas most of the surviving textual witnesses are from the 16th to the 18th century and often embedded into German adaptions of the Gesta Romanorum. Literary scholars have repeatedly emphasized the popularity of the Sieben weise Meister in the late Middle Ages and early modern period in contrast to its marginalization in modern literary historiography.« (Extract from: Wikipedia)

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Bildhauer, Bettina. »Sexualised Violence by a Woman against a Boy: Upsetting the Binary Gender Hierarchy in Of the Seven Masters.« Reconsidering Consent and Coercion: Power, Vulnerability, and Sexual Violence in Medieval Literature. Edited by Jane Bonsall et al. Turnhout 2025: 129-146.

II. Speaker Index

Arabic Manuscripts (17^th - 18^th Centuries)

I n f o r m a t i o n

B i b l i o g r a p h y

I. Author Index

[Info] Redwan, Rima. »One against Seven: ariations on the Misogynistic Nature of 'The Seven Sages' in Different Arabic Manuscript Copies (17th - 18th Centuries).« Das Mittelalter 28 (2023): 49-66.

II. Speaker Index